Original subtitles

Our country is full of incredible makers dreaming of turning their talent into

money -making careers.

It would mean everything to be able to do this full -time.

So, with a team of fantastic professional mentors... I know your

know what you're capable of doing.

I run a one -of -a -kind boot camp, showing them how to do just that.

Perfect. My proudest moment, I'll just say that. Yes. Now I'm on my way to

up with those who have made their dreams come true. Hello. There he is. Hello,

mate.

I'll be hearing about their amazing achievements. I've been able to put down

deposit on a house. This is my full -time job.

And finding out how much money they're making.

A little bit under £40 ,000.

Around £50 ,000. £50 ,000? Yes.

So join me and meet the fabulous makers who have transformed their lives and

made it at market.

You can kind of say I'm living the dream.

I think that's fair to say.

For a lot of makers who come to my bootcamp, their dream is to earn enough

from their talents.

to make a living doing the thing they love.

Today, we'll be catching up with two whose incredible skills have transformed

their lives.

Later, mentor Sharon will be hearing all about teacher and fluid artist Gemma's

success in ethics.

Over about an 18 -month period, I had over 200 commissions. Wow, that's

fantastic.

Before that, I'll be checking in with Potter Izzy in South West London.

I first met her in the spring of 2022 when she came to my business boot camp

looking for help to turn her pottery into a paying profession after giving up

her job at an advertising agency.

It would mean everything to be able to do this full time.

I mean, it's totally my passion. It's something that I love to do. And to be

able to spend all of my time making beautiful pottery pieces for people to

in their homes would be a total dream come true.

Izzy, to give up a well -paid commercial job, what happened? That must have been

quite a scary time.

It was something that I thought about for a while. I was in the studio. When I

say studio, I mean the garden shed in my parents' house. Oh, brilliant.

Making pots on a wheel. But I was loving it and I just thought, if I can't give

up now and try to make the dream happen, then when can I do it?

To find out if Izzy had what it took to become a successful full -time potter...

I gave her three challenges.

First was making a volume piece, something she could produce quickly and

for an affordable price.

Izzy chose to create a set of candlesticks priced at £28 each.

Standing 10cm high, they were decorated with different coloured glazes.

First of all, I'm going to make the base of it.

And then I'm going to very loosely build up the form with the two different

tiers, the disc tiers that are around the form, and then I will create the

opening that the candlestick will fit in.

I press my fingers into the clay to create the shape.

It's a little bit wobbly. Just come off centre slightly.

I'm just taking a little bit of the moisture away from the clay.

To help Izzy become a full -time potter, I teamed her up with Florian Gadsby.

Hi. Hi.

How's it going?

One of the country's top ceramicists, Florian has millions of followers on

social media, ensuring any new work he releases sells out in minutes.

Izzy's chosen a candlestick.

They're very good objects to make quickly because they require very

finishing. You know, as long as she throws the opening accurately, then they

should be fine. So I think it's quite an intelligent choice. It's different, and

I think they're an object that I imagine people would buy multiples of.

While Izzy was fully focused on her volume item, I grabbed Florian to chat

through her second challenge.

Before she arrived at my boot camp, I asked her to bring along a high -end,

pricier piece.

She chose to showcase a 10 -piece serving set with an asking price of

I think it's really interesting, you know, the idea of having all these pots

that you can lay out yourself and fill with food and then, you know, you'll

a nice meal around.

At the moment they're all kind of one beige colour and I think if she was

forward into making it, you know, a more sustainable business model, I think it

could be something that's quite fun if people are able to choose, you know,

a few of a different colour or they can even customise the entire set.

Izzy was hoping to get £320 for the whole set.

How many pieces is it, ten pieces?

Yeah, a lot for the money. I think a bargain, and, you know, she's thinking

about how they interlock, how she can combine them and make different

combinations, so she's putting quite a lot of thought into it.

Back in the pottery studio, Izzy had moved on to making the second of her

collection of candlesticks.

