Today we’d like to introduce you to Myra Bowie.
Myra, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Like most people who get the pottery bug, it happen to me that first time I tried out a pottery wheel.
I continued to take classes in college, like most students spending all night throwing in the school studio. After leaving college I went to work in the entertainment business, but I always managed to find a studio to take classes, workshops, or have a membership in a pottery studio.
After leaving the entertainment business, my husband and I moved to Morristown, NJ where I started a home pottery business called My’s Pots. On my own, I started making a lot of pottery and realized like most artists, I needed to find a way to sell and market my work.
So slowly I got up the nerve to go into shops in the area, asking to sell my work, apply to crafts shows, (I got turned down a lot!), and created “porch shows” which would now be the equivalent of a “pop up”. I used emails with pictures to sell my work and I started to get a clientele who would regularly ask about my work. I also went
During our time in NJ, we came to Charleston for a vacation and were captivated by it, so much so that we chose it to be our retirement home. So in 2012, we moved to Charleston, SC. For me it was hard, to leave all my longtime friends from the Northeast, an established business clientele, and a Non-Profit (www.growitgreenmorristown.org) that I helped start, but I decided to look at it as I did years before when I left the theater business as a new beginning.
So the big plan was to build another home studio, but that came to a crashing halt when told our house didn’t have the power to handle a studio and to put in more power would be too costly. So I was now on a search for a pottery studio and came across a studio called Cone 10 Studios. Cone 10 took me in and became my pottery base until 2019 when the building finally was sold and the owners of Cone 10 Studios decided to disband.
When I knew I needed another space, and so did other members, I decided to take on what turned out to be a daunting task- looking for a space that would house members displaced by the closing of the Cone 10 Studios and be my personal studio.
Two months after the closing, I was getting really worried; we still didn’t have a new place to work, so my real estate agent pushed me to go to a building on James Island in the Riverland Terrace area which was in a neighborhood, not a commercial area. The building was a wreck and the owner was in the process of rehabbing it. When I walked in, I realized it would be perfect.
Unfortunately, the owner wasn’t too keen on a pottery studio and it took a bit of convincing from the agents. Finally, he agreed to rent it to me, so in October 2019, I was given the keys to the space all bright and shiny from being rehabbed and named it Terrace CLAY Studio after the Riverland Terrace neighborhood it is in.
So with my fellow potters from Cone 10 Studios and a lot of help from the Charleston ceramics community, we set up the space and started making pottery again.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Finding this space was extremely stressful and working in the commercial rental world was an eye-opener. Most people do not know that it took over 2 years of searching before I found this space.
Covid-19 hit just after our official opening. Not being able to use the studio or teach classes due to the closings was a huge shock, We tried some virtual classes and take-home work kits, but it is not the same as in-studio working.
Once we were able to open, we had to learn to work and teach with masks on, use spacing requirements, and distancing to keep everyone safe. It is hard to work/teach when you are used to being next to someone loading or unloading a kiln, or glazing and throwing.
Because the business was so new, and I was the sole owner, I was not able to get PPP money to cover basic expenses. Fortunately, local business groups helped me to navigate to keep the business afloat and the thoughtfulness of members who still paid rent, even thou they could not use the studio kept it going.
Covid-19 also forced me to change my business model, to include more classes and outside work vs being strictly members only.
I wear two hats at the studio – my own work under the My’s Pots umbrella and being the sole owner of Terrace CLAY Studio – the two worlds have had a few collisions as there is only 1 of me and it is two full-time jobs, that don’t always mesh. There have been a few times when I have had to tell people I am “off duty”.
I always hope that they understand!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Business Owner/Ceramic Artist
– I love pottery. I also enjoy sharing my enthusiasm for it with anyone who has an interest in ceramics. In answer to what I specialize in? I love making functional work you can touch or better yet makes you want to touch it.
Most people in ceramics have a particular part of the process they enjoy most, I like every part but the clean-up. I’m mostly known for making cups, and not being afraid to experiment with glazes and color combinations.
Business Owner/Terrace CLAY Studio.
After working in community studios, I knew I wouldn’t be happy going back to a home studio again. I wanted a space for lots of creatives of all skill levels and a space where other potters could come by and socialize. Adding classes was not on the front burner for the studio at first, but it has become one of the most popular and rewarding aspects.
It is hard to have members and classes working in the same space, but it has added a new dimension of creativity to the studio. We also have wonderful instructors who are all working artists and love to teach. Seeing the Instagram posts from the classes of people enjoying their first time with clay made me happy and confirmed my instincts that it would work.
I don’t think we do anything special that sets our studio apart from others, but we do have a fun and caring membership and staff that goes out of its way to help and share with anyone who comes into the studio looking to work with clay.
I guess you could say starting a sole-owner business from the ground up after applying for Medicare sort of sets me apart but also makes me proud!.
What do you think about luck?
Well, I would say that the good luck has outweighed the bad in most of my endeavors.
Although when it came to getting the studio going, I honestly thought there was a black cloud hanging over it at every turn until we opened… and then COVID-19 hit, so I’m still a little cautious about talking about what a success it has become.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.terrraceclaystudio.com
- Instagram: @terraceclaystudio
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/terraceclaystudio
- Twitter: @myspots
- Other: www.myspottery.com
Image Credits
Renee Fox
