Do you ever think about completely changing your life? Like literally, everything - Your job, where you live, what your day to day looks like, maybe even your identity in a way… Or maybe you have done that already, and you are living the dream you had 5 or 10 years ago, but now, as it turns out, it’s not actually the dream? Just even thinking about saying that out loud feels crazy because you worked so hard to get where you are right now. How could you ever change that? Why would you? Should you? Well first off, I just want to say. It’s okay. I’ve been there! Or rather, am there, as I make my own pivots through a career change. Which of course, is exactly why I went about to hear from other artists on how the heck they managed to totally and completely shift their own lives. Enter Henrik Van Ryzin - self-proclaimed reset button smasher, 3 times over. And I think Henrik would agree when I say, with all due respect to his hard work, that he’s not actually all that different, as a human, from you and I. So if you are thinking about making a change, big or small, in your life to pursue something you think could be amazing for whatever the next phase of your life might be, then this is the episode for you. That being said, if you are also simply one of the 48 thousand admirers of Henrik’s work online and have been curious to know how the heck his iconic tiki meets monsters style of making even came about, then this is also the episode for you.

I thought John & I were going to talk mostly about burnout. How it “happened” to him, how he got through it, and perhaps, what he’s doing differently now. But (perhaps rather obviously) it can’t really be broken down that simply. Instead, John and I wound up not only talking about burnout, but also the pursuit of the impossible perfect cylinder, the responsibility we all have to educate others on what we do while also hopefully exciting them, and particularly the realities of the economics of making - whether that be other jobs that help support that reality, but also the internal realities of pricing and finding your market, or rather, finding someone else who has already found your market for you.

In an internet world where there are seemingly endless “educators” available to learn from, what actually qualifies someone to teach a skill? Is it a traditional piece of paper, or diploma, saying that some institution has decided you can? Is it the number of years you’ve been doing the thing? Frankly, there’s really not a fixed formula we can say where x+ y = qualified educator! However, during this chat with Ian Childers, a potter who, as often happens, fell into education by necessity and yet has found a passion for it, I’ve found a few thru lines and a couple of Ian’s philosophies I wholeheartedly agree with - namely, the fact that he’s not only teaching his students a skill set to hypothetically go make a living at this craft, he is also showing his students what it takes to make a living at this craft. As Ian says during our chat, how can he expect his students to trust him if he’s not out there doing it himself? And that I couldn’t agree more with.

There’s a new social media app in the virtual neighborhood. Will it solve all the frustrations we artists have? Maybe. Maybe not… In this week’s solo episode, I dive into all things social media marketing, why a new app probably won’t solve your problems (but it could!), and why maybe it’s a good thing that it’s hard to get attention on the internet. Plus how everything is changing and yet, nothing is changing. Always. I swear it makes sense once you give a listen.

A rare non-potter conversation today on the podcast with Dave Conrey, graphic designer turned email newsletter educator. We talk about the realities of making art and trying to sell that art, approaches to marketing our work without needing to be a part of the hustle-bro culture, and eventually get around to the notion that really piqued my interest when I first met Dave online - committing to one project and one project only for a set period of time in order to focus. It’s a rare conversation without mention of kiln gods or reclaim, but enlightening to see the cross over of similarities when it comes to making a living from the things you make in whatever medium that might be.

We’re back for part two! In this continued conversation with Joy Hanford - a Midwest gal, much like myself, who now lives in Portugal - we get into the topics of the complexities of learning about and navigating bureaucracies in other countries, art as a form of grieving and processing world events like the lockdown and the experience of a global pandemic in another country, starting a business amidst covid, and most of all, defining success for ourselves. Yes, it’s a heavy one my friends. But once again, it’s interwoven with a healthy dose of dry humor and sarcasm because apparently, that’s a Midwestern trait we both have - making jokes amidst heavy subjects to help get you through. Once again, there’s a bit of adult language, so hit pause and grab the headphones if you need to before your hands are covered in mud.

Living abroad. Sometimes, it sounds like the solution to all of my problems. All I need to do is choose a country with national healthcare and town with relatively low cost of living, and TA DA! Making a living from the things we make is solved, right? Right? It can look incredibly romantic online - strolling through tiny streets seemingly too small for cars, surrounded by historic architecture and the depths of tradition for a craft we all love. But how does it actually work? Is it really that simple? Much like anything in life and business, there are pluses and there are minuses. And it’s up to each of us individually to put those things on a scale and decide what’s best for ourselves, individually. However, the decision gets a lot easier when you have more information on the metaphorical scale, which is exactly what this week’s conversation with Joy Hanford - an American born ceramicist who’s been living in Portugal for the last 20 years - is all about.

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You’ve taken a few classes at your local community studio and you know you want to make ceramics a larger part of your life. In fact, you want to build your own studio, but what does that even look like? And what might be all the tasks and overhead that community studio has been handling without you even realizing it? What is it actually like to start and run a community studio? While we’re at it, let’s complicate things a bit and open that community studio in one of the most expensive places to live in the country. Lindsay Langsdale is doing just that, in San Francisco, and we’re talking all about it on this episode of The Maker’s Playbook.