Making the body was a quick process, but making the space that would hold the

candle was a precise job.

I've done a lot of testing to now I know exactly the millimeter that it needs to

be measured across the diameter of the opening so that then accounting for

shrinkage in the firing and when there's a glaze on there, it will snugly fit a

candlestick, a standard candlestick in there.

I know that I want it to be about 2 .7, which luckily...

It actually is. That actually has never happened to me before.

Izzy repeated the process for the third and final candlestick of her collection.

The next bit of the process is for them to dry out very slowly over a couple of

weeks. Once they've dried out, I might give them a once -over with a sponge or

sanding pad just to make sure that there are no rough edges, and then I put my

maker's mark stamp in on the bottom, and then they are ready to be fired.

Excluding drying, firing and glazing time, Izzy's candlesticks took around 15

minutes per piece to produce.

With material costs of £18 for the three, she priced them at £28 each.

I feel like you make these really quickly.

Yeah, I mean, how long does it take you at the moment?

Between 10 to 12, 15 minutes or so.

OK, so, I mean, the only thing I might say is if you were to push this and

really try and make them as more of a volume piece, you could try and get that

to five minutes or less, three minutes per piece.

Yeah. How many minutes?

Well, you know, there are things you can do to help speed up the process quite

dramatically. Yeah. Maybe making a jig that you can insert into the soft clay

make the well faster.

How about the price?

They're quite a bespoke object.

You know, they're table centrepieces. So I think people are probably going to

buy a couple. So, yeah, I think it's fair.

Both of Izzy's first two challenges got her a thumbs up from Florian and I. And

for her final task, I asked her to make her favourite piece to see if the

product she relished making the most could also make her big money.

Izzy chose to make a plinth, a large bowl on a pedestal foot.

It was something that could be used as a centrepiece for a dinner party or a

large fruit bowl and was priced at £180.

First of all, I just have to check that this large patty of clay I've got is the

right size. So I've made these before and I know what it should be. So we need

28 centimetres, which is about right.

And now I'm going to open up the middle.

After opening up the centre of the clay, Izzy's next job was to raise the walls

to create the bowl.

This is where I use the mirror to really check the form and the shape of the

bowl as I'm pulling it out.

Now I need to measure the width of the bowl now that I've shaped it out a

bit, which is pretty bang on.

I want to make sure that they're all the same size across because then if I'm

making a batch of them and selling them, then all the customers will be getting

the same.

Izzy was making good progress on her final piece, but she was keen to talk to

Florian about marketing her work.

Something that I know I need to develop is finding an audience for my work. And

I know social media can be brilliant with that, but is there any... Other

Other ways, or would you say...

it's social media is the best way to do it or do you go through stockists or

what i think stockists can be really really good okay you just need to find

that you really love and you think your work would fit into their range of

products you want them to be relatable to you and you want to actually really

like the person if you don't get on well with the person you're selling with

it's not really going to work after chatting to florian is he headed

back to her potter's wheel to work on the base of the bowl section of her

I'm going to trim off all of this excess clay here and shape into a nice rounded

bowl.

I really love this bit. It's very soothing and I love seeing these ribbons

clay come out of the turning tool.

Having trimmed off the excess clay, Izzy scored the bowl in preparation for

joining it to the pedestal.

That works well, I think.

slip which is water and clay but i've added in a little bit of vinegar as well

which hopefully will make the two pieces stick together a little bit more and

now i'm going to lightly place it on because i want to just make sure that

centered that looks good the last final little small step is just to use the

vinegar and the flip just to go around the edge to make sure that all of these

little small gaps are filled in After that, dry it really slowly for maybe two

weeks or so, because I want it to dry nice and slowly, prevent any cracks.

And then it will go in the kiln for a bisque firing, and after that I would

glaze it, and it would go in the kiln for its second firing, and then it would

be finished.

Izzy's plimp, finished with a tasteful green glaze, was a real statement piece.

It had a make time of two and a half hours, and an asking price of £180.

They're a nice statement piece. You know, they sit on the table. They're the

center of attention.

But I think there are a few things that I think we could improve on. I think

glazing on the bottom near the foot, the ring, not quite at the bottom, you

know, a little bit up. And I think there could be maybe a motif or a finish you

could add to make it finish around the bottom a bit more comfortably.

Yes. And then just things like the underside. I know you said it took you

weeks to dry them. So we could talk about ways of artificially, you know.

drying the underside at the same time as the rest of the pot just to speed

things up what about the price it's quite a sculptural piece it's a

i think it's fair to help izzy make it as a full -time potter we gave her an

action plan to take back to london first she needed to promote herself on social

media to boost her profile and draw in potential buyers next she needed to work

at producing her pieces quicker and finally if she was going to collaborate

a stockist She needed to find one she liked and could work with.

For the next two months, Izzy had Florian's continued support as she

get her business off the ground.

And she started by visiting his studio to get his top tips on promoting herself

on social media.

Welcome to the studio.

Oh, wow.

This is it.

This is it.

Florian talked me through how he captures his footage in the studio.

So he showed me the equipment that he uses, the software he uses when he's

editing his footage, and also gave me an insight into how much he posts on

social media and how he writes the captions of his posts as well to really

his audience engaged.

So that was all really useful.

Izzy also works on developing her collection to include different colours.

I've been thinking a lot about glazing and developing a range of glazes. So my

next port of call will be doing a batch of glaze testing to see what I like and

see what works well with different clay bodies.

Up until now, I've just used the same old white stoneware, which has served me

really well.

But actually, I think it's time to see what else is out there and do some

testing for clays as well.

Izzy threw herself into acting on every suggestion we gave her. And two months

later, she came back to see us with impressive news.

I made £5 ,200.

No way.

Wow. Yeah.

It's amazing from this point in your career. Thank you. That's an awful lot

money. Thank you. I can't quite believe it.

Even after taking off her costs, Izzy was well on her way to having a fully

-fledged pottery business.

Just over three and a half years later, I've come to her studio in South West

London to see how she's built exactly that and how much money she's making

Izzy, hello.

You OK? Good, thanks. Welcome. Come in. It's good to see you.

Izzy's set -up has moved on a lot since I last saw her.

This place is... Absolutely beautiful. How has it come about? You started in

your parents' shed, didn't you? I did.

So that was my first studio. And then I moved on to a slightly bigger space.

But I outgrew that actually quite quickly. I'd also decided I wanted to

teaching business as well. I wanted some space to have more pottery wheels and

perhaps some more kilns and just like growing that way. That's quite different

to making though.

to go into teaching. What brought that on? I had kind of got to where I had

always hoped I would be, which is being in a lovely studio, making pots. I had

orders from stockists, and I was selling on my website a lot.

That's the dream, isn't it? It was the dream, and that is what I'd been aiming

for. But actually, I was a little surprised that I started to feel a

lonely, actually, and knew that I needed to make some kind of change to...

to bring in some more so a social aspect to your life yeah good on you for

actually shifting things around moving into this larger space shows just how

much progress is made but it's great to see she's still making the candlesticks

which were her volume piece at the boot camp They are my bestseller now.

They're what I make the most of, they're what I sell the most of, both into

shops but also on my website.

The biggest retailer that I was really excited to work with was Fortnum &

Oh, wow. I know.

That's huge.

It was a bit of a dream come true, really. It was what I had always dreamt

happen but thought it would be much later down the line in my career. So

that call came in, I was just, yeah, really over the moon. Couldn't really

believe it.

Having her candlesticks stocked by such a well -known high -end shop is a

massive achievement for Izzy.

At the bootcamp, they sold for £28, but her more polished versions now sell for

£34 for the small ones and £40 for the larger ones.

And they're not the only thing driving her business forwards.

Tell me about the courses. Which courses do you run?

We do a beginner course, which is one session each week for five weeks. And

takes you through the full process of making pots. And then after that, we've

got a developer course, which is like an intermediate course. So that's 10

weeks. And then we have a few other kind of sessions like taster classes. And we

have full day courses as well.

