Name: Heather
Knight
Age: 34
Occupation: Ceramic Artist/ Vintage dealer
Etsy Shop: elementclaystudio/elementvintage
Age: 34
Occupation: Ceramic Artist/ Vintage dealer
Etsy Shop: elementclaystudio/elementvintage
Tell us a little about yourself.
I have been working
with clay on & off for almost 20 years,which sounds crazy to me, and I feel
so blessed to have been able to follow my passion and make it into a viable
career. I finished my second round of college with a BFA in Ceramics in 2006,
opened a group studio in 2007, and thanks to Etsy, was a full time ceramic
artist by 2008.
I am an overachiever of sorts, compulsively
clean, organized & detail oriented. I live with my husband and two dogs in
Asheville NC and am blessed to have a beautiful studio in the River Arts
District right next to the best brewery in town.
When did you start creating and how long have you been on
Etsy?
I have always been creative, I have done a lot of drawing & painting
since I was very little, and discovered ceramics in high school. I committed to
ceramics when I went back to college and started my etsy shop in the summer of
2007.
How
did you come up with your business name, is there any special meaning behind
it?
I was working in the kitchen at a local restaraunt and my friend James
& I went back and forth on names while chopping vegetables one morning. He
asked," is there a part or peice of machinery that you could use? "
And I declared, "ELEMENT" --- the coils that heat up the kiln. It was
magic and perfect! Element Clay Studio was born.
How
would you describe your creative process?
I rarely come up with new stuff, or
if I do, it may stay in my head for years before I successfully exectute it. I
would call my creative process slow & gradual. I collect imagery and ideas
and let them marinate over time. I try not to rush things, and as much as
production can get me down at times, it allows me the freedom to create new
work slowly.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
My inspiration comes
from nature. Everything I see has the possibility of being translated into my
artwork. What always surprises me is what I can become obsessed with, the
variety and randomness of it. I am currently in love with exotic
mushrooms and the centers of flowers.
I usually collect imagery from the internet
after I get an idea, but i have bowls of stuff I pick up on my walks all over
my studio. You have never seen so many seed pods and sea shells in your life!
What is your most cherished handmade item?
I have tons of
them. My ceramics collection is pretty expansive, and each piece tells a story.
we have a greenhouse window in the kitchen and its filled with my mug collection.
I can tell you who made each one, when I got it, and maybe a little factoid....
about the maker or the trade I made. I can't ever have enough ceramics.
Apart from creating things, what do you like to do?
If I am not in the
studio you can find me hunting for treasures for my vintage shop, cooking
something delicious on my 1970's stove, or decorating my house. If I am not
doing any of those things, I am most likely on a walk.
What are your future goals and where do you hope to see yourself in 5 years?
My
big dream now is to keep growing my business while growing a family, I want to
find and capture that ever elusive life/work balance and keep it! And of course, I want people to know, within 5
years, that Element is the place to go for fine, hand crafted porcelain.
Do you have any advice for anyone thinking about opening
their own shop?
One of my professors in school had a saying, "time on
task".....meaning In order to hone your skills, in order to succeed at
anything, you must spend your time doing it. The more time you spend, the
better the outcome. This for me, as an Etsy shop owner, means that I should
spend time on my photography, marketing, customer service, business plan, and
my products. It takes work, discipline and dedication
to become a successful Etsy seller, but I have never done anything more
rewarding in my life. Etsy has enabled me to make a life doing what I love to
do.
