Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
#168 Creating Pacific Northwest Pottery w/ Madison Salsgiver
34 Plays3 years ago
What is up Shaping Nation on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery I got to interview Madison Salsgiver. Madison makes some incredible mountain theme pottery that she calls Pacific Northwest Pottery. You can learn more about Madison and her website by checking out her instagram @alpenglow.pottery
Top 3 Value Bombs:
- How to create Madison's Pacific Northwest Pottery
- Why you need to be making lots of stuff and give it time to find your voice
- Finding things you passionate about to add into your own pottery
and so much more
Reserve Your Spot for the Find Your Pottery Voice Workshop Seats Are Limited to 25 People click here to reserve your spot Reserve Your Spot Here
Take this Free Quiz to see how close you are to finding your pottery voice click here to take the quiz shapingyourpottery.com/quiz
Follow me on Instagram @nictorres_pottery
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction & Guest Overview
00:00:01
Speaker
If you love pottery and want to take your skills to the next level, you're in the right place. Find your own pottery style right here on Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Let's get started.
00:00:14
Speaker
What is up, Shaping Nation? This is Nick Torres here, and on this episode of Shaping a Pottery, I got to interview Madison Sowsgiver. Madison makes some really incredible Pacific Northwest pottery where she makes mountain-themed pottery, but she puts her own twists on it to make it truly her own.
Finding a Unique Pottery Style
00:00:29
Speaker
In this episode, you will learn how Madison makes her Pacific Northwest pottery. You'll also learn about why you should be making lots of stuff and giving it time to find your unique voice.
00:00:41
Speaker
And finally, you'll learn about finding things that you are passionate about and keep on pursuing those things that you're passionate about. I'll see you guys in there.
Balancing Hobbies and Pottery
00:00:53
Speaker
Madison, welcome to Shaping Your Pottery and share with me what is something you love besides making pottery. Yeah, so I, before I was ever a potter, I actually was really into whitewater kayaking. I went to a high school that was dedicated to whitewater kayaking. We traveled to South America and I had a few sponsors from some major kayak companies and
00:01:17
Speaker
So that was a really really big part of my life and it still is but now I have a two-year-old so we don't get to really go as much but that's definitely probably my favorite hobby besides pottery.
00:01:30
Speaker
Yeah, that's really
From Hobby to Passion
00:01:31
Speaker
cool. So tell me the story how you got started with so I started I remember the first time I had ever even like I mean other than like the ancient pottery see on like documentaries and stuff. I mean, the first time I never really seen anything about pottery was just one of my friends growing up. She I saw that she was posting like she had taken like an art class at our local college.
00:01:51
Speaker
And she was making some really cool mugs and everything. And I was like, I want to make a mug. So I just signed up for the pottery class in my community college. And after that, it was, sorry, I lost my train of thought, but I, um, so I took that class and that was back in 2016. That was the first class I ever took. And it was just like a couple of semesters. And then I decided to join the Air Force. I loved pottery. I made my first mug, but it was mostly sculptural stuff. We only did like a few months on the wheel.
00:02:21
Speaker
So then I joined the Air Force and I just didn't have access to a studio at all for like the four years that I was in. And then when I got back, I was working for one of my friends. It's a planner here in Southern Oregon, just for fun, just on the side. We both had just had our first baby. And so we were kind of, you know, at the same point in life and.
00:02:43
Speaker
She had her pottery business and so I was helping her out a little bit just to make a little extra money and for fun and that's kind of how I fell in love with it. So I basically just decided to just invest in my own little shop in my garage. So that's what I'm doing now.
00:02:59
Speaker
I love that so much. So can you tell me what made you keep pursuing ceramics further after, you know, you got back to the airport? At first it just started, I was like, Oh, I really liked doing this in college. And it was just, I, it was just like one of those mediums for me that just, it clicked immediately. I was like, I really like this. I wasn't good at it. When I say clicked, I don't mean that I was super good at it right away, but it just felt like, right. That makes sense.
