Hot Fired Arts

At Hot Fired Arts, everyone can create their own masterpiece. The “you-makeit” art studio offers children and adults a variety of unique art experiences in fused glass, pottery pinting, canvas painting, and wet clay.

Michelle Brown was filling out an application for a part-time job at Hot Fired Arts when its owner proposed that the veteran art teacher may want to buy the business instead. Both Brown’s education and experience qualified her for the undertaking; she had studied art education at Kutztown University in Pennsylvania, and spent 19 years teaching art to middle- and high-school students at Rockville’s Montrose Christian School, and to kindergartners through eighth-graders at Frederick’s Trinity School.

Brown took the reins of Hot Fired Arts on July 1, 2016. Since then she has been proudly “dedicated to providing a safe, fun atmosphere for all ages to explore their creative side.” To that end, the studio offers a wide variety of classes and workshops, walk-in opportunities, and parties.

Hot Fired Arts posts a calendar of classes and workshops on its website and Facebook page. Pre-registration is required to ensure the studio is prepared with sufficient space, supplies, and instructors. The main studio accommodates 35 artists. Offerings have included seasonal and holiday-oriented projects in various media for children and adults, as well as sessions specifically for home-schoolers.

Walk-ins are always welcome at Hot Fired Arts. Each aspiring artist can choose from an array of paint-your-own pottery pieces, glass fusing projects, wet clay, or canvas painting designs.

“We’ll set you up, help with ideas, teach you the techniques,” Brown said, adding that while typical sessions are 1-1/2 to two hours, sometimes people “get lost in their work for as many as three to five hours. They become so absorbed that they don’t notice how much time has passed until they get hungry.” And those longer sessions help support the studio’s goal.

“We want the experience to provide a kind of art therapy, an opportunity to explore your creative side, to relax and de-stress,” Brown said.

Once a pottery, glass, or clay project is complete, Hot Fired Arts will fire it. Pottery pieces have a seven-day turnaround, and glass or clay takes about 14 days. Canvas paintings can go home with the artist the same day they are painted.

The Party Room, a separate space in the rear of the studio, offers celebration options for children and adults. For children, there’s a 90-minute session for ages 3-5 with a story and pottery painting; for ages 5-8, with pottery, canvas painting, or the new glitter tumblers, and for ages 8-12, with canvas painting, fused glass, or clay pinch pots. The studio asks for two weeks’ notice, and encourages that cake and food be brought in. Additional alternatives include a patio party, weather permitting, and off-site and online sessions. The handicapaccessible main studio is used for large family groups or corporate parties.

“We are open to requests, and always do our best to accommodate, and are always happy to do fundraisers, especially for kid-oriented groups,” Brown said.