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#366 The Art of Ceramic Flowers w/Sonita Cannon
66 Plays2 years ago
This Episode features an interview with Sonita Cannon who shares her journey from a high school art class discovery of ceramics to becoming a full-time potter with her own home studio and unique voice in the craft. Throughout the conversation, the importance of supportive people, from teachers to peers and family, is highlighted as a critical component of her growth and success. Sonita discusses the evolution of her work, from the initial challenges and learning experiences to innovatively incorporating techniques inspired by cake decorating to create distinct flower designs on her pottery. She shares stories of overcoming challenges, including the transition to her own studio space and the pivotal moments that propelled her business forward, such as viral social media exposure. Additionally, the conversation covers advice for aspiring potters on business skills, collaboration, embracing failure as a learning process, and the importance of patience and fun in discovering one's unique voice in pottery. You can learn more about Sonita by checking out her Instagram @juniperandlarkceramics
Take this Free Quiz to see how close you are to finding your pottery voice click here to take the quiz shapingyourpottery.com/quiz
00:00 Welcome to the Pottery Journey 00:03 The Impact of People on the Pottery Path 01:06 The Beginnings of a Pottery Passion 02:03 Creating a Home Studio: Dreams to Reality 03:55 The Evolution of Pottery Style: From Functional to Floral 07:11 Exploring Techniques: The Art of Versatility 11:25 The Business Side of Pottery: Turning Passion into Profession 15:51 Discovering Your Unique Voice in Pottery 18:42 Collaborations and Growth: Expanding the Pottery Horizon 19:54 Embracing Failure: The Pathway to Success 22:15 Finding Your Unique Voice: Advice for Aspiring Potters 23:04 Final Thoughts and Where to Learn More
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Transcript
Supportive Influences
00:00:00
Speaker
Donita, welcome, shape your pottery and share with me what is something that has helped you the most along your pottery journey so far? I think throughout my pottery journey, it's always been people. And so that's those people have changed through the journey. So if I started the beginning, it was definitely
00:00:16
Speaker
my high school art teacher and then in college it was definitely my peers around me. After college I taught for a while and I made some great friendships with the people that I taught with and they were really important part of my pottery journey. And now as I have my own business in home studio I don't have all those ceramics people around me it's definitely my husband. He's always that one
00:00:43
Speaker
He's that constant person in the corner for me. Like he's always going to be there. He's always supported above me coming into the studio. He's willing to help out. He'll go and drive to pick up my huge clay order and then carry the pounds down the stairs for me. So it's always just been people and supportive people that I've surrounded myself with who have helped me through this pottery journey.
Discovering Pottery
00:01:05
Speaker
I absolutely love that. And we're gonna talk more about your business side of pottery a little bit later, but for now, tell me a story, how you got started making pottery.
00:01:16
Speaker
So I got started in high school. I had to take an elective and I always loved art, but I was never great at drawing or painting or anything like that. So I decided to do a ceramics class and we actually had a pretty good ceramics program and I just kind of fell in love with the clay. I loved knowing that I could make something and then use that and it was fun. My art
00:01:40
Speaker
High school art teacher, she was very supportive and really like encouraging me to apply for grants and apply to college for art. I had never really thought about doing that. And yeah, she was great. She was a great teacher and a great mentor. And it kind of just gave me that little boost to kind of continue it further throughout college.
Building a Home Studio
00:02:01
Speaker
Absolutely love that. So tell me the story about when you got your own home studio to work out of.
00:02:08
Speaker
So my own home studio, it's always something that I wanted. And we saved a lot for it, because we knew that when we bought a house, we wanted to put one in. So when it was time to buy a house, we looked for something where we can convert into a studio. So whether that was like an outdoor building or something inside, and we had found a house that had part of the basement that was unfinished, a room down here. And so we were able to finish off that room, and it became my home studio.
00:02:38
Speaker
I absolutely loved that. What were you feeling when you finally were able to get your own home studio? Yeah, I was just excited.
00:02:46
Speaker
I wasn't able to work in it right away. I was like eight months pregnant when we finished it. And it was a hard pregnancy. So it took me like, you know, a couple months after the baby was born to really get down here and play. But I was really excited just, you know, working so hard for something and wanting something for so long and just being able to accomplish that goal. I was just excited and ready to get down and start working with some clay. What was like one of the first few things you started making in your own home studio?