Having a collector buy our work... It sounds… amazing! Awe-inspiring? Relieving? Luxurious. All of the above really. But how does it even happen? During the 2024 NCECA conference, Coalescence, held in Richmond, VA I sat down with Peter Beasecker and Louise Rosenfield to chat about their perspectives as maker and collector on how building relationships with collectors begins and how we might each be able to consider fostering our own.

“Etsy vs. Your own website. Which is better?” It’s a question I see asked online endlessly. I see the responses fought over just as endlessly. But is it really an either/or? We dig into that on this next installment of our “The Launch” series - where I dig into the firsthand experiences Francesco & I are having in starting our own ceramics business. Spoiler - We’re using both Etsy and our own website, because there are pros and cons to both. And it’s those pros & cons we discuss in this episode so you can make the decision that’s right for you.

I know I'm not the only one who finds social media to be exhausting. The idea of keeping up with trends sounds equivalent to nails on a chalkboard to me. But at the same time, I know there is a huge opportunity on social media. After all, Instagram alone has 2 billion users. Enter Allie Mason. A data-based marketing strategist who understands that us solo-preneurs and small independent businesses don’t necessarily have the time (or the desire) to be spending all of our time keeping up with the ever changing world of social media. What Allie teaches focuses on using social media for what it can do for us all to grow our businesses, but not having it be our businesses.

On this week’s episode I talk with founding Community member, Connie Cole, about her winding path to becoming a full-time potter. We discuss her battle with imposter syndrome, what finding a “gateway drug” has done for her business and the assault on creativity she’s experienced over time (and of course, how she’s battling against it!)

FOMO (or the fear of missing out) seems to surround us. But it’s especially pervasive online - as we watch other people live their lives (or at least the versions they show us), and do things that perhaps we wish we could do or dream about doing. Like attending a conference perhaps? This week were talking about the realities of attending or NOT attending NCECA as well as the larger issues in our lives and businesses that FOMO causes.

Do you get overwhelmed at the idea of making your studio practice environmentally friendly? It can seem impossible to figure out where to start and what actually makes an impact. The science of climate change is complicated at best, and more often than not confusing. Which is exactly why I’m so grateful for people like Yuliya Makliuk - a trained ecologist and potter. Yuliya recently wrote the book Potters Save the World: Learn to Make Sustainable Ceramics and Help Protect the Earth, and on this week’s episode we talk all about the process of self-publishing this important book as well as creating her own pottery amidst an ever changing reality of living in Ukraine.

The internet can be amazing for connecting us all to resources we wouldn’t otherwise have access to. But it can also be absolutely overwhelming. With so many people teaching online, how can we tell who actually knows what they are doing? How do we know (especially if we decide to pay) that they are actually qualified to teach us? I’m not talking about formal qualifications and diplomas here - obviously, there are plenty of problems with the traditional structures of arts education. But at the same time, there’s additionally the sneaky problem of online education not having any sort of barrier to access - literally anyone can call themselves a teacher on the internet.

During Part Two of my conversation with Hope Limyansky-Smith, we dig into the pros & cons of being online educators and the ways in which we ourselves vet other educators we want to learn from as students ourselves. Before all of that, we also have a very important discussion on setting boundaries online both for ourselves and with each other so that we can continue to enjoy building new friendships online, which really is what makes being on social media great, isn’t it?

How often do you look at what other makers are sharing on social media and think to yourself - “How do they have time to make all this CONTENT? Daily reels, stories, thoughtfully designed themes, not to mention the actual pots!” It’s easy to feel overwhelmed. This week on the podcast, we’re going behind-the-scenes with Hope Limyansky-Smith of Limyansky Studios who consistently posts 5 days a week while also teaching full-time to understand what it’s really like to create so much for social media.

What were you doing 15 years ago? Were you already making? Had you not even found clay yet? It’s amazing the twists and turns our lives can take, and yet, without them, we wouldn’t be doing what we’re doing today. On today’s episode, I sit down with Victoria Brook, who first introduced me to wheel throwing 15 years ago, when I lived in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, England for a year. A lifetime has happened since, and yet at the same time, in many ways Victoria and I both are coming full circle.

We’re kicking off Season 5 with a big announcement right at the start of my chat with Rebecca Harvey, the executive director of the Archie Bray. Rebecca and I also chat about the history of the Bray and her vision for the future, along with the pros & cons of traditional academic education and partnering (or not!) with galleries.

Have your friends ever marveled at how much you manage to get done? How you somehow work full-time and then also produce artwork on the side that you sell on the nights and weekends in your side-hustle? How often are we praised for seemingly “doing it all?” In our productivity focused culture, these accolades can feel amazing. But is it healthy? I am most definitely not the only one out there who’s been rewarded for their ability to manage numerous things at once. Gerald Brown knows this life well, and on today’s episode, she and I are debunking our often lauded ability to do #AllTheThings, and peeling back the curtain a bit on why. If you’ve ever chatted with Gerald, or listened to her own podcast (called Unraveling. Look it up!) it will come as no surprise that we also get into the big philosophical questions around how we make a living from the things we make a bit more than my usual pragmatic.