Today we’d like to introduce you to Molly Watson Thomas.

Hi Molly, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Like many, I was an incredibly creative child. I’d spend my days finding things around my house to turn into furniture for my dolls or jewelry for myself. I was always looking forward to birthdays and holidays knowing I’d be given new paint sets or bars of air dry clay. As I got older, my friends and I would spend hours giggling together while we wrote stories and made movies full of inside jokes we still employ decades later. We’d go on hikes and I’d fill memory cards with pictures of wildflowers and granite rock formations that I couldn’t wait to get home and edit. In short, my earliest days were full of creative wonder.

And then that creative spark dwindled, I became stuck in the grind of homework and extracurriculars and teenage drama. The world told me to get into a good school, so I did. It told me to seek out a lucrative career path, so I did. It told me to keep my eyes down, to read my textbooks and regurgitate the information. To spend my days studying and chugging unhealthy amounts of coffee. That it was okay to hate how I was spending my days, that one day it would all be worth it.

But then I enrolled in a mandatory elective and a simple drawing class snapped me out of the path dependence towards a highly lucrative science based career and I remembered who I was. I switched majors and began studying interior architecture, a seeminly happy medium between creativity and financial independence. I spent years working on fake design projects in school and once I graduated, real projects with actual clients as an independent contractor, all while making art on the side. As the years went on and I picked up new artistic mediums and met fellow creatives, I began spending more time creating things that brought me joy and less time drafting floor plans on the computer.

Finally, I gathered the courage to give it my all. I stopped taking design jobs and instead focused all of my time on growing my own creative business. And now, years later, I once again look forward to new art supplies and raid my house for objects to use in ways they weren’t intended to. I giggle with my friends as we co-write novels and work on marketing our creative collaborations. Pictures of wildflowers and rocks fill my camera roll waiting for the day they’ll be used as inspiration for my next collection of pots.

My college degree may be sitting on a shelf covered in dust, but everything in a ceramics studio eventually is.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being a full time creative is full of struggles, self doubt, and failure. I read once that failing means you’re trying and I’ve carried that with me throughout this journey.

Do I get into every market I apply to? No, but at least I put myself out there.

Did I effortlessly make that new product idea that I dreamt up in the shower? No, but the second attempt *has* to be better than the terrible first try.

Will I really be able to finish this project on time? Maybe, if I stay up until 4am. If not, at least I gave it my best and tomorrow is a new day.

Being a business owner then adds a whole new level of struggle to the mix. You don’t get a paycheck every other Friday, you have to find every single penny you need to survive. You don’t have someone withholding taxes for you throughout the year, you have to remember to set 25% aside for next April. Nobody is matching your retirement savings or sending you a link to a portal with company insurance options. Everything is up to you. The money, the deadlines, every single tiny item on your to-do list. I am the boss, an employee, the unpaid intern, the whole business. I’d be lying if I said it isn’t terrifying at times, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth it, if anything it proves that it is.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve landed on ceramics as my primary medium and working with clay is hands down the most fun I have ever had. There is something so special about starting with a ball of literal mud and turning it into a mug or a planter… or a paint palette, a ring cone, a tiny ghost figurine with a flower glued to its head.

The options are endless with clay and I have definitely taken that knowledge as a personal challenge. Aside from collaborations with my fellow creative business friends, almost every single thing I make is one of a kind both in terms of shape and glaze. As a way to ensure some sense of consistency, I work on themed collections with very broad parameters so I can let my creativity flow within some necessary boundaries.

My collectors and customers have taken notice and I believe this may be what I’m known for. If you see something you like, snatch it up, because chances are this is the only one that will ever exist. I love this about my creative business and never plan on stopping, it keeps things fresh and exciting.

If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
As I mentioned before, I was a creative child and I spent most of my days making things. But looking back on it as an adult, I’ve realized a lot of it was simply a coping mechanism for dealing with both my chronic illness and tumultuous upbringing. I was creative, yes, but also mad at the world around me for being so cruel at such a young age. So mad that I felt the intrinsic need to make it a more beautiful place any way I could while still being a kid.

I drew, painted, created elaborate houses for my dolls, made jewelry and clay figurines. You name it, I tried it and loved it. I was never one for competitive or high paced computer games and instead preferred building elaborate houses, zoos, or farms. Most of my time outdoors was spent coming up with games, making forts, sharing stories with my friends as we hiked in our small mountain town, or planting flowers. I attempted participating in organized sports throughout the years, trying everything from karate to volleyball to swimming and everything in between, but not one kept my attention longer than a season.

When I wasn’t creating or quitting sports teams, I was reading, immersed in the worlds that other like minded souls thought to bring to paper. I consumed books faster than I could get my hands on them, reading absolutely anything I could find while cuddled up on our back deck in silence. I simply wanted a calm life in a world that wasn’t built to be so and I fought tooth and nail to find it for myself with the tools I had.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mollywatceramics.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/molly.wat/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bymollywat
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@molly.wat