Returning to Pottery
00:03:15
Speaker
You know, I remember coming down and I was like, what do I do? Cause I haven't, I hadn't been working with play for a while and I just threw a bowl. I remember I just threw a bowl on the wheel and I showed my husband, he came down. He's like, ooh, close your retirement right now because he knew I was going to be starting sibling pottery. So.
00:03:33
Speaker
Yeah, I just remember I just started throwing on the wheel. I just started making something that was familiar to me. So I knew I didn't really have to think that much about making a bowl. I could just it was just muscle memory. I just made a bowl and I'm starting that and then I just started throwing some vases as well. So it was just getting back and throwing things that were familiar of what I knew how to make. Absolutely love that. So let's talk about your pottery. Can you tell me the story how you started making the pottery that you make today?
Exploring Floral Designs
00:04:01
Speaker
Right, so I would do pop-up sales at my driveway on Saturdays and I would just like advertise it. I'd put signs around the different streets, you know, like you do for garage sales. I'd just do art sales, local artists, and I would get a handful of people that would come. And this one time I had this customer and she wanted to make some platters for her.
00:04:22
Speaker
for her wedding. And I said, I could definitely do that. But she wanted flowers on the platters. And I straight up told her, like, I could try, but it might not happen. Like you have to know that.
00:04:34
Speaker
I'm not going to commit to something I can't do. I can definitely make the platters, but I don't know if I can make the flowers. And she's like, well, just give it a try. So I tried it and it was, it was difficult. I couldn't really find, I just didn't like how they were turning out and like how they look or the shape of, um, and I remember texting her.
00:04:52
Speaker
if you try maybe like stained glass on top of the the platters like stained glass flowers or paper flowers or even like felt flowers and she's like you know i really want it to be ceramic i want them to be the same type of mediums she's like can you just try it one more time
00:05:08
Speaker
And so I did, and that's when I started to look up videos on how to make flowers, not necessarily ceramic flowers, just how to make flowers. And I came across videos of how bakers or cake makers make flowers for their wedding cakes, or just for any case, like the fondant flowers.
00:05:27
Speaker
And then it clicked for me, right? So fondant is kind of similar to clay and how they were shaping them and making them really kind of resonate with how I was wanting the flowers to look like. And so that's kind of how it was born. It came from something that I had nothing
00:05:42
Speaker
no idea how to do and didn't really want to do. But now I just love it. I love making flowers. I love the hand building aspect of it. So yeah, it was something that was out of my comfort zone that turned into something that I love. Absolutely love that. As you just mentioned, you are inspired by flowers. Why is it that you like flowers in your own work?
00:06:06
Speaker
I just don't ever get bored of making them. So it's just like, in nature, every flower is different. Like you could have 12 roses, right? And they look similar. But each one, if you dive down, are actually very different. And that's what I love about making these on my flowers is
00:06:23
Speaker
I could make two flowers from the same petal shape, and they could look very completely different from each other. And I also love bright and fun colors. And in nature, flowers, they have such rich color. And that's what I love about that, is just finding some fun colors. And it just makes me happy. So yeah, I don't think anybody has any negative feelings towards flowers. So yeah, I just love them.
00:06:50
Speaker
Do you have a favorite type of flower that you like to make onto your pottery? I'm inspired a lot by peonies. So I don't know if they're, I don't exactly like mimic them to be a peony, but I love looking at peonies and having them around. And so you can kind of see that with some of my flowers that they're kind of in that shape and that petal shape.
00:07:10
Speaker
I love that. So something I love about your pottery is you use a wide variety of techniques from sculpting to adding texture and everything in between. Can you tell me why you do this?
00:07:21
Speaker
Yeah, I guess I didn't really realize that I did that. But I started out in high school as a wheel thrower, throwing on the wheel, making pottery that way. And then when I went to college, our art ceramics teacher, she was very much into hand building. So I kind of had to switch gears and learn how to hand build. So I had those two great strengths of hand building and throwing on the wheel.
00:07:44
Speaker
I just love learning new things in ceramics. One of the fun things about ceramics is that you can do so many different things. You can give somebody one pound of clay.
00:07:55
Speaker
Five people, each a pound of clay and say make a bowl and how they go about making that bowl is different, right? Somebody might throw it, somebody might make it out of coils or pinch pot or mold it. So I just love learning new techniques and trying to implement that into my type of style and what I'm making.
