TECUMSEH — Justin and Kayla Jones have a knack for art and business. The husband-and-wife pair just opened Justin of the Land and Sea Pottery in downtown Tecumseh a little over two weeks ago.

The couple and their daughters, Indi, 10, and Yumi, 8, bought a home with 2 acres of property in Tecumseh about five years ago because they wanted a bigger space.

They had been running a greenhouse, which in part used the family’s garage, to grow and sell tropical plants like bonsai, lemon, orange and banana trees in Allen Park before moving to town.

Justin at that time had a koi fishpond, which he had to close. He later made an aquarium for the fish. That is the sea part of his interest. Kayla eventually jokingly nicknamed him Justin of the Land and Sea, from which their pottery shop takes its name.

Fast forward to the pandemic: Justin and Kayla were homeschooling Indi and Yumi and had bought a pottery wheel for the kids.

“Justin and I ended up taking the wheel over and making it his thing and didn’t know he was going to have such a knack at it and just love doing it,” Kayla said.

Justin liked it so much that he made too much stuff to keep around the house, so the couple began selling his wares at the farmers market last year and picked up quite a following there and on social media.

“I make all kinds of stuff. Being new, I feel like I could make a wider variety. For now, I'm making planters for the spring, I make mugs, I started making butter keepers. I didn’t even know what those were until someone requested it. So it’s been a lot of fun. I've been discovering new things through it and just meeting a lot of people, and that was just one of the things that makes it memorable for me and interesting,” Justin said. “People come to me with their ideas. It’s not so much me by myself. It’s more of a collaboration, a community thing because I can’t make all this stuff for myself. I don’t have enough space. I guess I look at pottery as a means for me to really be a part of the community.”

On their first day of business, Justin and Kayla saw people from the farmers market as well as a lot of family and friends. They want to make their shop a staple downtown. They are in a large building at 210 S. Evans St., right around the corner from the Scout Cabin.

Justin does the pottery, while Kayla does the building of things like slabs, coils, jewelry dishes and doll houses. Kayla also paints.

She plans on doing painting lessons for kids and adults, and Justin plans on doing pottery lessons. As far as the kids go, Yumi likes to do it all, while Indi likes to build things with Lego and is more of the engineer in the family as well as an animal lover.

Kayla says the community has been very good to the family.

“Thank you, because the community has been very welcoming, and I don’t know if we would have taken the dive or a big chance on opening it if we didn’t have so much support since we just started out last year,” Kayla said.

Justin welcomes the community to come and relax and spend some time in the store.

“Come hang out with us and learn to breathe again. Come and relax. No pressure. We’ve got something to see when you come out of work,” Justin said.

At a glance

WHO: Justin of the Land and Sea Pottery

WHERE: 210 S. Evans St., around the corner from the Scout Cabin

HOURS: Closed Sunday and Monday. noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday

EMAIL: justinlandseapottery@gmail.com

WEBSITES: justinlandseapottery.com, facebook.com/justinofthelandandsea, instagram.com/justin_land_sea_pottery

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Justin of the Land and Sea Pottery shop opens in Tecumseh