We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Shannon Mitchell-Wille. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Shannon below.

Hi Shannon , thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I honestly feel like being an artist is my calling in life. I am confident and happy when I am working. The creative process is my happy place. It really is my clam to my chaos in life. The icing on the cake is the customers and friends that love it so much. It’s not all fun and definitely hard work but I absolutely know this is what I am supposed to be doing in life. That is truly a blessing to me.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have always know I wanted to be a creator/artist. From a very young age I was always drawing, painting and creating my own little worlds. It seemed to be a good escape for me. I was not much of a student in school and always felt different. My creativity and love for art was always where I seemed to shine and find my calm. As I got ready to end high school I was not sure what my next path might be. I started at a junior college and absolutely hated it. I then decide to attend art school at Watkins College Of Art and Design. Still not knowing what I wanted to do I just started on the path of Fine Arts. I took many classes there but the one I could not get enough of was clay. I fell in love with it and had to keep taking it. During this time I got a really good full time job and decided to leave school and pursue it. Still feeling this itch to continue with clay and my art. A few years after working full time, I inherited some money from my grandparents. My grandmother had a lot to do with my love of crafting and creating. I decided with some of that money to buy my first kiln. From there I slowly started my business. I seemed to have a style right from the get go. I continued to work full time and do art shows on the side. It was great extra money with my full time job. As the business grew, I changed to a part time job with more time to work on my ceramic business. It has now been 26 years of creating ceramics and I have been doing it full time for the last 19 years. I travel around the southeast doing art festivals. I have a spring season and a Fall show season. In the last few years I have used social media to promote and sale my work as well. It has truly been a game changer and I have seen my business grow more then ever. At this point in my career I think my job is a lot of my identity. My work is colorful and happy and seems to give many of my collectors so much joy. This keeps me motivated and driven. I love sharing this gift I have with others. It’s very fulfilling and I love what I do. It also seems to calm me and give me a lot of purpose. When I started this journey over 26 years ago I never realized what a gift this was to me and my life and what joy it brings to others. It truly is more then just a job. I feel very blessed to have found this gift and have used it to bring so much joy to others.

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

I started my business Instagram in 2020 during Covid. I was home not doing art shows due to the shut down. I had always had a Facebook page but really like instagram better for my business. I decided to do a small release of hand built vases and post them for sale on instagram. I think I had maybe 150 followers. They sold out in 10 minutes. I thought this is crazy!!! I decided to do a monthly sale during this time and sold out every time even quicker. I don’t have as much time these days to do these sales but when I do it’s always a sale out. I don’t have a huge following but the ones I have are very engaged. I found after these sales when I did in person events more people showed up and my sales have grown leaps and bounds ever since. I love getting new followers and sharing my work. I have learned it’s not about how many but about the right followers. The few I have keep me crazy busy. I love it!

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Becoming a mom was definitely a pivot in my career. It’s been very hard to balance work and motherhood. I have three amazing kids. Twin girls (14) and a son (13). When you are an artist traveling and doing art shows you miss a lot of weekend time with your family. I will say I have the most amazing husband and he steps right in a helps in all ways. I do think when they were little I had to step back a bit and put their needs first. I love being a mom so it wasn’t hard. I found by bringing them to art shows and having them help it became a family thing. Now that they are older it is much easier. One of my daughters absolutely loves doing art shows with me. Which has been so fun and such wonderful bounding time.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @sha.nnonmitchelldesigns
• Facebook: Shannon Mitchell Designs

Image Credits
Shannon Mitchell