Summary

Grace Alley, owner of Nomadic Ceramics, shares her journey from corporate America to pursuing her passion for ceramics. She discusses the challenges and rewards of running a small business and the importance of connecting her art with a greater purpose. Grace also talks about her second location in Durango and her plans to create an eco collective. She emphasizes the value of personal interaction and offers classes for those interested in learning ceramics.

Takeaways

Combining passion with a small business can be challenging but rewarding. Creating an eco collective allows for collaboration and a greater purpose. Personal interaction and connection with customers is important for small businesses. Offering classes can be a way to share knowledge and engage with the community.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background 02:19 Transitioning from Hobby to Career 03:36 Opening a Shop at Art Queen 05:21 The Nomadic Ceramics Experience 07:15 Expanding to a Second Location in Durango 09:05 Creating an Eco Collective 10:27 Balancing Time Between Locations 12:17 Volunteering and Planting Trees in Ghana 13:37 Long-Distance Relationship and Waiting for a Visa 14:42 Durango's Cycling Community 16:22 Website and Online Presence 17:38 Traveling Between Joshua Tree and Durango 19:29 The Rewards and Challenges of Running a Small Business 21:04 Conclusion

Instagram HERE

visit the webiste HERE

Danny (00:00.654) All right, Grace Alley, thank you so much for joining me here on the Highway 62 podcast. How are you today?

Grace Alley (00:07.832) I'm good. are you today, Danny?

Danny (00:09.453) Doing great. I'm down in Irvine here. I got to fly out Friday to go to Canada for a show for the weekend and staying down here a little bit during the summer just to, you know, enjoy a little bit less heat. So yeah, it's actually been good. So got the pool right out here and just living life. So, you know, you are the owner of Nomadic Ceramics and you have a location in 29 Palms and

Grace Alley (00:24.984) Yeah. Yeah.

Danny (00:37.152) Yes, also have a second location we're going to talk about in a little bit. But before we get kind of deep into, you know, the shops and what you're doing there and all that stuff, give us a little bit of your background and where you're from and, know, and how you kind of ended up doing what you're doing now.

Grace Alley (00:53.269) Okay, yeah, I'm from Colorado. I was born and raised in Golden.

group traveling and you know long story short it took me quite a while to graduate college. I kept coming in and out of college and traveling and that's where I first went to Africa and then I ended up in corporate America up in Seattle after college and that's where I started doing ceramics as a hobby.

And I always was trying to figure out this balance between my passion and making a living. So I was trying my hand in corporate worlds. And that was a couple of years of a total disaster because I am definitely not meant for a conventional path. And I did everything you're supposed to do wrong times 100 in my corporate life. But luckily that's where it.

sort of learned a little bit of business acumen and ceramics was always a hobby and it just sort of took over. I moved from Seattle down to Desert Hot Springs to work in Cannabis Corporate and that didn't work out either. So my hobby became my career, I guess, about a year and seven months ago.

Danny (02:19.103) so pretty recent, okay.

Grace Alley (02:21.227) It feels, it sounds very reasoned, but so much has happened. But the company I was working for in Desert Hot Springs dissolved and I was like, let me try my hand and see if I could turn this interest of mine, this passion of mine, ceramics, into something I could rely on to make money on. So I wasn't sure what I was gonna do and I just, I came up here and I started doing the pop -up markets at 29 Palms and...

Danny (02:25.586) Yeah.

Grace Alley (02:48.616) got to know the community really well through that. You're interfacing face to face with people every Saturday morning and you're out there with your ceramics and introducing yourself to the community. So I got to know people that way. It was such a great experience there.

Danny (03:01.895) How did you originally get interested or get started doing ceramics?

Grace Alley (03:07.134) I took two semesters of it in college and I shouldn't have been allowed in the class. I was an anthropology major and the art department only wants art majors. So I begged the professor to let me in and I said, this may change my life. Please let me in the class. And lo and behold, it did. So now I think I'm doing it for a living. It still hasn't sunk in, but...

Danny (03:09.274) Okay.

Danny (03:34.842) Hehehehe

Grace Alley (03:36.105) The pop -up markets in 29 led to getting a little shop over at Art Queen. And Art Queen's right in the heart of Joshua Tree, as I'm a lot of your viewers and watchers know and listeners know. So I got super, super lucky and super blessed to get one of the little shed shops at Art Queen. And I still have that shop and I've had that shop for a year and three months now.

