Brush with success: paint-your-own pottery stores make a splash with consumers seeking creative outlets - includes related information

Entrepreneur, August, 1996 by Gayle Soto Stodder

Kids think art is fun. But by the time most people reach adulthood, they'd sooner eat a crayon than use one. It's no wonder our creative muscle loses its tone. Opportunities for artistic expression in adult life are limited.

Yet, if the current paint-your-own-pottery craze means anything at all, artistic desire still burns within us. Around the country, kids, teens and plenty of grown-ups are flocking to "alternative studios" to decorate their own prefabricated pottery.

Though diverse in style and format, these studios generally blend the best elements of arts-and-crafts classes (hands-on creativity), coffee-house sociability (with or without the cappuccino), and boutique shopping (with neat stuff to bring home). Better still, there is no hefty time commitment - or artistic genius - required.

Former seventh-grade teacher Laura Hankin, who describes herself as "artistically challenged," painted her first pre-made ceramic pieces at a paint-it-yourself studio a few years ago. Instantly, she was hooked. "I would have absolutely no confidence at all to go into a crafts store an try to make something my own," says Hankin, "but I came out of that studio with decent-looking pieces."

Hankin went back to the studio to paint pottery again and again - alone, with friends, with dates. In the end, the concept proved so compelling, Hankin opened her own do-it-yourself crafts studio, Art & Soul (An Arts & Crafts Cafe) in Atlanta early this year. So far, an eclectic mix of young women, dating couples and kids' birthday parties have kept Hankin's cafe jumping "It takes no talent to [paint ceramics] successfully," Hankin explains, yet it allows you to have a creative outlet."

* ALL FIRED UP

Just how does paint-your-own pottery work? Instead of sinking their fingers into wet clay, fumbling around with a potter's wheel and trundling the sad results off to a kiln for firing, paint-it-yourself ceramicists work with preformed ceramic pieces - such as plates, vases and bowls. Participants paint on their own designs and hand the pieces over for firing and final glazing. The equipment and supplies are included, as is basic technical guidance. Typical cost: $5 to $7 an hour for studio time and supplies, plus the price of the ceramic piece. Some studies offer complimentary snacks; others charge money for a more lavish spread.

Can pottery really be hot entertainment for the high-tech `90s? Apparently so. According to Temple Canfield, a partner in Pull Cart in New York City - the first hip paint-your-own-pottery studio and a major bisqueware supplier to the paint-your-own-pottery industry-the market for alternative studios is all fired up. "When my partner Emily Goodman started Pull Cart [in 1991], nothing like this existed," Canfield says. "In 1993, there were no more than eight of these studios anywhere. Now there are easily 100 nationwide," and legions more on the way.

Painting pottery may not be an obvious concept for generating big bucks. But then, that's part of the appeal. No other social activity is quite like it. Paint-your-own pottery might best be described by what it isn't. It isn't outrageously expensive. It isn't athletically challenging. It isn't controversial. It isn't asocial, like a movie, but it's also not intensely interactive, like a restaurant meal.

As an added bonus, pottery painters get tangible rewards. "Even if you aren't artistic, you can get great results," says Wendy Cox, co-owner with Gaye Roche of It's You in Corona del Mar, California.

"The product really does look good, even though 90 percent of my customers have never painted ceramics before," says Rebecca Zenk, owner of two Beccas Color Your Own Ceramics studios in Claremont and Irvine, California. "Then again, I find that people are not as concerned with the outcome as they are with the experience. Most of my customers really appreciate the opportunity to do something different and creative."

* DISHING IT UP

Creativity is certainly key to launching your own alternative studio. Though new locations are mushrooming, no dominant formula for the concept has yet emerged. Bare bones in this business include:

* work tables and stools or chairs; display shelves; an inventory of greenware (formed but unfired pieces), and/or bisqueware (formed and fired pieces),

* firing equipment, including a kiln; and

* glazes, brushes, stencils, sponges and other decorating tools.

Most studios provide some form of food and drink, but running a full kitchen is usually not practical. Some studios simply provide space for snacks, takeout or catering. Hankin, for instance, invested in her own cappuccino machine. "The [coffee drinks] aren't a big moneymaker, but they add an image and a feeling to the cafe," she says. "People will bring a date here because it feels like a coffeehouse."

Because this business is so unusual, a location with heavy foot traffic is a must. It's You, for instance, is located on a well-traveled highway, near an artsy movie house. "We have a lot of people wander through," says Cox. "That's great because they can really see what we do here."