We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Matthew Brophy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Matthew thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights 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?

I threw pottery many years ago in high school for just one year. For some reason I just took to it. It felt natural to me to me to sit at the wheel and create 3 dimensional pieces. After graduation it was something I always wanted to get back into. Life has its own ideas on what is possible and when and I didn’t throw again for 33 years!

When we moved down to SC I became the primary care giver to our 2 children and one day a thought occurred to me that I could take up pottery again while the kids were in school. To make a long story short, I started producing ceramics again and pretty soon didn’t know what do do with the vessels I was making. As I grew more accomplished at my craft I started posting pictures of them on Facebook. Pretty soon I had an old friend comment on a picture I posted of one and remarked that his wife would love that for her birthday. I was so taken by this that I sold to him inexpensively. He then posted a picture of the piece he bought from me and more people began contacting me to buy one like I had sold to my friend. Pretty soon I was selling everything I made and felt it was the calling I had always been looking for.

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

After I began selling pottery, first as a hobby and then as means of making a living, I had to find a studio to be the base of my creations. There was a local art center not far from my house and I figured it would be easy for me to rent time and space from then to creat my art. Well I tried several times to make contact with the person in charge and it just wasn’t happening. They had kind of a country club attitude about the art center and I just couldn’t seem to make it happen. All during this time several people directed me to try another art center in a smaller nearby town called The Belton Center for the arts in Belton SC. One day I walked in and introduced myself to the Director, Betsy Chapman. She was happy to have me and offered me the pottery room there for less money than I was willing to pay at the other Art Center in my home town.

The next move was to see what other artists were doing and how they were able to succeed in this industry. Since I was self taught I was not going to be competing with the same level of expertise and experience starting out. I noticed that very few artists focused on glazing their pieces. It was almost an afterthought. In short I saw an opportunity where I could have my pieces stand out from the others.

Next I needed to find a way to sell my art. Facebook was a nice tool but that alone was not going to generate the volume I needed to succeed. I looked around and toured several galleries finding a few I thought would be a good fit for my creations. I made some appointments to show my work and to my surprise I had 3 galleries that wanted to represent me. I also learned how to apply to local juried art shows to give me work exposure and I even won some awards! Learning how craft shows and fairs operate was another avenue I engaged in to always keep my work out there and build a following.

The technical issues I faced took some time.work out. Understanding how kilns work and the different temperatures that clays can be fired to, the different clay bodies to work with and the glazes needed to make them beautiful was difficult and is an ongoing process that never really ends.
Always keeping my art fresh an evolving was important to me. One of the things I’m most proud of is I’ve never made the same design twice. Each one of my pieces is a “one off” one of a kind original, never to be recreated so my customers always had an original one of a kind creation.

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

Getting started in a completely new business wasn’t easy for me. Art is a passion that once ignited can not be ignored. I felt driven to make this project work as much for my soul as for the money it could provide. At first there’s very little return. Pottery supplies are expensive, tools equipment and everything I needed cost money up front. My wife was worried that it was taking a lot of time and investment, money we really didn’t have at the time. At one point I needed supplies and only had a few dollars in my account. A couple of friends knew I was struggling to make ends meet and approached me about making Christmas gifts for them to give out to clients they work with. Pretty soon I had orders for 50 pieces of pottery and I was off to the races. Friends have a way of helping out just when you need it most.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Entering local juried art shows which are competitions usually held in galleries and art centers gave me good exposure. I found that my best customers were often other artists! They appreciated the one of a kind nature of my art and continually gave me the positive feedback I needed to keep going. Artists have a great community and comradely.with one another and their clients. We help each other and share ideas and contacts which help us all be better and more successful artists.

Contact Info:

• Facebook: I sell pottery on my personal Facebook page.
• Other: I work with up to half a dozen galleries that represent my work. I found that websites for pottery take a lot of time to maintain and galleries give me more time in the studio. Something that is very important with a one man operation