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Sarah Beth Elkins | Episode 479
Sara Beth Elkins is a small batch potter working out of her home studio in Lubbock, Texas. Sarah Beth find joy in replicating patterns, textures, and color from daily life and filtering them in and out of her work to create a sense of comfort or nostalgia. Sarah Beth allows her work to transition in color/theme with the seasons to keep things fresh! Sarah finds the composition and marks in her work to be very organic, yet also structured. Each piece dictates it’s own path in Sarah Beth’s studio, allowing patterns and textures to naturally flow onto the surface. The majority of Sarah Beth work focuses on functionality. Not only does Sarah Beth’s want you to enjoy the presence of the pot itself, but also physically incorporate it into your daily routine. Connecting from Sarah Beth’s hands to yours.
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You have been making for quite a while now. Do you ever get embarrassed of the prices you ask for your work?
Oh yeah, absolutely. That has been my least strong suit has been the prices of things for sure.
In your work, does what sells well dictate what you will make next?
I would say it is probably about fifty fifty. Like that definitely helps and encourages me if I want to keep making that, but a lot of the time I think, I really like making that and I am going to keep doing it.
When you are pricing work how much do you take into consideration the cost of materials?
Cost of materials, as you know, really isn’t that crazy compared to other art forms, I would say. Clay is not that expensive. Firing the kiln in my situation is not that expensive. It is more so the time. Your time and your expertise and what makes your business unique is more of what the price comes into rather than the supplies, in my opinion.
How do you approach a shop when you want to get your work into their shop?
The shops that I have contacted it has been via their websites usually, if it’s cold turkey. I find a shop where I think my stuff will do well. A lot of shops that want handmade artists will have a section for inquiring artists to click on and send a message. I have found that those are the types of places that are willing to work with you on the high price of a mug. They want to have handmade, unique pieces in their shops. Via email.
Can anyone learn how to be a full-time potter?
That’s an interesting question. You have to want to do it everyday, is my main thing and the whole reason I got into it. I knew that I could wake up and sit in a studio and literally play with mud everyday. So you can learn, but the academic part of it has nothing to do with the emotional part of it. You have to have that connection to your pieces, to your studio, to your practice and the balance of your everyday life also. I would have to say, no. If it’s purely just learning you have to have the connection.
The connection to the product or the process?
To both.
Let’s say we have an aspiring potter who already has the skill and they want to go full time. Give me some advice from the business plan that you and your husband laid out. Give us some advice on what are some of the things one ought to be doing.
I have to say, first and foremost, organization. You have to have a plan. You have to have a calendar. You have to have the forethought to order new glazes and don’t run out of clay and don’t get the scary letter from the IRS because you are not recording your earnings. It is all about being organized in my experience, but also, you have to want to do it. You have to carve out the time. Of course we would love to, being self-employed, go hang out with our friends as our schedule allows for that but you have to make sure that you are spending quality time in the studio with your pieces, with your own thoughts. What you send out there ceramic wise, art wise,needs to be a reflection of you. So that takes a lot of planning too, not just the clerical side. Organized in all fronts is my best advice.
What makes you throw away one of your pieces?
So I have a hard time with that in general, throwing things away, I get very emotionally attached. Some might say I am a little bit of an organized hoarder. I keep pieces around for certain things. I throw a seconds sale every now and then. I know some people have strong opinions about seconds. I generally keep them around to do experiments. If it is not worthy to sell to the general public I’ll keep it around, I might drink out of it or put pencils in it or something. I will use it to do a test. As you can see. if you are looking at my stuff, I use a lot of color and a lot of different colors kind of on top of each other. So say the pot didn’t work out and in three weeks I have an idea, what if I put this color on this? And I will use that not worthy pot and test out that layering. So I will keep them for a while and begrudgingly I will do a bit of a purge. It really is quality to not sell it but to throw it away, for me, is a little bit complicated. It takes me awhile.
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Instagram: @sarahbethpottery