Stuart Ceramics was originally opened by a school teacher and her husband back in the 1980’s. It went through a few owners who were creating ceramic bisque products in a huge 2 bay warehouse with door to door and ceiling to floor molds, slip turner machine, pour table, humungous dry table, 3 huge kilns, all the supplies, and showroom to sell wholesale.

My mother’s artist friend, Marlee Matheson, owned a studio in Stuart at that time teaching sculpture. I would take our painted and glazed pieces to her studio to fire. At age 16, I was loading Marlee’s kilns with my family’s pieces and her student’s pieces.

One summer I was so bored that I turned our garage into a studio and made flyers inviting all the neighborhood kids. That was a big hit!

I was in my fourth year of college studying psychology with hopes to use art to help kids cope with hard times when I learned the current owner was selling the factory.

She was motivated to sell quickly and the price she set was so low it felt like what people of Jewish faith would call mattanah – a gift!  I, only 21 years old and full of excitement and gratitude, took over the factory and poured all of my energy into it. I rollerbladed the 5 miles most mornings with boundless energy and worked well over 40 hours a week without even thinking about it.

As the company was already set up to be a factory, my hired friend and I learned to operate the factory  successfully.  Yes, we suffered many errors and learned from each mistake.  After a couple years we had mastered the craft of creating our own pieces from liquid clay, aka, slip, packing and shipping too, and started to gain some customers in our storefront studio with 12 seats.

In 2004, we decided to downgrade our factory setting and enlarge our art studio.

After a lot of contemplation we landed at a little quaint place in downtown Stuart. 15 Martin Luther King.  Our new little place was then on a quiet road.  In 2004, all the cute little shops, restaurants and bars that keep our little town hopping, were just not there… our studio was pretty quiet.  We still felt our little studio was perfect.  The Terrazzo floors and Dade County Pine ceiling just felt so right.  We kept our hands busy from sunrise to sunset 6 days a week pouring our own molds and only ordering paint and glaze.  We stayed busy painting with preschools all over town for heavily discounted prices in trade for advertising.

It took us many years to gain a following. Facebook and ‘word of mouth’ is how most people learn about us and back in 2004 we didn’t even know what facebook was!  (Fun Fact: Facebook was created in 2004)  Do you remember life before social media?!  We Do!  We’re very grateful of how easy it is now to connect with all of you.  Our quiet time is now over and we’re enjoying seeing an endless stream of creativity… Even those who say they’re not creative come home with beautiful pieces!  Our team is always in awe!

I’ve employed many wonderful people through the years and I love the team I have now.

There’s Antoinette, our Italian friend, always happy, positively positive, creative lady who’s funny too! Yes, the one with the yellow Jeep with pink accents! Antoinette is the creator of all the funny pun captions and videos you see on our facebook page :-)

Antoinette has been working at Stuart Ceramics since about 2009 and loves it so much! Most mornings, with the sun rising, Antoinette is enjoying long walks through nature before she comes into the studio. Talk about boundless energy!

Kathryn, our resident artist, enjoys teaching painting classes and gives her Sundays up to help everyone at Stuart Ceramics.

Mackenzie, ‘Mac’ is a very talented artist who like other artists on our team, she has a ‘real job’ (as we call it here at the studio) working at the hospital. Mackenzie not only glazes our pieces and works at the hospital, but spends any free time left diving into far away places and adventures reading books.

Laura Daniel, our kiln loader, is an art teacher at heart!  Currently the students of Bridges Montessori are fortunate to have a fun, talented, creative and caring teacher.  Laura has a background in religion and art history.  She is very interesting, creative and talented in all different fields of art!

Christopher Carnes works here when we’re Lucky enough – he’s usually busy at UF learning how to save the world from environmental breakdown and international troubles.  During school breaks when he’s helping at the studio the 5 star reviews just roll in!

I’m grateful everyday for the little time spent with my family.  My guys love riding bikes at parks such as Jonathan Dickinson and Halpatiokee.  Sometimes I ride my colorful full suspension bike with them! When we’re lucky, we travel with 4 bikes on the back of the van going on an adventure in the mountains.  I love creating art especially with friends, keeping up with my guys, and being true to my Aunt DD status that I love so much!

My team and I absolutely love Stuart Ceramics Art Studio and truly hope you do too!

Thank You for your interest and your time.  We really genuinely care about every person that walks in our door and hope they enjoy their time with us.

Our 2 mottos:

1). Say Yes, even if it means we have to figure it out later

2). Always have our guests leave happy :-)

Thank You Again for reading our story and Hope to See You Soon!