Freighthouse business offers socially-distanced interactive pottery experience
Herschel and Noelle Wilson officially launched The Painting Panda Pottery Studio in Tacoma’s Freighthouse Square a year ago this month.
The business offers pottery for people to paint in groups or in small individual gatherings. The site then glazes and fires the pieces in a kiln.
“We actually came up with a concept about three years ago,” Herschel Wilson told The News Tribune in a recent phone interview. “We had the name and everything but never really had the courage to do it. And finally, last year, I decided to push forward on this.”
They envisioned a studio where families could come and enjoy artistic exploration with their kids.
Those were in the heady, pre-coronavirus times.
“We were open for the holiday season. And that was a big a big boost for us,” Noelle Wilson said. “People painting stuff for others and getting together with family and friends. And I knew probably the start of the year would be a little bit slower because everybody spent their money at Christmas. But February was like one of our biggest months so far and so we were like, ‘This is great.’
“We were looking forward to planning for Mother’s Day and everything and Father’s Day and all the spring holidays.”
Then, everything changed. The studio was shuttered for three months as the first wave of COVID-19 descended on Tacoma.
“We were not able to get the PPP,” recalled Herschel Wilson, referring to the government’s Paycheck Protection Program. “And so we weren’t really sure we were going to make it.
“At that time, we were just under a year being open, but it was a little concerning that we weren’t going to be able to stay here much longer because we were having to pay the rent on the space just out of our pocket.”
Phase 2 came “right in time,” he added, with a reopening in June, along with an influx of customers seeking a brief respite and diversion from the pandemic. People have traveled from as far as Port Orchard and Seattle to take part, according to the Wilsons.
Now, in addition to the couple juggling home child care and virtual school for their kids, ages 4, 7 and 9, they are keeping the business afloat with new safety protocols and bookings for individual visits during the week.
They also offer to-go kits: Customers select the ceramic piece or pieces and can choose up to six colors per piece. Brushes are available for purchase.
Social distancing and masks rule the day for on-site visits.
“Due to social distancing measures, we’ve actually had to change the layout a little bit, take away several chairs so that we can have 20 people in at one time,” Herschel Wilson said. “But obviously, if people are family they can sit together. We have a hand-washing area that they can go to. But we also have hand sanitizer inside the studio. We pour their paints for them now whereas before they’d go and just get whatever bottles they want.”
“All of our tables are measured,” Noelle Wilson said. “So wherever you sit, you’re not sitting close to one another. Again, after everything is used by a person, like we tell them, ‘Leave your brushes, leave all your stuff, we take care of that.’ Everything goes into a bucket, everything gets cleaned and processed before it goes back to the tables. When they leave, we clean the table and the chairs.”
Adapting to pandemic protocols also has the couple thinking about virtual versions of their studio, as Noelle Wilson explained:
“One of the things I’ve been working on trying to put together is having a school art kind of thing; putting together a lesson plan that goes along with a big project. Maybe giving a lesson on color theory and only giving primary colors and then they make their own colors to paint the piece. I’ve been trying to figure out how that might look. But once developed, then we certainly would be able to virtualize a class or at least put it on YouTube.”
The Painting Panda Pottery Studio
▪ LOCATION: 440 E. 25th St., No. 69, Freighthouse Square, Tacoma.
▪ INFORMATION: 253-256-2128. Facebook: facebook.com/paintingpandapottery. Instagram: instagram.com/the_painting_panda/. Website: paintingpandapottery.com.
▪ COST: No sitting fee or studio fee. Prices range from $10 to $54. For parties, the prices of the pieces stay the same, with a minimum amount that must be painted.
