Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelsey Floyd. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kelsey thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I hope to leave a legacy that inspires more autodidactic ways of living our lives and building passions into careers.

Many people are held back with the feeling that they need a formal style of education or apprenticeship to create a life on a level that results in professional and financial success.

It’s the best time, more than ever in our known history, to take on teaching ourselves. The internet is a resource with an endless search engine on any topic we’re interested in.

With pottery, I was able to educate myself in depth about the process. Because I wasn’t creating under the guidance of someone else, I was able to fully explore my own creativity and artistic style without anyone persuading my limits or visions.

I had previous experience in marketing and photography that I had taught myself as well. These skills gave me the ability to share my art and build a meaningful connection that has reached millions of people. Through self-learning, all of these skills refined through time to flow together and create the business I have today.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Starting pottery in April 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic, pottery was a way to connect with the peace and harmony within during a very trying time personally and worldly.

Self-taught, I curated a studio space in my home and got lost, or more-so found, in the endless self-discovery of this art. I believes art and creation are intrinsically woven in the deepest and oldest parts of our humanity and can be tapped into when we come across the right muses to envision it and mediums to release it.

That is the ethos of my art; parts of the mind that can’t be formed into words, but can be sculpted through my hands and shared with those it tethers a connection to. Into things we can hold, adorn, and decorate life with.

Inspired by the natural world and ancient worlds, my vessels incorporate free flowing curves and shapes while also combining that with the precision and restrictions of chains and chainmail. I also integrate pine needle into some of my pieces creating curiosity to the senses with mixed-mediums. Displaying a juxtaposition of unique and refreshing contrasted with the feeling of being unearthed and lost in time; my vessels are intended to connect with a sense of familiarity to who we are.

Coming up on 3 years since I started this pottery journey; my pieces have been displayed at 1000 Vases Exhibition in Paris, France. They were displayed at my first juried show, Art Festival Beth El, and won an award of excellence. They will also be displayed again this year at 1000 Vases Exhibition in Milan, Italy.

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

I started building my audience on social media, specifically Instagram, in 2015. I transformed my account into a fashion and lifestyle account and I would share styled photos and video tutorials of braided hairstyles. I would also share my travels and write blog posts about my trips. I love fashion, I love experimenting and using it as a creative outlet. This is where I started learning how to get brand and audience attention and when I started practicing photography. As I created for years and learned what connects and grows my audience the best through habitual use of these apps; I polished my photography, marketing, and connection abilities. When I began pottery, I shared my entire journey with my community. In the beginning, the goal was to share a new hobby. I had no idea what would come of it. As I shared photos and videos of my pottery journey, it showed myself and my community a new part of me and connected me deeper to those that were following along. My pottery videos and photos took on a similar path to my fashion photos and they were spread through direct messages, the explore page, Pinterest, etc.
This is when I started realizing that the skills I taught myself were coming together in a natural way and that consistent improvement in small margins led to a drastic change overtime.
From an artist, here is my advice to those that are starting to build a social media presence. You are telling a story of your world and the way you view it through your eyes. This is one of the ways to create a sustainable presence on social media. Connection does best when you’re tapping into multiple senses. Don’t only focus on the visuals, spend time finding the right music or sound. For me, I like to show the movement and sound of my pieces since they have moveable ceramic chains. It’s one of the ways I connect with multiple senses in my posts. Understand that starting out, you are going to do a lot of things that don’t take off and might not meet the quality you want. Post it anyway and keep going. It’s impossible to improve without doing. Overtime, the small improvements and connections you make with your audience will grow into something larger.

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

When I started pottery, I bought a used pottery wheel and a used kiln off of Facebook marketplace. My wheel was over 20 years old. It was a kick wheel with a motor attachment (old school) and I later found out my kiln (oven you fire pottery in) was over 60 years old. My wheel would spin uneven and I had to use my foot on the pedal to steady the momentum constantly. To use both my hands and feet while throwing trained my brain in a unique way. Everything I made the first year and a half would come out crooked from the uneven spinning. My kiln didn’t work properly and every piece would come out defective. Most pieces in that first year never made it to the kiln because everything was bad. I upgraded my kiln first, but because I didn’t learn glazing well, I focused more on unique hand-sculpting and that led me to chains. After almost two years I upgraded my wheel.
When I got my new wheel, my pieces were coming out with amazing precision. I look back and believe that because I taught myself on a wheel that was so difficult, it pushed me to use my mind and body in a way that I never have before.
I had failures every single day I made pottery that first year and a half. It was impossible to make what I aspired to with the equipment I had but I focused on growing my skills in the ways I could with what I had.
Upgrading my equipment made me realize how difficult that old equipment actually was.
I love that I learned the way I did with what I had because I think the trials led me to my specific expressive form of art. The constant failure built my resilience and patience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kelseyfloydpottery.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/kelsrfloyd?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/100067531985973/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kelsrfloyd?lang=en