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#16 Brooke Knippa - Animal Pottery, Connecting with Nature,and the Power of Patience
43 Plays3 years ago
On this episode of Shaping Your Pottery I interview Brooke Knippa. Brooke makes some really creative pottery using all kinds of different animals to portray her work.
In this episode you will learn how Brooke makes her animals, connecting with nature to help with inspiration, the power of patience, and so much more
You can follow Brooke on Instagram @apcuriosities
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Transcript
Introduction to Brooke Knippa's artistry
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Today, I am interviewing Brooke Knippa. She makes some wonderful pieces of pottery. She uses animals to really portray the beauty of her artwork. You can follow her on Instagram at APCuriosities. Brooke, welcome to Shaping Your Pottery. Thank you so much, Nick. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you for hopping on. I really admire that you're getting out of your comfort zone here.
Brooke's crafting journey and career leap
00:00:29
Speaker
yeah absolutely so now the first thing i thought i would talk about was could you tell me how ap curiosity got started yeah um so i i think in some ways i
00:00:45
Speaker
I actually kind of started it when I was like in middle school. I always sat there. I didn't have no idea what it was going to be, but I would always, I'd sit there and in class I'd just doodle and I'd draw AP. Like I always knew my name, like whatever I would do, my company would be Alice Paul and it would be something. So I think in some way it sort of originated back then.
00:01:08
Speaker
And then so I grew up in restaurants and I Always saved my money and in my free time. I would always make things. I wasn't into pottery I hadn't taken any classes at that point, but I would just I'd like go to the antique store and Buy cool things and put them together and make lamps or I just had a bunch of different hobbies just loved learning new crafts and
00:01:32
Speaker
And then finally I got to a point with restaurants where I just knew I didn't want to own a restaurant I didn't I had managed and I had kind of got to the point where I didn't Have anywhere else to go other than just wait tables for the rest of my life Which is totally fine, but I knew I wanted to do something different so I actually just quit I didn't really have a plan. I just knew I
00:01:58
Speaker
Um, I wanted to quit my job and start making, I mean, I was already making things. Like I said, I was making a lot of jewelry at this point in my life. Um, so I knew I, I, so I quit and then I just started doing craft shows and, um, it was probably only about six months or so. And when I realized that I hadn't bought it out well, and I didn't really have a good body of work.
00:02:22
Speaker
to make a living. And I had never worked for us, you know, production, like anyone that was doing like a small business or anything. So at that point, I realized that I needed to find a mentor. And so I went and worked for another production potter for about four and a half years where I gained a lot of experience with pottery and running a small business. And then about four and a half years later, I kind of realized I
00:02:49
Speaker
was ready to give it another try. I felt like I had enough skills and more of a body of work.
Mentorship and family influence
00:02:55
Speaker
So 2013 was when I first quit my job and then 2018 was when I really did it full time as a full-time career.
00:03:06
Speaker
How did you find your internship? I guess you could say, how did you find that? Yeah, so I call it. So I mean, it was a job. She was, I did, I reached out to her. I like, honestly, I would have worked for free. I would have done it as an internship or anything. But in restaurants, the restaurant that I worked at, they were all about handmade and local and everything. So they used plates that a local potter had made and
00:03:33
Speaker
Um, so I had had her connection. I had met her. She had been in the restaurant to eat before and I knew she was working on another line because I had another restaurant that they were opening. So she was working on a new line of plates for them. So I just kind of like cold called her more or less to just send her an email and said, um, her name's Alison Evans. She, she's, um, you can, she's a Alison Evans ceramics or a ceramics.
00:03:56
Speaker
On Instagram, but so I reached out to her and I just said hey Allison I love your work Is there any chance you need help making this new line of pottery and it was the beginning of summer? Which is their busy season and so she said actually we we do need some help So I ended up moving over and starting part-time with her and then it turned into a full-time job and I was head of sales and marketing and helped with her website and did Assistant production and everything That is awesome. Yeah
00:04:26
Speaker
So I know that AP, the AP part of AP Curiosities came from your grandmother. Could you tell me the effect your grandmother had on your art or just being an artist in general?
