A Gulfport Potter Turned a Café Table Into a Shell Workshop
Devine Perks Pottery brought clay to Boozer’s Brew, where guests shaped shell pieces in one sitting and left the drying, glazing, and firing to the potter. The venue changed, but the production workflow stayed portable.
What actually happened
- Original event
- Sips and Seashells Pottery Workshop
- Date & time zone
- August 8, 2026 · 2:00–4:00 PM CDT · America/Chicago
- By
- Devine Perks Pottery + Boozer’s Brew & a Cafe Too
- Format
- Two-hour pop-up hand-building workshop with later firing and pickup
- Entry
- Advance ticket · $65 including materials and firing
What happened
On August 8, 2026, Boozer’s Brew on Pass Road in Gulfport traded part of its café setup for clay. Devine Perks Pottery owner Kelly Devine led Sips and Seashells, one class in a monthly series that WLOX reported as rotating among different businesses along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Guests worked at café tables and formed their own clay seashells. WLOX’s on-site video shows the project at hand scale: slabs of clay, simple tools, fingers pinching and refining curved forms, finished examples on the table, and adults making alongside friends.
The workshop ended before the ceramics were finished. WLOX reported that the pieces would be dried, glazed, and kiln-fired before pickup. The archived listing states that the $65 advance ticket covered materials and firings, with the finished work returning to Boozer’s about a month later.
See the event in motion
Why the portable table works
One recognisable form gives first-timers an immediate answer to what they are making. The shell theme connected the project to the Coast and gave collectors, friends, and curious beginners a shared starting point without requiring everyone to invent an object from scratch.
The useful operating move happens behind that friendly promise. The café supplies a familiar local room; the potter brings a bounded tabletop project and retains control of the ceramic workflow after guests leave. The kiln does not need to move with the event for the event itself to move.
If you host something similar
Choose the partner room with the clay workflow in mind. Confirm protected work surfaces, hand-washing, floor protection, accessible seating, loading access, cleanup responsibilities, and where labeled pieces wait before transport. A qualified ceramics operator should choose the materials and control drying, glazing, kiln loading, firing, storage, and finished-work handling.
Make the handoff visible before guests buy. State the one project, what the ticket includes, who chooses the finish, ordinary firing variation, the expected collection date, the pickup location, the collection deadline, and what happens if a piece is damaged. Use an original project and event identity suited to the partner and place rather than copying the source workshop’s name, shell design, lesson, imagery, or branding.
The Partner-Table Clay Workshop
Make one hand-built clay piece at a favourite local venue, then collect the glazed and fired result there later.
The making room and production studio are deliberately separated: guests complete one bounded form at a partner business, then the ceramics host takes every labeled piece through drying, glaze, kiln, and return.
Host a 10–16 guest pop-up clay workshop with a local café or shop: bring pre-portioned clay and tabletop tools, guide everyone through one original hand-built project, then take the labeled pieces to a qualified studio for drying, glazing, firing, and a clearly scheduled pickup at the partner venue.
Host checklist
- Publish the exact ticket inclusions, refund terms, finished-size range, expected pickup date, collection location, deadline, and policy for ordinary firing variation or breakage.
- Use a qualified ceramics operator to choose the clay and finishes and to control drying, transport, glazing, kiln loading, firing, ventilation, storage, and care information.
- Agree the partner venue’s capacity, protected work surfaces, sink access, loading path, cleanup division, ordinary trade, and whether food or drink purchases are separate from the workshop ticket.
- Give every piece a durable label and maintain a handoff register from the guest table to the studio shelf and back to pickup.
- Offer stable seated work heights, adaptive grips or tools where available, and a design or observation role for anyone who cannot safely handle the material.
The idea will be ready in the event creator.
Questions hosts ask
Can a pottery pop-up run somewhere without a kiln?
Yes. Keep the guest session at the partner venue and place drying, glazing, firing, storage, and quality checks with a qualified ceramics studio. The transport and return plan should be agreed before tickets go on sale.
What should the pottery workshop ticket explain?
Name the one project, included clay and tools, finish choices, firing, expected pickup date and location, collection deadline, refund terms, and policy for ordinary firing variation or breakage.
What makes a good partner venue for clay?
Look for stable seated tables, protected surfaces and floors, hand-washing access, an accessible layout, a practical loading route, and a clear agreement about cleanup, storage, and ordinary business operations.
What would you make from this?
Share a local twist, a different format, or a gathering this story set in motion.