Finding your market is one of the greatest challenges that every business, movie, artist, or even religion has. Anna tells her story of how she found her market. We share it here for you so you can glean from her story to apply to your story. To listen in, click HERE.
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Joe Robinson | Episode 536
Joe Robinson is the co-owner and steward of the historic East Creek Anagama wood fired kiln. Nestled on 20 acres in Oregon’s coastal mountains, East Creek is a community art studio and retreat. Joe will share news about the upcoming NW Wood Firing Conference in June 2020, which is being organized by the East Creek team.
Some lessons are caught. I am hoping this is the case for this story that Joe tells about restoring East Creek. So as Joe tells the story you will hear at least four distinct lessons:
1- Seeing a need. Where there is a vacuum, there is an opportunity.
2- Steps of faith creates visions. As he moved forward with the purchase of East Creek the vision grew beyond himself and to the community.
3- Sweat on the brow brings results on the ground. Work changes things.
4- Success in changing lives. When you set out to do something bigger than yourself, bigger things come.
To listen in, click HERE.
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Julia Kofman | Episode 535
Julia Kofman is a full time ceramic artist. Julia works in her home studio in Ramat Gan in Israel. Julia was born in Moscow, and in 2018 she moved to Israel with her husband and children. Julia is selling her works twice a week in Nachlat Binyamin Artists Fair of Tel Aviv, which is a famous street market of handmade, supported by municipality of Tel Aviv.
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Lukas Easton | Episode 534
Lukas Easton is from Homer Alaska. Lukas recieved his BFA from the university of Alaska anchorage. Lukas is currently teaching at the Rochester institute of technology and is an independent designer for Jenggala in Bali Indonesia. In the summers Lukas works in Alaska commercial fishing and this fall will be attending Alfred university for graduate school.
Lukas is doing an internship with Peter Pincus and he is loving it!!! I took the opportunity to grill Lukas on what are his personal takeaways from this mentor relationship that he has with such an accomplished artist. To listen in to this conversation, click HERE.
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Rhonda Willers | Episode 533
terra sigillata surface filled with raw grolleg kaolin, photo credit: Jessie Ann Wade
Focusing on fragility and subtle strength, Rhonda Willers creates art with repetitive forms and markings reflecting on memories and nature through diverse materiality. Rhonda is the author of Terra Sigillata: Contemporary Techniques. Rhonda studied at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls (BFA) and University of Nebraska-Lincoln (MFA). Rhonda is a studio artist, author, mother, and NCECA Board Steward located in Elk Mound, Wisconsin.
Echo I, coil built earthenware, terra sigillata, cone 03 soda fired, photo credit: Larry Gawel
Many people have that desire of writing a book, but what is that process like? Rhonda Willers walks us through the process of how to pick the topic and what steps she took to complete the book. I love that the glamour of writing a book is taken away through this discussion and she just gets practical and lets us know what she did. If you would like to listen in to this bonisode, then click HERE.
Anja talks through what it looks like to be a production potter. Part of the work is just putting the head down and getting the work done regardless of feelings. She also talks about how to balance creativity and “selling out” and how there is a real way to look at that “conflict”. This is a real life look at making it all happen. To listen in to this bonisode by clicking HERE.
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Anja Bartels | Episode 532
Originally from Hamburg, Germany, stencil artist Anja Bartels discovered pottery making while living in an intentional community in Virginia. Passion ignited, Anja returned home to study in the German Ceramics Guild, which honed her skills in a way much different from the typical experience in American art schools. With a strong focus on craftsmanship and technical skill, Guild training provided Anja with the groundwork for making a quality product paired with the practical experience of working with a master potter for three years. The apprentices must engage in all aspects of the business, including marketing, sales, accounting, and production.
Anja’s nautically themed porcelain employs several different techniques including slip trailing, sgraffito (a technique where underglaze is painted onto greenware and a design is carved back through, revealing the clay body underneath), poured and sprayed glazes, and a unique resist technique used in the making of her beautiful urchin bowls. These bowls are thrown and trimmed on the wheel, then several thousand small slip-trailed spikes are applied using a surgical bulb while she listens to audiobooks about shipwrecks. Anja’s personal aesthetic and process are consistent and highly developed, reflecting her upbringing in a port town and her love of ships and the ocean. It is as if her pieces were born in the sea.