00:04:40
Speaker
Yeah, so my grandmother, she went to be 100 years old. She just, she was, her hands were always busy. She was always making something. She was a painter just as a hobby, but she painted and she did a lot of crocheting and knitting and stuff. So, you know, I still had, she passed in 2006, but I still have a bunch of her pieces, her art hanging on my wall and everything.
00:05:09
Speaker
Um, so, uh, my dad owned, like I said, he owned a restaurant. I think I said that, but anyway, my dad owned a restaurant and it was a summer restaurant. Um, it was only open seasonally. So in the summer, our house was a hour away from where the restaurant was. So my mom would go and help on the weekends. And so we would go stay with my grandparents. They had a cabin up there. So I spent a lot of time with my grandmother.
00:05:33
Speaker
So yeah, I don't know. I think she was always very resourceful too whenever anything would break. She would just fix it like magic, but she would have like a rubber band and a safety clip or something and somehow she would manage to fix it with just like most random things. So that was always just very, it was just amazing how clever and resourceful she was.
00:05:55
Speaker
And I think also naming my business after her was also kind of homage to my family in general. I think just my family's had such a big influence on me. My mom's a past film artist and my dad is a business person.
Challenges and COVID's impact on creativity
00:06:12
Speaker
So I think AP curiosity is kind of this sort of combination of both my parents, you know, this creative side and on this business side, just kind of coming together.
00:06:25
Speaker
I love that because I feel like my grandpa also influenced me even though I didn't really get to see him make it. I saw his paintings and his drawings and it influenced me a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. You just don't realize how much something's influencing you until down the road and then you look back and you're like, wow, that I had no idea, but that really made this big impact on who I am or what I do.
00:06:50
Speaker
With starting AP Curiosity, what were some of the biggest challenges that you faced? Well, so I feel like there's kind of been like two startings of it, right? So in 2013, when I first started it, I think my biggest challenge was that I didn't really have a plan.
00:07:08
Speaker
Sometimes I do things backwards, but I think if I overthink things or over plan them I'm less likely to do it because you just think about everything that can go wrong or that you're not ready for and so I just took this really big leap and And I and then after when when I took that leap I realized that I owe a don't I'm not quite ready for this so and then in 2018 or yeah 2018 I
00:07:36
Speaker
my biggest hurdle probably was not having a kiln because by then I knew I wanted to, I was making pottery. And I, thankfully the woman I was working for, Alison, she was so nice and she said I could go down and fire my stuff in her kiln, but she was about a half hour and it's just a nightmare to pack up, you know,
00:08:00
Speaker
Greenware and then to try and glaze things and then pack that up again and all this schlepping. It just takes so much time So not having a kiln was really Was really challenging for me as someone who was like I'm gonna make this my full-time career and be a potter Oh wait, I don't have a kiln. They're like a really close place to fire something Yeah, I feel that because I have I kind of have to do that right now with my friend who lives 30 minutes away from me Yeah, exactly. Go drive down there to go make stuff and
00:08:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it's challenging and it really does change what you make too, because you're like, oh, that's too delicate to pack up. So I'm going to have to make it a little bit differently knowing that I have to bring it somewhere. Yep, I feel that. So now tell me how you started creating the pottery, the part that you make right now. So
00:08:55
Speaker
I've always been very drawn to nature and animals. That's I think my biggest and it's always been a source of inspiration for me. So I had a request for, so I was making, I started making some smaller things and I was making some jewelry and I had a request from one of my friends for an owl necklace and I
00:09:23
Speaker
I should actually say also, I think that what really changed my work was COVID. I think it gave me a lot more time because before COVID I was doing exclusively craft shows. I wasn't really selling much online, so I was making a living just going to craft shows, doing a little bit of wholesale and consignment.
00:09:47
Speaker
And so when COVID hit, I had to transition and pivot and it gave me that time to kind of slow down and be like, okay, what ideas have been living in my head that I don't have a lot of time, that I have more time to explore now that I'm not just like producing. Oh, I have a craft show in a month. Okay. I have to make so many of this, so many of this, and so many of this, where I was doing more production at that point.
