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Alexandria Mente | Episode 1092
Alexandria Mente is the owner of Alexandria Pottery Co. and offers a unique collection of pottery tools for the budding artist or the seasoned potter. From forms to function, Alexandria Pottery Co. knows you will find the tools to make the things you love! Both Alex and her husband are blessed to have their children spend time in studio and helping with tools, which makes Alexandria Pottery Co. a true family business. Alex loves making a wide range of work on the wheel and by slab. You’ll find texture and inspirations from nature in Alex’s work. Alex’s family loves to serve the pottery community and hopes their tools inspire you to make something amazing!
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A product should be solving a real world problem. I’m curious how does that impact you?
I think in my own studio practice when I am making I just keep kind of tally what would make this process streamline and how can I do this efficiently without losing the creativity. In my own practice, a lot of the tools that you see that we come out with are tools that I 100 percent would use, and do use in my studio.
How many people need to be asking before you decide this is really worth pursuing?
I don’t think there’s a specific amount of people because we get attention in different ways. In social media a product will get a lot of likes but is it selling? People can give it a lot of attention but are they actually investing in that product?
When you discover a problem for yourself is it important to demo the solution you came up with the rest of the world to see if they are having a similar problem?
Absolutely. The tools have to be visible and they have to excite people. It has to be something…what I have focused on in my studio is what have I McGuivered together in my studio and what can I create that is specific to that task.
How important is it to protect your idea?
You know, as artists we know that people copying and stealing of intellectual property is a thing. A lot of our tools, nothing like that existed before we made it, but we will see it leaking out. We will see people copying. People will use our images and use our exact specifications and make their own. So it becomes a part of you like your baby and you want to protect it. We try to protect our products but we understand that printing is kind of universal thing.
How important is it to know your competition?
We should know our competition but we should not be ripping off our competition. My husband and I really try to come out with a unique products from our own ideas. I think competition is necessary and important and I think we need to be respectful.
How do you know when to actually start producing a product?
I take the same attitude with tools as I do with my pottery. I make it and I know that I will find my people who will appreciate it. We get excited about a design and we just test and put it out to market.
Book
Day Trading Attention by Gary Vanerchuk
Contact
Instagram: @alexandriapotterytools