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#4 Mark Myer- Candle Houses, Carving and Stamps, Making Time For Family, and More
79 Plays4 years ago
In this episode on Shaping Your Pottery with Nic Torres we are interviewing Mark Myer
In the episode we talk about
1. Candle Houses
2. Carving and Stamps
3. Making time for family
and much more you can follow mark on Instagram @myermade
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Transcript
Introduction and Meet the Artist
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Today, I am interviewing Mark Meyer. He creates some fantastic pottery, and he uses carving and stamps to make his pottery look truly unique. You can follow him at MeyerMade on Instagram and go check out his website as well, MeyerMade.com.
Family Traditions and Inspirations
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome, Mark. How's it going? Hey, Nick. Great to be here.
00:00:26
Speaker
I'm excited. Thank you. Thank you for coming on. I appreciate it. Yeah, not a problem. So I thought we could start with something kind of a little bit easy and fun. So I know I think it's Mondays, you and your dad share coffee in the mornings. How did that get started? Oh, man, that was years ago. I'm not exactly sure how it started. We probably went out for coffee, some local coffee shops around town.
00:00:56
Speaker
And then it slowly just started doing it every Monday morning. Um, that was actually, I actually did that before I would have been starting to do pottery in the mornings. That was something that we started prior to that, um, before I actually started, uh, doing ceramics before I went to work. So yeah, I'm not exactly sure if it was him initiating it or me saying something, but started that Monday morning routine. And it's a great way to start the week off and look forward to it every Monday.
00:01:23
Speaker
How does it make you feel when he shows up with your coffee? I feel loved. I definitely feel loved. He's a great father and definitely blessed to have him as a little model for me. I have four little ones as well. So definitely look to him and my mom for just guidance and that type of stuff and different things that they've told us from an episode. It's a good feeling. I know I had a video a year, man, how many years ago, but I love video where he came in. He didn't know I was going to be recording and
00:01:52
Speaker
He came in and I'm recording and saying, hey, here's my dad with coffee again.
Creative Ventures: Candle Houses
00:01:57
Speaker
That's great. I love that so much. So the next thing I wanted to talk about was that recently you've been making these houses that hold candles. Can you tell me how that got started?
00:02:12
Speaker
So that was actually kind of out of left field as well. A mutual friend of mine introduced me to a gentleman by the name of Jeremy, and he started a group of Christian artists called Pueama, and it's just starting out here in Pennsylvania. And he asked if I'd be willing to make a candle house for the benefit auction that they're doing this year. And I kind of figured out what it was just by the name of it, but I was like,
00:02:41
Speaker
didn't ever really had seen too many that he was talking about. Um, I guess there's someone he spent some time in Europe and has fond memories of that. So he asked about making some of them and I was like, yeah, I can definitely try that and just kind of put my own spin on it. So I kind of told him what my ideas were about throwing a vessel and kind of going from there. And I made the first one, which was kind of based off a little bit of a jug style and had a lot of fun with it and decided to make a series of them. Of course.
00:03:09
Speaker
Once I made one, some of the people that follow me were asking if I'd be making more. Yeah. I was like, you know what? I've been making mugs for a while now. Let's make something a little different. It's a great change. How did you come up with the design for the house? Yeah. The first one just kind of drawing on the jug, lightly sketching on it and trying to figure out just with like window placement and chimney placement and stuff. So.
00:03:39
Speaker
really just kind of dig into my imagination there. And then the next one I wanted to kind of make something that look like it could fit in like a town or a city or something like that. So that's what the second style is. I have about four or five thrown right now that I have to start cutting up and adding windows and all that stuff too. That's actually the hardest part because I'm just kind of designing on the fly. I haven't necessarily sketched them out beforehand and haven't necessarily
00:04:09
Speaker
have a bunch of inspiration sitting around in photos is kind of what's going to look kind of cool in this thing.
