We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Maya Rumsey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Maya thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I have been able to earn a living as a potter but it has been quite a journey. When I first started my business in 2012 I was a full time yoga teacher. I was then able to slowly drop classes as I was able to earn more money consistently from my ceramics. I dropped my last yoga class in 2015 after I had my first kid. At that time I was able to show that I could make enough money month to month to pay all of my bills and over the years my income from the business has grown each year.

When I started I was on Etsy it was entirely different in 2012 from what it is today. I used Etsy like a social media platform to grow for a few years then when I started my Instagram in 2014 I was able to start directly market my work outside of Etsy. When I was selling on Etsy at first I was mostly marketing my work as Made to Order and would tell people it would take 4-6 weeks to make any order. This work was a lower price point because I did not have the audience or skills to sell my work for more money. I chose to make more simple work that took me less time to make so that I could keep my prices low.

As I was able to grow my audience on Instagram I was able to switch to higher value, more complex work. With this work I will spend about four weeks working on a batch, spend time marketing it, and then set a release date. The day after my shop update I will typically be able to ship all of the work. One downside of this is that I usually wouldn’t have much work available to buy on my website outside of the set shop update day. I have gone back to making more Made to Order work recently to try to make it so that I more work available to order on my site at any given time. I still will do shop updates though and I’m focusing those on my higher value one of a kind work.

I have tried many different ways of selling and marketing my work online over the years. I realize after many adaptations that there will likely never be one perfect way for me to sell my work. Instead I find it important to be able to be adaptable with your own changing seasons in your life like having kids, the changing ways of the internet and how people shop and use social media, and your own changing audience.

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.

I first took ceramics seriously when I got to college. I was getting my BFA at Bowling Green State University with a concentration in glass. Even though I went to BG for the glass and did my senior show in glass I went through senior studio in ceramics and fell in love with clay. I knew when I left that if I were going to continue with anything it would be ceramics. I spent a few years after art school doing things that were not art. I felt very burnt out on art at the time. I did some long mediation retreats, became a yoga teacher, and did some traveling.

I worked at the Omega Institute (where met my husband), then we went and lived in Costa Rica for about a year. It was there that I became a yoga teacher. After that we then settled in Colorado where I first was a full time yoga teacher. I was teaching up to 14 classes a week all over Denver. I got back into making ceramics through the Arvada Ceramcis Arts Guild there. I worked for about a year on just getting back into clay and developing work that I would like to sell. Over the next several years I sold my work online and dropped my yoga classes. I did some local markets but mostly focused on growing my online buisness.. I also have two kids while we lived in Denver in 2014 and 2016.

In 2018 we moved up to Coeur d’Alene, Idaho where we live now. Since my entire business is online I was able to pretty seamlessly bring my work here without any big changes. When I worked out of the Arvada Ceramics Art Guild I would work mostly in my home studio and used their space to glaze my work. After moving to Idaho I made a home studio where I could do everything including mix glazes.

After more than 10 years of having a home studio that was in the corner of a one car garage, then in the basement we recently built a new studio in our back yard. It has enough space for my studio practice, my glazing, a small bathroom, a loft for the kids to play in and a side for office and shipping work. It has been a dream come true to be able to create this space. Because I worked for so many years in less than ideal circumstances I feel so fortunate to have this space dedicated to being able to make my work.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I believe very much in local arts organizations. I live in a pretty small town in North Idaho and I volunteer at a place here called Emerge CDA. I know it’s vital to have these kinds of safe spaces not only in big cities but in small towns. Many of us and especially young people are in need of community spaces like these. They can put on big events or small meet ups. I think it’s important as individuals so support places locally that are doing this kind of work with what we can whether that’s time, money or resorces.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I was younger I thought a lot about what is art and what is craft. I believed that there had to be a very clear defined line between the two. There was so way you you put a line in the sand and say this is art and this is craft. Over the years I have slowly then completely let go of this idea. I don’t care at all. Comparing craft to art is like comparing apples to orangoutangs. They are simply completely different things. And most work out there has some combination of the two. Craft to me is simply the way of making something. Anything. You can develop those skills. Art to me is like love. It’s very important, you know it intuitively, but at the end of the day it’s very hard to put into words exactly what it is. I don’t really have any desire anymore to put it into words. I’m happy for the art side of my work to live in that cozy little space inside me that has no words at all.

I did make a silly video saying that it’s art if it has a butt and if anyone asks I’m sticking to that!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mayamelissapottery.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mayamelissapottery/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mayamelissapottery

Image Credits

Kim Hildebrand (photos of me)
Maya Rumsey