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Bilyana Yankulova | Episode 750
Bilyana Yankulova was born and raised in Bulgaria. Bilyana is an established pottery, graphic and visual artist with 30+ years of experience. Bilyana graduated from an Art High School specializing in ceramics; however Bilyana also received classical training in painting, drawing, and sculpture. Later on Bilyan went to obtain her MA in Ceramics from the National Academy of Arts-Sofia in Bulgaria. Bilyana moved to the United States in 2005 and has been residing in Los Angeles, California. Currently, Bilyana mainly makes her pottery using a throwing technique; however she does like to also use the slab method of building. In the past Bilyana has worked with many different clays, techniques and recently, she has been enjoying working with porcelain and creating all kinds of things from beautiful jewelry to everyday use mugs to bigger sculptures and pieces great for interior and exterior design. All of Bilyana pieces were created with both aesthetic and functionality in mind. Bilyana uses lead-free underglaze and glaze and fires everything at cone 5 and 6.
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How do you go about structuring your day as a maker?
I am very flexible so I love to work when I am in the mood because sometimes I have to do this and that and every day is different for me. And I am so happy because my time is flexible but let’s say I wake up at four o’clock in the morning and I work until ten or wake up at ten and work until four. Every day is different because I have different things to do. Let’s say go shopping, making calls, you know, there are different things so I don’t have certain schedule for the day.
How do you balance having an unscheduled studio practice with making sure you have enough work to meet your sales goals?
Yes, that is part of my daily schedule. If I have sales in different shops I need to go there, to pack them, because every day is different for me. I do face painting and airbrush tattoos for the weekend and that is the way I earn my money,
How useful has social media been for you in terms of promoting your work?
To be honest, I was very surprised. I started to post on Instagram probably one and half years ago. I wasn’t familiar with Instagram and everything and I started to post different pictures of my potters and different videos, I would like to show the audience how I make my stuff. I was very surprised because for one year I made thirty thousand followers. And the people start to ask me different questions and I was so happy to help them with different things. Let’s say they have a question about different tools or how I made this, how I made that. so for that I started to make videos how it’s made.
Do you have a mentor or a coach that helps you with your business?
Not at all. I just, (laughter) learn from the air. I have to do this, I have to do that, cause you know it was so difficult for me to find out. Let’s say I have to make a video, so I download the apps and step by step I learn how to pause the video, or how to make the hashtags, or yeah, it took me two months to find out.
Do you have long-term goals for your ceramics?
Yes and no. (laughter) Yeah, I would like to, maybe this life or another life…I would like to have my own studio. And to be able to teach people how to do the ceramics and at the same time to have a little store in which I would be able to sell my stuff and also the other ceramics artists. So that is my goal.
What kind of fun to do you and your husband like to do when you aren’t doing ceramics? What’s your favorite date night?
That is a very difficult question because we love to travel a lot but just for the weekend that is impossible so we go to hike or just go anywhere. But sometimes it is difficult because I am working weekends also so I need to find the right balance between work and my free time. You know? It’s difficult because I am a workaholic, so yeah.
Contact
Etsy: BilyanaArtCeramic
Instagram: @bilyanaceramic