- I didn't take it lightly
that people wanted to pay
for something that I was making.
And so once I reached a point where I felt
like my work was good enough.
I was able to do things consistently,
and I could take people's money
and feel good about it in exchange
for giving them something that they could use every day.
Something that would last a long time,
and that would add beauty
to everyday acts like drinking coffee,
or eating off of a plate,
or eating out of a bowl.
Then I felt like I'm in a place to start my business.
(soft upbeat music)
I'm Camille Beckles, and Camille at the Wheel
is my business.
(soft upbeat music)
I always wanted the things that I made
to be used regularly
so they're not meant to just be decorative
or sit on a shelf.
They're really meant to enhance
things we have to do every day
like drinking coffee or drinking wine.
I want them to integrate into people's lives
and have something nice that they can use
on a regular basis.
When I first started selling
I sold through my own website, CamilleatheWheel.com,
which I still sell through that website.
And then I also started doing markets.
And that was my first experience selling directly
to customers like face to face and being able
to get real time feedback and watching people come
up to my table and seeing what sorts of things
they picked up and what they gravitated towards.
It's really nice to be able to get people's
real time feedback in that way when you're in person.
But the other thing that I like about
the direct sales is even outside of my own physical reach,
being able to sell to the people
all over the country has been really great.
And so that's just a nice way again to get
that one-to-one kind of interaction
with the customer even if it's digital.
I have very limited stock and that's not on purpose.
It's a nice ego boost for me to put up a shop update
and have it sell out in 30 minutes.
But if I could make more things I would.
It really forces me to think
about what is the coolest thing
that I can put out there, so that when the shop drop
does finally happen,
people feel really excited that there's new work,
and they feel really excited
that they were able to get a vase,
or get a mug, or get whatever.
Knowing the type of thing
that I like and what I look for in an object
has kind of guided what I want to put out
into the world for other people.
My pottery is not cheap.
And so if people are willing to make the investment
in the work,
I want that investment to be good.
I want them to be happy with what they have paid for.
And I think that it's worth what it costs.
It's a lot of work that goes into a piece.
They're well made.
They're time consuming.
I touch everything that goes out.
If you choose to buy a $40 mug or a $45 mug.
I wanna make sure that you're gonna be really happy with it.
If people are willing to make that investment
then I want to make sure that they're happy
with what they've paid for, and that it is a really
unique offering that they can't find anywhere else.
If I am thinking about how to price something,
whatever my first instinct is, I will usually double
or triple that, because if I'm a little bit
uncomfortable with what I'm asking
for, then I know that it's in the right range.
When I first started out
I didn't want to charge too much
because I didn't have the confidence in myself necessarily
that I was as good as other people
that I was following,
and potter's whose work I really admired.
But I first of all got rid of that really quickly
because I've always been proud
of my work and I've always stood behind my work.
And so once I got over
that initial sheepishness of, are people
willing to pay for this?
The answer was a resounding yes, absolutely.
As soon as I put my stuff up for sale,
it instantly started selling.
And I realized that the materials
for pottery are relatively inexpensive.
What you're paying for is the time.
What you're paying for is all of the hours and years
it took them to get to the point
of being able to do that thing in only five minutes.
And so when you think about the skill
and the practice and the repetition
and all of the things that go into the knowledge base
to be able to make something so simple
in a relatively short period of time,
that's what you're charging for.
There's a tendency for artists
to kind of undervalue their work,
or to be a little bit sheepish about asking
what they really want, or what they know
that they're worth.
And the worst feeling in the world is agreeing
to something at a price that you just don't feel good about.
And then having to follow through on that.
(upbeat music)
The reason I've been able to maintain a love of pottery
even as I have grown my business
is because I always make sure no matter
what is on my plate of orders
to do something for myself.
And this is something where my husband
will always say whenever I'm leaving for the studio,
'Make sure that you do something for yourself today.'
If I know that I need to throw 15 mugs,
but I really feel like I wanna try a new shape
or throw a huge vase, or throw a planter,
that I will do at least one thing
in every session that I'm doing just for me,
that's not owed to anyone else.
And I think being able to make the distinction
between what I want to do,
and what I feel like I have to do,
has helped me to maintain a passion
and an interest for ceramics as a hobby
while also fulfilling the demands
of Camille at the Wheel as a business.
(soft upbeat music)