Ceramics Give Youths a Brush With Creativity

Carol Fish, co-owner of Fish Ceramics in Simi Valley and a teacher of the craft for over a decade, said that for years, “Ceramics has been the most hidden craft there is and the most hidden hobby.”

But that seems to be changing.

“Now I have more children in my shop than I had in earlier years,” said Fish.

Most of the children are not there to throw or mold pottery. They are there to paint and decorate green ware, (unbaked clay) or bisque (white or tan unglazed porcelain).

Over the last few years there has been a proliferation of these studios, known in the ceramics trade as alternative shops, where instead of making the ceramic or porcelain pieces, customers choose from a selection of unfinished items that can then be decorated, glazed and fired.

Children, in particular, have really taken to this hobby, said Fish, who offers 2 1/2-hour classes after school and on Saturdays for kids, 8 and up. Classes cost $18. The kids, she said, are not as fearful about the process of painting on blank green ware. “I start giving out the color (paints) and right away it’s going on the piece.”

Adults more often say, “Oh, I can’t do that”--not for fear of spoiling the blank figurines, which cost a modest amount, but a fear they can’t master the brush strokes.

Fish conducts sessions for local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops. All of the requirements to win a Ceramics Merit Badge can be fulfilled during visits to her studio.

Beverly Molnar, owner of E-Z Ceramics in Newbury Park, has also noticed an increased interest in ceramics. “It’s catching on again--maybe because of parents’ interest in finding something to do along with their kids,” she said.

Her classes--two sessions of two hours each for $25--stress “eyes.” No, not the training of student’s aesthetic perception but rather their skill in painting this part of the ceramic figurine. “Everybody should know how to do eyes,” she tells students.

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There’s certainly a need to master this particular skill, because the green ware and bisque most often chosen for painting depicts animals--real, historical and imaginary, including ducks, pigs, cows, owls, bears, cats, horses, dragons, gargoyles, unicorns, dinosaurs, alligators, hippos and snails. Even the blank ceramic mushrooms she sells her students have eyes.

“I tell them to use their imagination: It has a face and little arms,” she said.

Pat Dean of Dean’s Ceramics in Oxnard doesn’t offer formal classes but encourages parents to bring kids along so both can buy a piece and paint it at the table she’s set up for the purpose.

Currently, elementary school-age kids from her neighborhood have been coming on their own after school to do ceramics.

“Most children prefer to paint a piece with acrylics and then have us spray it to seal it rather than firing it--so they can take it right home,” she said. Angels, always a favorite with the kids, were the No. 1 choice for gifts for mom and dad this past holiday season, Molnar said.

DETAILS

* CRAFT OUTLETS: Following are some Ventura County ceramics studios that welcome kids and offer weekend and afternoon classes to children of elementary school age and older. Hours vary, so call in advance:

Dean’s Ceramics, 401 Lombard St., Oxnard, (805) 983-2103.

E-Z Ceramics, 3475 Old Conejo Road, Suite C-6, Newbury Park, (805) 495-8845.

Fish Ceramics, 2360 Shasta Way, Unit H, Simi Valley, (805) 581-1109.