OUR STORY KEEPS GROWING

Everyone has a place here

Good Dirt was born just off a dirt road in Kenya while teaching artisan skills to local women. Friends Jorden Collins and Christy Manning walked the grounds and dreamed of a place where people could go, apply their new skills and create. When they returned home, the Covid Pandemic had struck. During the gloom of lock downs, the solution of a pottery studio began to take shape. One rainy day, Jorden gave Chirsty’s bored teenage girls some clay to play with. They both lit up, and the idea-light burned brighter and expanded.  They started inviting the neighbors bored kids over to shape clay with them. It was a huge hit! Lots of people began asking for clay and ideas for different projects. One weekend, over 100 pounds of clay was given out! That’s a lot of dirt. What was planted as a seed-dream in Africa, was blossoming into a real thing right here at home.

Meet The Co-Owners

JORDEN COLLINS

Co-Owner

Jorden grew up in the Laguna Beach art community and attended the California College of Arts & Crafts and the Art Institute of California. She became a designer, and has worked in graphic and product design for 30 years. Along the way, she kept dabbling in painting and ceramics.

She and her husband, Barry have spent a good part of their lives traveling and ministering abroad in Africa… places like Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Kenya. They’ve also worked on a variety of mission-minded projects such as ending Land Grabbing, and caring for the homeless. They are also active here locally.

Over the last few years, Jorden has discovered a missional purpose in her artistic gifts: helping women and teens discover their creative potential with pottery.  She is finding that pottery can be a powerful, therapeutic tool which helps people open up about their trauma and work through it.

Jorden and Barry have four 20-something kiddos she brags about way too often.

Fun Fact: Jorden fancies herself an amateur farmer and has attempted to teach her favorite chicken, Tiger, how to throw a pot on her pottery wheel at home. He’s actually good at it!

CHRISTY MANNING

Co-Owner

Christy is married to Kevin and has 4 children.

She has traveled the world helping women realize their creative potential and birthing in them a desire to use thier God-given artistic talents. She teaches women to both express themselves in truth and to activate their skills to generate income that can support their families.

She is passionate about children in the Foster Care System and has a heart to speak up for those who have no voice in this world.

Fun Facts: Christy loves Diet Coke, boating with her family, and she is surprisingly terrible at creating pottery.

FEATURED ON LOCAL NEWS

Good Dirt was featured on ABC30 Action News when they first opened. You can get a behind the scenes look of Jorden & Christy turning an empty retail space into a stylish, state-of-the-art pottery studio.

SHAPING CLAY
CAN HELP SHAPE THE WORLD

Good Dirt began as a simple, yet powerful idea: If that small creative force in all of us can land in the right place (Good Dirt), it can flourish and become strong & beautiful.

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NEVER MISS A WORKSHOP!

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