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Shelby Trahan | Episode 1236
Shelby Trahan is the owner of Jacques’ Pottery Shop in her hometown of Welsh, Louisiana. Shelby graduated from McNeese State University in 2018 with a Bachelor’s in Art and opened her studio the following July. Shelby creates mostly functional dinnerware pieces. Shelby is passionate about using her studio to bring clay to others.
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When you were making the decision to develop the studio, you had one idea where you’re going to be a maker and a seller. Then you developed into being a teacher-focused studio. How important is it for a person to be willing to pivot to be able to keep their business thriving?
Hugely important. Hugely important. I, like you said, starting the business, I really wanted to be able to just make and sell my work and that be the basis of my business. But in a small town, making things work, pivoting into the direction of teaching. And now I love it. I love that I’m able to bring it to the community and bring things for kids and adults to do here in town. So that pivot was very, very important in my business and just in the scheme of bringing clay to the area.
It sounds like one of the approaches you’re employing is that you’re keeping open multiple streams of revenue for yourself, which to me feels like that would be critical in a small town. So you’ve got your classes, you’ve got your one-off classes, workshops, and even some members. So how do you know when to open a new stream of revenue for your business?
A lot of the different ideas that I’ve employed have come from times of burnout or times where I’ve hit a wall in terms of what I’m doing and where I want to go with the business. Sometimes teaching classes in the beginning got very repetitive. As I mentioned earlier, I was just teaching just for fun classes over and over and over… And only teaching cylinders and bowls for two years! It kind of started to wear on me a little bit. And so that’s when I started branching out and turning and offering different types of classes from that period of do-I-want-to-continue-only-doing-cups-and-balls-for-the-rest-of-ever, or do I want to change things up? I kind of hit some burnout and had to figure out how to overcome that. And so that’s when I start to attack new areas and bring new things in and create new offerings.
One of the secrets to a community studio is really building community within the community . It feels like relationships are probably more important than advertising. Not that advertising isn’t important, but I feel like that’s probably really important. Is that the case for you?
Absolutely. Most of my studio members now started as students of mine here in the studio. So because we’re working in a pretty small space and we’re a small community to begin with, we have to make sure that everyone fits really well. We all have a good working relationship. And I’ve never actually advertised any membership openings specifically because I’ve always had students to fill those roles. I’ve always had a student say, hey, I would really like to do this more. I’d like to be able to branch out in my work and things like that. So all of our studio members, we’ve already had relationships, be it student and mentor or friends through ceramics or whatever. And then we’ve rotated that into becoming studio members or doing our open studio program. things like that. When you community and the relationships are hugely important.
When you start looking at pricing strategy, in a bigger city your classes will tend to be at a certain price point. Does your pricing strategy have to be a little bit more accessible in a small town?
Yes. Yes, I try to look at pricing from other local areas. And local for me is, you know, our closest ceramic studio to where I’m at is about 35 miles away and then 45 miles in the opposite direction. So I try to make sure that I’m staying in a comparable price point to what those around me are doing. but I never compare my pricing to large cities because then I just start to feel kind of bad. Yeah, I cannot price here in my small community the way that other studios are able to price, and I’m okay with that. I’m okay with keeping it accessible because that means that I’m able to reach more people.
Tthere’s a financial reality to running a studio. How long did it take for your finances to stabilize before you felt like, we are making it?
Honestly, that depends on the month. We are just like any small business or any self-employed person, there are always highs and lows. I’d say after the first two years, I felt comfortable continuing to grow my business. But there were definitely periods after that, that were tricky. The reality of owning a small business anywhere, you know, you’re you’re not going to be paying yourself as much as you could be making other places. And that’s okay. But in a small community, especially, Uh, it, it tends to be a bit trickier. Um, January, February is always our slow season. So I’m always preparing for this time of year after Christmas where everyone has kind of spent their, their Christmas funds. Um, so we save up and then we use that to get through our slower times. But yeah, it’s, it’s always up and down. Um, But the first couple of years is when I finally started to feel, after the first two years, is where I finally started to feel secure to say, yes, I’m going to continue doing this, despite the highs and lows.
You’re a teacher and you’re a maker, What’s your favorite form to make that you don’t teach your students?
My favorite things to make that I don’t teach are the body work that I’m developing at this particular moment. And I say that because I pretty much end up teaching every single thing that I do. So right now I have not started teaching it yet, but right now I’m working on a body of work that does not have a title yet, but I will get there eventually. Very botanical leaning. I’m doing some vases that they’re multi-part vessels. And then I do cutouts to let some light shine from the interior of the piece out. And the general inspiration for those is light coming through branches. So there’s some three-dimensional aspects on the outside and then some cutouts. And so I’m exploring those right now, still in the exploration stage. And those are definitely my most favorite things that I’m working on right now.
Book
Remarkable Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Contact
jacques-pottery-shop.square.site
Instagram: @jacques_pottery_shop