Wheel Talk

Ryan is joined by Danielle from D Whigham Ceramics to talk about selling on Etsy. She's been considering moving off of Etsy to her own website and weighing her options. We cover a wide range of questions you may be asking yourself if you are currently an Etsy seller or considering moving off of Etsy. We also get into some specific of the Etsy Star Seller program. ----- Find more about Daniell...

Ryan and Becca have a great chat with Erica Kilroy, Ryan's studio assistant, with plenty of laughs along the way. They chat about learning pottery at a local studio, what she does for Ryan's studio process, how she has improved her own process since working for Ryan, and plenty more. Thanks for joining us Erica! ----- Find more about Erica below----- Instagram - @erica_irene_k and @close...

Ryan and Becca answer a listener question for a recent college graduate with a ceramics degree in relation to getting a job or pursuing small business full time. They then get into a longer discussion about how to pay yourself as you start and progress in your small business. Support Becca’s new Patreon https://patreon.com/superpotlady if you want to get better and more efficient in your making pr...

Ryan and Becca discuss a new adventure that she's been thinking about lately. She's been considering what's next since production potter has been putting some strain on her body a bit more than she'd like. There are many options out there to shift your business to make you happy and getting ahead of it before it get's too stressful can be a smart move. Get one of our 2022...

Ryan and Becca jump into a question related to building consistency in your product line as you are still evolving in your making process. It takes a mixture of craftsmanship and repetition to get comfortable with your product offerings, plus a little input from customers. Thanks to  @speckledmountainceramics for the question! Get one of our preorder mugs now until June 15, 2022 on our website: ht...

Ryan and Becca welcome back a past guest on this episode, Rebecca Graves Prowse from Gravesco Pottery. Today we cover a range of topics including wholesale clients, managing a team, changing your business branding, taking care of your body for the business, and plenty more. Enjoy yet another fun and insightful conversation. Get one of our preorder mugs now until June 15, 2022 on our website: https...

Ryan and Becca answer a question about selling at someone's first legit show and getting prepared for it by pricing their work appropriately. Pricing, booth set-up, confidence in your work, and how to interact with your customers are all important to think about before your first show but are greatly improved with repetition and experience. Good luck out there for those of your selling this s...

Ryan & Becca come to you for a quick bonus episode to talk about our custom Wheel Talk mugs that will be available for preorder starting on June 1st. The preorder runs from June 1-15 and all orders will arrive 6-8 weeks later. Our friend Chris Burch from @potterybychrisburch in Colorado Springs, Colorado is making our custom 2022 mug with a Wheel Talk logo decal on one side and small 2022 deca...

Ryan and Becca have a friendly chat with Aleatha Aiken-Sherrer from Aleathabean to shoot the breeze and learn more about one of our favorite listeners. They discuss a number of topics today, from transitioning to full time pottery, finding a fun show locally, favorite cake flavors, the Buddy Show, shipping within Canada versus the USA, Becca has a new pen pal, wholesale orders, using gold luster/l...

Ryan and Becca go off on a few tangents on today's episode before getting into a couple questions about glazing techniques when applying multiple glazes to your pots and how to transition from brushing glazes to dipping glazes. Thanks for the questions! Resources Indianapolis Clay Studio Crawl glazy.org Amaco product update Batty Bitches Podcast Brickyard Podcast Network Sounds Like a Cult Ba...

Ryan and Becca go into developing their own styles, evolving their practices, and progressing their businesses over time. Progress can be made little by little or huge shifts in a short period of time. However you develop your own style, enjoy the process along the way and hopefully you have success in finding an audience for it if you rely on this for your small business. Resources Sounds Like a...

Ryan and Becca talk about scheduling their studio time effectively.  Becca works in a production pottery studio by day so schedules are crucial for staying productive and getting work down by the end of the week. Ryan has to balance his making on the side and continue to meet his commitments he's made for the pottery business. Enjoy today's discussion and we hope you get some insights to...