Artistic Techniques and Challenges
00:04:14
Speaker
So I like it. I think when I saw that, that was probably what made me reach out to you because oh wow, that's super cool. Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely something unique for me. It's definitely a little bit out of left field. I mean, I've been doing the mugs or like bowls or something simple for a while now. So to come up and all of a sudden see this,
00:04:37
Speaker
uh, candle house being built was, I think a little bit of a surprise for those who, who made me follow me for, who've been following me for a while anyway. Yeah. I think it's a great idea. The perfect idea actually. Um, so I know that carving has been a big part in like your pottery process. How has carving helped you with this design for the house? Um, the carving, I don't do a lot of the texture carving as I did in the past.
00:05:07
Speaker
Um, but there's definitely a little bit as far as it's kind of, um, doing some details on the chimney, um, different areas on the body and stuff. And I'd like to kind of explore that a little bit more and see, see if I want to actually add, make a vessel that looks like it's all stone or make one that looks like it has siding on it. Um, I haven't explored that yet, but maybe we'll, maybe we'll pull that out. One of these ones coming up, we'll see. You should try to make one look like a, like a wood.
00:05:35
Speaker
Like a cabin house, I guess. I think that could be cool. I thought about that as well. Like try to try to call me a little log cabin or something. I think that would look pretty cool. So now that we're on the topic of carving, when did you start or when did you, I guess, figure out carving and like how to inspire you some more to make different pottery? Oh, man, I had I've been doing kind of pottery on and off for a long time.
00:06:05
Speaker
since high school. And the carving kind of happened probably, let's see, 2015 before then, when it started just kind of carving and just enjoyed that repetitive texture, repetitive designs. And so it
The Journey into Pottery
00:06:23
Speaker
kind of built that into some of my early pieces a lot, which it was either like a herringbone or a scalloped design. And for me, it's more, I just enjoy that, that
00:06:34
Speaker
detail work on that repetitive design and stuff and put it onto a piece of pottery and then watching how the glaze reacts to it. So I'm not exactly sure when it initially started, but it was somewhere early there in the beginning when I started making the mugs and that type of stuff where I like to see that the whole body just covered in a pattern. Right. So when you first started carving, what were some of the difficulties that you faced when you first started carving?
00:07:02
Speaker
Uh, first time I started carving, I probably waited way too long for, before I wouldn't start carving. I'd wait past leather stage or get too hard. And so then I'm fighting. It was fighting that and just kind of putting too much pressure on the tool. Um, the actual carving tool that I use was something that someone gave me a bunch of, uh, free tools and it's like a, a scruffy dough, or I don't even know what it, what the actual title is for, but it's just, it's not something that I think was
00:07:31
Speaker
specifically designed for clay. Yeah, replacement. It has a replacement tip for it. So yeah, this works really nice. It has a little bit of like a bevel to it. I like the design it made when I, when I covered into the clay. So that's what I use. But probably the first thing was figuring out what tool to use to get the design that I liked. And then also figuring out what, what type of consistency I need to be carving in that too.
00:07:57
Speaker
So at what point did you finally figure out that consistency, the right consistency? Oh man, probably after a few of the ones that were too dry, I was like, all right, I need to put this back under plastic and soak it up a little bit. Because the way it works for me, I'm working before work.
00:08:18
Speaker
wake up about an hour or spend about an hour before I head into work. So it's one of those things where like if I threw it one day attached to handle the next day or trimmed it and attached handles. So by the end of the week, I was carving. So just realizing, okay, I got to make sure I'm keeping this in that leather hard stage that whole time and not letting it dry out too fast. So it's probably the first batch or two realizing, okay, I can start carving this a little bit earlier than I was.
00:08:45
Speaker
Right. You got to make some mistakes sometimes. Yeah. So now you got your first wheel back in 2008. Could you describe that moment when you first got it for me? So my wife actually purchased that for me for my birthday. She went out and bought that for me. And at that time I did not have a kiln or anything.
00:09:12
Speaker
Um, so it was very exciting. I had worked at a friend from high school who graduated before me. I had done some work at his place cause he had a wheel on a kiln. So getting my own wheel and being able to make my stuff at my own house was pretty exciting. Um, there was still that missing link there as far as the kiln, but we converted an old closet. It was like a large closet in our apartment there. We converted it into a little, a little studio to throw. And yeah, being able to actually make stuff go in there at night.
