Swiping through dozens of photos from last year’s Whidbey Island Area Fair, Virginia Rigney likes the memories people, especially children, create during the annual pottery workshops.

She and the other pottery shack artists hope to create many more opportunities at their new location just across the causeway near the food booths and main stage.

“What I like is for the kids to feel the clay,” Rigney said. “It’s actually magical.”

The pottery shack will continue its tradition of demonstrations and hands-on clay shaping this year. The old shack, a lean-to that was against the Malone building, was demolished for safety reasons. Pottery was relocated into a new booth just across from the bleachers facing the main stage and near the primal draw of fair food. Losing the old shack was tough on the trio of potters who run the demonstrations and sell the works they create while at the fair.

“I really loved the old pottery shack, primarily because it was a shack and had a historical sense to it,” Rigney said. “I love that historical, old-time look and the way the doors came up.”

But for all the nostalgia Rigney has for the former shack, which was torn down last month, she said the current spot will be a great fit. The potters hope a different spot will give them better exposure.

“The new location is much easier to work in,” she said. “It has running water. It has a lot of luxuries here in the sense of security.”

For several years, the pottery shack has been a fixture of the fair. People watch the artists spin and throw clay, forming it into pots, bowls, plates, vases or pigs — Rigney’s current favorite. Perhaps more beloved than the demonstrations are the opportunities visitors have to shape clay themselves. Each day of the fair, people can stop by and try their hand at a centuries-old profession.

“We’re one of the hidden treasures of the fair,” Rigney said.

“I want kids to feel that ability they have to make something out of a lump of clay,” she later added.