Ceramics Offer Brush With Creativity

Lewis Taub wanted to make matters perfectly clear when he hung out a sign at his Tarzana shop that reads, “Your Paint-It-Yourself Ceramics Center.”

If passersby had seen only the official name of his ceramics business, “I Made It Myself!,” they might have thought Taub was bragging about his own handiwork. But his stock in trade is not what he has done but rather what his customers, including kids, come in and do--and brag about.

These days, he reports, more and more kids are coming in, picking up a brush, taking a deep breath to steady their hand and spending hours after school and on the weekends turning unfinished pottery into animals, plants and something Taub calls “sports stacks”--3-D ceramic versions of the bumper-sticker slogan that juxtaposes a capital I with a heart and a soccer ball or similar object.

In the last few years, several locations have opened in the Valley where kids as young as 4 can discover the mysteries of “green ware”--molded clay, not compacted lawn clippings; “bisque”--white or tan unglazed porcelain, not soup; and “kiln”--pronounced with the last letter silent--the name of the oven where ceramic figures are heated until they glow, then cooled, making them very hard.

Classes are available at some sites beginning at $3 to $5 an hour, painting materials included. Many places, such as Taub’s, rather than offering classes, have a policy of charging only for the item a child chooses to work on. The paints and other materials are free, but there is a charge of $3 or more to glaze the completed work. It’s a good idea to call several sites and compare prices.

Art Abrams, owner of Kids’ Art Space in North Hollywood, is a bit of an evangelist for the craft of ceramics. He donates materials to local schools, such as Carpenter Elementary, Riverside Elementary and Emek Hebrew Academy.

The students do the painting and he “fires” the ceramics in the kiln so they are “food and dishwasher safe.” At one school’s fund-raiser, the kids auctioned off some big platters they had painted.

Only nontoxic and lead-free under glazes and glazes are used at his studio, Abrams says, adding with pride: “We carry over 3,000 items to paint for ages 3 to 133. We are child-friendly and adult affordable.”

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One intriguing item offered at Abrams’ location is a “birthday party in a box”--enough green ware, paints and other materials to keep 15 kids busy all afternoon at your home or his studio--for $99. Other studios offer similar services, including the concept of bringing the whole party in for a formal ceramics lesson with a master teacher.

Both Abrams and Taub have observed that kids under the age of 10 are interested in the “instant gratification” that comes from painting sports-themed items or ballerinas.

Rather than waiting for these to be glazed and fired, they want to take away their handiwork unglazed but with an acrylic coating on it to protect the paint job.

The shop owners also don’t recommend that parents drop off kids at a ceramics studio, leaving them to work on their own, unless the child is at least 11.

DETAILS

* CRAFT OUTLETS: Selected Valley ceramics studios welcome kids or offer weekend and after-school classes for children of elementary-school age and older. Hours vary, so call in advance:

Carousel Ceramics, 31149 Via Colinas, Westlake Village. (818) 879-8292.

I Made It Myself!, 18643 Ventura Blvd., Tarzana. (818) 757-7750.

Jupiter Fun From a Different Planet, 30875 Thousand Oaks Blvd., Westlake Village. (818) 707-9797.

Kids’ Art Space, 12532 Riverside Drive, North Hollywood. (818) 752-9767.

My Picasso Ceramic Art and Design Studio, 216 E. Olive Ave., Burbank. (818) 848-4808.

Prescott’s Ceramics & Things, 2208 Magnolia Blvd., Burbank. (818) 841-1815.