Clay class

The world is on fire. Or flooding. Or sinking. Or just plain baking. There are wars and human struggles across the globe. I worry about friends and family here and abroad. I can’t sleep.

Then, in late June, I discovered Tumbleroot Pottery Pub — a new cocktail bar, ceramic ware gallery, and walk-in pottery studio at the corner of Palace and Grant avenues, between the Plaza and the Georgia O’keeffe Museum. Stepping inside here? Best idea ever.

Why? Because at Tumbleroot Pottery Pub, for a moment (about two hours), I can forget about the problems of the world. While I’m there, my focus is, “Does this look like my corgi’s butt?”

Here, I have a blob of self-drying structural clay locally harvested and made in New Mexico, which I order ($9 per pound) alongside a cocktail (made with locally distilled spirits) and a strong cafecito. The cold, soothing clay that I have has all the intentions — although I don’t have skills, which doesn’t matter — of turning into an artistic rendition of my corgi, (Liz) Lemon.

The pub has monthly clay contests. In June, the theme was pets. In July, it’s flying machines. You can make anything you want, too, and if you’re stuck for ideas, talk to the bartender. Plus, when you’re done, you can take home your creation.

The bartender brings me my cocktail in a blue clay cup. He says, yes, my blob kind of looks like a corgi. He encourages me to keep going. I work more and soon join the locals at the table next to mine in admiring a clay parrot/dinosaur one of them made. Everyone’s hands are dirty, their empty cocktail and mocktail cups covered with dust. I point at my corgi.

Surely, these four individuals, too, must have worries of their own. But now, everyone, including me, is giggling. As writer Kurt Vonnegut once said, “If this isn’t nice, I don’t know what is.”

Angela Smith Kirkman, potter and co-founder of Tumbleroot Pottery Pub, calls this “mud therapy.” And the feeling I have here is exactly what she and her husband and co-founder, Jason Kirkman, want their customers to experience when they hang out at the pottery pub. Working with clay and making pottery is physical; it loosens you up and forces you to be present, in the moment, allowing you to forget your worries for a while. And if you add a cocktail or two to the experience, and maybe a friend, then you’re definitely in for a lovely time. — Ania Hull/for The New Mexican

135 W. Palace Avenue, Suite 100 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily tumblerootpotterypub.com