CRAFTS : Plaster Klatch : Seniors Make Ceramics Classes a Social Occasion

After ending a 32-year marriage, Carol Murphy joined a seniors ceramics class to fill the void. But in addition to learning how to decorate clay figurines, she found a place to talk about her divorce--or anything else--and hasn’t missed many sessions in eight years.

“Everyone has their problems, but we solve them all here. We open up to each other,” said Murphy, 58. “It’s a family; a really close family.”

True indeed, agree Murphy’s longtime crafting companions, who share homemade goodies, telephone the regulars who don’t show and chat up a storm as they paint and adorn whimsical statuary Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Plaster Shop in Costa Mesa.

“We tell funny stories, we old ladies. We even talk about sex!” said Shirley Collins, 67.

“Sometimes I don’t even work,” Murphy chimed in. “I just come to talk. We can talk for hours.”

The group, whose members range from age 55 to 80, was begun roughly eight years ago--some seniors have been meeting even longer--after several women found themselves attending the same classes week after week, members say. Through the years, it has met at different craft stores and moved into the Plaster Shop about two years ago after another Costa Mesa outlet closed.

The shop’s class is designed for seniors and free to anyone 55 or over, but other adults can attend for $2.50 a session.

“The seniors are the most fun group here,” said class teacher Sue Ward, who owns the shop with her husband, Tom. “They crack everybody up, and the younger people like coming just to listen to the ladies.”

Unfinished, snowy white figurines--from unicorns to cacti to dogs with fire hydrants--blanket two walls of the crowded shop and fill rows of shelves. They are molded from plaster or bisque, which has a smoother surface than plaster, is made of a finer clay and is kiln-fired and glazed.

It’s from among these objects that class participants pick their projects, which they complete at their own pace. Typically, 12 to 15 seniors, most of them retired, attend, many working until 3 in the afternoon.

Aided by a pair of thick magnifying eyeglasses, Murphy recently painted a jaunty old model car green, white and gold. She had already sanded the piece smooth, applied a primer to avoid porousness and would later spray on a protective finish, then pour on a thick epoxy resin to give the auto a high gloss.

“One project takes two or three weeks,” said the Santa Ana resident. “It all depends on how much I talk.”

Simple projects are best for seniors with failing eyesight, but a more complicated technique is one of the most popular. It’s what Ward calls Mod-Podging.

The method, named after Mod-Podge, a type of clear-drying fixative used to apply bits of decorated paper napkins to ceramics, produces finished pieces that look as if they were hand-painted with the napkins’ intricate designs.

Collins, who lives in Costa Mesa, recently Mod-Podged an 18th-Century style clock body (the mechanical innards would be attached later) with parts of napkins bearing pink and violet flowers.

“If it turns out good, I’ll give it away at Christmas,” she said. “If it doesn’t, I’ll shove it in my closet. I have a closet full of things I make here that I don’t know what to do with. But this gives us something to do, instead of just sitting at home and feeling sorry for ourselves. And it breaks up the housework!”

Sue Ward, 39, previously did data processing for an aerospace firm and has been an oil and ceramic painter for several years. But she reaps unusual rewards from working with the seniors, whether by sharing in the camaraderie (“This is like their home”), enjoying their vitality and “sense of fun,” or by helping them discover creative abilities they never imagined they possessed.

“It’s probably been one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my life,” she said.

The Plaster Shop, 1215 W. Baker St., Costa Mesa, offers other morning and evening classes in plaster and bisque decoration, as well as instruction in toll painting, silk flower decoration and other skills for adults and children. Newcomers and beginners are welcome to all classes. Information: (714) 556-7561.