Wheel Talk

Arts & Culture Podcasts

Ryan Durbin (@rdceramics) & Becca Otis (@5linespottery) share their experiences as potters, makers, small business owners, and creatives. Becca is a full time production potter & makes her own work as well, while Ryan is a full time website developer and part time potter. We'd love to share our ups and downs along the way as we build our skills as makers and small business owners in an honest, informal manner. We hope to bring you helpful tips we've learned over the years, learn from each other, and share expertise from a number of guests with you also. Please join us for some Wheel Talk!

Ryan Durbin (@rdceramics) & Becca Otis (@5linespottery) share their experiences as potters, makers, small business owners, and creatives. Becca is a full time production potter & makes her own work as well, while Ryan is a full time website developer and part time potter. We'd love to share our ups and downs along the way as we build our skills as makers and small business owners in an honest, informal manner. We hope to bring you helpful tips we've learned over the years, learn from each other, and share expertise from a number of guests with you also. Please join us for some Wheel Talk!

Location:

United States

Genres:

Arts & Culture Podcasts

Education Podcasts

Description:

Language:

English

Contact:

9702146013

Email:

wheeltalkpodcast@gmail.com

Episodes

Bonus - Wheel Talk mugs are coming!

5/21/2022

Ryan & Becca come to you for a quick bonus episode to talk about our custom Wheel Talk mugs that will be available for preorder starting on June 1st. The preorder runs from June 1-15 and all orders will arrive 6-8 weeks later. Our friend Chris Burch from @potterybychrisburch in Colorado Springs, Colorado is making our custom 2022 mug with a Wheel Talk logo decal on one side and small 2022 decal on the opposite side. The mugs are all wheel thrown with agateware and super high quality! Those...

Duration:00:08:57

#147 - Shooting the breeze with Aleatha from aleathabean

5/21/2022

Ryan and Becca have a friendly chat with Aleatha Aiken-Sherrer from Aleathabean to shoot the breeze and learn more about one of our favorite listeners. They discuss a number of topics today, from transitioning to full time pottery, finding a fun show locally, favorite cake flavors, the Buddy Show, shipping within Canada versus the USA, Becca has a new pen pal, wholesale orders, using gold luster/lustre, sharing a business with your partner, and plenty more. Thanks for joining us Aleatha and...

Duration:02:57:14

#146 - Glaze application

5/14/2022

Ryan and Becca go off on a few tangents on today's episode before getting into a couple questions about glazing techniques when applying multiple glazes to your pots and how to transition from brushing glazes to dipping glazes. Thanks for the questions! Resources Indianapolis Clay Studio Crawl glazy.org Amaco product update Batty Bitches Podcast Brickyard Podcast Network Sounds Like a Cult Backyard Craft Show - come visit us in-person Listener Questions On this episode: - I need...

Duration:01:35:46

#145 - Developing your own style

5/7/2022

Ryan and Becca go into developing their own styles, evolving their practices, and progressing their businesses over time. Progress can be made little by little or huge shifts in a short period of time. However you develop your own style, enjoy the process along the way and hopefully you have success in finding an audience for it if you rely on this for your small business. Resources Sounds Like a Cult...

Duration:01:39:59

#144 - Scheduling your studio time effectively

4/30/2022

Ryan and Becca talk about scheduling their studio time effectively. Becca works in a production pottery studio by day so schedules are crucial for staying productive and getting work down by the end of the week. Ryan has to balance his making on the side and continue to meet his commitments he's made for the pottery business. Enjoy today's discussion and we hope you get some insights to make your making process more efficient. Resources Sam Hitchman David...

Duration:02:07:54

#143 - Answering your small business questions

4/23/2022

Ryan and Becca answer a number of listener questions related to small business scenarios. We cover topics ranging from wholesale orders, handling repeat buyers online, selling your work at a local business, and market saturation of your work locally. Thanks to everyone for your questions! Resources Episode #27 with Amanda Schwartz from Doghouse Pottery What is a resale certificate? What would you do if... you glazed a whole batch of commission mugs & only single dipped them instead of...

Duration:01:43:46

#142 - ...it's been 14 years since my last recession

4/16/2022

Ryan and Becca share some thoughts about how to prepare your small business with the threat of uncertainty in the economy. Some folks have already been experiencing some of the uncertainty over the past couple of years with supply chain limitations and economic stressors. We hope this gets you thinking ahead to keep your business in a good spot in case of an economic downturn that's outside of your control. Enjoy this different episode today and hope it's not all doom &...

Duration:01:38:58

#141 - ADHD as a small business owner

4/9/2022

Ryan and Becca answer a question about owning and managing a business as someone with ADHD or anxiety. We hope this conversation is relatable for a number of our listeners who run their own business or are thinking about it. Thanks for the question @alexa.michelle.pottery! Resources Giffin Grip Mini @thatssoandrew_ Context Switching Listener Questions On this episode: - What are your thoughts on self-disclosing on a pottery specific Instagram? Specifically, I identify as queer (that's...

Duration:01:51:18

#140 - Building a home studio with Liz Cohen

4/2/2022

Ryan and Becca sit down with Liz Cohen from Liz Cohen Ceramics to chat about building a new home studio as a full time studio potter. They discuss a number of topics today, from transitioning to full time pottery, learning slipcasting, managing wholesale orders, finding & managing a studio assistant, body care in the studio, and plenty more. Thanks for joining us Liz! -----Find more about Liz’s business below----- Instagram - @lizcohenceramics Website -...