00:03:26
Speaker
And I knew I wanted to do it again, but then I just didn't have access to a studio at all for about four or five years. And so when I got back, I was like, okay, I really want to get back, get my hands in clay. And my friend was, you know, she had her business going and she let me come help out. But I mean, I was kind of just like sanding and smoothing stuff out. I wasn't really doing much. So that's when I decided I was like, okay, I'm just going to set up a little studio in my shop and it'll just be a fun hobby for me on the side.
00:03:53
Speaker
So can you describe to me the moment when you decided to make pottery full
Transition to Full-Time Pottery
00:03:57
Speaker
time? So it started off, I actually, I just wanted to make pottery just enough to pay for my equipment. So I wasn't actually planning on really selling anything. I just wanted to make stuff for fun. And I was like, if I can sell stuff and pay for my equipment, then that would be awesome. So like, if I can make a couple hundred dollars a month, like that would be, that's, that's all I want. That's what I want out of this. Like just for fun. Cause my husband was working full time. I was watching my daughter. So.
00:04:21
Speaker
didn't really have any plans to make money off of it, which is for fun. And then it just started kind of taking off. And so I just kind of over the last year worked part time. I was working when my daughter was asleep in the morning, and then I was working when she was
00:04:37
Speaker
Napping in the afternoon and then my husband got off. So it was kind of like I was just working all the time, but I wasn't really getting anything done just because I, you know, I had a couple hours here, a couple hours there. And so it was actually after, I think it was after my update in November, I had a pretty good update and it was like enough money to actually like.
00:04:56
Speaker
you know pay some bills and i was like why don't we try switching so my husband and i decided that we would give it a go and try you know switching roles switching that main income role so i only actually started full time in march at the beginning of march so this will be actually my first update in april with the full-time schedule so
00:05:19
Speaker
I love that so much. That's amazing. What would you say has been your biggest struggles so far?
Time Management in Pottery
00:05:24
Speaker
Definitely time management. Um, I'm so used to having that scattered schedule and I find myself kind of at the exact same times that I was before, you know, I'd have to get my daughter up at nine 30 in the morning. So I would stop and, and I'm still finding myself kind of doing that. So I think trying to get a flow going and being, and being out here for more than three or four hours at a time.
00:05:48
Speaker
It's been a huge struggle for me and just keeping my focus for that long. It's easy to just like pick up the phone and then there goes an hour of your time.
00:05:58
Speaker
Definitely. What is something that you are doing to help you manage your time a little bit? Most of the time I try to leave my phone in the house. That helps just not having that out here at all. And then I also just recently like formed like a strict like, I mean, strict, but a strict schedule. So I have like, you know, I'm out here from 6am to 10am and going for breakfast. And then I give myself like 30 minutes and I try to stick to that schedule. And that's been helping me a lot. But the phone being kept inside has helped a lot too.
00:06:27
Speaker
I love that. Shaping Nation, when you are making pottery and you're trying to find your voice, it's important to block out a certain amount of time and have that time specifically just for pottery. And no really distractions unless it's like music or podcasts or something. And that's how you're really going to start growing. That's how you're going to really find your voice quicker too.
00:06:48
Speaker
So let's talk about your pottery in one sentence.
Inspiration from the Pacific Northwest
00:06:51
Speaker
Can you describe to me? Yeah. Um, I make, I mean, like the, the picture that I have, like on my website, when you first log in, it says like Pacific Northwest inspired pottery. And I think that sums it up pretty well. My pottery is mainly inspired by my time outside in the Pacific Northwest, which I use not technically in the Pacific Northwest, but Oregon and California. So it's just.
00:07:14
Speaker
Yeah. Outdoors inspired pottery. Can you, can you tell me the story, how you started making this type of pottery? So actually when I, when I first started like at my community college, I remember, you know, I had never seen any pottery. I didn't follow any pottery on Instagram at the time. I didn't really know that it was this like community. I just like, it was like, oh, people make.
00:07:39
Speaker
Mugs, like it wasn't anything. I didn't really dive that deep into it. And so, you know, I, I knew pottery was like the classic just like glazed mugs, like you see in like a community studio with people's first art classes. Never seen like mountains on a mug or anything like that. Never seen any like themes, I guess I'd just seen like glazed work. And so the first time I ever saw mountains on a mug was her name's Alex Applin. That's the pottery, the potter that I worked for here in Southern Oregon.
00:08:06
Speaker
And from there, I was just like, it was just like, my mind just like exploded. I was like, I had no idea that you could do specific, like art on a mug. I guess that was kind of the first time that it clicked that like pottery is art, you know? Definitely agree. Shaping Nation, sometimes in order to really find your voice and to find something that you like, you just kind of open the horizon just a little bit more and just expand and look for things that you are a little bit more interested in.
00:08:36
Speaker
So can you explain to me how you create your mountain designs on your.
Pottery Design Challenges and Inspirations
00:08:42
Speaker
Yeah. Do you have like a specific design that you have in mind? Cause I have a few different processes that are very different. If that makes sense. You can go your most.
00:08:52
Speaker
Most favorite and how about let's go to the one that your least favorite as well. Okay. So my favorite probably are my, I call them like the Alpine sunsets. And those are just like fully glazed mugs. So I'll throw the mud, put the handle on there. And then when it's leather hard, I carve the design. So I draw it out with pencil first and then I carve it.
00:09:13
Speaker
And then I'll smooth it out with a sponge. And then after it's bisqued, I use little glaze bottles. I don't know if you've seen that, like Amaco underglaze bottles, like the needle tips. And then I use those to fill in every little tiny spot on the mug. So yeah.
00:09:28
Speaker
And then your least favorite one that you don't like making? I don't know. It's not even really my least favorite, I guess. My least favorite are actually like the simple mugs that I do, like the Horizon mugs. Those are probably my least favorite to make just because
00:09:43
Speaker
I don't know, I'm like a maximalist at heart, and so making something so simple just doesn't really do it for me. But I know people like them, so I just make them anyway. And those are just like simply carved. But maybe my least favorite process would be my sprayed sunsets, like the ones where I spray underlies. I know people really like them, so I'm actually doing some this month.
00:10:02
Speaker
But they're not my favorite, but I can definitely go through the process. So I start out when the mug is leather hard. I paint Mako stroking coats or colored slips. It just depends on what look I'm going for. But lately I've been liking the stroking coat. So I start from the bottom and I do the layered mountains. And I've showed that on my Instagram story before, but I basically just paint like one layer at a time. Then I'll carve them while it's still leather hard. Once the stroking coat's dry.
00:10:30
Speaker
And then I biscuit like that. And then once I pull it out of the bis kiln, I will, I sand them really good with a lower grit and then a really high grit. So they're nice and smooth. And then I basically let them dry overnight. Cause I wet sand all my pottery. After that I'll mask off the mountains because I used to really like using liquid latex to cover the lines. Cause I don't want the underglaze going in the lines, but it just doesn't really work with the stroking coats because they're shiny.
00:10:59
Speaker
and they're already glossy so it doesn't stick properly if that makes sense. So after that after I get it all masked off and I basically just take it outside my backyard and spray it with my compressor and my sprayer and then I take off all the masking and then I use one of those underglaze bottles with the needlepoint tips and I fill in all those lines with whatever glaze that I want usually black like satin black glaze
00:11:23
Speaker
And then I wipe it all off and then I'll usually brush the inside for an inside coat. So it's a lot of different little steps. And I think that's why I don't like it, but people like them. So just continue. I also, I also think this is a good lesson for everyone because there are sometimes there are things that we don't necessarily like doing.
00:11:43
Speaker
But if we do it anyways, it can either make, you know, make the more money for our pottery or it can also make our pottery look that much better just by simply doing that one thing that we don't like.