00:08:15
Speaker
I absolutely love that. Shaping Nation, Pottery has so many unique techniques and you don't have to be stuck doing just one. If you want to handle it, you can handle it. If you want to wheel throw, you can even combine techniques. I absolutely love that.
Integrating Screen Printing
00:08:29
Speaker
So when was the moment when you started branching out into more techniques to express your voice?
00:08:36
Speaker
So when I started to learn how to screen print, I feel like I was able to take more of my functional pottery that I'd thrown on the wheel and create some floral designs and put that floral design on those pieces. And then that would kind of flow into the flowers that I make.
00:08:55
Speaker
with my hand building. So I think that technique kind of bridged the gap between those two and kind of made it so it looked like, oh, the person that made this vase is the same person who made this flower. So it kind of showed my style going through both of those. Can you give me a brief explanation of how you create your flower sculptures and add them to your pots? Right. So I'll just throw
00:09:23
Speaker
these form on the wheel and then for the flowers I will roll like a thin slab and I have little like cookie cutter shaped petals that I'll cut out from the thin slab to make all my petals and then I'll use silicone molds like a two-part silicone mold to create that texture of the petal and sometimes I buy the silicone mold and sometimes I'll make them from actual flower petals
00:09:51
Speaker
So it kind of just depends what type of look I'm going for on the vase. And then I just do a lot of scratching and scoring and attach them all to the vase. And then I'll usually, for that vase, I'll usually end up spraying it, spraying the glaze on there when I fired a cone six. And then I'll add the gold luster after that and then fire it again. So you mentioned gold luster. Why did you start adding gold luster to your pots?
00:10:19
Speaker
So it kind of started when I was making those platters for the girl who wanted them for her wedding. But we were, she wanted like a white gold. So I was like, okay, good to do gold. I'd heard about gold luster before and had seen it done, but I'd never really used it before. So there is a little learning curve with gold luster, right? So it's not like your normal type of glaze. It's like more oil-based.
00:10:44
Speaker
And so you kind of have to be careful how you apply it. You don't want it too thin. You don't want it too thick, because if you have it too thick, then you'll get little drips and it'll run down. So you just kind of have to take your time and kind of learn how to apply it.
00:10:59
Speaker
But I just loved how it gave the flowers, like that little pop, that little sparkle. It just kind of elevated the flowers a little bit more. So yeah, I kind of got stuck into making them. I love how it looks. I just don't like applying it because it's like, you got to put on your mask, you got to make sure everything's ventilated. It's stinky to work with. The end result, it turns out beautiful.
00:11:24
Speaker
I absolutely love that. So let's talk about the business side of
Balancing Pottery and Family
00:11:28
Speaker
pottery. Can you tell me about the moment when you decided to become a full-time potter? It kind of just coincided with me being pregnant. I knew that I wanted to stay home with my daughter and we had just finished the studio. So it was kind of that easy transition of being able to stay home and then also work in my studio as well. So that transition was kind of easy for me. What were you feeling when you became a full-time potter?
00:11:54
Speaker
I think I was just excited. Again, it was just excited, something that I was working towards, I'd always wanted to do. So I kind of hit that point in my life where I was like, okay, I'm ready to do this. Let's go. What do you think has helped you the most when it came to be able to sell your own pots?
00:12:12
Speaker
So before I became a full-time potter, a lot of the companies that I had worked for were small businesses. So with that, you kind of have to wear many different hats. And so I learned how to negotiate pricing.
00:12:28
Speaker
I went to a lot of trade shows, so that was helpful as well. Talking to people and knowing how to set up your booth was a great transition over to setting up your booth for pottery. I also worked in product development and I had this boss and she was just amazing. She really taught me how to develop a product line into research, what the consumer wants and how to build your product towards the consumer. So she's great.
00:12:56
Speaker
To this day, I'll still text her and be like, hey, what do you think of this? Or what do you think of these price points? So she gives great advice on things like that when I'm kind of like wavering a little bit on what to do. So yeah, so definitely I think things that help me the most is just working for a lot of small businesses and wearing a lot of different hats and just trying to learn as much as I could in that business about what it takes to run a company.
Business Skills in Pottery
00:13:21
Speaker
So you mentioned doing research or product market research for the customer. How do you do this with your own pottery? Once you've been able to identify your target audience, then read up on how they spend and where they spend their money. What social media accounts do they follow? What trends are they following? Look at what color schemes they gravitate towards. Then look at how your story and ceramic work can fit into some of those slots.
