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Inge Vincents | Episode 458
Inge Vincents started playing with clay when she was 4. Inge continued clay playing through school and beyond, and at 37 she sold her first piece. Inge has specialized in thinware porcelain and has worked as a full-time studio ceramist for the past 14 years. Inge established her own studio in Copenhagen in 2009.
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What is one bit of advice that you have got that has stuck with you?
My sister is an architect and I had done my business degree and she had done architecture, and I talked about I wanted to go into design school. And she just looked at me and said, Don’t do a creative education unless you really can’t help it. Unless you really feel like you must do it. And they actually put me off for several years and then it came to the point and I had to do it and I did it and it worked. Asking, Is that what you really want to do? Might be a good way to help-it worked for me.
What is some of your go-to advice that you tend to give?
I give so much advice. I am terrible. I must be the most annoying person in the world. I have all these young people coming into the studio and I notice that I say this more and more: Don’t stress out about reaching something by a certain time. Don’t think you have to be something at 30 or 40 or otherwise you’ve failed. Life is a backpack and you keep adding on. On the other hand don’t waste your time. Don’t think stuff is going to happen from thinking and stuff isn’t going to happen from sitting on Facebook. So do something.
What kind of systems do you have in place to help your business grow?
I have always had a brochure. A small brochure with all the contact details and with everything I sell people get the little story so it is a way of spreading the story. I am quite careful about always having the website updated. What works for me is working with open hours. The open hours makes me go to work. If I didn’t have open hours I could just say, I think I can do this at home or whatever. But my open hours forces me into my studio every single day and while I’m there I might as well do some work and while I’m there some customers will turn up and buy some stuff. So open hours have been very defining for giving me a regular work day. That works for me.
What creative activities do you do to grow your creativity?
My husband once said, I want to make a small studio for you at the cottage. And I said, I am not going to have a studio at the cottage. I don’t want to have two studios. That is why I don’t do clay anymore as a hobby. I do miss the playful aspect of that but I try to do a new angle on this one. I try something new and I switch back and forth. So one day I will do my regular stuff and then maybe the next day I have to do something I have not done before. I love to go to museums. I love to go to art exhibitions. I love to listen to music. I am a huge consumer of music and I listen in the studio. Music plays a big part in my creative mindset, I think.
If you had to start over again, what would you do differently?
With business or in life?
Business wise.
I don’t think I would change anything.
What is one thing you dislike doing that you do anyway because you just got to do it?
Cleaning the floor. There is so much cleaning with the clay and I really try for health reasons to keep a very clean studio. So I try not to be too messy with my processes. I think the cleaning is a bit of a bummer to be honest.
What great idea do you have right now that you know would work but you have yet to pull the trigger on it?
That would be telling! How can I tell? There is something that I want to do some thing for the Ceramic Biennale this year and I don’t know if I have time to send it by October. I would like to take time to send a piece to Korea.
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Contact:
Instagram: @keramikeringevincents