Evolving Style Through Custom Work
00:11:54
Speaker
And I just think it's a good lesson for everybody. And I really love the mugs. I just, I think because, and I think honestly, one of the major things that has kind of kept me from making them over the last like six months, cause I haven't made them since last summer. And I think one of the main things that's kept me from making them again is just that
00:12:11
Speaker
I, when I was making them, I was still pretty new and I wasn't full time or anything like that. And I wasn't charging very much for them. I think I was charging like under a hundred dollars for them or maybe like right around 120 for my sprayed ones. But I mean, I probably put six to seven hours of work into them, if not more. And I think I was just getting burned out because it just didn't feel worth it. So I think if I increase my prices slightly, maybe it would be a little bit less.
00:12:39
Speaker
Payful with all that work if I mean I definitely you could also do like where it's like seasonal thing Like this is just an idea off top of the head for you You can do it for a seasonal like maybe in the summer and then you just don't do it again Yeah, so that summer and that will also allow you to raise your price as well. Yeah, that's a good idea I probably should just make it like like I have on Elisa with their works in the way that she does like her Shire he foods. Yeah
00:13:06
Speaker
I like the way that she does for one, like really, really expensive pieces all one time of the year. And I've kind of talked to her a little bit about that, how she gets burned out. And that's definitely how I feel. So I should probably do something similar, just like once or twice a year. I definitely agree. Shaping Nation, you don't have to make the same thing the entire year. You can mix it up and you can choose, pretty much have seasons of what you want to sell and what you want to make. And that's how you're going to really prevent burnout as well.
00:13:34
Speaker
What advice would you give to someone trying to add some own flair to their own pottery? That's hard. I really struggled with this when I first started, especially because I had only seen a couple different potters and I didn't know all the techniques. I didn't really know what could be done. So I think the best advice I can give is to just make a lot of stuff and give it time. It took me, I mean, I've been making pottery in my garage now.
00:14:01
Speaker
part-time and full-time for almost two years since I like set up my studio about a year and a half. And I mean, I just now I'm starting to feel like I'm kind of settling into a style that feels like mine. And I struggled a lot also with.
00:14:17
Speaker
you know, taking inspiration from other potters, but making sure that it was different enough. And sometimes, you know, I'd see something on, you know, a potter's page and I was, and I would almost like forget that I saw it and then I would put it into my own work and I'd be like, oh wait, that's way too similar. And I'd have to pretty much like scrap the piece and, you know, so I really struggled with that at first.
00:14:37
Speaker
I definitely agree 100% about giving it time. I feel like if you just keep on making, keep on making those little tiny improvements and that's when your style will eventually show up just by giving it a little bit more time. Love that you said that.
00:14:51
Speaker
So let's talk about discovering your voice. What is something you are doing to evolve your voice even further? I think the main thing I'm trying to do is just get back outside and find the things that I'm passionate about because ever since I had my daughter, she's two and a half. You know, a lot of things have had to go on the back burner, just completely on hold since we had her just because we don't have a ton of family here. So we don't really have anybody to watch her and we just haven't really been doing
00:15:18
Speaker
A lot of kayaking, not much backpacking in the last couple of years. Honestly, I mean, that's where most of my inspiration comes from. So not doing those things has made it a little bit harder to kind of remember that. So I feel like almost a lot of my inspiration comes from this nostalgia of it all and what I remember, but getting back into kayaking, getting back into backpacking and all that stuff has definitely helped.
00:15:41
Speaker
Also just taking time to sit down and like draw or really kind of think about designs, looking through Pinterest, looking at other plotters, looking at old photos. I think all of that really, really helps. And so I'm just trying to make time, I guess, for that. I love that so much. Shaping Nation.
00:15:59
Speaker
If you are maybe in a rut or maybe you are stuck with something go out and do things that have either inspired you before or that you just enjoy doing and take inspiration from those things because it's those times when we are.
00:16:12
Speaker
doing things that we truly enjoy. That's when our inspiration is probably going to be the highest. And that's when we're going to find things that we can actually put into our own pottery.
