Chelsea resident Susan Pickering Rothamel has moved her art supply business, USArtQuest, from Grass Lake to a warehouse on W. Old US-12 and added a huge selection of art papers as well as classes open to the public. “I want to become a place to experiment, to play–a place where people can be themselves and be inspired,” she says.
Pickering Rothamel, a spunky sixty-three-year-old artist and entrepreneur with a shock of purple in her hair, leads a tour through the 12,000-square-foot building that formerly housed a machine shop. “I don’t know where to begin!” she says. She grabs a bottle of Perfect Paper Adhesive from a shelf in the art supply showroom and explains that the glue was her first patented art product more than twenty years ago, when she started what at first was a home-based business. “I just kept stretching–offering products I thought artists could use,” she says, including art instruction videos, brushes, and paints–many, like the adhesive, of her own invention. She now sells to some 700 retailers as well as online and at the store.
When she heard last year that Ann Arbor’s Creative Papers Online was going out of business, she purchased its inventory–half a million sheets of art paper–and has devoted part of the building to it. She walks along row after row of meticulously sorted paper–“tissue weight to cardboard”–from all over the world, in varied hues, patterns, and textures. There are leather-like sheets that she says interior designers use for lamp shades, raised floral patterns that are popular for wedding invitations, and standard card stock that kids can use for school projects. “This just makes your heart sing!” she says, as she pulls out an Indian silk-screen print in a bright blue and gold design. Each sheet of handmade paper is about twenty-two by thirty inches, and most sell for from $5 to $7; they’re popular with bookmakers and “traditional crafters,” she says.
She leads the way to another section of the building where paper-folding artist David Lawra is teaching a half-dozen students. For those who need creative inspiration, USArtQuest offers classes for ages eight through adult.
“I’m a paperholic!” laughs Debbie Berndt, who is folding an intricate heart design for a homemade greeting card. Berndt says she took a vacation day from work and drove a couple hours from western Michigan to stock up on paper and to take the class. USArtQuest offers about three classes a week in diverse subjects including metalsmithing, “steam punk” painting, and art quilting (using mixed media to tell a story on a quilt piece), and also hosts occasional weekend art retreats.
About a third of the building is reserved for manufacturing and shipping Pickering Rothamel’s mica-based art products (a factory in New York manufactures her adhesives and other products). Mica, a shiny silicate mineral, is best known as a thermal or electrical insulator, but Pickering Rothamel says her “science and inventor bent” helped her discover that it also makes a great material for art products. USArtQuest is the largest supplier of mica-based products for the arts and crafts industry worldwide. She opens a couple of canisters of mica flakes and glitter and runs her hands through them. “Aren’t these just gorgeous?” she asks. Inspired by the example of the Chelsea Teddy Bear Co., she plans to offer factory tours.
Even after filling the warehouse with USArtQuest’s operations, Pickering Rothamel still had leftover space. So she’s launched the Chelsea Business and Shipping Center at the tail end of the property. Chelsea’s first authorized FedEx shipper, it also sells shipping and office supplies and offers passport photography. She says the location’s easy access from I-94 and US-12 made it a smart add-on.
USArtQuest, 18650 W. Old US-12, Chelsa, (800) 766-0728. Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.-noon. Closed Sun. usartquest.com, artpapersonline.com
Chelsea Business and Shipping Center, 18652 W. Old US-12, 562-2662. Mon.-Fri. 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m.-noon.
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Glee Cake & Pastry closed in December after hosting a customer appreciation day. Glee Havens, who opened the Main Street bakery in 2011, passed away last July. Glee’s husband, owner Steve Havens, could not be reached for comment.
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Pancho Villa Mexican Restaurant–which opened in 2008 in the Clocktower Commons under the name Las Fuentes–closed abruptly in December. The restaurant’s corporate office declined to be interviewed, but Chelsea Chamber of Commerce executive director Bob Pierce says the company “cited the retail sales environment” for the closure. “I think they had a good summer but had a problem sustaining sales through the winter,” Pierce says.
