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Lynn Beach & Mary Schloss | Episode 1176
The Clay People, Lynn Beach and Mary Schloss are a mother-daughter pottery duo from the Saskatchewan prairies. Lynn and Mary do not use a wheel, but instead make all their pieces using slab and hand building techniques. They first found their love of pottery in 2016 and officially became “The Clay People” in 2018.
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Are you shipping your pots around the world, and what is the furthest that you have shipped them?
Mary: Yes. We have shipped as far as Australia. We have shipped there five or six times. Probably because my husband is Australian so we do have friends over there. It is a mix of friends who have ordered from us and people that we don’t know. I don’t know how they found us but they have. We have shipped to the US lots as well, but mostly within Canada.
Is selling online a big part of your business?
Lynne: Yes. It is about 80 percent of our business I’d say.
You said that you sell quite a bit to the US. Have the tariffs impacted your ability to send pieces into the United States?
Mary: Yes. We luckily haven’t had a huge dependency on US customers. We probably only have about 3 consistent customers from the US. So at this stage we are kind of glad we don’t have a bunch of US customers because that would have definitely hindered us.
A big part of your story is that you are a mother daughter duo and I am curious Lynne, if Mary decided to quite, would you quite?
Lynne: That is a big question. I don’t think I would. I think I would change the amount of what I am doing. But I do so love it. I am not quite 50 so I still have a good amount of years. I modify what I make according to the day, but I love pottery and I think you need to sell it to be able to keep making it.
You mentioned on your website that your work is infused with prairie roots. How does prairie roots show up in your making?
Lynne: We are farmers and that is our real source of our income. One of our biggest texture is wheat. We worked with someone in the States who custom designed a roller and every time they came back with a prototype for the wheat roller I’d show it to my husband and he would say, No, that doesn’t look like Duram. We are Duram growers and it doesn’t look real enough. So we kept at it until they got it right and that is what I would say ties us the prairie roots.
The other thing I found on your website is that it is infused with meaningful living. How does that show up in your work?
Mary: I would say that that falls on us being in a farming community, so slow living. As much as we say we are production potters, we are slow production potters. Every piece takes time with hand building and choosing your textures and I feel like it is all very intentional what we are doing.
Book
Alchemized by SenLinYu
Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman
Contact
Instagram: @theclaypeoplesk