Wheel Talk

Ryan & Becca answer a couple listener questions today about specific business situations you may find yourself in at some point. One involves pricing your work based on your local market vs pricing higher based on what your time is worth now. The other involves a sticky situation where you may have doubts about a potential partnership with a local business who wants to carry your products. Lis...

Ryan and Becca are joined by Brooke Thivierge from BAT’s Ceramics & fellow podcast host of the Batty Bitches Podcast. They discuss how she started dabbling in Instagram Subscriptions recently, how she decided on which platform to host this exclusive content, and more about her work and business, plus lots of laughs along the way. Check out her amazing painting skills using underglazes and supp...

Ryan is joined by Ben Clark today inside of Queen City Clay, one of the largest community studios in the United States. Ben is the President and co-owner of Queen City Clay and covers a range of topics to help you get a glimpse into managing staff, programs to offer, retail needs, the importance of education, NCECA 2023 in Cincinnati, and much more. If you're looking for a place to build and...

Ryan & Becca are joined today by Jamie Boyack, a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) from Aloha Friday CPA. She answers so many of our tax questions ranging from the differences between sole proprietor/single person LLC/S corp,  how to effectively keep track of expenses/income, collecting & remitting sales taxes, how to handle cash, common reasons small businesses struggle, what are co...

Ryan & Becca have a great chat today with Jodie Rozycki from Mudslinging Pottery. We chat about teaching in a community studio, her making process, how she handles online restocks, commission orders, balancing family time with teenagers, and answer some random "listener" questions. Thanks to Jodie for joining us today to chat. Where you can find us for NCECA 2023 ----- Find more abou...

Ryan & Becca talk about kilns today after getting a listener question recently. They go into how and where they learned to fire their kilns initially, from manual kiln sitter kilns to ones with electronic controllers. There are lots of places to find resources today with the depth of knowledge on YouTube, Facebook forums, online publications, and plenty of other places. We hope you enjoy the c...

Becca runs this episode solo to chat about adjusting to van life since the beginning of the year. She covers how she got the van, process to make it livable, adjusting the business to the new set-up, and future plans. It’s a little different one today, but we hope you enjoy it. Listener Questions Send us questions so we can answer anything you've been thinking about on a future episode. Send...

Ryan and Becca recap their experience at Clay Con West before getting into the topic of the day. The focus of today's episode is figuring out how we can expand outside of our comfort zone to grow our work and business. Selling at Clay Con West recently sparked this conversation and thought experiment that we hope you enjoy. We also touch on how these different lines of work can appeal to diff...

Becca and Ryan recently presented at Clay Con West, an annual clay conference hosted in St. George, Utah, to share some tips and tricks about selling at art shows. They share what has worked & not worked as well for them over the years and answer lots of questions from the audience in here as well. We'd love to see you at NCECA coming up this March in Cincinnati, OH or a future Clay Con W...

Ryan and Becca are looking ahead to Clay Con West before answering a variety of listener questions. The primary topic of the day related to working through having self doubt as a beginner potter. We all go through this at some point over the years, and still to this day even after we have a "successful" business. We touch on art shows a bit as well and what makes for a good sales day at...

Ryan is joined by Will Donovan from Donovan Pottery to talk about adjusting to a large increase in customer demand for his work in a short period of time. We also cover how he manages a small production team, working within a niche customer base, and how his full time role at Clay King influences his approach to running his business. We hope you get some great insights from today's episode. -...

Ryan and Becca recap their holidays and a workshop idea Ryan is working on before getting to the topic of the day. Today includes a recap of business goals for 2022, which ones were accomplished, which ones weren't, and what they are looking forward to in 2023. Thanks for your support this year and 2023 should be a very exciting year. Resources - Interested in Ryan's Bookkeeping Workshop...

Ryan and Becca get into how you can prepare to bounce back from a long hiatus away from your business. This listener question was specific to relocating and having a child recently, but this could apply to other scenarios that has you returning to making after being away from it. Thanks for the question and good luck getting back to it! Resources Clay Con West Northern Clay Center (MN) Anderson Ra...

