Family run ceramics shop moves to gain more visibility

There's never a dull moment for Dawn Pierce, owner of It's All About Ceramics, a local business that recently moved from downtown Laurel St. to a more visible location at 109 Washington St. in Brainerd.

Pierce and her husband, along with their four children Domanic, Dulton, Ryan, and Teala are all involved in the trade doing everything from pouring the molds, loading the kiln, and taking turns manning the shop during business hours while Pierce is working her part-time job as assistant manager of the Dollar Tree.

Pierce began her interest in ceramics years ago when attending Plasteramics classes as a hobby with her mother-in-law. Pierce started up a ceramics business nearly eight years ago, but had to shut it down when her husband lost his job. Recently, they decided to give it another try opening It's All About Ceramics, a little shop that features mainly ceramic bisque figurines of all shapes, sizes, and special interests. After choosing the figurine of their liking clients then decide how they want to individualize their purchase by adding varieties of painting techniques including: dry brushing, crackling, shoe polish to look like wood, and even adding some glitter to the mix.

Pierce offers caters classes to meet the needs of each age group and skill level.

"Our biggest class was 24 which was through (the Brainerd School District) that was a group of handicapped/assisted living people," Pierce said.

Speaking of her younger students she added, "smaller kids just want to have fun and experiment. If someone is not getting into it much you can pick up on that and you mention glitter, then their eyes light up. They love glitter."

Requests for classes have come from various kids clubs, bachelorette parties, and birthday parties.

"Some have been doing it longer than me and don't really need to be taught anything they just like the company and getting out and about," Pierce said of older students.

The Pierce family has taken pieces to local nursing homes to paint where they were met with challenges from some of the elderly saying, "I can't do it. I'm too old and shaky." At that point, Pierce steps in and assists them to show they can do it.

"Their faces just light up," she said. "When they are done they are all excited and they show everybody like look what I did."

Acquiring more than 10,000 molds from either new purchases or shops going out of business, the Pierces' have limited space. Currently the basement of their home houses all of their molds and also serves as the pouring area.

"When we bought out some of these smaller shops they weren't inventoried and so we would go and pick them up out of a storage garage and they were all just shoved in there," Pierce said. "Our work now is to try and organize them somehow. That's what we will be doing all summer. Now that it's nice out we can take the molds outside and put them into categories."

Their plan is to start off with a smaller rental space and keep their mold inventory in their home until the business takes off. They hope to combine the two spaces at some point to eliminate hauling product back and forth.

Piece said the work is a family affair.

"They all help in the basement with the pouring and what not. It's a family process," Pierce said. "There's a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that nobody really knows about."

A relative sold them their first 500 molds and kiln for $500.

"We had no clue what we were doing. We just jumped in." Pierce said.

Determining thicknesses of clay, how to cook it, and avoiding explosions in the kiln were all part of the learning process.

As for their best-selling items, Pierce said, right now fairy gardens are really hot, but it kind of depends on the season.

As a practice, Pierce usually only keeps handy the molds of the current season/holiday and keeps the rest filed towards the back of her stock with one exception. She has had several requests to keep Christmas molds out all year long. To stand out in the business Pierce said she will do whatever it takes to help her customers find a mold they are looking for and get it poured for them. She views ceramics as a dying art that is making a comeback.

"It's very relaxing, very therapeutic. I've always liked the art of ceramics and I love teaching so they kind of go together."

It's All About Ceramics is open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and weekends by appointment only.

TAMARA HORTON may be reached at 218-855-5882 or tamara.horton@brainerddispatch.com .

This story was corrected to reflect the store's proper address on Washington Street.