We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amber Schnitzius. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amber below.

Amber, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I get asked this question a lot.

I had a career in health insurance and started taking pottery classes after work. I hadn’t touched clay since college and instantly remembered why I loved working with clay so much. It has always been something that has made my busy mind quiet and my favorite outlet for creativity.

After a few years of taking classes, I started posting pictures of my pieces to my personal social media accounts and my friends began to ask if I would sell my work. It took a while for me to get comfortable with the idea of selling my pottery but I eventually opened an Etsy shop in 2017 and was successfully selling my pieces. Then in 2018, I was approached to make ceramic dog bowls for a boutique shop in LA and my ceramics side business was growing.

I had started to experience exhaustion, burnout, anxiety, and a whole slew of negative emotions tied to my corporate job. One day after a terribly busy few months, I took a day off to go on a hike. When I got to a waterfall, I immediately started crying and the tears wouldn’t stop. It was in that moment I knew I had to do something about my job situation.

My Etsy shop was doing well and I was excited about other collaboration opportunities that were coming my way so I started making plans to shift out of my corporate job. When I started putting energy into moving toward a creative career, I started feeling hopeful and excited again. It was terrifying because it was a move in a completely different direction, but it felt more aligned with my beliefs and interests than anything I had ever done before. I knew that it was important to spend more time nurturing and exploring the artistic parts of me for personal and professional growth.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

When I was little, I saw a kid’s potter’s wheel in a toy store and that was the spark that first got me interested in clay. It wasn’t until high school that I was able to take a ceramics class and that’s when I fell in love with clay. I continued to take ceramics classes through college where I graduated with a major in math and minor in art.

I had taken a corporate job after college and didn’t touch clay again for years. After several years of taking classes again as an adult, I created a home studio in my garage and in 2017 started selling my wares online. In 2020, I moved into studio space in San Diego and opened my business, Rekindle Pottery. This studio space has allowed me to continue to make my work to sell online but to also invite customers in to stop by for in-person shopping and private pottery lessons.

For years, my primary ceramic work has been mostly functional pieces. Within the last year however, I’ve been drawn more toward interior design and how ceramic art can be used to fill spaces. My most recent work focuses on wall art and bigger statement pieces, drawing inspiration from a combination of a love for nature, science, math and art.

Over the span of time that I’ve been working with clay, I have struggled with embracing myself as an artist. Because I did well in math and took a job in analytics, I didn’t believe I could also be artistic. I thought you could only be one or the other, not both. Now, I am learning to fully embrace all aspects of who I am and celebrate that in my artwork, using a spectrum of skills and passions to bring my ideas to life.

When people tell me why they aren’t or can’t be creative, I share my story with them. There are so many of us who have these limiting beliefs that if we are good in a particular subject or job that we can’t do things outside of those constraints. My hope is that my artwork inspires people to explore their interests and break away from a sole identity that limits their experience in life and in the world.

When I named my business Rekindle Pottery, it was a reflection of the starts and stops I’ve had in my art journey, always rekindling my connection and creativity with clay when I come back to it. Now, I hope to pass that along to others, to rekindle their own curiosity and encourage the exploration of their creativity. I’m working on some ideas for helping people tap into their own creativity starting with home decor. Your home is a great place to experiment with your artistic ideas and build confidence in your creative abilities. More to come on that!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I was living in Oregon when I decided to make plans to quit my corporate job. My family lives in California and I was working on orders for a shop in LA, so I decided that it made sense to move south. I had plans to expand my Etsy shop, continue collaborating on products with a boutique shop in LA and had a consulting job lined up to keep income coming in while I built my business.

But, when I moved, just about everything in the moving truck broke, including my kiln. It was obviously absolutely devastating to open the truck to a complete disaster. Every solution I came up with to fix my kiln problem was met with a hard no. I couldn’t believe it! I ended up having to terminate the contract with the boutique and close my Etsy shop. Also, the consulting job I had lined up fell through. All of my plans completely fell apart and I was starting over, unemployed in a new city.

I ended up getting a corporate job in the same line of work I was doing in Oregon and didn’t touch pottery for a year. I got my kiln fixed, found a carport to rent for studio space and the movers (different ones this time) broke my kiln again! I got it repaired but the carport not being fully enclosed ended up having its own set of issues, as you can imagine, and I couldn’t get fully up and running while I had my equipment there.

In September 2020, I finally moved into a great studio space in the Arts District of Liberty Station in San Diego, CA. This space changed everything for me. I was around other artists and started to get some really good exposure. I slowly built up my business again and was finally able to quit my job to pursue my ceramics career in June 2021.

I get asked why I kept going after running into so many roadblocks. I don’t know really. I just felt like I couldn’t fully turn my back on ceramics without giving it a real chance and that I would always wonder if I didn’t try. I’m glad I listened to the voice that told me it wasn’t time to call it quits yet. But, I have come really close a few times!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission is to create ceramic art that continues to evolve by staying curious and pushing through limiting beliefs while inspiring others to explore their own curiosities to grow and thrive in new, joyful ways.

My goal is to see how much I can expand my skills and stretch my creativity. I have so many things I want to try and I can’t wait to see what I can do as I continue to push through doubts and fears.

Contact Info:

• Website: rekindlepottery.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rekindlepottery/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rekindlepottery/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rekindlepottery