In the first part of our interview, we talked about how AJ got into pottery, what they learned about starting a business, how they experiment with different products and marketing channels, which includes leaving Etsy, and how their signature creations, the blobs, shaped their brand. We also discussed how markets are important for creators who sell physical products but how it’s good to find the balance between selling in-person and online to get the best of both worlds.
Petra: How did you get into pottery?
AJ: I went to Gray’s School of Art to study 3D design which was a four-year course and we did a bit of jewelry, ceramics, product design, 3D modeling, and 3D printing, amongst others. It wasn’t until I was halfway through my first year that I tried ceramics. It was really hard, and I was really bad at it, and I just wanted to get better. From then on, I would have my classes during the day, and some days I would go up to the ceramics department where I could practice in the evenings. Then, at the end of my second year, there was a chance to go to Denmark, on a ceramics trip. I went there and met all these people from all over the world who were doing ceramics as a job. I knew at that point that I loved ceramics, but I didn’t really think I could make a career out of it.
I thought I’d probably just do product design because that’s like a proper job. Then I met all these wonderful people who were doing ceramics as a full-time career, and I thought, well, if these people can do it, then I can do it, and I’m gonna try to see how it goes.
And so for our next two years at university, I focused on ceramics.
Petra: How much time passed until you could start doing ceramics full-time?
AJ: I was very lucky. I didn’t think it would be quite so quick. I thought it would be a good few years of doing it part-time before I could get into it full-time. But doing The Great Pottery Throwdown really sped that up for me [AJ won the 5th season of the Channel 4 TV show in 2022 as a design graduate — more on this later]. I started selling things on the side in 2020, then, in February 2021, I started going full-time. So it was quite fast, and I feel very lucky that I was able to do that. I was still working part-time in a shop while The Great Pottery Throwdown was coming out on TV, and I started getting more people coming into the shop asking me for pottery than I was for clothes, shoes, climbing gear, and other things I was supposed to be selling. I thought, well, if there’s a time to give it a go and see how it works, then it’s now. And if it doesn’t go well, then that’s fine. But at least I will have tried.
Petra: So people were seeing you on TV and then they recognized you in the shop?
AJ: Yeah. The first couple of people recognized me and asked me, what are you doing here? And I said, I work here. 😅Then, I think they started telling people because I had people coming in looking specifically for me to ask if they could buy my pottery. I told them that’s really nice, but I don’t have anything. It was really bizarre, but luckily, everyone at my work was so supportive and kind, too. They were watching along with the show, and they were all supporting me, and my parents and partner as well. They were all brilliant at that. When I handed in my notice, I felt like everybody had my back and I knew that if ceramics didn’t work out, I could still come back to the job, and with everybody’s support, everything would be fine.
Petra: What was starting a business like?
AJ: It was tough. Going from a steady income to making and selling things, and having that income be a lot more varied was quite difficult to start with and there were a few months where I was like: “Oh, God! I’m not going to make the rent this month.” Sometimes that’s still the case because something will happen with the car or the dog, or somebody needs something. It’s usually the dog, to be honest. 😅But, after all, we’re still making the rent, we’re still doing well, things are a lot more stable now, and I feel a lot more comfortable.
It’s a big learning curve, but it’s worth sticking with it. It is quite scary and you will think: “Are we doing the right thing? Can I actually do this?” And my advice for people would be: Don’t be afraid to ask for help! It doesn’t mean you’ve failed if you need to ask for help. It’s worth sticking to something that you’re genuinely passionate about.
Petra: Do you have other creators you can turn to when you have questions about business, marketing, sales, or anything related?
AJ: Yeah, absolutely. I think it’s really important to have those kinds of people around you or to find those people that you can ask questions about starting your own business, specifically a creative business. I work at Deemouth Artist Studios in Torry, Aberdeen. There’s a bunch of artists here as a collective. Our landlords, Peter and Alan, have converted these old office spaces into art studios. Everybody rents out their own rooms and works out of there. Some of us part-time, some of us full-time. There are jewelers, ceramicists, upholsterers, people who work with fabrics, and printing, and all sorts of things. That’s a great community for me to be able to lean on and ask questions.
