Creation Shop expands Tom the clay character into Minnesota stories

Creation Shop in downtown Fergus Falls is developing new Tom storylines set in Minnesota, adding a local chapter to the clay character’s travels from Jingdezhen, China, and India.

The workshop at 119 N. Mill St. is owned and operated by Blayze Buseth, a Fergus Falls native and professional artist who opened the space in spring 2021 as a place for people to create downtown. Creation Shop describes Tom as a blue ball of clay that represents intuition, playfulness and living in the moment, and the shop says Tom’s adventure illustrations and sculptures are displayed on-site.

Tom has already carried the series far beyond Otter Tail County. Creation Shop’s website frames the character’s journey as “global travels,” and the latest Tom story was created by Buseth and Desiree Logan. The new Minnesota-themed direction brings the character closer to home, tying the series to recognizable places and experiences that local families can claim as their own.

That local turn also fits the workshop’s broader role in arts education. Creation Shop continues to offer summer clay classes and Minnesota-inspired projects for youth, giving children a chance to build their own work while connecting the Tom series to the same hands-on creativity found in the studio. For families in Fergus Falls, the appeal is part storybook, part community workshop and part local landmark.

Buseth has also drawn state support for arts work in Otter Tail County. Minnesota’s Legacy records show a 2022 project under Blayze J. Buseth with $7,890 in funding, another sign that the shop’s creative work has been building within the county as well as downtown.

The move from China and India to Minnesota gives the Tom series a new way to grow without leaving Fergus Falls behind. At Creation Shop, the character’s next stories are being shaped in the same place where children can see the sculptures, take a class and recognize their own corner of Minnesota in the art.