Might be a lot for you to do.

It is a lot, but it's not just me anymore because I've got a couple of

and actually hiring a couple more at the moment. And also I've got some studio

assistants who help me keep everything running. So it's not only me.

Wow. Things have grown so much. You've now got people helping. Yeah, it's

escalated for sure.

A growing staff, high -end stockists and courses. Things really are going well

for Izzy.

Her five -week beginner courses are priced at £270, and she charges £450 per

person for the 10 -week developer course.

It's great to see her diversifying her business, and she's set up a mug

so that I can try out one of her courses.

I'm ready. I'm ready.

Apron's on.

Let's do it.

We start by throwing our clay onto the wheel.

Controlled by a foot pedal and with wet hands, Press the clay down before we

start to form an upside -down cone shape.

We want the top of this to be slightly domed. All up. So if you can squeeze the

clay and just try and bring a bit of a curve shape on the top because then

set up to go into our cone. Yeah, very nice. Yeah? Yeah, lovely.

Lovely. And you're going to start pushing through the middle of the clay

leaning into the side, and you're squeezing the clay between those two

rising them up.

And maybe let's get a little bit more water on your clay, but looking really

nice. Good.

To remove any air bubbles trapped in the clay, we push it back down and repeat

the process before creating a donut shape.

This is looking great.

OK. You've jumped two steps.

I love it. Have I?

You have. This is the advanced class. No, no, no. I wish I'd done that without

knowing. Brilliant.

Now we're going to compress the base. So this is the bit that's smoothing out

the floor.

Up and down until you're happy that the floor is nice and smooth.

To pull up the walls, your middle finger is doing most of the heavy lifting.

Gently squeezing and keep on going all the way up to the top. In one, don't

stop. Once you start. In one.

And when you get to the top, you're just gently going to release the clay from

your hands.

Gently come away.

And breathe.

How did you know?

It's a bit of a nerve -wracking moment, that first pull -up, thinking, oh, my

God.

Okay, okay, this is good. This is really good.

Once I've pulled it into something that almost looks like the shape and size of

a mug, Izzy's got a trick to help me tidy up the sides.

We can use one of these kidneys to kind of create a nice straight edge. Oh,

nice. You're going to have your hand in there in the middle. Yeah.

And you're really gently pushing the clay.

So tilt the tool a little bit in.

And then you can push out at the base, really.

I think we leave it there. Perfect. I'm happy with that. Beautiful. I'm more

than happy with that. You should be.

Normally, our mugs would be allowed to dry for a few days.

But Izzy has helped mine by drying it with a heat gun so we can move on to

making the handle.

This hand's just behind here.

And you're going to push it on and give it a bit of a wiggle almost, pressing

with your thumb just to blend those pieces in.

Now you're going to wet your hand and just very gently, just kind of gently

down.

After attaching the handle, my mug actually looks like a mug.

I love it.

I love it.

I'll treasure that. I really will.

Oh, good. For a long time.

Good.

Izzy's going to get my mug fired and glazed so I can enjoy a cuppa from it

Aside from collaborating with Stockist, which she's been hugely successful with,

I'm keen to find out how much the rest of the advice we gave her at the

has helped her to build her business.

Izzy, when you came to the bootcamp, Florian and I gave you an action plan

some key pointers to try and help you build this business.

One of the pointers we wanted you to work on was your social media to gain a

following and hopefully gain customers.

This was something that Florian really helped me a lot with, actually. And he

gave me a few really good tips around posting more regularly, the kind of

content I was posting, telling a bit of a story behind the making process.

And I did see a big increase in my followers.

Did you?

I did. I'm now on around 44 ,000.

44 ,000? I think. Around that. And where were you before?

One or 2 ,000, maybe? You gained over 40 ,000 followers.

Yes, yeah, yeah.

That's impressive.

Thank you so much.

Florian was very keen for you to increase your efficiency and the speed

make things. I was making the candlestick holders in about 15 minutes,

Yeah, and he wanted under five. And he wanted under five, which...

Honestly, at the time, I kind of didn't know if that could even be done.

Yes. Are we under the five minutes, though? I think four or five minutes is

of how quickly I'd throw a candlestick holder now. I'm blown away by that. Four

minutes? From having thrown so many.

Izzy's nailed every part of her action plan.

By establishing a successful teaching business as well, she's gone even

And I'm excited to find out how much money she's now making.

Do you mind if we talk figures? How much is this all earning you at the moment?

Based on both the teaching I've been doing and running the business and then

also my own making, I've made around 50 grand is my earnings.

That's a lot of money.

Yeah. Well done.

You know what? You deserve every penny of it. You're making it work.

Thank you. Yeah, I can't quite believe it because I'm now in a position where

I'm earning more than I did in my corporate job before.

But I love what I do. So I'm, you know, I'm just, I'm over the moon. That was a

dream. Yeah. Three and a half years ago, Izzy's decision to leave a well -paid

advertising job to pursue a career in pottery felt like a big leap.

Now, with an income of £50 ,000 a year from making and teaching after taking

her costs, it's a leap that's paid off magnificently.

The last three years have been amazing.

It's definitely been a lot of hard work, but I love that I get to work with Clay

every day and it's something that I'm really passionate about and I'm able to

share that with other people.

And so overall, it's been really amazing.

The next maker whose progress we're going to be checking up on is teacher

fluid artist Gemma from Essex.

She also came to my boot camp just over three and a half years ago, and like

Izzy, was hoping we could help her with a career change.

I'm a teacher, and I've been a teacher for 13 years, and I love it, but it

happened a bit by accident.

I would have really loved to have had a career in art, but when I was applying

to university, I was given some advice from a career advisor who said that

was no chance of making a career in art, so why bother doing it at university?

So that really set a course for where I am now.

Gemma's work was a wonderful mix of chemistry and creativity.

Using different oils, paints and water, she created flowing, multi -layered

abstract pieces and had dreams of it helping her to live a more creative

I'm looking to completely change my life. I'm looking to start again and

a business that will carve out a future for me in art.

To help Gemma make the new start she was hoping for, she was mentored by

professional artist Sharon Walters.

Sharon has collaborated with the Tate and the National Portrait Gallery and

keen to help Gemma turn her talent into a successful business.

You can see with Gemma she's actually passionate about what she does. Her work

is so beautiful.

It incorporates nature and I think she has a great approach to creating unique

work in an abstract way.

For her volume piece, Gemma made three sets of fluid art coasters on slate,

porcelain and wood, priced at £18 each.

I love the uniqueness of this work.

Can you talk me through the process?

Yeah, so this is...

a base of just a pouring medium um which will dry clear yeah so things like pva

glue yeah sort of um and when this dries clear you'll be able to see the wood

underneath so now i'm building up the different layers this paint i've mixed

already so it's got paint conditioner in which creates the fluid movement and

also means that they don't cross over and blend unless i make them blend which

keeps their distinct yeah How are you getting on business life?

At the moment, I think I've got a hobby which pays for itself and gives me a bit

of extra pocket money. I don't think I've got the makings of a new life yet

career.

Whilst Gemma pushed on with her volume piece, Sharon and I sat down to talk

about her high -end item.

She'd upcycled a small chest of drawers she'd bought for £20.

Decorated with a fluid art design, it had a price tag of £200.

I love the idea of using paintwork on a piece of furniture, but I'm not sure

that's the right piece of furniture.

You know what, I completely agree with you. When I saw the camera too, I just

thought that would be brilliant on some furniture. Just not that bit of

furniture. No, not that bit of furniture. Mid -century cleaner design,

could just be on a piece of plywood set in to a panel or something like that.

There's a lot more to think about, I think, around the furniture side of

Back in the artist's corner.

Gemma had reached a delicate stage in producing one of her coasters.

The pipette is going to create a slightly different effect, particularly

this is thinner.

This looks like such a therapeutic process.

It's incredibly therapeutic.

I'm going to manipulate it and move it around. In this case, just using a

toothpick, but you can do it with lots and lots of different things.

Allow a certain amount of blending so you get this kind of marbled effect.

Once Gemma was happy with the design, she gave it a helping hand to set.

The blowtorching is going to just help it to set and also start activating in

the looser paint colours some of the cells.

You can see that one's already splitting and that one.

And that will continue over the next hour or so.

So how long do they take to set?

To get completely dry before I can put...

A second layer on which will be resin somewhere about two days. Okay.

Plain resin to protect the coaster but also make it really glossy and really

shiny.

Excluding drying time, Gemma's coaster sets had a make time of three and a half

hours, material costs of £6 .50 and a price tag of £18 per set.

I actually love coasters. I can't believe I'm admitting this but I really,

really love coasters.

And I think these feel like more of a luxury item.

But I would suggest possibly having a different kind of storage for these in

terms of your packaging.

If you had maybe a wooden type storage where these could actually sit and be

stored in a really good way, I think that would work really well. And you

charge slightly more for them that way. That's a brilliant idea.

I definitely feel that I can learn a lot from some of the feedback that I got,

especially from Sharon. But it was lovely to hear that they liked them

when your heart and soul has gone into something, it's good to know that that's

being reflected and shown to other people.

Sharon believed that with some tweaks, Gemma's first two items had the

to be popular and profitable products.

For her third challenge, we asked her to produce her favourite piece.

To discover if what she loved creating most...

could win over customers too.

She chose to make a seaside triptych, a painting made up of three separate and

in this case identically sized canvases, showcasing a seascape priced at £130.

This is base coat. This has to be more fluid than the rest of the paint that

going to put on because this is going to be the medium through which everything

else happens.

So if this bit isn't the right chemical make -up and isn't the right viscosity,

the rest... will not behave the way I want it to.

With her base layer complete, Gemma started to add extra layers of paint.

This is called a Dutch pour, so we're going to essentially cover up the paint

and then use the hairdryer to reveal the paint, which has this poetry with the

actual ocean and the sand because the wind would blow the ocean in the sea

spray.

As Gemma's process was so unique, Sharon was keen to take a look.

Hi, Gemma.

Hi. How's it going?

Really well. Just creating this sea effect.

But it needs a bit of manipulation and playing with now, so I'm going to use my

mouth and this drawer to kind of move that around and then to move these

as well. You can feel the movement in the piece, and I love the use of colours

in this work. Thank you. I really love the use of colours.

I think she's kind of holding on to it like, oh, it's a bit experimental, but

experiments can be art.

She needs to place some value on what she's actually doing and believe in

herself more.

Gemma's seaside triptych was a beautiful piece of abstract art and she gave it

an asking price of £130.

I think it's a brilliant piece of work and really exemplifies the work that

you've been doing. Just wonderful, really well done.

How about the price?

I think that's a really reasonable price for an original piece of artwork.

In terms of where you would sell it, I really think that it would do really

in a gallery, so maybe a smaller gallery -type space.

By the sea? Yeah, by the sea. Yeah, you'd get a really good market there.

So useful and just ready and raring to go.

As she headed home to Essex, we gave Gemma an action plan to help make her

of becoming a full -time artist come true.

First, she needed to work on more luxurious packaging for her wooden

help boost their prices and profit.

Next, we wanted her to contact seaside galleries to sell her seascapes.

Finally, she needed to believe in herself and put her art out there to

For the next two months, Sharon supported Gemma as she worked around the

to get her business off the ground.

Starting with contacting galleries.

I've been really inspired by the advice about creating more seascape work and

targeting galleries along the seafront for those.

So I've been working on a few new techniques, for example, using resin

with silicone oil to create some really exciting bubble effects in artworks. I

also have been thinking about how I can make my coaster range more upmarket for

shops.