There’s also everybody that I met through university and the people I met through events like Potfest in Perth, in Scotland. It’s like this big pottery convention. I go there every summer with my partner. We’ll go around and talk to all the artists and buy far too much pottery. 😅 There are a couple of potters that I’ve made really good friends with, and it’s great to be able to just chat with them casually now and ask questions like, how did you do this, or what do you think about teaching? There are people I’ve met through social media, as well, from whom I’ve asked: How do you manage your inbox? What do you do about online shipping and customs codes for shipping internationally? There are all these things that you don’t think of initially when you start a business.
Petra: The main characters of your business are the blobs. How were they born?
AJ: Blobs feel like my children and I have an army of blobs that slowly grows. They started as drawings. I always did a lot of doodles and drawings, through the whole of primary and high school and university, as well. I always had a sketchbook on me, in my pocket, or my bag, and every spare five minutes I would take it out and do doodles and share them with friends. It was quite a social thing for me. When I got into university, it also became a stress relief. In the evenings, I would do these doodles, which turned into blobs, and they started as these melty faces with the eyes sticking out, and the mouths and the bodies were kind of melty, too. When I had a long day or I was feeling stressed, I would just take it all out on a page and draw how I was feeling it.
Then, when I went to Denmark on that trip, we had a firing one night, and they had extra room in one of their firings that they were doing. I found one of my drawings and I said, I’ll just make this one. That was my first kind of 3D clay blob. It got loads of interest, and that made me think I should do more of these because I really enjoyed doing it and other people really liked it and seemed to find it funny, too. When I got home, I started doing more in my spare time. First, I made them just for myself, then I put them up on my Instagram and I started getting asked by other people, could you make one for me, or my partner? Or could you make one with a walking stick or a tray of cookies? So I started making the blobs full-time and I haven’t stopped since.
Petra: Do you think you will ever feel that you’re bored with them? Because you obviously, and luckily, seem very excited about them now.
AJ: I don’t think I will, and I definitely don’t want to either. I haven’t been diagnosed but I’m pretty sure I’ve got ADHD and growing up I was always bouncing from one project to another. I was worried that I would have my sort of hyper-focus on the blobs too and then I’d never make them again, but it’s been a few years now and they’ve really stuck with me. I think it’s one of these things that will keep growing and changing and I’ll never really get bored of it.
Petra: They are like your signature products now.
AJ: Yeah, I feel like they’re so versatile. I can do so much with them and I think that’s why I’ll stick by them because, for instance, I can do them as ornaments or lamps, or I can turn them into dinosaurs, and I’ve also started making T-shirts with the blob faces… There’s just so much that I can explore with them.
Petra: Speaking of T-shirts… Last Christmas you had T-shirts, pins, Christmas cards, and tote bags with the blobs on them. Are these as popular as your ceramics?
AJ: It’s something that I’m still kind of figuring out because they’re quite new. I felt very nervous about bringing out these at Christmas because I wasn’t sure if people were going to buy them, and I was buying them in bulk. I had like a hundred T-shirts, and I said, I really hope people buy these. 😅 And they did! Having them available internationally on my website really helped. I sold half of them in person and the other half online, internationally. They sold really well and I think that’s also because it was that time of year when people were looking for gifts and things.
This year, I really want to experiment more with that, but I’m looking at doing it on a more made-to-order basis. The company that I’m working with, YourDesign, is going to take my designs on file, we’ll be connecting our websites together so that when someone orders something on my website, they’ll make it to order and then ship it out to them. That gives me more time to make ceramics instead of packing up T-shirts, and it also makes sure that I’m not sitting with a stock of a hundred T-shirts that nobody likes. 😅I won’t have to worry that I need to sell fifty of these or I’ve lost X amount of money. That’s going to be really good. I’m excited about that.
Petra: Speaking of partnerships. You also had your blobs integrated with lamps, called “blamps” and the lamp shades or “blob shades”, and you needed another company to help with that. How did the partnership come about?
