A Family Affair: How One Pottery Family Makes it Work
What could be better than making a living doing what you love? How about making a living doing what you love with the people you love most? That’s precisely the story behind Free Ceramics in Helena, Montana. About three years ago, Emily Free Wilson, her husband Matt Wilson, and her brother Bobby decided to join forces and make a go of it in the pottery business as a family. In today’s post, an excerpt from the June/July/August 2011 Working Potters issue of Ceramics Monthly, Emily, Matt, and Bobby tell the Free Ceramics story.
The Hourly Earnings Project: A Working Potter Spends a Year With a Stopwatch and a Calculator
It’s not as important to calculate what you should make per hour as what you actually make per hour. Having a starting place will help you make good decisions—and it may even make you feel better about how you spend your time.
Studio Visit: Adam Field and Heesoo Lee, Durango, Colorado
Two working artists in one family (and one studio) can be a logistical
challenge, but the mutual support and encouragement that come with this
lifestyle more than balance the scales.
Bonus Monday Pottery Video: A Visit to Lisa Bone’s Pottery Studio
Today, in a special bonus Monday video, we are sharing one of the honorable mentions from our Studio Tour Video Contest. In this video, Ceramic Arts Daily reader Lisa Bone gives a tour of her studio and shares some of the tools she uses to make her studio more efficient and ergonomic. Happy Monday!
Essential Guidelines for a Safe and Healthy Pottery Studio
Recently, a team from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health performed a Health Hazard Evaluation on a pottery shop and came away with a series of recommendations that can (and should) be applied in even the smallest of home studios. Their findings and recommendations for staying safe are included in the May 2011 issue of Ceramics Monthly. In today’s post, I’m sharing the Studio Safety Reference from this guide. So read on and be safe!
Studio Visit: Munemitsu Taguchi, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
A potter in an urban setting is not as much of a contradiction as it once was—but that doesn’t mean it’s any easier. Taguchi’s secret: come to the studio, work hard, leave.
Studio Visit: Guillermo Cuellar, Shafer, Minnesota
Beginning his pottery career in his native Venezuela, a potter
figuratively and literally follows the work that resonates with him,
culminating in a move that affects his lifestyle as well as his
livelihood.
Living the Dream: Potter Lorna Meaden Gives us a Glimpse into her Super Awesome Studio
Today, in a excerpt from the March 2011 issue of Ceramics Monthly, Lorna gives us a peek into her 650-square-foot studio and tells us all about how she made it a reality. She also explains that the key to
keeping herself creatively charged is to balance her studio life with her life outside the studio.
Studio Visit: Brendan Tang, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
It’s tough to be an extrovert in a basement, but this sculptor proves it is possible.
Studio Visit: Elizabeth Robinson Wiley, Rangely, Colorado
Today
I am presenting an excerpt from Ceramics Monthly’s ever-popular Studio
Visit Series. This time Rangely, Colorado, potter Elizabeth Robinson
Wiley tells us all about her path to making a living in clay. I could
relate to this one because like me, Elizabeth discovered clay while
pursuing a degree in another field. But she got hooked on making pots
and the rest is history.
