(Photo from Petty Betty’s)
- The Tupelo studio is cheerful, funky, and a little quirky, with the kind of creative energy that makes you start thinking maybe you, too, could make something fabulous out of a lump of clay.
Petty Betty’s Art Studio is a lot to take in—in the best possible way.
There’s color everywhere, and it’s fabulous.
Brightly painted pottery fills shelves and tables. Tiny handprints and footprints have been transformed into flowers and holiday keepsakes. Colorful garlands stretch across the room, hand-painted signs hang on the walls, and works in progress mingle with finished pieces and all the wonderfully messy evidence that people actually make things here.
The Tupelo studio is cheerful, funky, and a little quirky, with the kind of creative energy that makes you start thinking maybe you, too, could make something fabulous out of a lump of clay.
I walked in to interview owner Christy Reece Watson. Within minutes, I wanted to book an event.
Then I met Petty Betty herself.
With vibrant red hair, a big smile, an Elvis T-shirt, and a ladybug pin, shenaffectionately refers to as “lady luck pins.” Watson somehow looks exactly like the person who should be behind a place called Petty Betty’s Art Studio.
And yes, there is a story behind the name.
Years ago, Watson and her best friend, artist Ali Ballard, did festivals and art shows together as “the Bettys,” a nod to the Archie comics. Eventually, Ballard became Rattlesnake Betty. Watson needed a Betty persona of her own.
“I do know how to hold a grudge,” she laughed.
And Petty Betty was born.
“It has a little bit of a bite, but it’s funny,” Watson said.
Watson has been creating since childhood and has worked as a florist, painter, and potter. For about a decade, she worked at Midnite Pottery in Tupelo, where she learned the handprint pottery technique that remains a major part of her business today. After Midnite Pottery closed in 2025, she continued creating from a rented workspace before moving Petty Betty’s into its current studio earlier this year.
While pottery is at the heart of the business, Watson doesn’t put too many boundaries on creativity.
She offers hand-building and slab-building pottery workshops, along with mixed-media, collage, junk journaling, and other classes inspired by whatever catches her creative attention.
“It’s just whatever interests me at the moment,” she said.
Petty Betty’s is also a place to gather. Watson hosts birthday parties, girls’ nights, private events, and pop-ups, and the studio is open for walk-in Paint Your Own Pottery on Fridays from 2 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Seasonal events are part of the fun, too.
On Oct. 13 at 6 p.m., Watson will host Paint a Ghost with Me at Queen’s Reward Meadery in Tupelo, where guests receive a drink and a ghost to paint in their own festive or spooky style.
On Oct. 17, younger artists can get in on the Halloween fun during a Make a Ghost Drop-In Workshop at Petty Betty’s, where kids can make their own ghost figurine.
But among all the colorful projects, one of Watson’s specialties is also one of the most sentimental.
Once a month, families come to the studio for handprint-and-footprint pottery sessions. Those tiny prints become flowers, mistletoe, holiday designs, and other personalized keepsakes.
She has been creating handprint pieces for more than a decade, and there is something especially sweet about preserving a child’s hand or footprint in clay—something that becomes even more precious as those little hands and feet grow.
Watson also creates custom pieces, including family-name platters, wedding gifts, and nostalgic Blue Willow-inspired pottery featuring homes, addresses, and pets.
Creativity runs in the family, too.
Watson’s son, Ben Stewart, is an art major at Itawamba Community College, planning to pursue fashion merchandising and design. He also won the GumTree Portfolio Scholarship, something his mom is understandably proud of.
“He can paint and draw circles around me; he is so talented,” Watson said.
Stewart occasionally helps his mom at the studio, pitching in with events and some of the behind-the-scenes work involved in her handprint pieces.
The studio itself feels very much like Watson—colorful, welcoming, funny, and not overly serious. There’s even a Taylor Swift cutout keeping watch from one corner, and yes, she does host Taylor Swift-inspired workshops too.
Mostly, though, there’s always something happening here—pottery being painted, clay being shaped, new ideas taking form and plenty of fun along the way.
“I like to have a good time, and I want people to come in here and have a good time,” Watson said.
That sums it up.
And that may be the best way to describe Petty Betty’s. It’s colorful, creative, welcoming, and wonderfully unpretentious—a place to make something, laugh a little (or a lot), and maybe discover you’re more creative than you thought.
It’s a place where creativity is meant to be enjoyed—and Petty Betty wouldn’t have it any other way.
Plan Your Visit
Petty Betty’s Art Studio in Tupelo is open for walk-in Paint Your Own Pottery Fridays from 2–6 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m.–2 p.m.
Follow Petty Betty’s Art Studio on Facebook for upcoming workshops, handprint sessions, and special events, or visit Petty Betty’s Art Studio on Eventbrite to see upcoming classes and purchase tickets.
Meredith Biesinger
