Creativity is ‘in the house’
The Pottery House offers personalized pieces
With over 57 choices of fun paint colors to choose from and a variety of pottery choices, from banks to mugs and even plates for dinner guests or those precious fur-babies, The Pottery House has been very well received, according to owner Jennifer Nesbitt.
Nestled inside her store Main Street Antiques on the square, she explained that the store has been two years in the making.
“We knew El Dorado needed something else for everyone to do and I toyed around with it until I just finally decided to go through with it. I had never done any of this before, and El Dorado had previously had a couple of pottery places, but we just thought it would be perfect and give something for kids to do and also bring tourists in,” she said.
With the help of Pat Johnson, who was the original owner of Mudslide Pottery, Nesbitt and her helpers brought something fun and very rewarding to the table for residents.
“You don’t have to be an artist or know how to paint, you just create your own masterpiece. People are so proud of their pieces because they have made it their own and seeing their smiling faces when they come back is so rewarding. We have repeat customers and we love them,” she explained.
Opening on Valentine’s day, she said that they were a little nervous, but the process of taking a plain piece of pottery and crafting it into something that is a keepsake for the
customers has been an easy transition.
“Basically, you come in and pick out what piece of pottery you want to paint, it’s $7 per hour to paint, plus the price of the pottery that you pick. It generally takes about an hour for one piece. Then, we take it to the back and glaze it and fire it during the night and have it ready for the next day,” she said.
The paint that is used, she explained, is a special pottery paint called an underglaze. Customers will come in with an idea, pick their piece and colors and create their masterpiece. Once finished, the customer will give their piece to one of Nesbitt’s helpers to take to the back and let the paint dry completely. The paint that is applied by the customer doesn’t give the true color of what the piece will look like—it gives a chalky and very matte appearance. Once it is dry, a green-colored glaze is generously applied.
“We glaze it once, let it dry and then glaze it again. We put about two to three coats of glaze on it, then we fire it. It takes a good seven hours to fire each piece in the kiln, which gets up to a good 2,000 degrees. Then we have the cool down process. So by the time everything is done, it’s about a 21 to 24 hour process, depending on if we have a full kiln or not,” she explained.
She said that the process works best when the kiln is up to capacity, but not to worry—each piece is put on “stilts” and no pieces touch one another. Once completely cooled, the piece is shiny with brightly pigmented color and is even safe to eat from.
“We have had some people that have come in wanting to do plate sets to use, which kids love the idea of. They are microwave safe too,” she said.
As for what she hopes for the future? She explained that she would love to run out of room and be able to expand.
“We just want to bring something creative to El Dorado,” she said.
On April 30, The Pottery House will be having a special fundraiser for The Call, which is a Christianbased organization that helps foster and adoptive parents. According to Karen Langston, county coordinator for The Call, this is a perfect opportunity to make the public more aware about the organization as well as helping foster parents in Union County. Nesbitt explained that 100 percent of proceeds raised during that day will go straight to The Call and they will be taking donations as well. Langston explained that the money raised will go to assist foster parents with various expenses for the children that they are fostering, whether it be purchasing the child a backpack or even their own luggage.
The Pottery House is open from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. until 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 1 until 5 p.m. on Sundays, so that everyone can have an opportunity to come create their own masterpiece.
“People just need to come in and use their imagination, we have lots of tools and we can help with options. We have people that come in with an idea but they aren’t quite sure on how to do it, and we would love to help them. Just bring your idea and what you want and we can make it happen,” she said.
For more information, find them on Facebook under The Pottery House, or call 870-444-5029.