We were lucky to catch up with Imani Hicks recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Imani, thanks for joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was making the decision to pursue pottery full-time after losing my job in July of this year. I’m a 30 year old single woman living in Brooklyn who treats herself a little too often, so losing my job was not ideal at all! But I will say the timing aligned just perfectly. Two months prior, I had just gone “viral” twice on X (Twitter) for posting a ceramic New York Yankees hat candle I had made off the strength of boredom/not knowing what to make at the studio I work out of in Williamsburg. My DMs were flooded with hundreds of people asking me about a launch date, custom orders, what stores it was in and how they could purchase this little wonder I made. I was honestly shocked and there was a point where I had to put my phone on airplane mode because all the notifications were slowing down the rest of my phone. Days went by and I thought of maybe making more and selling them on my own website but how?! I worked at a PR agency from 9:30-6PM all the way in the city and by the time I got off I just want to climb in bed. I constantly played with the thought of “what if I left my job and just did pottery” at work constantly. The thought of needing to keep a roof over my head and food in my stomach hovered over me also. Then in the middle of July, I no longer had that job. I wasn’t upset or worrisome, I truly believed it was divine timing. Instead of jumping on Linkedin, my first instinct was to make more hats, get a website and set a preorder date and that’s exactly what I did. Since I lost my job in July I’ve had two separate preorders for my ceramic candles and I’m currently working on a line-sheet to get into stores. I had to take this risk because I knew if I took on another job, I would always wonder “What if I can do this pottery thing for a living” and here I am doing it. Loving every single second of it and actually super grateful that I lost that job.

Imani, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m Imani. A born and raised New Yorker who has been doing pottery for about 3 years now. Pottery found me after I had just moved back to New York after living in South Carolina for 2 years finishing up school (undergrad). Being back in New York was extremely depressing for me the first couple of months and I went through somewhat of a heartbreak as soon as I got back. One of my favorite actors, Seth Rogen had started documenting his pottery journey on social media and I was intrigued. I did my little YouTube research and bought a bag of air dry clay from Micheals and used my IKEA night stand as a craft table and tried to make whatever I could in my bedroom. Since then I’ve taken 4 different wheel courses and joined a pottery studio as a member in June of 2023. At the same studio, I started teaching hand building classes every Sunday since February of 2024. I would’ve never imagined myself teaching so many different people how to build things out of clay. I now have my own website where I take preorders and I’m currently known for my CERAMIC YANKEE FITTED which is a multifunctional piece that includes a candle also made by me. This upcoming year I want to make several items that are multifunctional for the home and start working towards a homeware brand for myself. Im INH Ceramics currently, which is my initials and I plan to not make any changes to it. I still have so much work to do but pottery has taught me to detach from everything. When working with clay there can’t be any attachment to what you make because what if it breaks, what if the glaze you used doesn’t come out how you’d like, what if it’s too small due to shrinkage in the kiln or a crack happen at the base of your piece in the kiln. The list can go on and on but thankfully it’s clay….no need to be attached because you can just make it again

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Since I don’t use a pottery wheel and all my pieces are made through hand building, I constantly want to challenge myself to see what I can make. How big can I go? How can I make the most interesting bowl or mug? What glazes can I mix together to make this piece pop? I constantly have ideas for new pieces and I just recently started drawing them out. My mission basically is to challenge how creative I can get with clay. You can basically make anything out of clay so the goal is to create something i’ve never seen before.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I don’t exactly have a story but I post every single little thing when I’m working on a piece. Even the not so pretty stages which are honestly the best in my opinion. I mostly do this on Instagram through story posts or the infamous “dump” posts. I’m learning that people love seeing the process of how you make something. I’m just getting hip to TikTok and my first video ended up getting 17K likes. Still very much in shock because the video had to be less than 8 seconds long.You have to produce content that no one has ever seen before and that embodies YOU at the same time. We’ve all seen the “what’s in my bag””OOTD” and “Spend the day with me” DO NOT BE AFRIAD TO SWITCH IT UP! Brainstorm and plan before posting because viewers can definitely tell when you’re just posting your work for the sake of posting. Also post things you would want to see and the engagement will come. Im not saying it has to be perfect but you’ll feel better about what you put out into the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.INHCERAMICS.com
• Instagram: onemorefig

Image Credits

Dale Algo