Trade Talks Tuesday: Clay Born Pottery on Creativity, Wholesale and Staying Original

A creative career rarely follows a straight line. For the artist behind Clay Born Pottery, decades spent working with clay have led through craft fairs, a bricks-and-mortar shop, wholesale trade shows and, eventually, an entirely new chapter translating hand-painted pottery designs into textiles and other home products.

What has remained constant is a commitment to making work from a genuinely personal creative perspective rather than designing around whatever happens to be trending. Along the way, community has also played an important role — from joining the Wallingford Potters Guild in Pennsylvania in the 1980s to advice from fellow potters that helped reshape the business at several crucial moments.

The commercial journey hasn't always been straightforward. One early textiles trade show resulted in thousands of dollars of expense and a single $200 order. Rather than treating it as the end of the experiment, it became another lesson in adapting, learning and trying again.

For this edition of Trade Talks Tuesday, we spoke about sustaining a creative practice over decades, moving from pottery into product design, what retail buyers really need from handmade brands and why artists shouldn't let trends determine what they create.

About Clay Born Pottery

Clay Born Pottery is the work of a Pennsylvania-based studio potter whose creative career spans more than four decades.

After discovering clay in college, she joined the Wallingford Potters Guild around 1983, finding both a community of experienced makers and opportunities to develop and sell her work. Her career subsequently expanded through craft fairs, her own retail shop in West Chester, Pennsylvania, and wholesale, with her pottery sold through galleries, museum shops and independent retailers across the US.

Her hand-painted designs later provided the foundation for Clay Born Textiles, extending her artwork into functional products including napkins, table runners, tea towels and aprons.

Website: http://www.claybornpottery.com/

You've spent decades building your career as a studio potter. What has kept you creatively curious and willing to evolve your work after so many years in the industry?

Many things have kept me curious and evolving. It's good that we can't see the future. I had no idea when I started out that it would be so much work. Had I known what lay ahead, I might have been scared off.

I just knew that I loved clay. When I accidentally discovered it in college, it was the only thing I really wanted to do.

I had the great good fortune to join the Wallingford Potters Guild in Pennsylvania around 1983. This gave me a community of potters to learn from, most of them a generation older than me, plus a place to sell and so many opportunities for growth.

It's hard to grow in a vacuum.

Fortunately, I also had supportive parents who felt that a life in the arts was not only possible but an essential component of a fulfilling life. I was too young and naive to consider things like making a living, though that came later after a divorce when I had two little boys to support.

I did craft fairs for years and also had a retail shop in my town, West Chester, Pennsylvania. Craft fairs became more and more arduous until, in the mid-1990s, a very smart potter friend suggested I try wholesaling my work instead.

It was daunting but also life-changing.

Wholesaling pottery ended with the pandemic, which was just as well — I was ready for a change.

Clay Born Textiles grew naturally from your pottery, taking your hand-painted designs into products like textiles, homeware and stationery. What inspired you to make that leap, and what did it teach you about turning artwork into a broader product range?

What inspired me to move into textiles and other home goods was the brilliant advice of another potter friend.

We often discussed marketing. She needed surgery and must have been thinking about our conversations because, while in the recovery room, she asked for pen and paper and wrote me a note.

I could tell she was still woozy because her handwriting was loopy and not at all her normal calligraphic style. She wrote: "You should have your designs printed on mouse pads, towels, baby clothes, T-shirts, men's ties, magnets, calendars, socks!!!!"

I read it and thought she was wacky. But I saved her note and found it a year later when I was especially burnt out and thought it could be worth a try.

Since my pottery is nearly all functional, I decided on kitchen-related items like napkins, runners, tea towels and aprons.

That meant trying to find the right companies to make the items. After much expensive trial and error, I was able to find the right people.

Then it was time to jump back into the trade show circuit, which nearly killed me. I had no idea what this industry and the competition were about.

The first show in New York was a miserable failure. I spent many thousands of dollars and wrote one order for $200.

The takeaway? How lucky that no one can die of embarrassment!

It would have been humiliating to admit defeat, so I got a business coach, and the subsequent shows were better.