00:09:41
Speaker
and put stuff together. It was pretty fun. And it was a lot more exciting. Once I got a kiln, I was able to actually fire pieces, but having my own wheel was pretty awesome. I remember when I first got my kiln, I was probably on there for like a month straight. It was just so exciting. Yeah, there's something about having your own equipment and not having to call your buddy up. Like, hey, can I come over and use your wheel today? Are you home or are your parents around? Can I come over and spend some time out in your pottery shed?
00:10:11
Speaker
Yep, I know that feeling because I have to do the same thing because I don't have a kiln right now But my friend has a kiln so I have to like drive 30 minutes just so that he I could fire my
Innovative Processes and Philosophies
00:10:20
Speaker
pieces. Oh man But I totally understand that feeling Now Wait, oh so for you started making these stamps I don't know pretty recently maybe Yeah, how do you make your stamps?
00:10:40
Speaker
So I only started branching out into that, uh, February of 2020, I went and bought a 3d printer. Um, the one cool thing with the pottery has been kind of been able to use some of the funds to buy more creative stuff, just like making things and stuff like that. So bought a 3d printer, um, wasn't initially thinking I'd use it a lot for, for pottery. Um, with four little kids, I figured we'd be able to make a lot of fun little toys. There's a lot of stuff in line with that.
00:11:10
Speaker
But then realized that I could easily make a stamp with the 3D builder just in Microsoft. So taking my logo, throwing it in the 3D builder immediately turns it into a 3D model. And then if I have to edit it on Tinkercad or other online 3D building software is there. And then essentially just making either a release stamp with the clays pushing up into it or making a regular stamp where you're kind of pressing the
00:11:39
Speaker
texture down into the clay. So once I figured that out, then it started seeing people's logos a little different. So there's like a coffee shop in town that I've done some stuff for. So just kind of trying out different logos and trying out different techniques. But yeah, it wasn't initially planning on using it for stamps, but once I realized how easily it was to do that, I definitely jumped in on that.
00:12:03
Speaker
Now, when it comes to glazing, how do you glaze just that specific part of where you stamp? If it is one that's kind of an outlaw stamp or something where the texture is raised, what is glaze? My brother actually helps me glaze. What is glaze it? Brush it on and then sponge it off so that your detail is the raw clay. Some of the more like the you are love mugs or
00:12:28
Speaker
Um, some of the other ones where glazing, like the lettering that's stamped in the side of the mug. There I'm just using one of those like bottle applicators and, uh, putting the glaze in the lettering or the design and then coming back with like a wax resist and glazing that. And then finally doing the other colors. So it's definitely a little bit more of a process than just brushing on some glaze and going to town and a little more detail work with the glazing there. Yeah.
00:12:57
Speaker
So now you mentioned like you are the you are love mugs How'd you come up with like the idea to start writing using like or phrases to put on your mugs? Oh man, just just seeing people online and just people struggling and that type of stuff and just knowing that Sometimes people just need to know that they're loved. I don't think sometimes we hear that enough and so I don't remember the first one I made but yeah, just that heart for people are like
00:13:26
Speaker
Hey, listen, you are loved no matter what you're going through. Uh, you are loved and, and, uh, you need people just need to hear that. Yeah. They need a little reminder every once in a while. Yeah. And so I think the, the first couple of ones I made, I don't even know if I sold them. I think I did two giveaways and it was kind of like, Hey, this giveaway, the one other one giveaway did was just saying, Hey, tag someone, tell them why you love them. And.
00:13:52
Speaker
the one of those people was going to be winning the bucks. So the person who did the tagging wasn't actually the person who would win it was someone they wanted to send this mug to. So I think that first mug went to Puerto Rico, which is pretty cool. Wow. Send it out there. And then the last mug was actually just gave it here in town, met someone and just felt like, you know what, I think just hearing your story, you need this mug and actually ran back home and gave it to them. So that's great. How, how often do you do giveaways for your pottery?