Advice on Developing a Pottery Style
00:16:21
Speaker
I love that you said that. Also, another another thing is I don't remember which question this went with. Maybe it kind of goes with the last one, but also another huge tip. I guess this goes with the advice question, but.
00:16:31
Speaker
Another thing that really really helped me I think was actually taking on a few customs back when I first started custom pieces I don't take them on anymore just because they're very time-consuming and they just stress me out and I have to charge a lot for them when I'm not totally comfortable with that yet, but I learned a lot just because somebody would ask for something and it would just be and I wouldn't I wouldn't take it unless it was like maybe just outside of my comfort zone.
00:16:55
Speaker
something that was, you know, nature inspired and something that still went with my style but that I couldn't done before. And that really pushed me to figure out a way to make it work and I learned a lot by doing it. Definitely agree. It's that little bit of pushing yourself outside that comfort zone that's really going to help you learn. I love that you said that as well. So can you tell me
00:17:17
Speaker
What is, can you tell me about the moment when you knew you found your style or you knew that you were going in the right direction? Yeah, it was actually back in November. It was right. Or maybe it was even the one before that, one of my restocks. But I just, I pulled everything out of the column when it was finished and I was like, wow, like this is the first time that I've actually like, there's like multiple pieces that I really want to keep.
00:17:43
Speaker
And before that, I mean, I feel like I had a lot of people asking me like, how do you sell your work? How do you not, how do you get rid of it? How do you like not want to keep it all? And I was like, I don't really have that problem actually. Like I feel like I was.
00:17:57
Speaker
Before I learned a lot of the techniques that I'm using now, I was just doing very, very simple things. And like I said, I'm a maximalist. I don't gravitate towards really simple things. And so that was the majority of what I was making. And I just wasn't really that thrilled by it. So I think once I started making things that I was like, I want to keep this. I don't want to sell these pieces. It was like, okay. Like it finally clicked. I was like, this is what feels right to me.
00:18:26
Speaker
I love that. I think that is really amazing on how you approach that because I don't, for me when I found, when I thought I found my voice was that it was more like a pool, but for you, it was more like you didn't want to get rid of it. Then I think that is very interesting.
00:18:42
Speaker
So as we're coming to a close here, what advice would you give to someone trying to discover their own unique voice with their father? I would just say give it a ton of time. I mean, I don't think that there's really any better advice than that because everybody I think is going to find their voice in a different way. So you don't.
00:18:58
Speaker
I mean, honestly, it just takes a lot of time. Like I said, it took me at least a year and a half before I really started to feel like what I was making was truly something that was mine. And I think that came from, okay, I made this design and it's very simple and it's not really something
00:19:14
Speaker
You know, a lot of people make mountain mugs, right? So like I made a simple mountain mug. Okay. That's not really that much different from all the other mountain mugs out there, but over time, you know, I would add these little elements to the same design. So like I started adding flowers in the foreground.
00:19:30
Speaker
And that wasn't really something I had seen before. I've seen people make flower mugs. I've seen people make mountain mugs. But kind of adding the two together, that's when it sort of started to feel like mine. And it didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen with one design. It was like adding little elements here and there is kind of what brought me to where I'm at now. Definitely, Greeds. Those little improvements over time that will help you find your voice. I love that so much.
Where to Find Madison's Work
00:19:56
Speaker
Madison, it was a really great chat with you today. Where can my audience go and learn more about it? I have a website and it's alpinglopotts.com. I have a little bit of information there. That's where I do my restocks and then my Instagram page. That's the only two places I'm at right now. Is your Instagram the same as the website? It's alpinglopottery. Well, alpinglopottery.
00:20:17
Speaker
Hey thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to discover how close you are to actually discovering your own unique voice with your pottery
00:20:28
Speaker
I put together a free four question quiz. It's very short. It takes 30 seconds for you to take. If you want to know how close you are to finding your own unique voice, go to shapingyourpodtery.com forward slash quiz, or you could simply go to shapingyourpodtery.com and it'll be right there at the top. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next time.