We were lucky to catch up with Ted Bradley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ted, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?

The idea for my business started with a feeling I couldn’t ignore. I had spent ten years working as a product manager in tech after studying mechanical engineering. I was on a stable, successful path. But I started having vivid visions of sculptures I wanted to bring to life. They came to me at night, waking me up with a sense of urgency and possibility. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I had to make them real.

To begin the process, I met with several master mold makers and a clay chemist and shared my vision. Every conversation ended the same way: they told me it wasn’t possible.

I was trying to do something technically ambitious: transform wet, formless clay into geometrically perfect rings of porcelain. The material I chose—porcelain—was both a deliberate and difficult decision. It has a luminous white quality I couldn’t find in other clays, but it’s notoriously unstable. As it dries, it shrinks and wants to crack. In the kiln, it turns molten and nearly collapses under its own weight. On top of that, the finished forms needed to be precise enough to be married with custom metalwork and LED lighting.

I spent the next year deep in experimentation. I went through 1,300 pounds of clay by hand. I failed hundreds of times, went back to the drawing board more than once, and worked some weeks over 100 hours. But eventually, I developed a process that worked, and the first lighting sculptures were born.

The process of going from idea to execution wasn’t linear or easy. It was full of trial, problem-solving, and long hours. But each challenge was part of building something I couldn’t find in the world—something I knew I had to make. Today, five years into running Ted Bradley Studio, I’m still refining the process. But I look back at those early months as the foundation of everything.

Ted, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am the founder of Ted Bradley Studio — We’re a team of artists, engineers, and craftsmen based in Boulder, Colorado, specializing in handmade porcelain light sculptures. My sculptures blend precision engineering with fine artistry, capturing the beauty of the natural world in luminous, hand-formed porcelain and meticulously crafted metal components.

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

For me, this was about pursuing a dream. Ceramics was something in my life that I was always passionate about, but I never thought about it being a profession. Life took me in a different direction. I studied mechanical engineering in college and spent a decade as a product manager at a prominent tech company. I believed that because I had chosen that path, I needed to stay on it.

But then I started having visions of sculptures I wanted to create. I’d wake up in the middle of the night, and ideas would just pour out of me. Eventually, I hit a turning point in my career and had to ask myself, “Am I really going to do this?” It became clear that it was time to stop doing what I thought I was supposed to do and start doing what I truly wanted.

That decision led to the founding of my lighting sculpture company, Ted Bradley Studio. Five years in, I’ve never looked back. Choosing to follow this path allowed me to live a more authentic life as an artist, creating pieces of wonder that I’m genuinely proud of.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

When I first began creating lighting sculptures, I believed that a strong vision and creative drive would be enough to move quickly from idea to object. I was wrong. I learned the hard way that there’s no fast track in product manufacturing, especially when you’re building something that doesn’t exist yet.

I met with multiple master mold makers to bring my initial concept to life, and each one told me it was either extremely difficult or outright impossible. Still, I pressed on. It took an entire year, hundreds of failed attempts, and many 100-hour weeks before I figured it out. That process taught me patience, but the lesson didn’t fully sink in until I started work on my second collection.

This time, the machinery I needed didn’t even exist. So I built it myself. Drawing on my background in engineering, I designed a new ceramic forming system inspired by traditional “jigger-jolly” techniques. The system uses a pivoting arm on a spinning wheel to shape customizable porcelain molds. I also developed proprietary glass glazes to allow for color personalization across my pendant designs.

What I’ve had to unlearn is the idea that moving fast means making progress. In my world, every shortcut backfires. If I skip a one-hour step, I can almost guarantee it will cost me three to five hours in rework, if not weeks, of lost time. Perfection doesn’t come from speed. It comes from respecting the process.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tedbradleystudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tedbradley.studio/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedbradleybe/