Setbacks & Serendipity
In her latest backer update, artist Maia Beyrouti discusses overcoming unexpected challenges and being vulnerable with her Kickstarter community.
Last week was tough. As I was gleefully calling in to the BBK Studios to let them know I was dropping in as usual to fire my pieces, the studio assistant greeted me with news that felt like a dramatic dead end: I would not be able to fire my pieces, nor use the kiln for the next six weeks. She was going on holiday and the kiln was reserved for people who work on site during that time. Sure, change is good. Sudden, unexpected change not so much. What was I going to tell my Kickstarter backers?! How was I going to grow my business? When was I going to fire the myriad of cylinders currently mushrooming out of my studio?
I spent the next two days in a typical loss of hope which precedes any significant progress. The wonderful thing with age is that I know the drill now: frustration leads to powerlessness leads to even-better-than-the-previous-solution solution. It takes me one or two days of what the french call “broyer du noir”, which is essentially ruminating in frustration, before I springboard out and enter the solution-finding zone, and it usually involves some serendipitous twist-of fate. I made a list of the problems with the BBK Studios, imagined what my ideal progress would look like at this point and wrote down ideal future scenarios. I want to build a community of ceramicists around me, reach out to my fellow creators in Berlin, find a studio and a kiln I can rely on in a more intimate, on-the-premises kind of way.
It allowed me to continue building a map of ceramic resources in Berlin, plot my progress and ask for help (I feel useless at this, I’m learning that turns out most people are — a friend recently gave me a copy of Amanda Palmer’s The Art of Asking).
I was rewarded with some wonderful emails and one in particular from Réjane at La Récreation who I will visit tomorrow, and with whom I’m hoping to collaborate from now on.
The good news is that I’m still making as much as possible on the wheel. 50+ pieces of greenware are dotted around my house. They’re not fired, but they exists. The last week saw some big steps forward as I have also begun to contact places interested in selling my ceramics, thinking of a name for the business, planning the website, my personal evolution and beginning to outline what my collection might look like. I’m worried that I’m running before I can walk — without a kiln, a crucial step and lots of experience is missing. But I can’t stand still and if I’m not firing them, then there are lots of other aspects to get on ahead with and consider. Now that I look back, it’s been a crazy productive week propelling me forward and with a bit of luck, this time next week I will be firing all of these.
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