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Ashley Lin Ames | Episode 445
Ashley Lin Ames is a passionate potter that is dedicated to the craft of making hand thrown vessels for the home and the robust restaurant scene.
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Do you see yourself as an entrepreneur?
I see myself as a craftsman, as an artist. No, I don’t see myself as an entrepreneur. I want to be, but that’s a whole different thing.
Do you see yourself in areas that you would have to grow in in order to develop that business side of yourself?
Yes, I have a ten year plan that includes becoming entrepreneurial. I would love to have potters in my studio making wares underneath the Ashley Lynne Pottery logo but having their name underneath. All hand thrown. I was trying to set that up with this Instagram influencer and things were going really well, but then bridges were burned and we will never work with each other again. So if I talked to you two months ago I would be like, Ya, I’m doing it and I’m financially secure. I have a system, I have people, it’s going great. But then everything came to a fiery, fiery halt.
How do you rebound from a breaking of relationships like that especially in a small knit community like we have with our pottery ceramics community?
I don’t know. I still know everybody I went to college with. I only graduated with two or three other people and we all still make pottery. We are all still in the business. I am a huge supporter of other potters, it’s just with her, she’s a capitalist. I have no problem severing ties with capitalists that take advantage of individuals.
How do you see the next one year of your life unfolding as far as the development of your business goes?
No, dude, I don’t think like that. Hopefully it just continues to be successful. I mean, I just bought my new kiln, it should be here in two weeks, I am looking for an assistant that knows how to throw and make glazes and will help me do that gritty work that is time consuming like grinding shelves, keeping up the clean up, wedging clay and stuff like that. Hopefully I will find a partner in that sense. I worked with somebody in Philadelphia, her name is Jo and I wish she was here is Chicago by my side. She is a chemistry genius and a hard worker. We flowed so well.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
Collaborating. It’s so exciting. It’s a challenge, it’s very stimulating.
What is the strangest thing you have done as a potter?
I’ve been a potter. I just snorted. Maybe that snort!
I do a series called Utility is Useless without the User. I do this thing where I go on the street and I hand out wares to people and if they don’t want it, I destroy it. I started this back in Philly where I would apply to shows and no one would accept me so I had all these wares and they were just collecting dust so I just started to walk on the street and hand people items and if they didn’t want it I just immediately destroyed it. So what I am doing is saving up the shards and creating an urn for myself.
Did the people see you destroy it right then?
Yup, I had a hammer, I had a bag. It was before videos or your phones and stuff like that. I have been doing it for years. I have actually recorded the series twice. It is like my own little performance piece. I guess that is one way I communicate with the world through pottery
How important is the support of your immediate family for you to be able to do what you do?
Mort is my everything. Parker my daughter, she now really likes coming to the studio.I bought a second wheel and that is like her wheel. If she sees my wheel she says, Mommy I can’t believe you didn’t clean up your mess on your wheel. Every Wednesday we have a studio time. I will send you a picture for the podcast of us working together. Mort, not only financially, but he calms me down. That is one of the reasons we fell in love with each other.
If you had all of the clay removed from your life and couldn’t do it, what else would you want to do?
I don’t think I would be alive. I was so suicidal, you have no idea. My junior year during elections for the following year, people were like, Why didn’t you sign up to be historian or whatever, and I was like, I am not coming back. I made up my mind that I was not coming back.
So clay is that important.
Yes, it is absolutely why I am talking to you right now. It is also like the #metoo movement, you would think, Oh good there is other people who have gone through horrible things. It’s just like no, I have a daughter, it’s just like, what is this? The fear and the emotion that comes with living during this time, it’s really intense.
Book
I am reading a Charlie Chaplin biography and it’s pretty devastating.
Contact:
Instagram: @ashleylinpottery