A pottery studio tucked into a greenhouse cottage at Scarsella's Flowers on Route 25A has reached its fourth year. JBT Clayworks, the studio of Oyster Bay potter JB Townsend, held its official grand opening on November 3, 2022, and this November marks four years of throwing, glazing and firing in the space just over the Oyster Bay line in Laurel Hollow.

The studio sells handmade vases, planters and sculpture, teaches private and small-group wheel lessons, and has spent the last year and a half becoming something larger: a walk-in ceramic woodland that Townsend calls Gayzies Garden.

From a storage closet to a working studio

According to the studio's own history, Townsend spent months looking for a space in the Oyster Bay area after returning to Long Island. A visit to Scarsella's, a Laurel Hollow flower shop that marked its 90th anniversary in 2022, led to a question for one of the owners, Philip, about whether any room was free. The answer was a small cottage attached to one of the greenhouses, which at the time held storage.

Townsend moved in during January 2022. Getting the space ready took about ten months of work: new electrical lines, insulation and drywall, a sink, furniture built by hand, painted walls and floors, and a new kiln. Hundreds of vases, planters and sculptures were made along the way so the shelves would be full on opening day that November.

Today the studio describes itself as an intimate room with painted floors and ceramics on every surface. It has four pottery wheels, generous table space, a pug mill (a machine that recycles and mixes clay) and a production kiln.

How a potter ended up on a commune and came home

The path to the studio started with a practical goal. Townsend wanted crocks for fermenting vegetables, and in 2018 took weekend lessons for a few months at a small studio in Glen Cove. A long trip across the country followed, spent studying agroecology, biodynamic farming, permaculture and communal living, which ended at East Wind, a community in Missouri.

East Wind had a mostly abandoned pottery studio. With help from other members, Townsend got its kiln running again and renovated the space over several years, working with clay as a hobby while also handling sales and food safety for the community's nut butter business. Building a portfolio and artist statements for residency applications, none of which came through, became the push to open a studio back home.

Before landing at Scarsella's, Townsend ran a booth at the Oyster Bay market for several months and spent a couple of months helping in the LIU ceramics department with Frank Olt, an experience the studio credits with showing how a working studio is run.

Gayzies Garden: a ceramic forest in a 150-year-old greenhouse

The project that now fills the studio began with a series of daydreams in 2024 and a first sketch of a ceramic tree and fountain in March 2025. The studio's photo journal, updated in September 2026, describes the installation as a ceramic woodland inside a greenhouse that is about 150 years old.

So far it includes a fountain, ceramic trees, thousands of handmade leaves and a growing cast of small woodland creatures. Townsend has written about working out how to build a tree in clay and how to mix glazes that echo the moss on the trees outside the studio window. The garden is dedicated to Townsend's late mother, Mary Gay Townsend, and the studio has said it hopes to grow the work into a larger space in the years ahead, such as a restaurant, a botanical garden greenhouse or another place people can go for quiet.

Lessons at the wheel

JBT Clayworks offers pottery lessons for beginners and for people who already know the basics and want to go further with throwing, trimming or glazing. Lessons are booked as a one-on-one session or with a small group:

  • 1 to 2 people: a 1-hour lesson
  • 3 people: a 1-hour, 30-minute lesson
  • 4 to 5 people: a 2-hour lesson

The price is $150 per person and covers clay and firing. Townsend trims and glazes the finished pieces and has them ready for pickup, or students can book a follow-up session to trim and glaze their own work. The studio notes that lesson length varies by person and the price is prorated to match.

How to go

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