Duration:02:20:21

#139 - Studio practice Q&A

3/26/2022

Ryan and Becca answer a number of listener questions related to studio practice. Some topics include renting studio space, vitrification, warping, loading kilns, refiring pieces, sanding pots, manual kilns, and plenty more. Some answers are quick, some longer, and plenty of fun discussion as always. Enjoy and thanks to everyone who sent us a question! Resources For Flux Sake Podcast DiamondCore Tools Sanding Pads John Britt "Reglazing Pots" YouTube video Jon the Potter "How to re-glaze...

Duration:02:08:20

#138 - Prepping for an online update

3/19/2022

Ryan and Becca answer a question from @aleathabean about how to handle online updates from a seller's perspective. There are lots of tasks to do in preparation for an online update so having a good plan of attack is key. Ryan and Becca approach it differently so we have some options for you to spark some ideas from our discussion today. They each had a minor update and share some insights from that as well. Artists mentioned in this episode: Mobile Makers Clay - @mobilemakersclay Sarah...

Duration:01:14:09

#137 - Playing the Instagram Game with Curt Hammerly from Hammerly Ceramics

3/12/2022

Ryan is joined by Curt Hammerly from Hammerly Ceramics to talk all about Instagram today. They discuss collaborations, the algorithm, Instagram stats, getting paid for Instagram Reels, and managing social media as a small business owner. Let us know if you enjoyed the topic and would like to hear more focused discussions like this with guests. If you missed our last discussion with Curt, check out Episode #50 - Shop Talk with Curt Hammerly -----Find more about Curt's business...

Duration:01:08:03

#136 - Slips and underglazes

3/5/2022

Ryan and Becca expected this to be a quick episode talking all about slips vs underglazes. Before they get to shop talk, there’s plenty of movie talk and ample digressions along the way. We hope you enjoy our antics on this one. Artists mentioned in this episode: Jason Burnett - @jasonbburnett, Graphic Clay book Catie Miller - @catiemillerceramics Tim Kowalczyk - @timsceramics Amy Brummond - @pinezenpottery Isla Transfers - @isla_transfers Heidi Fahrenbacher - @bellajoypottery Curt...

Duration:01:57:46

#135 - When should you start selling?

2/26/2022

Ryan and Becca jump into a topic for those out there wondering when they should consider selling, especially beginner potters. We both took a long time to start selling our work on a regular basis, but that's not the same timeline for everyone. Testing your work for food safety is the most important consideration to make sure you are putting out quality pieces for the public. Listen to our past episode #94s - Is your work food safe? to make sure you are confident in the pieces you're...

Duration:01:29:24

#134 - "Diversifying Your Pottery Business Income" at Clay Con West

2/19/2022

Ryan presented recently at Clay Con West, an up & coming clay conference hosted in St. George, Utah, and shared some ways you can diversify your pottery business income. He sells through many different avenues and talks about quite a few of them today. Slides also accompany this presentation if you'd like to follow along, which can be found on Ryan's website at the link below. We'd love to see you at the conference in future years, hosted mid-January each year in St. George,...

Duration:02:06:07

#133 - What to do in 2022?

2/12/2022

Ryan and Becca look ahead to their personal and business goals for 2022, even though we're more than a month into the year already. They share specific sales numbers for the year ahead as well. We hope you're setting your own goals, prioritizing what's most important to you, and incorporating clay into your plans somehow. Enjoy and here's to a great year! What would you do if... you won $10 million? Listener Questions On this episode: - Please talk about ^5 vs ^6, holds and slow cools....

Duration:01:41:04

#132 - Are giveaways worth it?

2/5/2022

Ryan and Becca talk about a recent post Becca shared on Instagram about giveaways that’s sparked some discussion so we decided it would be a good topic to cover here. Isaac Shue joins us for part of the episode as well to throw out some ideas while Becca’s visiting him this week. We also just realized how amazing gift cards can be for the business. We hope our discussion spark some thoughts in your mind for your own business and whether giveaways are right for you. -----Find more about...

Duration:01:44:34

#131 - "We're LIVE!" at Clay Con West

1/29/2022

Becca and Ryan spent a weekend recently at Clay Con West, an up & coming clay conference hosted in St. George, Utah, and share some insights about their background, process, their relationship, and growth of the podcast over time. There are many call outs about past episodes numbers where we discuss pricing, sharing your work on Instagram, glazing, and some of our guests we interview. They answer lots of questions from the audience in here as well. We'd love to see you at the conference in...

Duration:01:29:21

#130 - Art shows & branding

1/22/2022

Ryan and Becca answer some listener questions about selling at art shows and business branding. It's a batch of related questions that we continue getting from our listeners, which we love getting a chance to chat about on a regular basis. Thanks for listening! Resources: Episode #86 - Art show Q&A (pt 1) Episode #87 - Art show Q&A (pt 2) Listener Questions Send us questions so we can answer anything you've been thinking about on a future episode. Send those through Instagram...

Duration:01:05:27

#129 - Capping off 2021

1/15/2022

Ryan & Becca share a couple stories outside of their worlds of clay to start off today's episode. They then dig into their 2021 goals and results, with real numbers! We like to share these intimate details with you for a number of reasons that can be helpful for our peers including: 1) what goals we set for our businesses 2) what sales numbers we hit & did not 4) ongoing mental stresses we have personally & professionally 5) how we retrospect on a year to help us looking forward We hope...

Duration:01:43:12