A Place to Make Mud Masterpieces

When Ann Kemler prepared to remodel her Long Beach home, she noticed a new shop had just opened where she could paint patterns on tiles to redo her bathroom walls.

And Kemler did just that at Earth Arts, a mud- and clay-based arts and crafts shop at 162 West Park Ave., where she became a regular patron and created soap dishes, toothbrush holders and light switch plates.

“I find it wonderfully relaxing, it’s like I go into a trance,” said Kemler, who is now creating a dinnerware set. “It’s like Zen for me. And plus I’m making something that I can use, and no one is going to have my dinner set, that’s for sure.”

Owner Michelle Kelly, an art teacher at Baldwin High School, particularly delights in sharing her talents and techniques with patrons like Kemler, whether its demonstrating how to paint a ceramic mold or blow bubbles into a watered-down glaze.

“I consistently show them how easy it is to make beautiful looking pottery, sharing tips and tricks with them that make them feel like a professional,” she said. “When I see their expressions when they make this realization, I feel great.”

She and her husband, Tim, order wholesale molds of many shapes and sizes, from mugs to seashell bowls to Christmas tree ornaments, and some are custom made. They range in price from $10 to $100.

The shop, which opened in May 2010, evokes a more homey art classroom, divided into a paint area lined with unstained wooden chairs and tables, and a wet clay space with a single high table at its center.

Upstairs lies a party room where birthday boys and girls, kindergartners to 50-year-olds alike, have celebrated their special days. Two large kilns sit in an adjoining room with racks along it walls where patrons leave their painted pieces to dry for 24 hours. Then they're dipped in an over glaze and, another day later, fired in the kilns.

“People come here to create something, and while they don’t bring it home that night,” Tim explained, “they come back and have something tangible to show for their time here.”

After Tim retired from Verizon in 2009, he and Michelle decided to open Earth Arts in their home town, knowing similar establishments existed in Rockville Centre and Bellmore.

“A lot of people don’t want to go over the bridge, and we figured we are far enough away from any competitors, and people would actually enjoy doing it here rather than having to take that trip,” Tim said.

The customer base is parents and children, for whom the Kellys host art classes, summer camps and drop-off classes that allows parents to leave their kids for a few hours to indulge pizza and, as they did last month, create Halloween bowls and Thanksgiving plates.

While PTA’s have held meetings at Earth Arts, the shop’s most popular themed-event is Ladies’ Night Out, held one Friday each month. As many as 50 women have showed up, some carrying wine or beer. Ann Kemler is among the regulars on this night that now requires a reservation.

“Women come in groups and they’ll bring a bottle of wine or something like that and Michelle puts out a nice spread of dips and vegetables and fruit, and we paint and have a glass of wine,” she said. “It’s really very civilized and nice.”