Pottery shop to close its doors
Art By Yourself, a small shop where customers paint pottery pieces, will close later this month.
Owner Andrew Baucom said the store’s eight-year run at 122 S. Monroe will end because of diminished traffic from the Monroe Street bridge rebuilding project, inadequate parking and rising business costs, such as rent.
The last day to work on crafts will be July 27. After the final pieces have been baked in the craft shop’s three kilns, Baucom plans to sell the equipment. Customers must pick up their works by Aug. 1.
“This was supposed to be the Art Block,” Baucom said. “I’m bummed it never happened.”
The shop was a do-it-yourself destination. Popular works included plates, pitchers, vases, cookie jars and coffee mugs stamped with babies’ handprints and footprints.
The works were then fired in kilns by the Art by Yourself staff.
The glazed works, said customer and artist Mic Draper, are keepsakes.
Painting raw pottery with her daughter Elizabeth on Tuesday afternoon, Draper said she had been using Art By Yourself for six years to commemorate the births of grandchildren. Also, she painted pottery at the shop, which she showed and sold.
There is a similar craft shop called Polka Dot Pottery at 2716 W. Northwest Blvd..
Baucom said the disappearance of traffic – from 36,000 cars per day to the relative trickle of autos today – deeply cut customer numbers. City officials hope to reopen the bridge next year.
Furthermore, he said the business lost several reserved parking spots to other developments, forcing some customers to park along Madison Street, a stretch he called a seedy area where cars were regularly burglarized.
Baucom also has an ownership stake in the adjoining Spike coffee shop, which he intends to keep.