When art students are allowed to freely range across subjects and to pick their own schedules, learning a new skill becomes easier, said Darby Huffman, owner and founder of LaughinGnome Makers Space.

The brand new arts commune, which opened this week at 40-A Seton Road just oustide of Port Townsend, is a gathering place where budding potters can come and go as they please seven days a week, and participate in as many, or as few, classes as they choose.

“The idea is we have the opportunity to share the fun stuff we have learned with other people who want to know, and end up making a fun community out of it,” Huffman said. “We are making a safe environment to play in.” Huffman is a master potter who sells his work at farmer’s markets in Ballard and Port Townsend and through a shop in Port Townsend.

The school is open from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, with a “den mom” always on hand to offer assistance.

“I am excited to get to greet people and show them around and I hope that I make a few friends,” said Mahalia Thompson, one such den mom. “It will definitely be nice to meet people who also enjoy art.”

The free range art school will include several pottery wheels, stations for making stained glass and lampwork beads, and other odds and ends. Each station will be available for use at any time, although those who are using the stations must first take a safety course, Huffman said.

“As long as you know the equipment, we will turn you loose.”

A person who wants to master pottery needs to devote thousands of hours of work to do so, with only about a “quarter inch” of instruction, Huffman said.

Hence, LaughinGnome’s de-emphasis on class-time. “Let’s turn it on its head,” Huffman said of the traditional instruction model. “Let’s open a studio and you become a member. Once you are a member you can use the facilities throwing, staining glass or (doing) lampwork at your leisure from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week.”

If a member realizes they need to bone up on a new technique, they can sign up for one of many scheduled classes.

“The truth of the matter is it might take you ten hours after someone shows you how,” Huffman said. “This way, you can spend as many hours as you want to learn the things you need to know.”

The learning process brings joy, Thompson said.

“The first few times it is very satisfying to come up with something, and you just think it is the best thing you have ever made,” she said “It is, in that moment.”

But each success is just a stepping stone. “It is always funny to see it a week later when it comes out of a kiln,” she said. “And that day you’ve made something that is so much better.”

Creating community

Thompson said she enjoys interacting with other artists, who can learn from each other while having fun.

“I like when people can be creative and everyone can admire other people’s work even when it is drastically different,” Thompson said. “Artists, as art, come in all shapes, sizes and colors.”

“I know a lot of people that I would never have expected to do art because they are not stereotypical artists,” Thompson said. “You would have never thought that is what they do in their spare time.”

Discovering other like-minded artists was a major impetus for the creation of LaughinGnome, Huffman said.

“We are very excited about the potential for the community and the potential to make something that a lot of people will get involved in.”