00:10:10
Speaker
So it kind of allowed me to be like, what ideas do I have that I haven't explored? So I had this request for a necklace, and then I was just playing around thinking, oh, that'd be so fun if I had a little vase with a shoulder on the side of it. So I put the owl on the vase. And then that just evolved into, oh, what if I put a little nook? Just make a little inset and a mug, and then have the owl live in there.
00:10:35
Speaker
and it's amazing too how much impact social media has because at that point once COVID hit I was definitely spending a lot more time because I knew I wanted to start I needed to start selling online I was working on posting more on social media and so I started posting those things and it's just amazing I mean how when you're doing it when you're making pottery as a living you really you have to put your ideas out into the world and
00:11:01
Speaker
If other people don't love those ideas, then they kind of don't go anywhere because you have to have a reason to make more of them and something to fund you. So I think making these small little animals, people started really connecting with them and they started selling really well and I started getting a lot more traction
Inspiration from nature and creative process
00:11:22
Speaker
with it. And so I just kind of went with it. How do you decide which animal to kind of make on your pottery?
00:11:32
Speaker
It's really based on I'd say experience and the seasons. When I say experience I just mean like when I go outside like I go for a walk every day and you know if I see a bluebird or something I get really excited and I come home I want to make a bluebird and then I mean because of that it's very seasonal so I mean the funny thing with my work though is
00:11:53
Speaker
because I'm so inspired by the seasons but it also takes me so long by the time I you know I get a polar bear not that I see polar bears around here but if I were to make a polar bear in the winter then I uh by the time it's out it's like you know spring so some of my work's a little behind I try and think ahead but it's just it's just so hard because you I just get excited about the things I see when I see it you know
00:12:18
Speaker
You just want to make it right now. Exactly. So could you walk me through the steps of how you make one of your mugs maybe? Yeah.
00:12:29
Speaker
Yeah, so I usually do them in like batches of five to 10 or something. I have a damp box so I can put things in there, but it's just easier to kind of make things and through things. So I'll cut and wedge the clay. I always wedge my clay. It's just a really good way for me to kind of get both me and the clay warmed up.
00:12:49
Speaker
So I wedge my clay and then I throw my mug. I try and think ahead about what animal I'm going to do, but sometimes I just make blank mugs and then they turn into whatever they want to be.
00:13:03
Speaker
But I throw the mug, and then after it sets up for a little bit to the point where just the rim is hard enough so that I don't warp it when I put the indent in. And I just take with my finger in a sponge, and I just push the indent in into whatever shape. Usually it's some sort of circle, but sometimes an oval, like if I'm doing a flamingo or something like that. And then I let it dry a little bit more until it's lettered hard, and then I trim it.
00:13:31
Speaker
put the animal in there and then I decorate the mug after I put the little animal in and then I let it dry and I fist fire it and then I
00:13:46
Speaker
give it a good wipe down and do some intricate waxing and then glaze it and then or yeah I glaze it and then I glaze fire it and then I usually almost always do some sort of luster on there so I'll gold luster it and then I do a third gold luster firing and then I stand the bottom smooth and then depending on if I'm doing a market or doing it online I'll photograph it and
00:14:11
Speaker
do a listing and then a shop update or whatever and then ship it and then start all over. How do you, how do you glaze just like the animal that you're working on? Um, I have very tiny paint brushes. So I have this one paintbrush that has a little crook in the neck. So it actually helps me get kind of in the back. Cause I try and do, I mean, obviously once the animals in there, it's really hard to get into the back of it, but I really try and do as much like,
00:14:39
Speaker
painting or glazing on the whole animal. So yeah, I just do some really fine paint work. Depending on the animal, sometimes I paint it with a really thin coat of clear and then a wax over that. Yeah, just really fine paint brushes and patience. Where do you get these fine paint brushes at?
00:15:01
Speaker
We have some local craft stores. I don't know. I think I use some that are Princeton that are really good. I just wouldn't, you know, or I'll buy them online and just like look for like fine tipped paintbrushes. That is great. I might have to start looking into that because I kind of want to start making these that myself. Yeah, the paintbrush is huge. So when you're creating work, what is kind of going through your mind like when you're just working?
00:15:32
Speaker
I listen to a lot of podcasts and I should say actually I do, I think I work in silence a lot more than other people. I know I have a lot of friends and even at the pottery studio that I worked at before, there was always music going.
00:15:50
Speaker
and something in the background. And I really often I like to open the window and just like listen to the birds and just listen to the wind. And I don't know, sometimes I think about what I'm making. I mean, often I think that's probably what I'm thinking about is how I'm going to decorate
00:16:10
Speaker
That's probably what I most often think about but it's like because these things are so intricate and kind of time consuming a lot of and I do a lot of like kind of the notching and stuff it's almost meditative and it just gives you time to sort of process whatever is going on in the day. Right. So now when you feel overwhelmed or kind of unfocused what do you do to get back on track?
00:16:41
Speaker
Gosh, what do I do? It kind of depends. So if I feel overwhelmed, which I honestly, I feel like I get overwhelmed very easily. If I know I have, that's actually, I started taking, I took a wait list. Like when I started getting, when I started making my animal pieces, I was taking a wait list and I got so overwhelmed by it. I felt like a deer in headlights. I just, I like froze. I couldn't make anything. So I realized I couldn't do that anymore. I needed to just kind of let my creativity flow. So,
00:17:03
Speaker
I'm still figuring that out.
00:17:08
Speaker
it's something like that where I know there is a stem like a root to it, then I will Fix that, you know, so And in that case I would just kind of break things down into really manageable steps but often I'll get outside and go for a walk and kind of try and clear my head and think of You know see if I see something that's really inspirational or that grabs my attention and
00:17:34
Speaker
Um, but I think honestly, the biggest thing I can do when I'm feeling unfocused or stuck or something is just to just start making something. I think for me, I often get, it's like, it's really hard to get started, but once you get started and you get your hands in clay and you start moving, it's like things just start kind of flowing, you
Balancing creativity and personal well-being
00:17:55
Speaker
know? Yeah. I feel that because sometimes like you just kind of have to start in order to kind of get the creative juices flowing.
00:18:01
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. Like a snowball. Yes, exactly. So now the next thing I thought I could talk about would be if you had to choose something or one thing that you can't live without that helps you either with your pottery or your life, what would that be? One thing I couldn't live without. I think it's just being, I think it's being close to nature.
00:18:31
Speaker
I think, I mean, and that goes for both pottery and for life in general. I think I have such a connection with it and it not only inspires me, but if I'm going through a really hard time or something that just I can't, like I can't focus on work, I just, I have to go outside and clear my mind. It's nature is just this thing to me that I don't think I could live without. I mean, I have lived in a city before
00:18:58
Speaker
And I mean, I did enjoy it. There's a lot of good things about the city. And there is still a lot of like nature and wildlife in the city. But just being in a more rural area when I moved to the countryside, I think it just opened my eyes and made me realize how much I needed it. And yeah, I just, it speaks to me. I like that because I definitely enjoy being out in nature and it does help a lot.
00:19:27
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, even just, you know, I go and sit outside and we live in a very birdy area. There's tons of birds. And so just like sitting outside for breakfast and lunch and just sitting there with the sun and listening to the birds sing. It's just, it's the best part of the day. I agree. I do like listening to the birds sing. So now, if you, could you tell me how has a failure or apparent failure led to future success?
00:19:56
Speaker
Um, failure makes me so uncomfortable. Um, I know it's, I've always been a perfectionist. So I try, I always try so hard not to fail, but I, every time I do or do something that I know there's a chance of failure, I just remind myself how important it is. Um, because if you're not failing, you're not learning. My dad would always
00:20:20
Speaker
When I was young and we'd go skiing, I'd come home and my dad would say, how was skiing today? I'd say it was great. I didn't fall once. And I was so proud of myself. And he'd say, you didn't fall. That means you weren't trying very hard. I was like, oh. So I think it kind of made me, you know, it makes you realize and foster this idea that failure, you know, I don't know.
