Today we’d like to introduce you to Kerry Brooks.
Kerry, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I made my first pot when I was 26, and I was the very worst one in my beginning wheel throwing class. I would NEVER have thought I’d be a professional potter one day, but I fell in love with clay and one thing just led to another, as they say. Before too long, I was selling pots to my friends, then I finally took a leap and did my first art fair. I was a graduate student in a completely unrelated field at the time, but I couldn’t help myself–I just kept making and selling pots. Eventually, I needed to hire employees to help me package everything, then I hired people to help me do parts of the making, and so on. At the beginning, I mostly sold everything wholesale, but I eventually opened up a gallery and classroom space and I’ve never looked back. Now, I do all three! We expanded the gallery and classroom 2 years ago to our current location in St Anthony. We sell pottery, of course, but sooo much more as well. We love it there! My production studio is in NE Minneapolis, but the Gallery and Classroom are the public-facing locations.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Is any road ever smooth? Covid was the most obvious “bump” in the road. I knew I had the option to go out of business if I wanted to. My landlords would have let me out of my leases, my customers would have understood, and it would’ve been relatively easy. But I took a good long look at what I wanted and decided I wanted to fight for the business I had spent years building. We made it through (barely) and we’re stronger for it now.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I make lots of things out of clay. I’m primarily a wheel throwing gal, but I make trays and dishes out of slabs as well. I also make tile, wall hangings, ornaments, magnets, trivets, coasters, and even some candles too! I sell a lot of things with glass melted into the piece. It’s sorta my signature style, but we do lots and lots of more functional pottery as well. I’m certainly not the only potter who does the crackle glass thing, but I don’t know of too many who do it, because it’s a little high maintenance. It just adds 5 ways the pot can fail, so a lot of potters don’t bother. But I think it’s really fun and customers seem to love it, so I often lean into that.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
I was lucky to be too stupid to know better in the beginning. If I had understood all of the risks involved, I would’ve been paralyzed by my choices. But I was having too much fun and was excited that people seemed to respond well to my work. I was young and believed I wouldn’t fail. Luckily I didn’t!
Pricing:
- Prices range from $5 to $500.
- Most items are priced under $100
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dock6pottery.com
- Instagram: dock6pottery
- Facebook: dock6pottery
