Today we’d like to introduce you to Rebecca Graves Prowse

Rebecca, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?

When I was in Kindergarten I pronounced loudly, and with my full chest that I wanted to be an artist when I grow up and immediately began to focus on that journey. After starting college I realized that crippling student loan debt didn’t sound as sexy as one might think and when offered a dream job as a visual merchandising assistant doing displays for a department store, I dropped out and stepped into the corporate world. Within a year I had my own store as a merchandising manager and a few short years later was a district manager and then a regional director for visual merchandising for the chain. I loved the job. I hated the corporate politics and lack of support for being an actual human.

When I eventually left the corporate world after 20 years, I once again announced loudly, and with my full chest, that I was going to be an artist now.

I had absolutely NO idea what that actually meant in practical terms but set out to find out by dipping my toes in the water of a variety of mediums that I had dabbled with as hobbies while in the corporate world.

It was a winding and circuitous route to becoming a full time potter. Pottery was the one art class I never took in all that time of chasing the dream. Writing pattern books for hand knitters was my first step into ceramics and I was instantly hooked. I needed cool buttons for a photo shoot for a book I was working on and my ceramics professor friend told me to come into the studio and make them my damn self. I did. And I was sunk.

For the next couple of years I turned that idea around and approached it from a variety of ways. I made ceramic jewelry, ornaments, doo dads, accessories…all manner of little things that I could make without equipment. The further I explored the more mystery I was confronted with. I truly believe that one could explore ceramics for several lifetimes and never reach the bottom of this deep well.

In 2011 I quit all the other forms of art I was doing and completely immersed myself in ceramics full time and in 2012 I opened my own personal studio in the back of my little lake cottage. From that 12×13 foot studio with kilns in a shed at the back of the property, I made ceramics for online sales, art festivals and slowly started selling wholesale and to galleries.

In 2018 my husband and I relocated to Indianapolis, the big city, and I was no longer able to have a home studio. It was do or die time. I signed a lease on a 700 square foot studio space and within a few months expanded into the space next to my studio. After just over a year we outgrew that space. I hired several assistants and we expanded into nearly 5,000 square feet of studio space.

That was just before the pandemic hit and in 2020, after the reckoning we all had with how quickly the rug can be pulled out from under us, with the deeper understanding of how fleeting life is, I realized that the studio I had built was not quite the career I wanted. I had become a ceramics manufacturer and had little time for exploration. In fact, beyond design work, I had little time to actually make pottery because I was running a team of 14 people. It was the dream I’d been working for but when I achieved it, I realized that what I really wanted was to focus less on private label and white label ceramics and shift my focus to an exploration based studio practice with a core collection that acts as a home base for exploring form, finish and function.

But I had signed a 5 year lease just before that pesky pandemic.

Fast forward to today and the lease is coming to an end. I stepped into this new year with the realization that my entire business model was about to change. The location is changing. The focus is shifting and my entire life is about to look quite different than the production studio I’ve been running and hustling 24/7 to maintain for 5 years.

This summer the studio will be moving into the same building as our brick and mortar store. When you come to shop you’ll be able to peer into the studio and see us actually making the pottery that we sell. This move will provide the breathing room needed for far more exploration. I have plans to add a collection of home lighting, a kitchen capsule collection and small limited edition collections that will be here and gone.

Now I am shifting the business model back to the original plan.

I am going to be an artist.

This time I have a much clearer idea of what that will actually look like.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

Starting and running a pottery studio, developing a product line not only for Gravesco but for other brands as well and doing it all through a pandemic has been anything but smooth. Fortunately, I’m the type of person who sees each challenge as an opportunity for growth and discovery. As I’ve shifted how the business works I have learned a lot about myself and also the work I want to create. Throughout the process I have learned as much about what I don’t want to do as I have learned what I actually love doing.

Growth is not an easy thing. Growth during a global pandemic is…I’m not sure I even have an appropriate word for how fucking hard it was.

To be honest, we still haven’t recovered from the shut down of 2020. To wake up one morning to discover 100% of my income dried up overnight, my wholesale accounts canceled or put orders on hold. My team of amazing humans couldn’t come to the studio but without the income I was at a loss for how to pay them. All the people outside the business who are my support circle were in the same boat and fortunately, our collaborative nature led us to some bandaid solutions to get us through that first six weeks.

During that time I was awarded a whopping $7,500 in government assistance. While other businesses were getting large amounts of cash to keep them afloat, we slipped through the cracks. My business line of credit was closed when the lender closed all accounts for small businesses of our size. We did not receive PPP loans for our employees. I depleted my savings and retirement paying my team out of pocket while working to find new footing.

The biggest challenge we have faced through the last four years has been working to find the financial breathing room to recoup those losses, get the business out of debt and have the financial consistency to change direction. The solutions have come slowly and through grit, determination and a scrappy spirit that refuses to let this dream fall away. We now have a team of six and it is my responsibility to ensure we all get to pursue our dreams in this unlikely field while not just surviving, but thriving.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?

Initially when I decided pottery was going to be my life’s work, I was hand building and wheel throwing functional wares that I then freehand carved. It was hard on my body and slow going. As I desired to expand the business and be able to make this a career, I shifted focus.

My favorite outfits are classically styled, natural fibers and very comfortable to wear.

I know that sounds like a random thing to say in the midst of a discussion about my career in pottery, but I promise it matters.

It matters because when I sat down to redesign my collection for 2024 I wanted to create something that feels timeless, classic, natural and to fit into my customer’s everyday life comfortably.

Effortless style is the goal.

The current body of work is absolutely inspired by my favorite outfits where the classic elements are allowed to sing in juxtaposition to a loose, artful process showing the marks of the maker. The pottery is crafted in such a way as to fit seamlessly into your life but also feel so good in the hand that you can’t imagine using factory made ceramics again.

My pottery is the vessel that holds your life memories and experiences. It’s the bowls you reach for when having ice cream night with the family or the wine cups you pull out when your friends are over having drinks on the deck. It’s the baked brie en croute in my handmade brie baker that is the companion to your intimate dinner party where you share laughs and dreams. It’s the coffee cup you reach for every morning to start your day with a delicious ritual.

I specialize in mindfully creating pottery that creates mindfully memories.

What do you like and dislike about the city?

I absolutely love being in a city with a bustling art community. Where buying handmade is not an unusual experience and where small businesses are supported by the people in our neighborhood.

As much as I love living in the city, sometimes the energy gets to be a little overwhelming. I long for a quiet place in the middle of nowhere that I can live a slower life, grow food, maybe have a brood of chickens that greet me on a short walk out to my studio behind the house. Perhaps that’s a daydream for my retirement. I just know that a balance of the energy of the city punctuated by moments of tranquility is what allows me to be my most creatively fulfilled.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gravesco.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/gravesco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gravescopottery/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLzbrkBG–Bu7JH0oJiG2Ig
• Yelp: https://biz.yelp.com/biz_info/I8DJvrSrgCE0zEVpphAiAw
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/gravesco

Image Credits
all the photos are my own.