Saturday Artisan: Muddy Heart Pottery

Meet our Saturday Artisan: Melissa of Muddy Heart Pottery. 

I fell in love with her shop as soon as I stumbled upon it. A lots of pretty colorful porcelains you can find for home decor and jewelries. 

Let's get to know Melissa a bit more. Read on. 

Tell us a bit about yourself and what arts/ crafts that you make? 

My name is Melissa, but everyone calls me Meli. I live in beautiful NC with my hubby and my baby doggy. Besides ceramics, I love knitting, sewing, decorating, gardening, cooking, baking, entertaining and working on paper crafts!. Yes, I love doing lots of things!

 
What is the story behind your shop name? 

My pottery shop is called Muddy Heart; I picked this name because for some random reason I see heart shaped things everywhere!!, and when doing pottery, being muddy and dirty is a given! . I thought Muddy Heart was a cute, short memorable name and I went with it *_^

Who is your target market? My target market is all who love colorful, unique and delicate porcelain pieces made by hand . I am constantly imagining new designs and useful items that add whimsy to your home and life. 

Which part of creation process that you like to do the most? I love to paint, so the glazing part is one I enjoy a lot. Every piece I make is hand painted with lots of care!. I am slowly gravitating towards Majolica, which is a beautiful glazing style of pottery, and which suits my love of painting.

For us who love to travel, could you share a bit about your beautiful town/ city? 

Raleigh is beautiful, full of culture, life and great outdoor activities, and being close to the mountains and nature is a fantastic bonus!. If you have never been to the blue ridge parkway, I'd say come on over and enjoy the amazing creation of nature....there's so much to do in NC! 

Could you share on how your organize your products, we all can use a little tips here and there in this department? 

I have my pieces labeled and bubble-wrapped in Ziploc's safely kept in clear container bins. I do try to keep my etsy pieces to a certain size so that I don't run out of storage space quickly.

What is your best seller? 

My most popular items are my necklace pendants , tray dishes and yarn bowls. I know once I add the cool new items that are on the works, they too will be the stars of my shop....yes, I made you curious so remember to come by to see my new weekly additions! 

How does your day go in general? 

I work a 9-5 job from home, which may seem easy enough but in fact is very hectic!; after work ends, I prepare dinner for my hubby, my doggie and me (I love to cook!), spend some quality time with them and afterwards I get to work on my pottery until about midnight ... Of course, life is never predictable, so my days vary, but that's pretty much my schedule if things stay the course *_^ 

How do you balance your personal and work life?

I am a big planner and a list maker...I try to stay on top of "to-do things" in advance so that I don't get stressed with last minute things. By doing this, I feel I have control of things. and in turn, I have a little more time for my family and my "relaxing time" which is working with clay!.

 
What inspires you? 

I am a BIG fashion person!; I constantly read style magazines and pay close attention to trends in colors, textures and patterns... I have an inspiration board right in front of me, where I keep all sorts of pictures I am drawn to. Most of them have nothing to do with pottery, but I love the colors, and that is enough to get my mind going in creating items based on that!. Aside from my inspiration board, I look at tons of things at antique shops and at flea markets; old is new again, and I feel that craftsmen/women back in the day had an amazing talent at making everything more intricate, and I want to emulate that as much as possible.

What is your goal for 2012? And are you on the right track?

I am not one to do new year's resolutions...I feel they lead to disillusions if you don't stay the course. I feel that you know what you want and you have to make it happen; this year I wanted to make my etsy shop happen, and so far It is up and running, I have made good sales and met great people!, and I will work on growing my business, improving my pottery skills and being a better business person. 

Any advice for others running their on-line shop? 

I will say to have patience, and works towards achieving your dream!. I am by no means an Etsy success-yet-, but I hope to be one of those shop owners that get interview on how they quit their day job to do what they're truly best and happiest at!. As Audrey Hepburn once said "Nothing is impossible, the word itself says IM POSSIBLE"

Saving money is important; tell us one thing that you do to save money? 

I will say that shipping and packing materials are by far a huge expense!. Try being green and visit your local supermarket for boxes they're throwing away to use as your shipping boxes; get free newspaper publications and use those as free packing material, and finally, keep all of the packing material you receive in any order you get by mail. It helps being green and saving some green!

I try to be a social butterfly when I'm not in my pottery studio, if you want to keep in touch with me, here's how: ♥ My shop: www.muddyheartpottery.etsy.com ♥ My Blog ♥: domestiquette.blogspot.com/ ♥ My Email: muddyheart(at)gmail.com ♥ My Facebook: Muddy Heart ♥ My Pinterest: Domestiquette ♥ My Twitter: BDOMESTIQUETTE

Stay-tuned for tomorrow's giveaway!

Giveaway: Bracelet and Earrings Set

Win these beautiful Snowflake polymer clay bracelet and earrings set from the Thrifty Gift. Get to know Amy, our Saturday Artisan this week. There are many ways to enter. Please make sure you leave a separate comment for every entry.

