Mother-daughter duo sends Popjoy Studios into new territory

Donna Clayton and Ginger Baker’s artistic creations have been available for a while, but the mother-daughter team’s PopJoy Studios shifted into overdrive earlier this month.

Clayton (the mom) and Baker (the daughter) held an official launch for the expanded endeavor, which they say was six years in the making, Dec. 7 at the General gift shop in Birmingham.

They now offer a full line of candles, home decor, painted scarves, prints, soaps and stationery. It’s primarily a wholesale business, although shoppers can purchase items at The Station by the Tracks, 1229 Malone St. in Gadsden, where the candle- and soap-making operation takes up the top floor, or via Shopify at their website, https://www.popjoystudio.com.

Clayton is a veteran painter, with works in galleries and homes across the region. Baker has a bachelor of fine arts degree in ceramics and sculpture from the University of Alabama, and her work also has been frequently exhibited.

“I’ve been working with my mother since I was probably 14,” Baker said. “She’d take me to people’s homes, where we painted murals.

“We have a love for design and antiques,” she said, “and as we got older and we still loved working together and had the same passions for things, we wanted to create a product that we felt kind of expressed the two of us.”

Clayton said they experimented to come up with the best way to pool their respective talents and “get everything cohesive.”

They also brought Lacey Cornelius, co-owner of The Station by the Tracks, as a partner. “She has her business downstairs,” she said, “and we help her, actually, because she loves antiques and art, and that’s where we’re at.”

Baker said, “It felt like a good team, a good fit.”

PopJoy’s “about us” statement on their website mentions the duo’s “mutual love of architectural movements, handcraft, history and the splendor found in the natural world.”

Baker added, “It’s not just that we like a flower, we’re into the storytelling aspect of it. We’re both lovers of history and art from certain time periods, so we both enjoy the deep dive of figuring out our inspiration from ‘the masters’ and bringing a modern twist to it.”

For example, Clayton offers cards and prints of birth month flowers, but they feature the various pollinators that are attracted to those flowers in that particular month. (She notes that she was a biology major in college.)

And the candles don’t just have a fragrance, she said, but a fragrance with an architectural twist. Nine are offered, and words like Corinthian, Gothic and Tudor are used to describe them.

Clayton said Baker does intaglios — designs etched into ceramic material — in a Wedgewood motif to go with them.

“We always try to bring in some of our passion,” Baker said, “sharing that with other people.”

Kathleen Jensen, described as PopJoy’s creative manager, assists with the operations in Gadsden and “wears many hats,” Clayton said. The other products are made in Baker’s studio in Homewood.

The early reaction has been strong, according to Clayton, who has a background in sales and advertising. “It’s probably the easiest ‘sell,’ I’ve ever experienced,” she said.

Their works are available in venues like the Birmingham Museum of Art and the Mentone Gallery, and they’ve been approved to sell in AmericasMart in Atlanta. There’s also talk of increasing their retail presence, although Baker said, “We want to make sure we’re ready to scale up like that.”

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Mother-daughter team produces artwork