The Maker's Playbook
A podcast where we talk all about what it's really like to make a living from the things you make. Featuring candid interviews with other ceramicists and makers, as well as helpful business tips to make your side-hustle into a life-giving, viable business.
Episodes
Many makers treat consistency as the goal and cyclical creative rhythms as something to fix — but Shalya Marsh, of Shalya Marsh Studios, has built a three-decade career on making, unmaking, and remaking herself: sculptor to potter, employee to entrepreneur, solo maker to (almost) business owner with an assistant. Her conversation digs into whether "balance" is really the wrong word for what most working makers...
You already know what it feels like to open a cupboard, see a mug, and know exactly who made it before you ever check for a signature. That's the instinct artists have always had. So why does the word "branding" make so many of us tune out? Jessie, one half of the duo behind Inkpot Creative, breaks it down: That same kind of recognition (built on purpose) is all branding actually is. Consistency matters more than an...
As makers, we're told to define our ideal audience and nail our strategy before we ever start — but what if the real strategy reveals itself only after you've already begun? Robin Corradino of Rob Ceramics joins to unpack how she built a thriving wholesale and consignment-based business almost by accident, never doing a single craft market until years into selling her work. Her approach challenges the conventi...
Most of us have been told (or have told ourselves one way or another) that building a successful creative business means picking a lane and staying in it. But what happens when the lane you've built starts to feel more like a cage, and the work that once lit you up becomes just another obligation you can't motivate yourself to do? Christina Orthwein's journey from production potter to sculptor to jewelry maker and b...
Many of us assume that when demand for our work finally arrives, we're supposed to rise to meet all of it — that suddenly the rules of supply and demand apply to us the same way they apply to everyone else. What if deliberately not scaling up isn't leaving opportunity on the table, but is actually the thing that makes the work worth wanting in the first place? In her conversation with Debi Stoliar of Curiosibe...
We spend so much energy measuring success by how visible or "full time" our craft looks from the outside, but the version of making that actually sustains you might look completely different from what you think it should. Over the last 5 years, since we first interviewed Camille Beckles (of Camille at the Wheel), on our debut episode here at the Maker’s Playbook, Camille has had the opportunity to say yes to t...
For fifteen years, the first piece of advice out of my mouth to anyone asking about self-employment has been the same: keep the outside income as long as you possibly can. And for fifteen years, I wasn't doing it.
Until now.
In this solo episode, I'm sharing a significant personal update — what led me to take an outside job after fifteen years of running my own businesses, what burnout actually feels like versus...
Most of us have been told — implicitly or explicitly — that success as a maker means growth: more followers, more orders, more revenue. But what if the real question isn't how big can this get, but what do I actually want from this? Taylor Friese of Maker Bakery built a waitlist that stretches years into the future not by chasing a bigger audience, but by getting radically clear about who she makes work ...
If you've ever Googled "how to price my art" or "how to grow a creative business" hoping someone would just hand you the right answer — this episode is for you. Rebecca digs into why making confident business decisions as an artist or maker isn't about finding the perfect formula. It's about treating your art business like a science experiment: forming a hypothesis, testing it, analyzing what actually happens,...
Most of us assume that building a creative business takes years of groundwork before the work can speak for itself — but what happens when the work takes off before you've had time to figure out the business? Aaron Raymond of Redacted Ceramics went from renting a wheel for a week to running a full-time pottery business in under two years, and his story raises a quiet but important question: does the convention...
As makers with hobbies turned side-hustles, many of us get wrapped up in the ultimate goal and dream of quitting our day jobs to pursue pottery full time—but what if that pressure to monetize everything is actually stealing the joy from the very thing we fell in love with? Matt Robinson's experience first burning out on wedding photography taught him that the freedom to experiment, fail, and follow creative wh...
When you see someone juggling multiple jobs in their creative field, it's easy to assume it's because none of them could fully support them on their own—but what if having options is actually the most strategic business decision you could make? What happens when you intentionally build each avenue to be viable as a standalone career, then choose to keep them all anyway? In Part Two of this “Where are the...
So many of us carry the weight of what we thought our creative careers were supposed to look like—especially when formal education told us exactly what success should be. What happens when you realize that the dream you've been chasing (full-time solo artist, full-time influencer, the one perfect job) isn't actually what you want anymore? As Hope Limyanksy shares her journey from trying to fit into expected mo...
We're bombarded with messages telling us we're missing some secret key to business success—especially at the start of a new year—but here's the truth:
There's nothing fundamentally new about running a successful business, no matter what year it is. What if the real problem isn't that you're lacking some proprietary system or special knowledge, but that you've been convinced you need to keep searchin...
For many makers, opportunities to focus solely on creative exploration—without the pressure to produce work for sale or prove our worth through finished pieces—feel impossibly rare or reserved for those along a traditional academic path. When you discovered your craft later in life, already juggling mortgages and responsibilities you can't simply walk away from, where do you turn for intentional study an...
Building a team is one thing—but how do you actually run a production ceramics studio day-to-day without losing the handmade quality that makes your work special?
In this second part of my conversation with Sarah Wolf of Wolf Ceramics, we dig into the operational realities of running an eight-person studio. Sarah breaks down weekly production rhythms, why cross-training her team across multiple tasks creates bo...
What if you could grow your business and build a team without becoming a factory—creating a business that values craft, flexibility, and the humans behind the work?
In this conversation, Sarah Wolf of Wolf Ceramics shares her journey from studying geochemistry to building an eight-person ceramics studio in Hood River, Oregon. She opens up about the early years working from her parents' basement, the vulnerable ...
Right now, for potters and artists around the world the holiday season is crazy busy - markets, commissions, shop updates, custom orders all piling up at once. But are you choosing what's right for you, or just reacting to everything coming at you? In this episode, we explore the crucial difference between making intentional decisions based on your unique goals versus automatically saying yes because you're af...
Working as a librarian by day and making pottery in her garage studio by night, Becky wrestles with a challenge many makers face: how do you develop a distinctive artistic voice when you're working in isolation? What if the pressure to constantly produce—amplified by social media's highlight reel—is actually drowning out the quiet work of discovering what you're truly trying to say? Through Becky's journ...
Many makers struggle with the tension between creating work we love vs making work that we think will sell, especially when traditional academic instruction is often focused on concepts and what I call “Capital A Art” over the practical skills needed to make a living. What if the key isn't choosing between artistic integrity and commercial viability, but rather learning to work efficiently?
Olivia Avery's...
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