AJ: That was really great. I partnered with Esk Valley Lampshades. Odette Illingworth, who’s behind the company, messaged me on Instagram after The Great Pottery Throwdown came out and asked if I would be interested in collaborating. I said yes, that’d be awesome. We had emails back and forth for a few months, which then turned into over a year because I was busy. But about a year after the show came out, I finally managed to start making these blamps. We’d been thinking about it for so long that we already had ideas on what we were going to make. We were sending measurements back and forth, she sent me some samples and I sent her pictures and progress photos. It was a full-on teamwork to make these blamps and I just adore them. I think they’re so much fun. I can’t wait to make more.
Petra: Do you take private commissions as well?
AJ: I don’t take commissions at the moment. It’s tricky with ceramics because it takes me weeks to make anything from start to finish and then if a client isn’t happy with it, I need to make another version, but a project can stretch out so long this way. Then I would get worried that the client is getting impatient and frustrated because I’m making them wait while I make another thing. Now I’m in a position where I can make things in batches and sell them on my website, and people are interested in that and are looking for that — so as long as I can do that, I think I’ll avoid commissions.
Petra: You also offer pottery classes. How did those start?
AJ: I love teaching. I do one-to-one classes, once a month and out of my studio, and I do hand-building classes and throwing classes, as well. I wanted to break up my making time with some teaching time because I missed meeting new people. It’s been really nice being able not to be stuck in my studio 24/7 and being able to invite new people in and teach in a different space, and to be able to pass the skills that I’ve learned onto other people because that’s something that I never got to do as a kid. I never got to try ceramics when I was younger because there wasn’t anywhere in Aberdeen where I could try it. So, that was the main drive for me to be a part of Aberdeen Ceramics Studio [AJ is a founding member of the studio], to open that up for other people, because I never had the chance to try ceramics before I was 18, and I think I might have discovered that I liked it sooner.
Petra: How successful are the classes?
AJ: The Aberdeen Ceramics Studio throwing classes are really popular. A lot of times people want to try because they may have seen it on TV, or they’ve heard about it, and so many people who come, have never done it before. The hand-building classes are also popular but with that, it’s more about getting people through the door because they maybe haven’t heard of hand-building or don’t know what kind of thing you can make with it, or how varied it can be. Whereas with throwing, you’ve got a very clear picture in your mind of what that is.
My one-to-one classes have been really good, as well. I definitely have at least a few of them every month, which is great, and there are different times a year when it’s more popular or less popular. Quite often towards the end of the year, it will be less popular, and I think it’s because people save up for gifts, thinking for Christmas time. Then, in January and February, it gets picked up more because people spend the gift vouchers they have, and then book a class in the first few months of the year. There are definitely peaks and troughs with it, but I find it so rewarding.
Petra: I actually thought that hand-building is more popular because learning the throwing part seems a lot more difficult and technical versus just using my own hands to create something.
AJ: Yeah, hand-building is definitely easier to pick up straight away. Throwing takes a lot of practice and I think some people can become a bit frustrated when it’s their first time and it’s not going right. They’ve usually got an image of what they want to make in their head but can’t get there, which I totally understand because I was like that as well when I started. With hand-building, you can really make something quickly to how you have it in your head. It feels like a skill you can build up just straight away. Whereas with throwing, you need to practice for a few weeks before you can get something decent.
A lot of people that I teach compare throwing to learning how to drive because you’re trying to think about what your hands are doing, and what your feet are doing. And you’ve got external factors like the water and the clay and the speed of the wheel that you’ve got to think about. You have to get to a place where you’re doing a few things subconsciously and you’ve got the mind space to be able to think about other things. It takes a bit of practice to get there, but you do get there.
Petra: Let’s talk about branding and marketing now. How would you describe your brand?
AJ:
I think my brand is definitely the blobs. I’m known for the blobs and for colorful, kind of cartoony ceramics. I would describe them as very smooth, bubbly, bright, happy, expressive ceramics, which I think is a really cool thing to be associated with. I feel like I’m just a big kid, and I probably will be for the rest of my life. I really like that I can express that side of myself in my work.
Petra: What did you do regarding marketing that helped so that people would get to know you and hear about you in the beginning? I know the TV show must have helped.
AJ: Having a very specific identity in what I make, and having that consistency through my designs really helped build my brand. This means that I have very recognizable pieces, so if you saw one of my pieces out of context, then you’d know where it’s from, which is something I really like about my work.
