We were lucky to catch up with Bailey Brookes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Bailey, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

One of my most meaningful projects has been my vulva vases. I’ve always been captivated by the beauty of the vulva and knew that I wanted to attempt to capture that beauty in my work. I created a design of a simple vase form with four unique vulvas attached. At first, I was quite hard on myself. I thought the vulvas that I sculpted weren’t realistic enough. To me, they didn’t capture the beauty of the vulva in the way that I’d envisioned. I posted my vulva vases on TikTok, and two of them blew up. I received hundreds of comments and this was by far the most feedback I’d received on my work at once. Some comments were negative, of course, but the positive comments far outweighed them. One comment in particular said “I feel seen and beautiful.” That comment made my month. The fact that my work touched someone like that means the world to me and inspired me to continue to make vulva vases without being overly critical of my work. Each vulva I make is unique and there is beauty in that uniqueness, just like the human body.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Bailey Brookes and I create functional and sculptural ceramic art with my partner Austin Brookes in Durham, North Carolina. Together, we are Studio Brookes. I typically create the forms and Austin glazes our work. We prioritize sustainability in our creative practice, using only North Carolina clays, as well as recycled clay whenever possible. We are often inspired by nature and the human body. I quite enjoy making classical style vases and functional drink ware, but my favorite style is body and kink-positive work. Two of our most popular products are our vulva vases (vulvases?) and vulva incense burners. I also make boob mugs and vases. Something that I believe sets my work apart from others, at least locally, is the fact that I accept orders for custom hand-sculpted boob and vulva projects, so clients can get their chest or vulva on a vase, mug, or cup. I love these projects because they’re empowering for the client. The fact that my work inspires others to love themselves even just a bit more keeps me motivated when things get hard. I am so appreciative of the trust and support of clients who commission custom work.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I think something that non-creatives may not be aware of is the amount of time that goes into art. Pottery, specifically, has a high loss rate as kilns can be unpredictable and work can break during firing even when the artist has created the piece with sound technique. Probably 1/3 or more of my pieces don’t make it to the finished stage. When I create custom orders, I often make 2 or 3 of the same piece to have a better chance that at least one will turn out in time. For this reason, I’ve raised my prices multiple times while offering sliding scale pricing to maximize the accessibility of my work. I recently calculated my hourly income, and it’s about $6-$8 an hour. This was a bit defeating to discover, but this hourly rate is probably at the higher end for artists like me that are at the beginning of their careers. With all that said, please pay working artists, our survival often depends on local support.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

I believe that the best way to support artists is to get out into the community to experience and purchase art. Of course, not everyone has expendable income for art, but people who do should know that their dollar is powerful. Shopping local whenever possible and paying working artists are two ways that individuals can uplift the creative community.

Contact Info:

• Website: studio-brookes.com
• Instagram: studiobrookes
• Other: tiktok @ studiobrookes

Image Credits
Rachel Yu