Building an Artist's Haven with Feet of Clay

The one thing Luba Sharapan of MudFire wants you to know is that working with pottery isn’t really anything like the famous scene in the movie “Ghost” at all.

“It’s virtually impossible to do what they were doing and work with the clay on a wheel,” she says. “It’s hard enough to make it work when all you are doing is concentrating on your work, but that? No way!”

Even if you can’t have a hot love scene at MudFire while you’re making your vases, bowls and other items, you can create beautiful objects and become part of the family of artists that has emerged from the pottery students Sharapan has in her studio.

This large space feels quite intimate for its size. Every artist is working on his own piece, but happily offers advice or encouragement to fellow artists who seem to be at crossroads with creations.

Indeed, it would seem that once you start creating pottery pieces at MudFire, you just can’t stop. Many artists have been coming for years and have no plans to quit anytime soon.

“We actually lose more folks to pregnancy,” says Sharapan, referring to the loyalty that her students have for working in Mudfire's studio space on Laredo Drive.

But, perhaps, some of that loyalty is due to other things. Like what she calls the “snack factory” they have going on.

“It started out with people just bringing in snack for people to share,” Sharapan says, feigning displeasure. “Now, other groups and companies bring in leftovers from corporate events for us to share, while working on our art.”

She also hosts a weekly potluck meal for students every Friday, and it’s clear that this studio and gallery are about more than “just art.”

That, itself, becomes even clearer when talking to students who are working on the precious projects that have all started out as lumps of clay.

Jamie Sells drives in from Canton to work in the studio four times a week. The 49-year-old says that she feel accomplished, after having finished nine tiny bowls that line a windowsill in her home.

She says she’s been making jewelry for a long time, but now she’s a potter, having even received a kiln from her husband as a birthday present.

“For 30 years I’ve wanted to be a potter,” Sells exclaims. “And now, I’m doing it!”

Twice a week, Teresa Snider comes to work with clay and has done so for several years. She likes the personal connection she feels while here, among the other artists working. “It feels like family,” says the Stone Mountain resident.

As the head of that family, Sharapan, a Moscow native, wasn’t always so arts-minded. She tried several “careers” before becoming an artist full-time.

She was a private investigator, legal researcher and advertising executive. And, although those jobs paid the rent, she knew she was meant to be elsewhere with her life. She adds that she was lucky her husband was so supportive in her venture, but that the biggest thing she learned from being in “big business,” was a simple thing that helps her out to this day: Hire people smarter than you are to help you.

And, she has. With 15 artists in residence, part of each package of classes includes a pottery teacher being paired with you, to help you figure out how you’re going to get your fingers dirty and create your dreams using clay.

She’s got the gear to help students achieve artistic goals, too, with enough equipment to handle anything that comes her way. There are 16 wheels for potters to work on, 18 hand-building stations, so each artist can stake a claim to a space to work in, and more than 50 glazes available for students to choose from.

Mudfire also boasts three large electric kilns and one large gas shuttle kiln. Another kiln is being built now, but it’s outside and the weather has slowed them down a bit with its construction.

Next door, attached to the studio is a beautiful gallery with pottery for sale. The pieces are available in all sizes and price ranges. These are works that Sharapan loves looking at and admiring, hoping they find homes with people who will appreciate them, and love them, as she has.

In her free time, Sharapan visits other pottery studios and feels that connection that all artists feel, when admiring the work of others.

“As an artist who sells his work, you have to look beyond the obvious: color, size, shape,” she says. “Finding the real message or meaning behind each piece is freeing and allows me to create something more for myself and my students.”