00:14:21
Speaker
Um kind of whenever I feel like sometimes it's when I design something new. Um, I don't really have like a set schedule, but I'll make a new design. I have one of the herringbone heart mugs I just made. Um, one of them will be given away here shortly. Um, so it usually ends up being when I design something new, like, Oh, I'll give one of these away and, uh, and send it out there. So it's, I don't even know how many it's been over the years, but usually that's what happens. I'll make a batch of them and be like, Oh, we'll give, we'll do one giveaway just to bless people. And, uh,
00:14:51
Speaker
and send it out there. Does giving away your pottery, does that help you kind of grow on Instagram and help with engagement a little bit? You know what? I don't really know because sometimes I don't even ask for follows or likes. Sometimes I'm just saying, hey, drop a comment down below, which I know that definitely helps with engagement if people are commenting on it.
00:15:17
Speaker
Some of the ones, I've been a part of a giveaway recently where it was like, Hey, you had to follow each page. And I was one of the people on that page. So that definitely helped. But more recently, I've just kind of been like, I just want to bless the people that are following me along. And if someone else sees it as well, or someone gets tagged and enjoys the content that they see or enjoys the pottery that they'll, they'll click that follow button. But I haven't recently been requiring like, likes follow shares or anything, but it's, it's either it's, I don't know.
Balancing Creativity and Life
00:15:45
Speaker
Sometimes it's like, I just want to get back and
00:15:46
Speaker
And bless the people who've been following me too. I think that's great because you're showing like your passion for everybody and your pottery as well. So now that we're kind of on the topic of Instagram, I was scrolling through your page and I found a post that I found really, really interesting. On there you shared a while back
00:16:10
Speaker
Hold up, sorry, sorry. You're good. We missed the beauty in the process because we just focused on the end result. Could you tell me more about this? Oh man, how long ago was that? I don't remember the exact date. Was it a picture of a finished piece or was it a picture of a... I think it was a reel. It wasn't too far back. It was like maybe...
00:16:36
Speaker
you just scroll it up. I'm trying to remember. I'm trying to remember what I was where I was going there. I know. I know at the end of it, you're like, sometimes it's not we don't have we shouldn't skip to the good part. Oh, yes. Okay, yes. Now I remember. Yeah. Yeah, it was that I was the mug and then a transition right to the to the end there. And sorry, what was the quote again, something about it was we missed the beauty in the process because we are just focused on the end result.
00:17:06
Speaker
Gotcha. Yeah. So for me, just kind of, I don't know if it's just human nature or what it is, but we're maybe just our society, but we want to, we just want the result right away. We want that. We want to jump right through everything and say, I just want that instant gratification, but there's growth that happens through the process. Um, for me to be here, there's a lot of things that I went through and there's things that we all go through, but it makes us who we are in the end result.
00:17:33
Speaker
And for me, even just, um, as, as a Christian, like there's things that are going to help me grow in life as I walk through them. And so yes, it'd be easy to want to just skip right to that point and get to that end result. Um, but there's growth that happens through all that. So pottery is one of those things where, I mean, you know, if you try and rush certain things, you end up with a broken piece in the end. Yeah, it's going to fail.
00:17:59
Speaker
So just enjoy the process enjoy those things you have to walk through or try to Maybe not even enjoy but learn learn from them and grow from them. So instead of just skipping to the end Let's learn and see what we can learn in that process to the end I love this so much because for a while I was just trying to like go just go really fast, but I wasn't seeing improvements when I started slowed down I Was able to enjoy it a lot more and wasn't making me stress at all
00:18:30
Speaker
Yeah, it's, it's, it's what powder is one of those things that can be very humbling. And, uh, even just even, even now some things around trying to rush every, okay, I got to get this done. And then end up being like, I should have just listened and just taken my time. Yep. It's like you want it done so bad, but you got to, you got to slow down. Yeah. I love that one so much. So now how do you balance your.
