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Grace Chaplin | Episode 1262
Muckware Ceramics are handmade pieces by Grace Chaplin in the Byron Bay Hinterland. Grace creates wheel-thrown forms with a focus on form and function. Each piece is carefully crafted to be enjoyed and used every day. All Muckware pieces are made from stoneware clay and finished in their signature glazes and high-fired.
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When you look at your making and the way that you do things, can you identify the things that actually require your attention and your involvement? Have you been identifying those specific things?
Yeah, I believe at the moment, and I’m not sure if this is the right answer or the answer that I don’t want to let go of, but the actual making process, the physical throwing of the piece to me seems the most crucial.
Is there a way that you can divide up your pieces that you make to be handmade and slip cast and to be able to market them that way to where you can take your hands off of 1 and not have to be so dependent on the other.
Yeah, absolutely. I think that there will always be wheel throwing within my practice and within my products, but I’m currently looking at how to incorporate the two, slip casting and wheel throwing and have one range or a core range that’s slip cast and then maybe some other products that are wheel thrown.
When you look at hiring people to be able to take on some of those tasks that you have in the studio, what tasks beside the slip casting are you able to transfer to someone else that doesn’t require the wheel?
Oh, there’s endless tasks in the studio from Everything from cleaning, recycling, sponging, kiln packing, waxing, glazing, and then wiping again, all of those menial tasks can absolutely be outsourced.
So you have a pretty long list of things that can already be taken off of your plate and put onto an assistant.
Yeah, for sure.
What’s holding you back from actually hiring that person full-time or part-time today?
Yeah, so currently the studio is based about 30 minutes from my home and within the next three months, the studio will be moving to my home location. So There’s a bit of up in the air at the moment with how the business is going to operate, what it’s going to look like in the new space. So I’m really kind of focusing all my energy on getting that happening and designing the space so that I have designated areas and have the ability to have someone else in there to help me.
When you start to bring this person on, whoever this full-time person is going to be, Will you have a written list of this is how grace does things list, the systemized approach.
Yeah, I’m very type A and quite particular about things. So having all of those processes and formulas written out for people is the easiest way to maintain that consistency.
Do you have a list of things that you would rather them not ask, but to let them make the decision on their own?
I think that there’s no question that I don’t want someone to ask me, but I do believe that there’s so much in making the mistake and learning from that mistake.
When you start thinking about bringing someone on, how will that change your pricing structure?
Yeah, interesting. Those are thoughts that are still kind of rattling around in my head. that I don’t think I have an answer for currently. My head’s been in slip casting development and new studio designing and yeah, bringing someone on is very close, but it’s not at the forefront of my mind currently
Book
Grit. by Dr. Angela Duckworth
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Instagram: @muckware