So this is quite difficult because I've been working on a few different styles

of boxes, but they do come out quite expensive.

To try and sell her work, Gemma travelled to an upmarket makers festival

Oxfordshire. It was a real test of the self -confidence she needed to develop

build her business.

And after the first day, she had good news.

Sold my big triptych, which is great. Really excited about that one. Also lots

of coasters sold.

Over the next three days, the good news kept on coming.

The coasters have been selling really well and a few smaller pieces of art.

been quite a good art day today.

Sold lots of art. Sold out of trays, sold out of small pots.

So it's been really good.

In the eight weeks after my boot camp, Gemma tackled her action plan with real

drive and determination.

And when she reported back, she blew us away with her progress.

How much have you made?

I've taken £4 ,300, which is incredible. No! Well done.

Thank you.

Gemma had to deduct her costs from her brilliant sales figure, but she'd put

herself on track to having real success.

Three and a half years later, lots has changed in Gemma's life.

Almost two years ago, she gave birth to daughter Wren, and she's very recently

moved house.

She's also been working hard on her business, and I've asked Sharon to pop

to find out what she's achieved and how much cash she's bringing in now.

Hi, how are you?

Good to see you. Yeah, come in. I can't wait to see.

Up until a few days ago, Gemma was working from her dining room table.

But after moving house, she now has her own studio and it's already looking

fabulous.

This is beautiful.

You must be so happy here. I love the space.

How has this changed your practice?

Having lots more space to be able to work on multiple things at once is going

be a game changer. I can do big pieces, leave them and then work on other

things. And then hopefully once I'm embedded...

have more workshops i've done one um right but in a hired village hall space

which is great um but the problem is the artwork has to dry for quite a few days

laying completely still so you're having to hire a space for a much longer

period afterwards while everyone's work is drying here i'm going to be able to

have you know 10 12 people in leave the work dry post it to them afterwards

those things are going to mean that I can step back a little bit from the

side. That's the long -term goal. After you left boot camp, how did you manage

to grow the business?

It was a really steep learning curve.

I had so many commissions.

Over about an 18 -month period, over 200 commissions. Wow, that's fantastic.

Yeah. I've been selling everything ranging from kind of £50 or £60, the

pieces, right the way up to over £1 ,000, some of my commissions.

Both Dom, your advice, the kickstart that it gave me, made such a difference.

So what pieces are selling the best for you?

Art -wise, the smaller pieces, the 30cm, 20cm panels, they're kind of £50, £60.

coasters. I was selling them in fours but I've moved to two of those and I

them for about £18 for a pair.

It's great to hear that the coasters Gemma made for her volume piece are

popular.

Along with her commissioned work like this triptych which has recently sold

£385 and the big blue wave canvas for £442.

She's also been busy developing new pieces.

and now makes 3d art priced between 80 to 800 pounds depending on size jemma's

going to show sharon how she makes one called droplets on petals she starts by

rolling out air drying clay wets the board which forms her canvas with water

begins to create the petals the idea is that you essentially see what happens

organically with the clay You're kind of going to have a bit of a play.

Play with the clay. Yeah.

I'm seeing kind of how things feel as I'm moving it around.

And because I'm going for petals with water that's going to sit in them, I

it to take this kind of organic shape.

I'm going to take some part out and then this is me moulding it then to the

board. I have to make these little grooves.

which I'll sand down because otherwise the resin and the paint will just all

pour off.

If I want this area to pull paint and resin, then this needs to be lower.

What's been your biggest successes since boot camp, do you think?

I've had successes with major commissions, selling things that are

having people come back, purchase again and again.

Successes like being able to move into the studio. This is a pretty massive

success because being able to run.

workshops for larger groups of people i've got 20 28 people at the moment so

good but obviously like the biggest success that's happened since i thought

laughed with i had my daughter it wasn't even an art thing as the clay needs

around a week to dry jemma's prepped one that's already dried sanded and primed

with a water repellent layer ready for painting the next stage is to paint the

background yeah which is this nice kind of neutral color the paint has to be

mixed with various different paint conditioners if you want to create

effects so imagine you wanted a blue paint to sit slightly on top of a white

paint it would need to be a different thickness so i think i'm

Pretty much there with the background. So I'm going to add the colour now. Do

you feel excited with this bit?