Ryan and Becca have some funny stories to start out today before getting to some listener questions. We discuss how to work with shops who want to carry your work, approaching new shops for partnerships, and handling rejection from a show. Enjoy today's chat. Listener Questions On this episode: - Since you're both cat people… If you could raise a baby tiger for a pet, would you? Tigers a...

Ryan and Becca are joined by Rachel, Ryan's spouse, to discuss balancing time in the studio with family time and other priorities. This differs by your personalities, jobs, child commitments, etc, but there are sure to be some takeaways that can relate to you. We also dig into some top places to see while you're in Cincinnati for the upcoming NCECA conference in March 2023 & answer s...

Ryan and Becca recap a couple recent shows they did together before getting into some questions related to community studios. You all asked some good questions to assess your local community studios and what makes them more enjoyable to work in & the amenities that are must or nice to have. Thanks for always asking good questions to spark conversation between us. Listener Questions On this epi...

Ryan and Becca talk post-holidays on today's episode. They cover how they recharge, experiment, or prioritize their year ahead once the busy holiday season has concluded. We hope you all have a good end to your year and spend some time to reflect on your year, while looking ahead to 2023. Thanks for listening! Listener Questions On this episode: - What's your favorite Christmas cookie? @...

Ryan and Becca get into how they have each planned and hosted their own home studio sale. A lot of makers host a small (or large) sale from their home or studio to give the public access to an intimate setting to shop for the holidays or otherwise. It can be a big or small undertaking depending on what you'd like out of it and could be worth a try for you. Enjoy! Listener Questions On this ep...

Ryan and Becca are covering what to look out for when buying used equipment, specifically kilns and wheels. We mainly cover some consideration the think about when you're shopping for kilns: electrical, kiln quality, pricing, where to look, etc. We also go through some sample listings on Facebook Marketplace to share what we are thinking as we consider buying them. We hope you enjoy today&apo...

Ryan and Becca are way off topic for today's episode talking about some new happenings for them both before getting to business. A couple listener questions are answered about handbuilding & asking fellow artists their sales at a show before getting to the topic of the day where we think about how we are going to share a booth space at the upcoming Cincinnati Coffee Festival. Resources @a...

Ryan and Becca sit down with Sarah Anderson to talk all about social media, inspiration behind her graphical work, selling at various art shows, accepting commissions, applying for gallery shows, van life, & a bit more. It was a good time covering such a range of topics with an up and coming ceramic artist who is local to us. ----- Find more about Sarah’s business below----- Instagram - @sarah...

Ryan and Becca cover a topic raised from a listener question today about storing and managing inventory in the studio. We cover a range of ways to keep track of work for shows, tips for packing, and using what you have to keep your work tidy without having to buy all new storage containers. We hope you enjoy after hearing about our recent life happenings to start the episode. What would you do if....

Ryan and Becca are fresh off their interview with Tim See to talk about what they got out of the discussion that could be incorporated into their businesses. Hopefully this is a good exercise for you to reflect internally or with a friend after hearing discussions that could make your studio practice or business better. Resources #131 - "We're LIVE!" at Clay Con West Clay Con West -...

Ryan and Becca have a great time chatting today with Tim See from Tim See Ceramics. He is known for his robotic illustrative work, Facebook commentary in the Clay Buddies group, & hilarious personality. We cover such a wide range of topics across our 3 hours of discussion and it was such a fun ride. We hope you enjoy! ----- Find more about Tim's business below----- Instagram - @timseeclay...

Ryan and Becca answer a number of listener questions related to studio practice. Topics include attaching handles, rehydrating clay, studio waste, kiln sitter kilns, and an in-depth breakdown of someone who is struggling with pulling up their walls. Some answers are quick, some longer, and plenty of fun discussion as always. Listener Questions On this episode: - Have you tried attaching handles wi...