Shop Local: Spirit of Clay

Don’t be put off by the drab strip shopping center at 828 SOM Center Road, Mayfield Village. Just pull in, park your car, and venture inside Spirit of Clay, the paint-your-own pottery studio located there. What a surprise.

Vibrant walls of purple, lime green and orange enclose inviting work areas for painting, glass fusing and clay work; and sample products painted by owners Kathy Hess and Kelly Strah are amply distributed around the shop to inspire the creativity surely lurking in all visitors.

The studio is a dream-come-true for the business partners who met when they worked together at a local factory. “We hated our jobs, but we took a lot of classes in art,” Strah said.

And they might still just be taking art classes if their employer hadn’t announced eight years ago that the factory was moving to North Carolina. They bit the bullet and traveled to Texas to speak with a consultant who specializes in opening paint-your-own-pottery shops. When they returned, they activated their business plan and started looking for the optimum location.

“Being where we are, right off the freeway (Interstate 271), is a little blessing,” Strah
said. “People come from all over, as far away as Ashtabula, and the local communities are very supportive.”

The studio also offers 12 weeks of summer camp for children age 7 to 15, and two
weeklong clay camps for younger children.

“We’re not going to be millionaires, but we’re happy,” Strah said.