‘NEAT’ and CRAFTY

Bakery building brings creativity to the forefront

By ED RUNYAN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A first glance, the Ward Bakery Building, 1024 Mahoning Avenue, just across from U-Haul, isn’t the kind of place where you would casually stroll upstairs to experience something novel.

The less-than-inviting entryway and steps have not been updated for many years.

But if you can make it to the third-floor studios of Marcie Roepke-Applegate and Lynn Cardwell, you will discover a world where artisans create items such as pottery and jewelry. The building also is home to artists making paintings, music, furniture and photography.

Amelia Dale and her mother, Mary Lou Dale, both of Struthers, did just that Sunday, participating in a hands-on art project Roepke-Applegate and Cardwell presented Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

The Dales have done crafts together for many years, such as sewing, drawing, painting and making and decorating cakes.

Amelia is a student at Westminster College in New Wilmington, Pa., where she recently took a pottery class, she said.

“We’ve always been crafty,” Amelia said. “I always think things are better when you make them yourself.”

In Roepke-Applegate’s studio, the Dales made small, circular pendants out of silver and bronze. The raw material is like clay and easily shaped.

The finished product will be available within a couple of weeks, after Roepke-Applegate fires the metals in a kiln, polishes them and places a black cotton cord through an opening. The cost is $10.

The Dales tried something similar recently at a business called Blazed & Bedazzled Paint On Pottery Studio on Market Street in Boardman and enjoyed that too, they said.

At Cardwell’s studio across the hall, the Dales visited a workshop where Cardwell makes pottery on a wheel and teaches others as well.

Cardwell’s mother, sister, niece and nephew dropped by Sunday on her nephew’s birthday to spend some time making items.

The birthday boy, David Kramer of Mentor, made a bowl and a “Great Wall of China,” while his sister, Kaitlin, 10, made a small plate.

“You don’t meet a lot of potters,” said Cardwell’s sister, Michelle Kramer. “Lynn lets them express themselves. It’s a real calm, relaxing place, and they’ve always enjoyed coming here,” she said.

Plus, it’s a fun way to spend time with their aunt, she said.

Cardwell admits that a lot of people don’t realize what is in the building, which contains the Treharn & Co. Furniture Makers and roughly a dozen other artists.

The group collectively calls themselves the Artists of the Mahoning Commons. The name Mahoning Commons refers to the area of town where the building is located — just west of downtown across the Spring Common Bridge. The U-Haul building is the former Isaly’s Dairy.

“It’s neat that it’s an old bakery,” Cardwell said of the building. “Each space is just a little different.” The space she rents was a former bakery lunchroom, Cardwell said.

With its high ceilings and odd-looking doors, the room looks similar to loft apartments built on the top floor of former warehouses or industrial buildings in big cities. But the rooms Cardwell and Roepke-Applegate rent still retain much of their original look.

“It’s such a neat old building that’s not being torn down,” Roepke-Applegate said. Among her descriptions of the building are “large and rough.” One of her favorite features is the marble steps.

Last weekend’s show was a prelude to the bigger spring open studio and art sale to be in the building from noon to 5 p.m. May 2 and 3.

The building, which has a large Postal Mail Sort sign on the front, has parking along Irving Place on the east side of the building and in a small parking lot on the other side.

runyan@vindy.com