Danny (03:44.675) Yeah.

Danny (03:48.463) Sure.

Danny (04:02.019) Gotcha. And Golden, Colorado, that's that's where the Coors plant is, right? OK, yeah. OK, I I've spent a lot of time in Colorado. Actually, I just got I was just in Denver to Wigan two weekends ago. And but when I was younger, my uncle, who was originally from Wisconsin, I grew up in Chicago, but my uncle went to school in Boulder. So we would come out and visit and.

Grace Alley (04:06.418) That's right. Yeah, grew up across the street from Coors, actually.

Danny (04:30.422) Yeah, I remember going up to Golden and going to the Coors factory and it had that smell, that brewing smell like every everywhere.

Grace Alley (04:36.476) Yeah. Yeah, I grew up smelling that smell every single day. I love it, by the way.

Danny (04:44.362) Yeah, I'm sure you get used to it and whatnot, but I love that area. It's beautiful. Beautiful out there.

Grace Alley (04:52.003) is really beautiful. Colorado is an amazing place. There's plenty to do if you love doing things outside. And it's developed a lot and changed a lot since I was little. There's a lot of amazing microbreweries, amazing restaurants. now that I've opened my second shop in Durango, that's like the southwest corner. I had never gotten to explore Telluride, Silverton, Durango. It is so beautiful down there.

Danny (04:54.709) Yeah.

Danny (04:58.027) Yeah.

Danny (05:17.649) Okay, yeah.

Yeah, it sounds like it. Tell us a little bit about your shop that you have in Joshua Tree there. You know, what is it exactly you sell? What all do you do there?

Grace Alley (05:31.27) I've always been unable to be a production potter, which means everything I make is a one -off or a small set or like something big and complex. luckily having the opportunity over at Art Queen afforded me the opportunity to be experimental in ceramics. It's harder to do that if you're just selling online or at pop -ups because you can't cultivate an audience plus you can't fail. You can't try things.

Danny (05:39.524) Okay.

Grace Alley (06:00.888) mess it up and have it not work out if you're always hustling and trying to get to markets and trying to get in front of your audience. So this is why I say I'm incredibly blessed to have the opportunity over at Art Queen. And that's what they're all about over there too. They're all about giving artists access to customers and access to a brick and mortar or a between. I have a little shed shop over there. It's affordable. It allows me to experiment and bring in things I never knew would sell.

Danny (06:00.892) Mm -hmm.

Danny (06:25.745) Mm

Grace Alley (06:30.435) and see the reaction on people's faces when they want to consume these products. So it's been given me a lot of direction as an artist and a great foundation of clientele to build relationships with. Art Queen is an amazing place. I got it before and now it's been transitioned into new ownership. It's owned by a nonprofit now called AHA Projects and they are doing some massive renovations over there.

Danny (06:42.681) Yeah.

Danny (06:54.81) Okay.

Grace Alley (06:59.172) And it is just so exciting. Everybody's so excited. It's under construction right now. If you're used to this area and you drive by, it looks really crazy right now. They've torn out everything and come fall it should be really nice to walk around in there.

Danny (07:01.495) Awesome.

Danny (07:15.858) Now, so you're primarily just selling ceramics that you create, not anything from any other creators, is that correct?

Grace Alley (07:24.714) I used to just be me, but I actually have a couple people on my team now, some amazing and talented people who want to help out and want to see other things do and it gives me the opportunity to help them too.

Danny (07:26.733) Mm -hmm.

Okay.

Danny (07:35.882) Yeah, gotcha. Okay, do you do classes or anything for people that want to learn how to do ceramics? Okay, great.

Grace Alley (07:45.419) Yeah, I do classes. do things at people's Airbnbs where I'll come have a custom class for them. Sometimes an engagement party and the ladies want to get wild and make pinch pots. Other times it's people who want to do energy work and healing and all the things. So luckily with Clay you could do all the things.

Danny (07:52.362) cool.

Danny (08:03.297) Gotcha.

Danny (08:06.838) Gotcha. And again, I mean,...

Nomadic Ceramics - Grace Alley - Making an impact with your small business