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Jeremy Ayers | Episode 189
Jeremy Ayers’ recent pottery is about elemental relationships between form and surface. Jeremy has simplified his color scheme and is rejecting a colorful glaze palate. This allows textural and visual contrasts between the glaze, raw clay and form to be highlighted. Contrasts between sharp lines of glaze and the repetitive forms puts a sharp focus on both elements. The exposed clay is presented on equal footing with the glazed surface. The white glaze flashes the exposed clay body, warming the raw clay surface. Jeremy’s focus with this recent work is to make pottery that is about pottery. He loves the raw clay of an atmospheric firing, but his work is fired in oxidation.
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What is your number one marketing outlet?
On one hand this thing that we having going here with my family’s property and the guesthouse and the fact that I am making pottery where my great-great grandfather made things. I think there is a story about my family in Vermont and my place in that, I think is a good place in my marketing.
Do you have a clear definition of who your target audience is?
Yes, my ideal customer is usually younger , 25-50 years old, usually urban, someone who has a nice home and wants to improve it and is into the joy of daily use, the joy of objects in their life.
What platforms do you use to market yourself?
I have a webpage and an Instagram account and a Facebook page for my pottery, so I have the whole social media angle. I don’t update those as often as I should. I gotta say I am probably not the best marketing person. If I could do it all over again, while I was getting my art degree I would have minored in business because I am running a small business with no training. I have an accountant now who helped me organize things in a way that makes sense.
Some ideas are better caught than taught. What ideas do you want your children to catch from you?
I want them to understand that I work hard. I think that it was a true gift that my parents gave to me that they allowed me to follow my passion.
BOOK
A Potter’s Workbook
CONTACT
Thanks so much for sharing, Jeremy. I really appreciated how articulate you are about your artistry and how well you know yourself as an artist. I resonate with your passion for bringing art into daily use.