How to enter to win:

Mandatory entry:

• Go to the Thrifty Gift shop. Return to my Adore By Nat blog and simply leave a comment here about your favorite item from the store.

Extra entries (only qualify once mandatory entry is fulfilled):

• Earn 2 entries - Go to yesterday's post to know her more. Leave a comment there (yesterday's post) on at least one the following: what you learn from the interview, what you want to see more on her shop and why, or any constructive feedback are always appreciated. Come back here and leave 2 comments that you did, to ensure your entries are counted.
• Heart the Thrifty Gift (1 entry). Simply let us know your Etsy username.
• Follow the Thrifty Gift blog (1 entry).
• Follow my adorebynat blog (1 entry). If you're already a follower, you still get an entry, just says you're following already.
• Like the Thrifty Gift Designs Facebook page AND tell Amy, Nat of adorebynat send you there.
• Like my Adorebynat Facebook Page. You must drop by and say hello to earn 1 entry.I'd love to hear from you.
• Follow adorebynat on twitter (1 entry).
• Tweet about this giveaway, add "@adorebynat" in your tweet. (1 entry).
• Blog about this giveaway to earn 2 entries. Leave two separate comments here please providing me with the link to your post.
• Be creative and share the love! Refer your friends and family to enter this giveaway. Use your social media (other than twitter and blog) to shout out this giveaway. As long as you provide me a link or a way to confirm it, you'll earn 2 entries (two separate comments).
• Purchase an item from the Thrifty Gift and earn 10 entries for each purchase. Don't forget letting us know by leaving comments.

Contest starts now and ends on October 22, 2011. Contest opens worldwide. Don't forget to leave me a way to contact you. Entries without contact information will be disqualified. Entries that do not follow the rules will be disqualified. Contest winner will be drawn on Sunday, October 23 by a random number generator, by the artist herself. Winner must respond within 48 hours after being contacted otherwise another winner will be randomly selected.

Saturday Artisan: the Thrifty Gift

Meet our Saturday Artisan: Amy of the Thrifty Gift. Amy is a busy mom with a lot of beautiful artworks to offer in her shop, from polymer clay to cards. 

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you create? 

I am a Wife and Mother first and a part time worker in the healthcare industry in the evenings. I decided to open up a shop because I am interested in creating just about anything and everything I can get my hands on. I started with jewelry, I love to make things for children's rooms and have done so for my children and many friends and family members. I am currently working in polymer clay but I love change and learning anything new so you can always expect something different to show up in my shop! 

How does your day go in general? 

Wearing the many hats that I do, the day is never a total plan however, I check all of my acct's and shop in the morning while the kids are doing breakfast. I try to work on some projects throughout the day and the kids love to play with beads, paint, clay or anything I am working on so they work right along side me! I also love to get outside to photograph and they usually play in the yard while I am working on that part of it. I do most of my listing in the evening once my husband is home from work or once the kids have gone to bed. I check my shop and accounts a few times during the day just to keep up. It is no a planned schedule but it works for right now.

Favorite Etsy seller? 

I adore so many things it is hard to choose one. I LOVE the wire work in FaeriKat's shop and really admire what she can do with wire. I know her fingers have got to be sore!! I also love oneofakindbabydesign her work is for the kids and her business is not only for her creative needs but to support her family and I find it inspiring how influenced by her own children she is and you can see it in her work. Magpietree has lovely vintage inspired items and her quality and craftsmanship are absolutely inspiring to me. I have lots of faves in the polymer clay department but noneoftheabove and societysedso are amazing clay artists and they are my 2 favorites.

What inspires you? 

I LOVE nature and I LOVE color. I like taking risks with color combinations and textures. I like to work pretty fast and I love to take suggestions from my children because everything is just fun to them. I look at other's work and I play with new products all the time. I can spend hours in a craft store looking at already made things as well as browsing fabrics, yarns and beads and findings. 

What do you do to save money? 

I do anything and everything to save money in ever area of our lives. As far as my product goes I pride myself in being "thrifty" and want to bring quality one of a kind pieces to folks looking for special gifts. To keep with that I never buy anything that isn't on sale in craft shops first off. That means waiting and watching ads and such but it works. I also ALWAYS use the 40% of coupon that comes with the craft store ad, even on something that isn't that expensive. I shop on Etsy for supplies and also shop sales on quality products. When there is a good sale, I load up and thus far I have grown my shop organically. It is paying for itself and I only use monies I make by sales in my shop.

What is your goal for 2011? And are you on the right track? 

Goals: I love setting and reaching goals. I love checking off lists and this year my goal is to get involved in more craft shows and meet more people like myself. I also have a goal to keep up with my blog because creating, for me, is all aspects and I love to write as well. I would say I am on track with the blog and my writing. I am a little behind with the craft shows. I have one upcoming in November- Birds of a Feather Fair in Northern Kentucky, otherwise nothing planned. This will be just my second show. I am still working on finding a niche but don't know if that is really necessary for me or not so I am networking, meeting people, making contacts and loving every bit of it!! Find out more about Amy and her shop here. 

Stay-tuned for tomorrow's giveaway!