SHELBURNE FALLS — Sunday will be the last day Molly Cantor’s pottery gallery at 20 Bridge St. will be open, but she assures residents she isn’t going anywhere.

“It’s kind of micro-retiring,” Cantor said. “I’m giving up one part of my work so I can focus on other parts.”

Cantor will host a closing party with a pottery sale, food and music on Saturday, Dec. 30, from 2 to 5 p.m. After business on Sunday, the gallery will be closed for some months but will open again as Laurie Goddard’s Watermark Gallery, which is relocating from its current space on Deerfield Avenue.

Cantor said she plans to sell her work in Goddard’s gallery, and she may even work the counter one day a week so she can continue to connect with customers.

She is closing the store so she can spend more time working on each piece of pottery. Cantor explained as her work became more popular she found herself not having enough time to get creative. Rather, she needed to crank out pieces quickly to fill her studio space, though bringing in other artists to show their work did help to fill the space. She feels if she can spend more time on the creative part of the work instead of running a studio, her work will evolve. Cantor will continue making her work at her home studio.

Cantor, who moved to Shelburne Falls in 1997 after graduating from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, started making pottery as a hobby in 1989. She loved the medium so much that she decided to launch her career as a full-time potter.

For nine years, Cantor showed her work in a cooperative art space where Watermark Gallery is currently located. She then moved her gallery across the river to Buckland for three years until she opened the 20 Bridge St. space 14 years ago.

She initially taught pottery classes in the Bridge Street location, connecting with other artists in the back room of the gallery. This went on for 10 years until she opened The Handle Factory, a community pottery studio, at The Mill at Shelburne Falls. This year will mark The Handle Factory’s fifth anniversary. The studio offers classes and has space for about 50 memberships, which is full with a waitlist.

“I love what I am doing. I have been doing this same style of work for 25 years,” she said. “I feel like if I have more space and time to be creative, it can evolve more.”

The style Cantor has mastered over 25 years is a pottery carving design called sgraffito, which means “to scratch” in Italian. She makes her pieces out of porcelain and then coats them with colored layers. She “scratches” drawings into the colored parts of the piece. Her drawings typically depict nature seen in the area such as animals, bugs and plants.

“Every time I draw a bear or a raccoon I feel like I am having a relationship with it,” Cantor said. “I go, ‘Look how cute you are.’ I love how each piece is different.”

All of Cantor’s sales take place in the store, with no work being sold online. She said this past year was her most successful year to date, and she is not worried about selling her work without a storefront as she has gained a following during her career.

However, Cantor said she does intend to start selling some pieces online.

“My customers all over the country will be happy,” she said.

She is part of the Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail each April, and always hopes to have more pieces available for that popular tourist weekend. With the closing of her storefront, Cantor said she can have more pieces available for special sales.

“My hope is to continue making pottery and evolve as an artist,” she said. “I hope to still connect with people who delight in my work and to continue supporting artists in the community studio.”

Reach Bella Levavi at 413-930-4579 or blevavi@recorder.com.