When Chelsea Hirschhorn organized a summer gathering in July at her house in Amagansett, N.Y., she made sure to include one party trick: pottery wheels. She hosted 15 adults for a ceramics class, where they sipped cocktails while spinning the wheels on her deck, shaping cups and bowls out of clay, followed by a paella feast and games of poker.<\/p>\n
Then in August, Ms. Hirschhorn, the founder of Frida, a company that sells baby products, hosted another party, this time for her son\u2019s 10th birthday. In addition to a pool with a zip-line, an ice cream truck and a pizza truck, there was a ceramic station with pottery wheels.<\/p>\n
This summer in the Hamptons, D.J.s aren\u2019t the only ones doing the spinning. A semi-recent fad has taken ahold of the moneyed elite who spend their summer in the coastal destination: clay camp, in which adults and children alike can try out pottery wheels at home and at parties.<\/p>\n
Over the past couple of years, Cameron Bishop, the ceramist behind the pop-up service, has split her time between summers in Montauk, N.Y, and winters in Seattle with her daughter, Beau, 8. Ms. Bishop started her clay catering service in the summer of 2021, when people were looking for something creative to do outside \u2014 partly because of the Covid-19 pandemic \u2014 and the business blew up in popularity this year.<\/p>\n
She wanted to bring a new source of fun to the Hamptons. \u201cThere has to be more to life,\u201d Ms. Bishop said, than just wiling away the time living in one\u2019s phone.<\/p>\n
Ms. Bishop paid her way through eight years of art school \u2014 the Academy of Art University in San Francisco and the Art Institute of Chicago \u2014 by working in high-end hotels. She runs a full studio in Seattle with two kilns and a ceramics line, named Beau Rush Ceramics, that she sells online. Her background in hospitality, she believes, is what makes her service thrive.<\/p>\n
Ms. Bishop has secured many of her clients through word of mouth, offering services to friends of friends. \u201cDaphne Oz came to one of the birthdays I did, and the next thing you know, I\u2019m teaching her kids,\u201d Ms. Bishop, 41, said. \u201cLater in the week, she came to a class and brought her B.F.F., fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff, and Rebecca also brought some of her kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
She brings everything needed for a pottery party: the tables, the chairs, the umbrellas, the clay and, of course, the wheels \u2014 which require only water and electricity. \u201cWe come, set up for 45 minutes, everyone comes to the class and then we clean up and leave no trace,\u201d she said, adding that she later bakes the clay in a kiln so partygoers can keep their creations.<\/p>\n
In August, Ms. Bishop was hired in Southampton by Lauren Santo Domingo, a co-founder and the chief brand officer of the luxury site Moda Operandi, to host a class for her children and their friends. \u201cThe kids had all just been to a Taylor Swift concert, and they were wearing their Taylor Swift beads on their wrist, and they were worried about getting them dirty,\u201d Ms. Bishop said, laughing.<\/p>\n
In Sagaponack, at the house of Rebecca Hessel Cohen, the founder of the clothing brand LoveShackFancy, Ms. Bishop set up her class in a lush garden full of pink flowers, near Ms. Cohen\u2019s classic pink Moke car.<\/p>\n
Ms. Bishop has also been a regular at the British actress Naomi Watts\u2019s home in Montauk for two summers now. \u201cI learned about Cameron\u2019s ceramics class through friends on Instagram,\u201d Ms. Watts said in a text message. Ms. Watts had been cast to play a ceramist on the television show \u201cThe Watcher,\u201d which debuted in October 2022, and needed a crash course.<\/p>\n
\u201cCameron and I did a few solos, the kids came and did a bit, too, and then I had a couple occasions with friends joining,\u201d Ms. Watts said. \u201cWe would bask in the afternoon sun with a gin and tonic, chat and create till our hearts were content.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all got completely hooked,\u201d she added. Ms. Watts later showed off her new pottery skills on \u201cThe Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.\u201d<\/p>\n
The physical aspect of playing with clay can be strangely addicting, which may explain the appeal of pottery making. \u201cI don\u2019t know why the wheel is so enticing,\u201d said Julia Stegner, 38, a model who hired Ms. Bishop to teach a class for her family. \u201cMaybe it\u2019s the playfulness, how quickly you can form this piece of clay into this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so earthy, it\u2019s so grounding, and then you can make something that you can use and eat out of,\u201d added Ms. Stegner, who is considering buying her own wheel.<\/p>\n
For those who don\u2019t want to organize a class, Ms. Bishop also sells at-home clay kits (each comes with a piece of canvas, clay, tools, instructions and her contact details to arrange a pick up) online and at Crow\u2019s Nest, a waterside restaurant and gift shop in Montauk owned by her friend. They cost $95, and afterward Ms. Bishop can take care of the baking. \u201cSean MacPherson and his family took four of them,\u201d Ms. Bishop said.<\/p>\n
Ms. Bishop believes that people are often drawn to clay making because it gives them something elusive: a feeling of control.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Lauren Santo Domingo\u2019s house, some participants were talking about making the piece perfect, and I was like, \u2018No, no, no, that is not the point,\u2019\u201d Ms. Bishop said. \u201cAt the wheel, this thing didn\u2019t exist until you put your hands on it, and it can become anything you choose. You have complete and total agency.\u201d<\/p>\n
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