The Story So Far — Trish B Pottery

Hello everyone! Welcome to my blog! I am so excited to finally have it up and running. I can’t wait to share all the awesome things that I have going on at Trish B Pottery! It wouldn’t be proper to just dive right in without a solid introduction, so let me tell you the story so far. This is going to be a longer post than I will usually write. I will try to edit – I promise!

After spending many years wanting to try my hand at the potter's wheel, I finally got the opportunity in June of 2016. I was working at a hospital as a bedside cardiology nurse and was well into burnout mode. I had been a bedside nurse since 2009 and a nurse educator at a local university since 2013. Every day of my life revolved around science, medications, care plans, and technical clinical skills.

Before nursing school, creativity was a large part of my life. Every day I would wake up inspired to capture the beauty of nature and colors. It soon became clear to me that to get through nursing school, I would have to put my head down and focus intensely on writing papers, studying for tests, and completing arduous clinical prep work. The creative part of me went dark and dormant so that I could meet the goal of finishing nursing school. The first few years of nursing at the beside are incredibly stressful. One still has to maintain the intense focus on learning, recognizing patterns, and building up the stamina of 12+ hour shifts in a busy setting. I dove headfirst into challenging jobs and kept up the crazy pace for many years.

Jumping back to 2016, I was burned out, depressed, and really missing the creative person I was pre-nursing. I managed to finagle my schedule to take a month off from my job to try to get some rest and get my headspace right. By some miracle, I was able to get into a pottery class at a local parks and recreation studio. The classes usually stayed full with the same people taking them over and over for many years. My friend Anneke joined me and we were beyond excited.

I want to tell you that this first class was magical and that my first year in clay was an absolute dream. It was not. I will expand more on this in later blog posts because my drama-filled journey into clay actually plays a large part in why I now teach clay to beginners. I will admit that I did fall in love with clay that first day, even though I left my first class quite discouraged.

By some miracle, I remained undeterred and showed up for classes consistently over the next year. After 1 year of relying mainly on what small natural ability I had and the university of YouTube, I had not moved past beginner issues and I knew I could be doing better. I reached out to Molly Sanyour who happened to be offering private lessons at her studio in Richmond, VA. I met with her for what I believe may have been an 8-hour lesson (Molly, bless you) and left feeling more encouraged than I had ever been since beginning working with clay. Molly was able to provide instruction and rationales for every step of the throwing process. I finally understood and was so excited to have a solid understanding of the how and why of each step. With those steps fresh in my mind, I went home that evening and threw 10 perfect pieces. I knew things were about to get awesome!

My lesson with Molly that changed my course, 2017

Over the next year, I began to teach clay to my friends, family, and nursing students. I had a small tabletop wheel in my apartment and while that presented many challenges, I loved getting to sit down and share what I knew with others. I kept taking classes at the local studio because by this point I had become part of the community there. I had a wheel in my home, but I needed access to a kiln. This was a problem that I was actively trying to solve when the next opportunity came up.

In the summer of 2018, two years after starting clay, I was beginning to find my stride and my confidence was finally growing. The studio was under new management and I was expressing my desire to help out more at the studio. I was offered a job as a studio assistant where I fired the kilns, did projects, and kept the place clean and organized. At the end of summer 2018, the studio manager and I had reorganized and cleaned the entire studio (something that had not been done in many years). This is something that I am still incredibly proud of even though it raised some eyebrows.

In the fall of 2018, I taught my first pottery class. I was not supposed to teach one until the next spring, but the scheduled instructor had to step back and I was willingly thrown in the deep end. I am so thankful this happened the way it did. The Lord could not have given me a better first class. It was a beginner’s class full of some of the most incredible women I have ever met that will surely be friends for life. This successful class gave me the confidence that I needed to keep going and taking on more classes.

Now, I want to tell you that all of this time was perfect and happy. It was more a mix of happiness and sadness. There were many difficult situations that I was walking through at the studio, but thankfully I had the full support of my awesome boss, Rachel. At this point, I was learning the hard lesson that making positive changes is not easy. It takes time, hard work, introspection, and it can be very messy and painful. I may go into this more later as I develop this blog because so many amazing lessons were learned during this time. I just want to do it in a way that is respectful, positive, and in no way catty. I still haven’t totally healed from some of these situations, but I am getting there. Since then we have grown the program, putting tons of energy into the studio itself, the studio culture, and the way we teach our students. I love teaching classes and watching students make things on their first day that took me a year to have the skill to make.

One of my evening classes having a cat party during the last class - early March 2020

During this whole time, I went back and forth about having my own pottery business. I had an Etsy shop, but at the time I barely put anything in it as most of my energy was going into the studio. In early 2020, I was burning out a little. We were running like crazy at the studio, elated at how many people wanted to come to try pottery. Our waitlists were growing and we knew we had to keep expanding to accommodate everyone, but we were at our max. Lockdown in 2020 was something that helped me a lot in this area. In March I was furloughed and had to give back my key to the studio. It allowed me to step back and really see what I wanted to do going forward. I could rest and really reflect on the events last 4 years. I am just telling you about my pottery life…I also left the bedside and worked 5 jobs and paid off $50,000 of debt in 2018/2019 as well. I was tired and was hurting myself by not stopping to take a break. I was so happy to get back into the studio in July of 2020 with a renewed sense of wonder for clay and teaching clay to others. We got through the rest of 2020 without having to shut down which is so awesome. With the smaller class sizes, we were able to continue optimizing the studio and I think we have hit a great stride.

My little corner of the world. Photo by Salina Sisco.

I began to think about my pottery business again. With putting a lot of energy into the studio, I had neglected my own practice and started feeling like I was in a rut. I had very little enthusiasm for my business and barely updated my Instagram (@trishbpottery). In December 2020, I decided that 2021 was going to be a make-or-break year for Trish B Pottery. My resolve was to give it my all for a year and see where I am at the end, good or bad.

I have a full-time job as a nurse educator and I am still working as a part-time studio assistant at the local pottery studio. Trish B Pottery is very much a part-part time job. That said, I am trying to put some love into this project every single day. I am having a blast and have set some pretty lofty goals for myself. I became an LLC in January and had a website made and my first wholesale order completed in February.

One of the biggest projects going on this year is my 1000 pieces project. Between December 23rd, 2020, and December 23rd, 2021 I will be throwing 1000 pieces on the wheel. I plan to write a blog post this week explaining my reasoning for this crazy idea!

If you made it this far, you are seriously amazing. I am so thankful for every bit of support I receive. I cannot tell you what it means to me.

My clay journey has not always been sunshine and rainbows, but I think that it is good that it hasn't. Clay is about perseverance, getting down in the mud (literally and figuratively), and it humbles me every day. I am so thankful I have the opportunity to be a constant student in the act of teaching others. We are all figuring this out together.

I will break down a lot of these things I hinted at in future posts, but I hope you have a better picture of where I came from and where I am going. Stay muddy, friends!