Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cora Smith Waite. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Cora, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?
Fast forward 12 years and we are making our 12th annual design for that first customer. The original customer has since retired and sold the rights of the line of tiles to another business. This is our second year working with the new business. It is something that we are known locally for and a collectible item for years to come still!
We had an open studio concept there, where customers could come into the studio and see what we were working on. While I was making those first tiles one day, a customer asked if I could make some custom tiles for a backsplash and the rest is really history!
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?
At the time of graduation I had decided I loved the art of photography too much to force myself into making a job out of it. I knew I would not be happy photographing weddings or products or the usual. I ended up applying for an internship in the town I spent all of my summers in. It was working for a pottery shop. I was tasked with doing all sorts of things; waiting on customers, unpacking boxes, learning about different artists work, learning about processes and helping out in the pottery studio wherever I could! The customer mentioned above had come to the pottery shop just before I started there and inquired about having a tile made, not something that was being done there at the time. They figured out the basics and then put me in charge of making the one tile for the one customer. I used their 40 years of pottery knowledge to help me and LOTS of trial and error. I was hired out of the internship and together we grew Little Traverse Tileworks for the next 8 years. In 2021 I purchased the business and a building in a neighboring town and moved Little Traverse Tileworks to Harbor Springs. We have continued to grow over the past few years. We carry work from 25 other small and local artists.
We have a great space now where we can display our work and samples of what we can do. We have dedicated spaces that we can work with customers and plan out installation projects or custom tiles with them. We have a great crew here that is very knowledgeable and bring so much to the table. Everyone is always coming up with ways to improve how we do things and new ideas that we can try out in our slower season. We used to have a very slow season in the winter, since we are in a seasonal area, but that is not the case any more. It seems that we are always working on one project or the next and preparing for the next season. Our work takes a minimum of 6-8 weeks to complete and deliver to the customer which means that we are always forward thinking. We love working on custom projects whether it is a new design or figuring out how to cover a uniquely shaped fireplace surround with tile. Our customers are incredibly creative and trusting with us as we try new things and experiment to find out what works best!
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
We do “manufacture” our products but more in a sense that we actually create each piece by hand in our studio. Each piece that we make is touched by hands a minimum of 11 times from opening the bag of clay to a piece that is ready for the customer. Each year we are pivoting and growing and figuring out how to make more and do more with our crew and the space that we have. This year we actually were able to have a custom press built. This can save a few hours on labor every week and produce many more tiles than our traditional molds do. That being said, the new molds take about 5 times as long to make as traditional molds. We are excited to add this into our process but we will still be touching each piece 11 times, this just makes it so we can make more in a day for a few items that we tend to sell out of.
Clay is the most humble medium of all, I hear that all of the time and I definitely agree with it. After the first 5 years we were cruising; keeping up with production and creating new designs and gaining momentum. We had significantly less loss over time and then BAM…year 6…all of the sudden every piece is cracking in the first firing or the glaze is boiling in the second firing. We talked to our clay manufacturer and several artists and we spend the next 2 years trying to get to the bottom of this and fix the problem. We changed firing temperatures, changed pressing methods, learned about clay ingredients and glaze ingredients. As I said before nothing happens fast….We actually took every thing we had in back stock and re-fired our bisque back stock…that was like 10 kiln loads. Nothing worked. We finally found out that one of the ingredients that went into our clay had been changed by the supplier to our manufacturer without them knowing. Same ingredient, different sourcing. We made a clean break when we moved locations and started working with a new clay. Any potters out there know how difficult this is, especially within tile. We got samples of 20 different clays from 3 different manufacturers. We had to test all of them for shrink, texture and how our glaze appeared on the finished piece. Each glaze is chemically formulated to interact with the clay to produce the final color that you see. We were lucky enough to find one that was close enough. Our tiles definitely look different now since we are using a whiter clay. We barely notice anymore unless you show us one of our old pieces and we prefer the new now for sure.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
Contact Info:
- Website: littletraverse.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littletraversetileworks/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LTTileworks
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cora-smith-2a4625b0/