The Start of my Creative Business

As my first blog post, I thought it most fitting to look back to 2016, a year of change, firsts and growth. This was a very sweet and life altering time, it was the year i became a mother and launched my own creative business! Pregnancy, moving overseas, first baby, starting a business and setting up my first ceramic studio …to say it was an eventful year would be an understatement.

To share a bit of my background, I studied Fine Art + Pyschology in college with a focus on painting. It wasn’t until I was getting my Masters Degree in New York City, that I fell in love with ceramics (and my husband)! I graduated with my MA in Art Therapy from NYU and continued on to achieve my LCAT license and work in the field for two years. Throwing was my outlet at the time, it’s what kept me centered. I loved the creative process so much and found myself daydreaming about working as a studio artist again. My focus was shifting, as i wanted to focus on building a family.

My husband (Simon) and I got married in the heat of the summer in Jacksonville, FL - my hometown. Soon after, in the fall of 2015, we packed up as newlyweds and adventured over to the west coast of Sweden to the city of Göteborg, or Gothenburg in English. We were about a six hour drive away from Simon’s family, which was a really nice change!

During the time we lived in Gothenburg, I got a membership at an artists collective called KKV in the area of Majorna, which had a similar vibe to East Williamsburg in Brooklyn. The collective was housed in an amazing building on the harbor, built in 1810, that was once a sugar refinery! With 18 departments open to professional artists and creatives in textiles, bronze + copper, screen printing, glass, ceramics etc.

I also had the opportunity to attend one of Eric Landon’s early workshops at the Tortus studio in Copenhagen. I was pregnant at this time and the week long workshop was my first break from experiencing terrible morning sickness. I’ll never forget how fatigued I was after working in the studio for 8 hours a day and walking all over the city! I met a really great handful of artists and it was encouraging moments and conversations I took away from this experience that gave me the final push to commit to ceramics as a career path.

Copenhagen

This stunning city has my heart. I was very motivated by the energy of the city and myriad of ceramicists and independent designers.

Ceramics Workshop

At the Torus studio standing by my work I threw on the last day.

Exploring this city for a week was a dream. I will delve deeper into my experience of CPH in it’s own deserving blog post!

Our experience in Gothenburg was wonderful and taught us both so much. With the start of my business in mind and our first baby on the way, we decided to move back to St. Augustine, FL for some time. In September of 2016, we welcomed our precious daughter, Tove.

And suddenly my life would never be the same! She made me a mother.

When I was first starting out with my business, I really struggled with balance. I was navigating two new roles, being a parent and a business owner. While Tove was an infant, I was exhausted working around her sleeping and feeding schedule, while also trying to squeeze in as much studio time as possible.

We fixed up a private studio, so that I could easily work from home. As expected, I often ended up working after dinner and late into the evenings and would wake up in the mornings totally drained. It didn’t take me long to realize I would have to separate my work and family time as much as possible. I hired a part time assistant and got help with Tove three days a week. I missed her so much during that time, but I knew it was incredibly important for all of us. My work was stronger because of it and my time spent with my family was solely quality time. I had to constantly remind myself of that and sometimes it was difficult not to have my mind elsewhere, especially when I had given myself deadlines. In these moments, I would remember to slow down and whatever seemed pressing could wait. 2016 taught me so many life lessons, it would be hard to count them all.

In my upcoming posts, I’m going to dive deeper into my experiences in Sweden + Denmark and how I am currently balancing life as a mother of two and running my business!

Thanks for reading!

With gratitude,

-Lauren