Meet Ron Robare and Kimber Hardick | Artist and founders of the Bella bottega

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ron Robare and Kimber Hardick and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ron Robare and Kimber Hardick, maybe we can start at the very start – the idea – how did you come up with the idea for your business?
After moving to the area we had no time to get out and meet people before the start of the pandemic. We have always had our studio at our home and decided in jan of 2021 it was time to move our studio out of our garage. To have a place to go beyond our home. In the process of looking for studio space to rent I kept thinking how cool it would be to have a place just for artist. But I didn’t want to be the driving force for it. I had my eye on a cute little building for our studio, but as luck would have it, it was already rented. We found a great little space on Tamina road that was affordable and perfect for us. So we put aside the idea of a studio space for artist to focus on creating. Every time I drove past this building on Honea Egypt I would look at it and think how perfect it would be. It actually reminded me of the wellness center I created years ago in Aledo Texas. In April of 2021 out of the blue the property came up for sale and within the week we put in an offer and she accepted. Our vision was to create affordable studio space for artist, to create a community of like minded individuals to encourage and inspire each other. To create an opportunity to show and sell our work without having to do shows, to bring the buyers to us with our monthly open studios. A friend and fellow artist offered an idea she used when living in New York, second Sunday champagne and chocolate open studios. Only now we have added jazz to the mix as well as inviting other artist outside of the community to join us. Jeanie James of BelGra was extremely helpful in bringing the vision to life as our building contractor of the additional studios. We had every space leased before they were finished being built and in Nov of 2021, 8 months after I saw the space was available, we held our first second Sunday champagne and chocolate art walk!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We are fairly new to the ceramic world but have found it to be so fun and rewarding. What started as a hobby has now bloomed into our passion. Ron and I both are retired and have chosen to donate all of our proceeds from our art to Charity. Ron donates to Hands of justice snd Kimber donates to Compassion United. This has also allowed us to keep away the pressure of a business and focus on creating and giving back to our community.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Coffee at Roasted to begin the day. The many farmers markets and Art festivals would definitely be in the plans followed by dinner at Philliposes and maybe catch some live music at Dosey Doe or head to downtown Conroe. I’m still new to the area so I am like a tourist still. The silos in the heights is amazing and I hope to attend Scarborough fair. Being an avid Pickleball enthusiast I would have to introduce them to the sport as well as the amazing g community of Bonterra where we are lucky enough to to live.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
All of our artist who trusted in our vision enough to take a leap of faith and join our community. Kathy Ykema
Melanie Wade Leslie
Lisa J. Thomson
Shelia Mohkami Stokes
Cassie Mohkami
Jonathan Morgan
Meija Schreiner
Nora Verville

Website: TheBellaBottega.com

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