00:13:47
Speaker
Also look at artists that are similar to your work, not to copy what they're doing, but to see where your work is similar and what you have that is different than them. If you're overlapping in work, try to identify what sets you apart, especially if it's an oversaturation in the marketplace of this item. You can find this a lot in functional items like bowls and mugs and plates. Is yours different or unique because of
00:14:13
Speaker
the process of how it was made or how it's fired or glazed or your surface design. Try to identify these things and then create a story to show how your work is unique or different. That makes perfect sense, at least to me. I love that. So what advice would you give to someone looking to start selling their own pottery?
00:14:37
Speaker
So I would say use the knowledge. Learn as much as you can about business, even if you're taking art classes. Try to take as many business classes as you can, even if they're just intro ones. So intro to marketing or intro to business. If they have an entrepreneurship class, take that. I think that's one thing that I kind of missed when I was in college was that I didn't take any business
00:15:02
Speaker
They didn't have any business classes in the art program. I had to go and take some on my own. And you don't always think of that when you're in there. And I would also say if you are not in college right now and you're working, look at your job and see what can I learn from my job that can apply to a ceramics business. So again, it's like if you're working for a company and
00:15:28
Speaker
you know, they need help with shipping out orders like volunteer to go ship out orders so you can understand like how to package a piece nicely, that's not going to break. So I would say just try to find those little things that you know, you're already getting paid to do it might as well learn some things that will help translate over into ceramics business. Absolutely love that advice. Some excellent advice right there.
Social Media Success
00:15:51
Speaker
So let's talk about discovering your voice. Can you tell me about the moment when you knew you're heading in the right direction with your pottery?
00:15:58
Speaker
Yeah, so I think it was three years ago and I remember the day exactly because it was my birthday. My husband, he had just bought me like this beautiful hammock and we live in Ohio and you don't see the sun very much in Ohio and it was a sunny day. So I was out in my hammock and it was a sunny day and all of a sudden my phone just started blowing up.
00:16:17
Speaker
It was like I was getting all these Instagram messages. I was getting all these orders going through because before I would get a couple orders a month. It wasn't like huge when I was like, what is going on? And so I looked and I had forgotten that this social media site called My Modern Met had asked if I if they could take some of my videos and do a compilation and post it. And I was like, yes, sure you can. And it was like it had been a couple of months since they had asked about that in
00:16:47
Speaker
they had done is they'd taken all my screen printing videos and put a nice compilation together and they posted it in. It was already at like a million views and people were just like ordering from my site and I had to turn it off. I actually had to turn off back orders because it was too much. I knew I couldn't fulfill it. So yeah and that doesn't always happen to people and so I was very grateful for that that that happened but
00:17:11
Speaker
It just kind of like solidified that these designs that I'm doing and these techniques that I'm doing, there's a market for it. I found like my target audience. And so, yeah, it was it was that day on my birthday. I remember that video. You need that boost and that launch of I knew that what I was doing was the right thing. What were you feeling when all this was happening?
00:17:34
Speaker
I was super excited. I was very overwhelmed because I was like, how am I going to get all this done? Because it's just me, right? So, you know, I'd have to, I had to message people, make sure that they knew, you know, it's going to be, it's going to be at least three weeks before you get your piece, right? Like, and they're like, oh, okay. They, they understood that note because they knew it was being handmade and stuff like that. But yeah, I was definitely excited, but there was also the overwhelming of, I got to get all this stuff done.
00:18:02
Speaker
What new opportunities started coming your way once you found your own unique voice?
Collaborations and Growth
00:18:08
Speaker
Opportunities, I would say definitely collaborations with other artists, you know, like when I was doing this style that I was doing collaboration with other social media sites. I've done a couple of power positivity videos, which were always fun. I've gotten some, you know, because published in some magazines about what I do and also just
00:18:30
Speaker
I didn't have to really go out and search more to sell at a retail store. They're kind of message me now saying, hey, we like your work. Are you interested in something with us? So just kind of things like that. So now you mentioned collaborations with other artists. How would you go about doing collaborations if somebody is new to doing collaborations?
