A Maker & Manufacturer | Todd Wahlstrom | Episode 422

Todd Wahlstrom | Episode 422

Todd Wahlstrom lives in Whitingham, Vermont with his wife, and potter, Aysha Peltz and their two daughters. Aysha and Todd share a detached studio building a short walk from their home. Todd’s work time is split between making and selling pots and operating StudioPro, a small manufacturing business designing and producing throwing bats and other tools for potters.

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When you are telling people what you do, how do you explain it beyond being a potter?

I guess I usually say, yes, my wife and I are potters, from there I go on to say that we have this manufacturing business where we create products for potters and often times those products are the result of my work in my own studio. So the two things are kind of connected.

Tell me about your first experience with selling your pottery. Do you remember that first sale?

The first sale was in a tourist community in Northern Massachusetts, up on the coast and we set up our ten by ten white tent. It was an outdoor show and people there were not interested in buying pots. It was kind of street fair and it was awful. I think we sold 2 or 3 pots and our booth was mostly full of kids with ice cream dripping down their arms. Which is fun in itself but it wasn’t very good for pottery selling. It was definitely humble beginnings.

How did you figure out the best place to sell your work?

It wasn’t until I built a studio and invited people into my own studio, where I could not only sell work but I could give them tours of what we did here and educate a little bit and have nice conversations. That is really the best way to sell work is to invite people into your making situation and share with them.

Do you feel that the story of the potter is as important as the pottery itself when it comes to making sales?

Well, I do. Especially here at home. I live in Southern Vermont where self-sufficiency is part of the ethos here. I think that most of my neighbors can really relate to what I do. Making things with your hands, making things that are functional, so when they come into my studio and they are able to understand their connections between their lives and mine, we’ve got a conversation going that is a good basis for getting them interested in pottery.

If you had to choose between studio pro and your own studio, which would you go for?

Making pots is not negotiable. It is in my soul. But they really are interconnected. At core I am a potter.

What has you frustrated right now?

It is always that balancing act of making enough time for both. I have got a young family and that is a place that I spend a lot of my time and I am so happy to be spending my time there but I feel like between a teaching job the studios, the business, and family, it is a delicate balancing act.

What’s got you stoked right now?

I have got 2 sales coming up. One is the Asparagus Valley Pottery Trail where I will be a guest at Mary Barringer’s studio. Then I will be at Cousins in Clay down in North Carolina in June and I am really busy in my studio right now and I am just having a blast making work.

Do you think you are good at what you do and why?

I think I am good at what I do as a potter. I think I make good pots, I hear that from my peers. Of course, I am my own worst critic so that is a really hard statement for me to make. But I have been doing this for thirty years and I think I make pretty good pots. I love doing it and I think if you are doing what you love and you are really dedicated about it, you are bound to make pretty good work. The other part of my work, I think I am really good at being a manufacturer and I am learning the marketing part and our business is doing really well. I guess the answer is Yeah, I think I am doing okay.