00:18:59
Speaker
pottery, work, and family life? Well, I'll tell you what, when I first decided that I wanted to like actually make a website, put out a name there under my roommate and start selling stuff, we would have had, my wife and I, Lindsay, would have had one son at the time. And I remember talking to her about this and like, hey, I think this is something I want to start doing. And I said, but I don't want it to take away from family time. Like that was my main thing was I don't want to come home from work.
00:19:28
Speaker
And then go right to the garage and disappear until dinnertime and then come back out after dinner and, and, uh, do that. So my main, that was my main, just being intentional about it from the beginning. Like, Hey, I'm going to wake up early. If this is something I really want to do that, I can wake up an hour earlier. So I'm going to wake up early and do it. Now I'll tell you, uh, was it 2021? We had a baby, we had a baby daughter in 2019 and, uh,
00:19:55
Speaker
last year she just wasn't sleeping through the night so there are some mornings I do not get down here but being intentional about okay this is my morning routine something I can get up early and do now that the kids are getting older they're sometimes in the evening sometimes we'll all come down and throw some clay on the table and they'll sculpt and play but just being intentional that it's not just me disappearing uh to the to the pottery studio in the basement and
00:20:22
Speaker
Doing stuff so a lot of it was just from the get-go just saying hey, this is the time to do it I'm gonna set aside that time and I'm not going to allow it to take away from family time now with that being said it's not like I've Grown like crazy amount as far as sales. I've actually probably I looked back a Week or so going and saw that I had like a 50-piece update early on I haven't done something like that in a while
00:20:51
Speaker
It's definitely the more kids we've had, the amount of pieces going out of the studio have definitely dropped a little bit. But for me, it's just being creative and staying creative and those types of things and trying to keep that balance of not taken away from family. And then work, making sure I'm being there on time and leaving on time. Yeah. So now would you say this has helped you kind of manage what you're going to make in that hour or two that you're into your studio?
00:21:22
Speaker
It definitely has knowing that I only have a few hours a week. Um, typically I Monday, Tuesday, uh, Wednesday, I'm not able to be down here. I actually meet someone else before work and then Thursday, Friday. So I typically have about four, four hours if I'm just doing mornings, um, here. So I've kind of got down to if I throw, like if I'm doing mugs, let's say I can throw on a Monday term on a Tuesday handle and stamps or handle and carbs on Thursday, Friday. So.
00:21:51
Speaker
definitely be able to figure that out. And then they've been figuring out, scheduling out how things dry as far as how long I do. I just, I'm still using the plastic bag system right now.
Personal Style and Reflection
00:22:01
Speaker
I haven't mentioned into a damp box yet. Maybe I should, but I'm still using the plastic bags because it just works for me with the, with the short amount of time that I'm in here. You know what might help you with that? So I use a plastic bin and then I'll put like plastic bags,
00:22:19
Speaker
at the bottom of it. And depending the weather, I will spray some water in there so it stays damp. Like if it's cold, I won't do that. But if it's really hot, I'll spray water in there and it keeps it nice and damp in there. Do you do the plaster at the bottom too or just the bags? I don't have plaster. If I did, I might do that. But it's just kind of the bags in the water. Yeah. And that seems to help a lot with it not drying out so fast.
00:22:49
Speaker
Yeah, I figured, especially right now, I have those candle houses. I'm not getting to them as quickly as I would like a mug. And so I'm definitely going to keep after them a little bit more. I was like, I should probably do something like that or a damp box with a plaster and actually make something that I can hold them at that leather hard stage for a longer period of time. Yeah, it definitely helped. So now, the next thing I want to talk about was
00:23:14
Speaker
So your pottery is mostly, it's pretty simple, mostly. Has that always been the case? In high school, there would have been a lot of experimenting with raccoon and that type of stuff. But yeah, I've always kind of enjoyed just kind of a clean line. Even when I was doing all the carvings, just like a nice clean foot. Now even some of the feet that I do now are very simple, just a beveled edge. But I used to do more of a
00:23:42
Speaker
a carved foot on some of the pieces and the mugs and stuff like that. But yeah, it's always been kind of that simple, clean design and then throwing like a simple glaze on top of that. Yeah. And well, actually I was going to ask how has your pottery changed over here, but I kind of just answered it unless you want to answer it again. So it definitely changed a little bit. Yeah. Whether it was from high school and just kind of be able to experiment with all the different things you have in class.
