Park Slope 's The Clay Pot To Leave Brooklyn After 50 Years

PARK SLOPE, BROOKLYN — Next month, for the first time since 1969, Park Slope's 7th Avenue will be without jewelry and gift store staple The Clay Pot.

The longtime business has announced that it will close down its Brooklyn outpost, 50 years after first opening as a ceramics studio. The neighborhood staple will leave the borough, the business owners announced, to focus on its online sales and its second location in Manhattan.

"It is with profoundly mixed emotions that I announce that the Brooklyn location of our store will be closing in the middle of March," owner Tara Silberberg wrote in a letter to customers. "The shift to focus the business to the Manhattan store has been difficult to make but then again, how does a pottery studio become a jewelry store? By taking risks."

Silberberg's parents, Sally and Robert, first opened the store in the winter of 1969 as a ceramics studio so Sally could make and sell her pottery to neighbors, Tara said.

The store then transitioned to selling jewelry after the stock market crash in the 1980s threatened to put it out of business, according to their website. Robert decided to put an ad in the paper for a wedding ring show and pulled together a collection of wedding bands.

It would go on to grow its jewelry collection using local artisans and designers and has since been named a top U.S. retailer by the JCK Designer Retailer Awards several times.

"Over the last five decades, we’ve lived the dream of running a successful small business," Tara said. "Ring by ring and vase by vase, we were delighted to be able to play a small role in revitalizing brownstone Brooklyn. So many people from all over the city came to Park Slope for a wedding band and wound up moving to the neighborhood."

The business opened its second location in Nolita in 2014. The 22 Spring Street outpost became the featured spot for its wedding band collection.

There, the employees will continue its jewelry repair services, begin to develop Clay Pot's own in-house collection at the Manhattan store and plans to expand its digital presence, Tara said.

The 7th Avenue store will host a 25 percent sale until March 16 or until it runs out of stock. Once it closes, the Spring Street location will offer free shipping to the Park Slope customers once the Brooklyn spot closes, she added.

"We are just over the bridge, a few subway stops away," Tara said. "It is the same old Clay Pot with an abundance of jewelry, fantastic designers and our amazingly dedicated staff. We hope you will come visit us in Manhattan and online."