We recently connected with Holly Broadway and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Holly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

The most essential skills in pottery and ceramic art are practice, patience, and a passion for the craft. Few things are as rewarding as seeing a finished piece that turns out beautifully, but some of the greatest lessons come from failures, which every ceramic artist experiences. It’s important to learn from each success and setback and not to get discouraged! A vessel can crack during the drying process if it dries too quickly or unevenly. In bisque firing, a piece may explode if it hasn’t dried thoroughly. And in the final firing, both the method and the placement in the kiln can lead to unexpected results. Some of my pottery friends joke at the glaze-firing stage, “It’s my last chance to ruin it!”—a line that always makes me laugh, because it’s true.

Holly, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a retired interior designer who has always been drawn to ceramic art and pottery. My personal collection includes some wonderful Acoma Indian pottery pieces, and throughout my design career, I have had the opportunity to specify ceramic pieces and other artwork for my clients.
A few years ago, I sat at the wheel for the first time and was instantly captivated! Working with clay is deeply therapeutic for me, demanding presence, focus, and a deliberate connection between my mind, my hands, and the form taking shape before me.
My ceramic art journey has evolved from wheel-throwing many different shapes and sizes of vessels, to hand-sculpting hollow-form pieces such as horses, bears, buffalo, and birds. As a self-taught sculptor, I’ve found it essential to understand the nature of clay, the scale and proportion of the animals I am making, and to combine wheel-thrown and hand-sculpting techniques. Whether altering a vessel or embellishing it, I’ve loved exploring the limitless creative possibilities of clay.
Most of my work has a rustic organic flavor and I take my cues from nature in terms of shapes, color palettes, texture, and finish.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Something that I’ve really had to work on is overcoming the fear of failure. Putting myself and my work “out there” on social media, on my website, and at art shows and markets, is an essential part of being an artist. I remind myself of all the beautiful connections I’ve made in those spaces, and there have been many! In spite of any risk, I truly believe that whatever happens, it will be ok. Each experience, whether it leads to a sale, a conversation, or simply a smile, is totally worth the risk!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the creative process itself. In ceramic design, each piece can unfold differently throughout the many stages of finish—and that slight unpredictability makes it exciting. Watching an idea successfully executed and transformed into a beautiful piece of art or functional piece of pottery is what it’s all about!
Another gift of this craft is the community it fosters. I’ve met so many wonderful people who share a passion for pottery and ceramic design, offering advice, offering encouragement, and sharing techniques. Their friendship has not only inspired me but has also helped me grow into a better artist. But the very best aspect of being an artist is seeing one of my pieces in it’s new home! When someone tells me they love something I have made, I am absolutely thrilled and deeply honored by that! It’s the best!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://broadwayceramicdesign.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arcturus.studio.interiors/

Image Credits

All photography by Holly Broadway