00:24:12
Speaker
There was a time when I didn't have the, I actually didn't have access to a bunch of glazes. So I smoke fired a bunch of pieces. I fired them. It was a white clay and I smoked fire them after that and put like a varnish over top of it. That was for a season. So yeah, just kind of using what I had at my disposal and being creative with it and trying to put something together that I liked at the end. So it's pretty much working with what you got. Yeah.
00:24:42
Speaker
Pretty making it as beautiful as possible. Yep. So if you had to give advice on how to find your own style of pottery, what would that be? Oh, man. Probably just trying out things that you enjoy, things that you like, the aesthetics that you like, the colors that you like, everyone's kind of got their own style and being able to
00:25:09
Speaker
or what things stand out to them. And so kind of bringing some of those aspects together. It's just cool to see when I'm on Instagram, seeing all the different unique creative designs. But yeah, just trying to find something that fits you, maybe fits your personality. And then just kind of fine tuning that a little bit. That's a little harder, harder question for me. Yeah, that I think that's probably hard for a little bit of everybody.
00:25:36
Speaker
What now, I think probably my, probably my last question. What is your favorite part of just the whole pottery process? Um, I, for some reason love trimming. I don't know if it's the way like the using the tools. Um, I actually posted about a while ago about enjoying the trimming process. I know some people do not like trimming process. I'm not a huge fan of the glaze process. I don't know if it's because I'm not, I don't always.
00:26:06
Speaker
Sometimes I feel like there's a little bit more experimenting with that. And sometimes I'm not always excited about the end result there. Um, but trimming for me is one of my favorite. I absolutely love that. I always think it'd be fun to, and maybe, maybe I will someday, but do like woodturning, which would have a similar aspect to it where you're kind of trimming away and, uh, and doing that. My grandfather and my great-grandfather actually did woodturning. So I have some of his pieces actually down here in the studio, but.
00:26:34
Speaker
I don't know if that's where the love for trimming comes from or not, but that's probably my favorite part.
Conclusion and Reflections
00:26:38
Speaker
I also really like trimming, but that wasn't always the case. Like my first year I hated it, but that was only because my pieces were all wobbly so I couldn't, can never get centered. But I definitely like trimming too. I think it's changed for me over the years too. I feel like I was probably in that same boat in the beginning where I didn't put much of a foot on at all. You just kind of beveled it a little bit so it wouldn't rock at all.
00:27:02
Speaker
And the teacher would be okay with it. Yep. Same right here. Yeah. I think that was probably my last question. Let me check real quick. Yep. I enjoyed this conversation a lot. Thank you. Yeah, Nick, I appreciate it. So what are you, what are you doing with yourself now? You're, uh, you're doing pottery as well. You said, yeah, I'll, I'll make pottery like just throughout the week.
00:27:29
Speaker
and just see what I want. And I've been kind of experimenting with Raccoo right now, just working with what I got. Yeah. Yeah. Raccoo was one of my favorite things in high school to do. Our teacher allowed us to do Raccoo. I think my senior year, that's all I did was Raccoo. He told us, he's like, hey, just so you know, the neighboring school, they do one series, they each get to make a couple of pieces and that's it.
00:27:55
Speaker
You guys are pretty, pretty lucky to be able to do raccoon all the time. So that's what we, that's what we did. Me and my buddies who were in the same class. We, we pretty much threw any piece we could, we could in raccoon clay. And then we tried different, different things in the school courtyard on Fridays and make the, make the building smell like a campfire. Yep. And that's the best thing you could do with somebody else to, to do an experiment more. Yep. Yeah. I've seen different, different vessels going in there and be like, okay, is this thing going to come out alive or are we going to
00:28:25
Speaker
We're gonna have it broken, please. Yep, that's how it goes sometimes. Thank you. I really appreciated this conversation. I hope you have a great rest of your night. Hey, you too, Nick. Thanks so much for the opportunity. Yes, sir.