Your work has been sold through galleries, museum shops and independent retailers across the US. What have you learned over the years about what buyers look for when choosing handmade or artist-led products?

I think buyers are most concerned about pricing and whether or not they can sell a product.

Besides the cost of the goods, they pay for shipping and all the expenses involved in running a store.

Of course they care about quality and how something is made, but if they buy it, they want to know they can also sell it.

I can't imagine the stress of a buyer trying to stock an entire store with a mix of wonderful, appealing things.

You've written about how important "Made in America" has been to retail buyers you've met at trade shows. Do you think customers and buyers are becoming more interested in where and how products are made?

Retailers do care about where things are made, and depending on the store, many do care about Made in America.

Both buyers and shoppers like having a connection with the artist.

I always include bio cards in my orders.

You've experienced everything from craft fairs and traditional trade shows to wholesale platforms and selling online. How has the way independent makers connect with retail buyers changed — and what do you think should never be lost from that relationship?

The way buyers connect to makers has certainly changed. COVID had a huge and irreversible impact on the industry.

When in-person shows started back up, some were smaller and less well attended.

Online wholesale sites were also making an impact.

I still think that meeting buyers in person so they can see the work, talk to the maker and form relationships is optimal, but it's not always possible.

I still work with retailers I met that way decades ago, and those relationships are truly special.

I'm at a point in life where, although I'm healthy with no desire to quit, I can't do another in-person show.

Last year, I looked up a variety of potential buyers online and sent out about ten packages I called "Trade Show in a Box", with free samples plus my catalogue and price list.

I figured it was still cheaper than travelling to a show, and if even one store became a good client, it would be worth it.

I followed up with emails and calls. Some stores never acknowledged the boxes or replied with even a "thanks, but no thanks". But two stores ended up ordering and reordering, so it was worth the effort.

Next year, I'll call first and ask if I can send them free samples.

After such a long creative and commercial career, what advice would you give to an artist or maker trying to turn their work into products that can succeed in retail?

Young artists today have the huge advantage of being fluent in social media, which I had to come to very late in life. I follow a lot of craftspeople on Instagram, and I love seeing so many people who work with their hands and make fabulous things.

I've read appalling marketing advice that says you should go to stores, see what's trending and then make something like that — only not exactly like that so you're not stealing the idea outright.

I think that is terrible advice.

I have no idea what is trending or what the colour of the year is. I make what I like and people either buy it or not.

Of course I've had failures and moved on. But you have to start with what pleases you first.

If your first question is, "How much can I sell it for?", you are doomed.

Although I do have my designs on a variety of products, I would advise anyone considering that route to order physical samples first. You need to see what your work actually looks and feels like on the finished product before committing to it.

Key Takeaways

• Creative community matters. From the Potters Guild to advice from fellow makers, relationships with other creatives have repeatedly opened new directions for the business.

• Wholesale can fundamentally change a maker's business model. Moving from numerous craft fairs to one major trade show created a more efficient route to retail buyers and advance orders.

• Failure can be useful market education. A costly first textiles trade show didn't end the experiment; it exposed what needed to change.

• Buyers have to think commercially. Quality and craftsmanship matter, but retailers ultimately need confidence that a product can sell profitably.

• Provenance creates additional value. Made in America and a direct connection to the artist can strengthen the story retailers share with customers.

• Digital tools have changed wholesale, but relationships remain critical. Online sourcing creates new routes to market, while long-standing buyer relationships demonstrate the lasting value of personal connection.

• Originality should come before trend-following. A sustainable creative identity is difficult to build by simply reproducing what already appears to be selling.

• Always test the physical product. Artwork that works beautifully in one medium won't necessarily translate perfectly into another.

Clay Born Pottery's story is less about following a predetermined career path than being willing to change direction without abandoning a distinctive creative point of view. Pottery led to wholesale, hand-painted ceramics led to textiles, and traditional trade shows eventually gave way to experiments such as sending buyers a "Trade Show in a Box".

Across those changes, one principle has remained remarkably consistent: commercial knowledge matters, but the work still has to begin with something the artist genuinely wants to make.

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