Glazed and Amused : Whether It’s to Brush Up on Creativity or Unwind After a Long Day’s Work, Everyone’s an Artist at O.C.’s Paint-It-Yourself Ceramics Studios

Glancing toward the door, artist Claude Jerry smiled. The woman who just entered his Seal Beach gallery had no interest in the pieces on the wall, nor in any of his work.

Pleased, not insulted, he’d seen her kind before. The ceramic masterpiece this patron of the arts was about to acquire was painted by a newcomer to the medium: her 5-year-old daughter.

“Wow! It turned out really nice,” she says, admiring the blue and yellow angelfish figurine. “It’s beautiful.”

A typical reaction, says Jerry, who opened Eek! Originals last summer, melding his artwork with a paint-your-own ceramics studio. His business--and others continuing to pop up in strip malls and marketplaces throughout Orange County--feed the cravings of the artistically malnourished.

“I look at charts all day and tell people what to do,” says one woman painting a coffee mug on her lunch break. “I don’t know how good it will be, but it’s neat to know you did it.”

The artists range in ability from the seasoned pro, who paints for hours with painstaking perfection, to the infant, who creates a priceless piece by simply dipping a tiny palm into colorful paint.

“Most of the people who paint for the first time are very surprised at how well they do,” says Jerry, 48, who sells his customers unfinished ceramic pieces, and, for $5 an hour, provides them the supplies, instruction and relaxed atmosphere to turn them into works of art. “The kids have no problem at all. Even the most primitive pieces turn out great.”

For the shop owners, paint-your-own ceramics has rapidly grown in popularity among those outside the art world, creating something of a small business craze.

Temple Canfield, a New York potter, claims it started five years ago when he opened Pullcart, a paint-it-yourself studio. Canfield became a supplier and consultant to the like-minded studios that began opening as the idea caught on. He says the first Southern California studio opened in 1992 in Los Angeles.

The surge has been building in Orange County within the last two years, as a surprising number of 9-to-5 professionals took a creative turn and opened paint-it-yourself shops from Mission Viejo to Seal Beach.

Whether they own the place or show up as hourly artists, executives, lawyers and others toiling for paychecks outside the art world are drawn to these studios.

“A lot of them aren’t artists. In fact, most of them aren’t artists,” Canfield says. “Nearly all of them are professional people. Maybe they were tired of being in an office all day. But very few were involved in ceramics before they got started.”

The owner of Eek! Originals is a prime example. For Jerry, an aerospace human resource administrator, the gallery and studio on Seal Beach’s Main Street is more than a business. He says it represents a turning point that came at a time of uncertainty in his life.

He quietly pondered his financial fate as layoff announcements swept through the defense industry and his workplace at McDonnell Douglas three years ago. While others polished resumes and renewed old business contacts, Jerry decided to dust off the paintbrushes and give the art thing a try.

“I didn’t do anything artistic or creative for years,” he says. “I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something was missing.”

Although Jerry didn’t lose his job, the threat of unemployment motivated him to finish old works and create new ones, until he had enough to display in a gallery of his own.

“What made me open this place?” he asks with a smile. “Ego. Every artist wants his own place.”

Jerry says that although the paint-your-own studio at the rear of the narrow gallery was an “afterthought,” its increasing popularity is the reason his place is enjoying success eight months after opening.

While his patrons paint the pre-made ceramic pieces, Jerry focuses his energy on creating originals out of clay that he offers for sale.

“We struggled at first, I knew that going in,” he says. “But the feedback has been great, and the atmosphere here is totally different than at all the other paint-your-own ceramics places. That’s what makes it.”

Maria Foulke says she also reached a turning point in her life when she opened Ceramic Creations in Mission Viejo a few months ago. Since then, the 29-year-old tax attorney has left all but a small part of her law career behind.

“I wasn’t miserable, but I wasn’t happy,” she says of her law work. “But I don’t miss it at all. I wonder if I’m ever going to miss it.”

Foulke’s studio in the Gateway Center operates much like Jerry’s and similar studios that have opened recently in Tustin, Corona del Mar, Irvine, Laguna Niguel and other cities in the county.

Customers buy blank, unfired ceramic pieces such as plates, tiles, vases and bowls--generally priced from $5 to $25--and sit down to paint them with brushes and paint supplied by the studio. The finished product is glazed and fired to be picked up in a day or two.

“You get the excitement of seeing people’s stuff come out of the kiln,” says Foulke, adding that her art shares the front window of her gallery with the ceramic creations of her paint-your-own customers. “That’s my favorite part: seeing people’s faces when they’ve seen what they made. They’re so excited. They show customers in the store. It’s neat.”

Foulke says she sees other professionals like herself in the business.

“I was surprised to see that people with real jobs are doing this,” she says. “I think in general--especially in Orange County and L.A.--that people are really in the rat race and want to get out of it somehow. Like me, they’ve decided that they want to do something they like, not just something that pays the bills.”

Rebecca Zenk was working as a consumer protection specialist for the Federal Trade Commission when she left to open Beccas Color Your Own Ceramics in Irvine two years ago. Zenk, who later opened another studio in Claremont, operates the Irvine business with Dan Corey, an attorney. She says her customer base is primarily professionals looking for a creative outlet.

“Nine out of 10 of my customers are sophisticated and educated,” says Zenk, 27. “They want to complement their pieces at home with something they make themselves.”