Ryan and Becca answer a number of listener questions related to small business scenarios. We cover topics ranging from  wholesale orders, handling repeat buyers online, selling your work at a local business, and market saturation of your work locally. Thanks to everyone for your questions! Resources Episode #27 with Amanda Schwartz from Doghouse Pottery What is a resale certificate? What would you...

Ryan and Becca share some thoughts about how to prepare your small business with the threat of uncertainty in the economy. Some folks have already been experiencing some of the uncertainty over the past couple of years with supply chain limitations and economic stressors. We hope this gets you thinking ahead to keep your business in a good spot in case of an economic downturn that's outside o...

Ryan and Becca answer a question about owning and managing a business as someone with ADHD or anxiety. We hope this conversation is relatable for a number of our listeners who run their own business or are thinking about it. Thanks for the question @alexa.michelle.pottery ! Resources Giffin Grip Mini @thatssoandrew_ Context Switching Listener Questions On this episode: - What are your thoughts on...

Ryan and Becca sit down with Liz Cohen from Liz Cohen Ceramics to chat about building a new home studio as a full time studio potter. They discuss a number of topics today, from transitioning to full time pottery, learning slipcasting, managing wholesale orders, finding & managing a studio assistant, body care in the studio, and plenty more. Thanks for joining us Liz! ----- Find more about Liz...

Ryan and Becca answer a number of listener questions related to studio practice. Some topics include renting studio space, vitrification, warping, loading kilns, refiring pieces, sanding pots, manual kilns, and plenty more. Some answers are quick, some longer, and plenty of fun discussion as always. Enjoy and thanks to everyone who sent us a question! Resources For Flux Sake Podcast DiamondCore To...

Ryan and Becca answer a question from @aleathabean about how to handle online updates from a seller's perspective. There are lots of tasks to do in preparation for an online update so having a good plan of attack is key. Ryan and Becca approach it differently so we have some options for you to spark some ideas from our discussion today. They each had a minor update and share some insights fro...

Ryan is joined by Curt Hammerly from Hammerly Ceramics to talk all about Instagram today. They discuss collaborations, the algorithm, Instagram stats, getting paid for Instagram Reels, and managing social media as a small business owner. Let us know if you enjoyed the topic and would like to hear more focused discussions like this with guests. If you missed our last discussion with Curt, check out...

Ryan and Becca expected this to be a quick episode talking all about slips vs underglazes. Before they get to shop talk, there’s plenty of movie talk and ample digressions along the way. We hope you enjoy our antics on this one. Artists mentioned in this episode: Jason Burnett - @jasonbburnett , Graphic Clay book Catie Miller - @catiemillerceramics Tim Kowalczyk - @timsceramics Amy Brummond - @pin...

Ryan and Becca jump into a topic for those out there wondering when they should consider selling, especially beginner potters. We both took a long time to start selling our work on a regular basis, but that's not the same timeline for everyone. Testing your work for food safety is the most important consideration to make sure you are putting out quality pieces for the public. Listen to our pa...

Ryan presented recently at Clay Con West, an up & coming clay conference hosted in St. George, Utah, and shared some ways you can diversify your pottery business income. He sells through many different avenues and talks about quite a few of them today. Slides also accompany this presentation if you'd like to follow along, which can be found on Ryan's website at the link below. We&apo...

Ryan and Becca look ahead to their personal and business goals for 2022, even though we're more than a month into the year already. They share specific sales numbers for the year ahead as well. We hope you're setting your own goals, prioritizing what's most important to you, and incorporating clay into your plans somehow. Enjoy and here's to a great year! What would you do if.....

Ryan and Becca talk about a recent post Becca shared on Instagram about giveaways that’s sparked some discussion so we decided it would be a good topic to cover here. Isaac Shue joins us for part of the episode as well to throw out some ideas while Becca’s visiting him this week. We also just realized how amazing gift cards can be for the business. We hope our discussion spark some thoughts in you...

Becca and Ryan spent a weekend recently at Clay Con West, an up & coming clay conference hosted in St. George, Utah, and share some insights about their background, process, their relationship, and growth of the podcast over time. There are many call outs about past episodes numbers where we discuss pricing, sharing your work on Instagram, glazing, and some of our guests we interview. They ans...