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Troy Bungart | Episode 415
Troy Bungart is a multi-talented artist. His first love is working with clay. Troy likes to start out with a simple form and then add texture and images. Troy’s love of clay is also expressed in his love of the tools used for making pottery. His handmade wooden tools are works of art in and of themselves. Troy’s also makes custom brushes that are perfect for making gestural markings on his work. And best of all, Troy is my friend.
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You have passion for different things. What is the one thing that ties them all together?
How I feel when I make. I am pursuing a feeling. I can make in my studio or my wood shop for hours on end. Once I get in that zone and I am feeling that while I am making it, you don’t stop. I just keep going and going until it’s to the point of exhaustion until you call it a day. I feel very fortunate to be able to do something that feels like that.
What does a Troy Bungart work day look like?
Oh my. I get up 4-4:30 in the morning, on purpose. I just wake up, hit the ground running, I’ll go answer some emails, and then I will either go out to the studio or the wood shop and start making. Come in 2 or 3 hours later and have breakfast and go back out and make ’til lunch. I usually try to quit around 7 and spend time with the family.
How about your work week. How is that divided up? Do you have days dedicated towards marketing or administration?
My work week is very much in flux at this point. The past 4 or 5 weeks I have been crushing it to get enough tools to have around here at NCECA for everyone. I already had enough pots made so I wasn’t on a bend for making pots. But when I get back home from NCECA I will be making pots for the next three wood firings. After that I will be working on some collaborations with brushes that I have started with some other artists. Then I will probably be back to filling some custom orders for tools and I will just sing song my way back and forth and zigzag around each of those three items.
What kind of pitch do you give to a new store that you want to carry your work?
Could I put some of my tools in your hands? Would you tell me if you like these tools? Feel this tool. Hold it. I like to get one of my tools in their hands and they either connect with it or they don’t. And if they don’t connect with it, that’s fine. I understand. If they do connect with it then I want to do whatever I can to help them have the tools in their shop.
Do you try to place your pots in commercial settings?
Right now I have been selling my pottery through my Etsy shop and through just a handful of galleries. One of those has a really great online presence so I sell more work through them.
What is your marketing approach to grow a following?
Go out and make friends.
What is your go-to tool for making your work?
I have two. With my cups I have a little triangular rib that I use like a trim knife as a cut-off tool. I throw off the hump so I use that to part my cup off of the hump and lift it up and set it aside. It almost never leaves my hand. I center and throw with it in my hand and I just flick it around and lift the pot off of the hump and then start the next one. When I am throwing bowls, which I really like throwing more than cups, a kidney rib with a really deep back with a curve that I just find really enjoyable. I can feel it, I can see it, and when I make a bowl with it, it really hits the spot for me.
Contact:
Instagram: @troybungart