The Maker's Playbook

Send us Fan Mail There's a strange kind of irony in selling something made entirely by hand using an image that wasn't. This episode sits inside that tension… What happens to the meaning of handmade work when AI creeps into how we market it, photograph it, or talk about it online? We’re not taking a moral stance on AI in this episode though. Rather, let’s consider a deeper question: Why did you start making what you make? And why did you start selling it? The real cost of forgetting tha...

Send us Fan Mail You already know what it feels like to open a cupboard, see a mug, and know exactly who made it before you ever check for a signature. That's the instinct artists have always had. So why does the word "branding" make so many of us tune out? Jessie, one half of the duo behind Inkpot Creative, breaks it down: That same kind of recognition (built on purpose) is all branding actually is. Consistency matters more than any single logo. Niching down doesn't mean turning people away....

Send us Fan Mail As makers, we're told to define our ideal audience and nail our strategy before we ever start — but what if the real strategy reveals itself only after you've already begun? Robin Corradino of Rob Ceramics joins to unpack how she built a thriving wholesale and consignment-based business almost by accident, never doing a single craft market until years into selling her work. Her approach challenges the conventional wisdom around audience-building entirely: by simply making wha...

Send us Fan Mail Most of us have been told (or have told ourselves one way or another) that building a successful creative business means picking a lane and staying in it. But what happens when the lane you've built starts to feel more like a cage, and the work that once lit you up becomes just another obligation you can't motivate yourself to do? Christina Orthwein's journey from production potter to sculptor to jewelry maker and back again is a raw and honest look at how the pressure to mon...

Send us Fan Mail Many of us assume that when demand for our work finally arrives, we're supposed to rise to meet all of it — that suddenly the rules of supply and demand apply to us the same way they apply to everyone else. What if deliberately not scaling up isn't leaving opportunity on the table, but is actually the thing that makes the work worth wanting in the first place? In her conversation with Debi Stoliar of Curiosibee Ceramics,, we explore what it looks like to hold two seemingly co...