Having social media also helped, and setting up my own website, rather than selling off a third-party seller like Etsy. I know that many people are not in a position where they can have their own website yet, but I find that really helpful in growing my following because people have a place to go where they can find what they’re looking for from me. I also have an email subscription on my website so I can send emails out to people, specifically when I have something going up for sale and I know that the people who are subscribed to my emails are interested and want to actively look for my things to buy.
My Instagram is probably what drives my sales the most though because it makes my work visible. It also keeps people up-to-date when they see a post about me working on something, so they know that I’ll maybe have something up for sale in the next few months and they’ll keep an eye on my website to see when they’re available.
Petra: Some creators have told me that they cannot get as much traffic and sales from Instagram to their webshop now as how it was in the past. Have you noticed anything like that?
AJ: I’ve heard that as well but I haven’t really been doing it long enough to notice a difference. When I started posting on Instagram over a couple of years ago, at one point I got to about 350 followers, which I was super happy with at the time. I probably still would be if I hadn’t gone on the show [The Great Pottery Throwdown]. Because of that, I gained thousands of followers within a matter of weeks. Right now I’m at a place where I can post things and I know roughly how many people are going to see it and interact with it. It’s a really good thing to know because it also helps me give an idea of how many things to order or to make.
In terms of ceramics now, I can’t make enough of it due to the high interest, but it is a great position to be in because I’ve been on the other side of it, where you’re making loads and nobody is buying things.
It’s great to be in a position where I can just make as much as I can, and people are buying it. With T-shirts and merch, having that Instagram following is also great because I can just directly ask my target audience, would you buy this? Would you be interested in this? And if you would be interested in this, tick this box, and then it gives me a number of roughly how many people are interested and I can have an idea of how many things to order.
Petra: How many items do you have in one collection that goes up for sale at a time?
AJ: It is more and more each time because I’m getting more competent and faster at making things. I’m also growing my business so I’m able to afford more equipment, which helps me speed up my making process. I recently got a bigger kiln, which has hugely expanded my practice because I’m able to fit larger pieces or many more pieces in there. For my biggest collection, I had about 40 ceramic items for sale. On my next one, I’m hoping to have about 70 things, but it depends on the size of the things that I’m making. Obviously, if I’m making lamps, for instance, they’re bigger and they take more time, but overall, it seems to get slightly more each time I upload a new collection.
Petra: I know it also depends on the number of things, but on average, how much time does it take to create one collection?
AJ: It used to take me about a month, with my smaller kiln. But, with my bigger one now, it takes me about a month to be able to make enough stuff to fill the kiln. So, it will probably take me about two months, starting from creation to putting it on the website, because there are things that you don’t think about necessarily that all take a lot of time, like taking photographs and uploading images, packaging and posting, and so on.
Right now, I’m working on some new designs and some dinosaur lamps that are taking a bit of trial and error to get right before I can sell them. Once they’re done, I should be back into a better routine of making and selling. But it’s been nice to have that space to experiment and be in a position where I have a few months of rent in the bank and I can make some new designs and then sell them later in the year. It’s been great for my creativity to be able to make something that’s a bit different.
It definitely feels like a privilege to be able to do that as an artist, to have the time to experiment and try new things and not necessarily be making anything to sell, but something that’s an investment for future sales, if that makes sense. It’s not something that I can do all the time, of course, and I especially couldn’t when I first started and needed to make as many things as possible, so I could afford to live and eat.
Petra: Circling back to marketing a bit, you mentioned Etsy before. You had a store but you don’t use it anymore. Why?
AJ: Yes, I used to have an Etsy and I was selling things part-time there in my last year of university and a little bit beyond. Then I got my own Wix website, and it’s made such a big difference because they don’t take as much of a cut from my sales. Sure, you don’t get the sort of promotion that Etsy gives you but I think because I got to the point where my work was quite recognizable, I could afford to have my own platform to put things out.
For more on AJ’s thoughts on marketing, including building a newsletter with over 6000 subscribers, their tips on in-person and online sales, pricing creative work, and finding work-life balance, read the second part of our interview with them.
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Featured image by Jenny Rose Anderson
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