Mastering pottery and advice for beginners
00:20:45
Speaker
It's okay. It's okay. Exactly. Absolutely.
00:20:50
Speaker
So now there's something that I think I found interesting. So on your Instagram, I believe I think I'm quoting here. So I can finally say that I find throwing to be relaxing instead of a fight. It's a dance, whatever you're working on, whether it be throwing skills or something entirely different, just keep practicing. Could you elaborate that on that more?
00:21:15
Speaker
Yeah, when I started growing, so my first pottery class was a throwing class and I was so terrible at it. I couldn't center, I couldn't grow, and it was so frustrating. Actually, coincidentally, the very first day of my first pottery lesson was
00:21:34
Speaker
I had planned to go and put my notice into restaurants, to my job. And so, of course, I was really anxious and nervous about that. And I was thinking like, okay, I'm gonna go into this pottery class and pottery. Everyone says how soothing and relaxing it is. So I'm gonna go in, I'll get all my nerves out and I'll get all relaxed before I go in and quit my job. But it was so much worse. I was so frustrated and anxious by the end of it. I was like, what am I doing?
00:22:02
Speaker
And I actually, I only took a, I don't know, I can't even remember if I took another session of throwing or not, but I definitely went over to hand building because I was like, enough is enough, I cannot throw, I'm not a thrower. So I went and took a hand building class. But I just, there was always something I wanted, you know, you watch people throw and it just looks like this effortless, beautiful like dance with clay. And it just, I wanted to do that. And so I,
00:22:28
Speaker
I ended up at my, the job I was telling you about, I, she sold these little juice cups and they were just basic tiny little cylinders. And I, so I asked her if I could start throwing them. And so she said, yeah, sure. If you're interested. Absolutely. So I just started practicing and throwing those little cylinders. And I just made several hundreds of those until I finally kind of got the idea of
00:22:56
Speaker
how to center and how to pull and what it felt like and then just yeah I've made thousands of cups after that for her and I think with that hard work and patience and dedication I finally finally figured it out. How long did it take you for you to be comfortable with throwing on the wheel? I mean to be really comfortable probably took me like
00:23:20
Speaker
two years maybe at least of like really dedicated throwing for somebody else. I feel that because that took me about two years to get comfortable throwing too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. Some people can just pick it up and they're really good at it. And, or it comes naturally to them really easily, but it just didn't, it didn't for me.
00:23:40
Speaker
Yeah, same. Yeah. Now I love it. Now, you know, I remember too, when people would at work would start talking to me when I was throwing and I could not, I could not talk to someone while I was trying to throw. It was just throwing with taking up like 100% of my brain capacity. And now I can throw and talk to people or do things. And it just, it's like second nature to me. Yep. I remember when I was first starting, I would always hold my breath, like as I'm pulling up and I still kind of do that now, but not as much.
00:24:09
Speaker
So now this will this will be my last question if you Had to give advice to somebody new to pottery. What would you what would you say? Gosh I would probably tell them I have a few things to say to them, but I would definitely tell them to be really patient and to just
00:24:37
Speaker
try I think just when I first started and I think this is both business wise I mean if you are someone that's aspiring or already in business and still trying to figure things out or if you're just a potter looking to make things I think saying yes to everything
00:24:54
Speaker
At first, you know, you see different kinds of work and you try and make the totally different styles. Or saying yes for business stuff to saying yes to craft shows, to wholesale, to consignment. And then you kind of figure out what works for you. And then from there, you can kind of cool things out. Be like, okay, I made this really geometric shape and I don't like it and I didn't enjoy making it.
00:25:21
Speaker
So I'm not going to make those things again, you know, or I did wholesale and it did not work out for me because I didn't make what I needed to on it. Um, but I think at least for me, just saying yes to things and then kind of pulling it out, uh, really helped me focus and figure out what exactly it was that I wanted to make and how I wanted to sell it.
Conclusion and future possibilities
00:25:42
Speaker
Right. That was great piece of advice. I really enjoyed our talk today. Thank you for hopping on.
00:25:48
Speaker
Yeah, thank you for having me. It was very fun. We should do this again sometime. Absolutely.