00:18:52
Speaker
You definitely have to find somebody who, you know, is similar to your style or I would say that you like their style as well. For this instance, she reached out to me, I was working with candles. She rushed me and asked if I'd wanted to collaborate with her and I looked at her stuff and I liked her style and the type of candles that she was making. And then we got together and we just started brainstorming together of how we wanted this product line to look.
00:19:19
Speaker
Um, so it's a lot of back and forth and it's a lot of like trial and error too. Like I would make some things. She's like, Oh, that's not really what I was thinking, but that I would mix. And then I kind of go back to the drawing and come back with, okay, how about this? And she's like, that's what I wanted. So you just kind of have to be prepared to do some trial, which is fine. Trial and error is great. It cannot be developed a product line, right? So.
00:19:42
Speaker
Yeah, you just kind of have to have videos that have to fun doing you have to make sure that you're like what you're making, because I feel that kind of will resonate with where your end product is. Absolutely love that advice.
Learning from Failures
00:19:55
Speaker
Speaking of trial and error, you contribute growth as an artist to failure. Can you tell me more about this?
00:20:02
Speaker
Yeah, I think I'm a person who likes to solve problems. I like to figure out how something's made. And so I don't necessarily say, like, I failed a lot. I always think of, like, if I don't try it, then I failed, right? So for me, you're working out a problem in the studio, again, with like screen printing. The first time I tried screen printing, I was horrible at it. And I knew that it was going to take me a while to figure this out.
00:20:32
Speaker
So I think if I had stopped right then and not done it, that would have been a failure to me. So it's just, I just take them as like learning experiences and okay, I tried it this way and now I got to approach it this way, a different way, come at it at a different angle. I love that. Can you tell me about a failure or failures that led you to future success in your pottery?
00:20:55
Speaker
Yes, so when we were talking about the flowers, there was kind of that point where I was ready to give up, right? And so all those, I think I probably made over like 40 flowers before I really started to like what I was making. And then again, with screen printing, I couldn't get the right consistency of the underglaze. So it was either too thick or too thin.
00:21:16
Speaker
couldn't get the right pressure down of passing it through the screen. So all those little things that I had to learn how to do, you just, and you can, you can read the instructions, but you really have to like, try it, you have to do it. And you have to like, feel the materials and see how it's working before you can really get it. And so yeah, I would say I went through like a good
00:21:38
Speaker
two weeks of screen printing before I really got it down of how I liked the process and figured out the right consistency of clay and things like that. And I knew it was gonna take me that long. So I gave myself that like, okay, these two weeks, you're just playing around, you're experiencing. I didn't have any expectations of making anything that I was gonna save or cheat. It was just learning that process.
00:22:03
Speaker
Absolutely love that
Finding Your Pottery Voice
00:22:04
Speaker
shaping nation. Sometimes you have to spend time and fail a lot until you can actually Actually get something to work, but that failure will lead you to future success. I love that So now what advice would you give to someone look discover their own unique voice with their pottery?
00:22:21
Speaker
I would say just be patient with yourself. It'll come. I remember when you asked me what was the first thing I made when I went into my studio, it was just a bowl. So if you're stuck creatively, you get into your studio and you're kind of overwhelmed or you're like, I don't know what to make.
00:22:38
Speaker
just make something, whether if it's like take it day by day and make a goal, okay, today what I'm gonna do is just throw a bowl, any shape of a bowl. And then the next day go to your studio and maybe sketch out a bowl and then make that bowl that you sketched out. And just give yourself little goals every day so you're not completely overwhelmed. And I think you'll naturally find what you like to make and it'll gravitate towards that.
00:23:05
Speaker
absolutely love that some excellent advice right there. Sneed up. It has been great chatting with you today. And as we come to a close here, what is one thing you want to hammer home with my listeners today?
00:23:15
Speaker
Just have fun in the studio. Don't get caught up in what the person next to you is making or what somebody is making on social media. Just do what you like to do and have fun and continue to always learn. I think everything you make and every time you go into the studio, it can be a learning experience. So just have fun with that and continue to make things that you like to make and you'll find your audience and your voice.
00:23:42
Speaker
I absolutely love that. Sunita, it's been great chat with you today.
Connecting with Donita
00:23:46
Speaker
Where can my listeners go and learn more about you?
00:23:48
Speaker
So my website is juniperunlark.com and my social media is juniperunlarkceramics, both for Instagram and Facebook. So that's two social media sites. 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,
00:24:13
Speaker
I put together a free four question quiz. It's very short. Take 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.