We recently connected with Taylor Emery and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Taylor , thanks for joining us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
My Junior year of college, a very close family friend of mine commissioned me to make 8 large bowls, each with a set of matching mugs to give to coworkers as gifts for Christmas. Up until that point I had never even considered selling my pottery and had no idea I could make a money from doing it. I remember being so shocked that someone wanted to pay for my work and their purchase completely opened the door to my career and is ultimately when I started ClayByTay. After I finished their order I began selling to other people and at Farmers’ Markets a few weeks later and have never stopped.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I am a ceramics artist who makes functional dinnerware inspired by pop culture icons and St. Louis city. I got into ceramics when I went to college and was required to take a 3D class for my major. I started college pursuing Art Education but quickly fell in love with Ceramics and Graphic Design and changed courses. I have degrees in both Ceramics and Graphic Design which helps me transform images and create all the decal imagery for my mugs myself. I can take virtually any photo and transform it into a custom mug (when I am accepting custom orders!). Craftsmanship and the imagery I use on my pottery is what sets me apart from other artists. It was ingrained into me as I was learning pottery that I needed to master craftsmanship before learning the decorations and decals. A decal can’t fix a poorly made pot.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Having artistic talent and creativeness is such a small part of running a business. I am so fortunate and thankful that my parents (especially my Dad) encouraged and almost made it mandatory for me to take business corses alongside my art classes in college. One resource I wish I had known about sooner that aligns with the business side of being a full time artist is QuickBooks (or any book keeping software). I just recently got into QuickBooks and it has made keeping my books, tracking finances, and knowing exactly what the financial side of my business is so much easier. I also in the last 2 years have began keeping records of the pop ups and art shows I’m doing with a spread sheet that tracks data including: booth fee to participate, weather, how the crowd was, how much money I made, etc. Having that self generated resource has been so helpful when it comes to making decisions which shows I should continue to do the following years.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
While I don’t consider myself to be an influencer by any means I do love using social media to grow my business and connect with customers. I have found that the more authentic and genuine I am on social media the better connection I have with followers. I used to be very strategic with staged photos and a professional grade digital camera but now I’ve found that the behind the scenes and in the moment photos I capture with my iPhone get so much more engagement. The only strategic thing I track is I do check my analytics to find the best time to post based on when my personal followers are most active on Instagram but other than that there are far too many algorithms and changing patterns to try and keep up with. Just be yourself, post often and don’t overthink it!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.claybytay.com
- Instagram: @claybytay
- Facebook: ClayByTay
Image Credits
Professional Photos by Kara Schoen – Life Behind The Lense