Expanding Creativity in Downtown Rutherfordton, North Carolina!

The Clay Trail is thrilled to be a recipient of the Amex Shop Small Grants Program, thanks to @American Express and @Main Street America.

This grant is more than just funding; it’s an investment in our ability to grow, innovate, and continue showing up for our community in meaningful ways.

As a small business, every decision matters. This support will help us expand our studio's capacity to meet growing community demand. Grant funds will support the purchase of a larger kiln, a pugmill for recycling clay, and another wheel, allowing us to better serve our customers and meet the evolving needs of our community.

We’re especially proud to be part of this initiative, and to join a network of over 500

small businesses across the country — made possible by investments like this grant that empower small businesses to keep moving forward.

Over the past year, we’ve experienced incredible growth at The Clay Trail. With that growth came the realization that our studio was beginning to outgrow its current space — not only in room for creativity, but also in our ability to keep up with demand using just one kiln.

When we learned we were selected as a recipient of the Amex Shop Small Grants Program, it gave us the confidence to think bigger about what the future of our studio could look like. While the grant itself is supporting equipment purchases for the studio, it also sparked the plan to expand into the building next door and continue growing alongside our community.

We reached out to our landlord about the neighboring space, and we’re thrilled to now be expanding into 211 N Main Street in Downtown Rutherfordton. For many years, the building served the community as a restaurant. Now, it will become a place where our community can gather in a new way — through creativity, connection, and hands-on experiences.

The additional space will allow us to grow our hand building workshops and welcome more participants for classes, team-building events, bridal parties, private gatherings, and community programs. Earlier this year, we hosted 14 participants creating bowls for Empty Bowls, and while the energy was amazing, we definitely felt the limits of our current studio space. This expansion allows us to continue saying “yes” to more opportunities like that.

One of the biggest investments supported through this grant is the purchase of a larger kiln, arriving this August. With increased kiln capacity, we’ll be able to improve turnaround times, accommodate more student and customer work, and expand the classes and workshops we can offer — especially heading into the holiday season.

We’ve also purchased a pugmill, an essential tool in the pottery world that allows us to recycle used clay and reclaim scraps from classes and workshops. Not only will this help reduce waste and operating costs, but it also supports our commitment to being more environmentally conscious as we continue to grow.

In addition, we’ve added another pottery wheel to the studio, bringing us to five wheels total for classes and studio use. Our wheel experiences have become one of our favorite ways to watch creativity unfold — especially during group sessions where friends and families rotate between wheels, cheer each other on, and experience those exciting “lightbulb moments” together.

This next chapter is about more than equipment or square footage. It’s about creating more opportunities for people in our community to gather, learn, create, and connect through art.

We are deeply grateful to American Express and Main Street America for investing in small businesses like ours and helping us continue building something meaningful here in Downtown Rutherfordton.

Join us in celebrating this exciting new chapter and seeing the new space on May 30th, 2026, from 4:30–6:30 PM.

We also have exciting Summer Workshops being added to the website soon, so be sure to check back for the latest classes and events. Group bookings are already filling into the rest of the year, so message us to reserve your spot.

Thank you for continuing to support The Clay Trail Community Pottery Studio — we can’t wait to grow alongside this community.

https://mainstreet.org/the-latest/news/more-than-500-small-business-owners-awarded-20-000-amex-shop-small-grants?fbclid=IwY2xjawR-xZVleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFiQWRDWDAzV0xySEJ1QUhGc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHl4X2GfJGmjRLJrlrZ0Kwz67a_irsGP2L1Ou5g56LD_TfKdiEQW9-zCWB0nV_aem_Uhvy4TDZoWHTH296lxr-Sw