I do feel excited, but it's a scary bit.

You can't do this bit again if it goes wrong. You can lift the clay back up,

can, you know, clean resin off, but this is a do -or -die moment, really.

And here I am, peering over your shoulder.

No pressure, Gemma, but just do it really well. Yeah, just don't mess up.

Gemma, I'm wishing you well.

A combination of pre -mixed coloured paints are poured into a mini tray and

applied to the clay shapes.

She then uses a hairdryer, straw and

palette knife to move the colours across the canvas to look like petals.

Interesting seeing this process.

Finally, a blowtorch helps pop any air bubbles that have formed in the paint.

This will have to stay completely still for a week until it dries.

I've had artworks that I've laid down to dry, gone to bed, go up in the morning,

and they weren't completely flat, and all the paint just slid off, destroying

it, and all that work's gone. Yeah, exactly.

To show Sharon the finishing touches, Gemma's prepared another piece that's

already dried and adds silicone oil and resin to create the effect of water

droplets.

What the silicone oil does is repels the resin, like water and oil, basically,

so that it creates this bubble effect.

After all of the tiny droplets have been placed meticulously, it's going to take

a few days for the resin to cure, and after that, you have a finished piece.

Gemma's Droplets on Petals 3D canvas has material costs of £42.

a make time of around three weeks and is priced at 340 pounds it's great to see

her having the confidence to produce new work as well as hearing about all her

success and i'm keen to find out how the action plan we gave her at the boot

camp three and a half years ago has helped to build her business and improve

bank balance

One of the things we asked you to do was to maybe upscale your packaging for

your coasters. Have you stuck to that? What I ended up doing was upscaling for

different environments. So I packaged them in different ways depending on

they're going to.

But the actual full -blown boxes worked out quite expensive.

So I moved away from that eventually.

But, yeah, I've still taken that message on board and created different

packaging overall.

Another thing that I mentioned to you was that it was really important that

started to believe in yourself more and to really put your art out there. It

looks as though you've done that.

Having worked with lots of people for commissions now, I have confidence in

process, in getting positive feedback from people.

That's really supported that confidence.

I think when you try something new, it knocks you down a peg. You have to

rebuild the confidence again.

So ebbs and flows with that. Of course.

I do think, even if you don't realise it, you are far more confident than you

were. So it's great to see. Really good to see.

Thank you.

I agree with Sharon.

Gemma's built her confidence and a business with old favourites, new pieces

workshops. I can't wait to find out what it all means for her finances.

When you were at boot camp, one of the main things you wanted to do was to make

money. How have you gotten on with that?

Obviously, I had my first year after boot camp, then I had my daughter.

So I've really only returned this year back to full pelt next phase of the

business.

I'm on track this year after cost to pay myself about £35 ,000.

Wow, that's fantastic. How do you feel?

I feel delighted. I was really nervous post -maternity because it went so well

before. I was like, you know, that's the belief thing. You think, am I the same?

Are people going to buy back into me?

And so after maternity leave, having things pick back up incredibly, it felt

really exciting, but it's validating.

The art has worth. It has worth for me, and it also has worth to other people.

Earning £35 ,000 a year off the costs so soon after returning to work following

the birth of her daughter is a phenomenal achievement for Gemma.

She currently still works three days a week as a teacher, but is on course to

fulfilling her dream of becoming a full -time artist.

The last three and a half years have been a bit of a roller coaster. Post

camp, I had the most amazing pickup in business and it was such a steep

curve. Since having my baby, I've had to start all over again and coming to

where I am now, starting this next phase, it's up from here. That's how it

feels.

Building a creative business takes more than just talent.

You need resilience and ability to think on your feet and a real focus on

exactly what you want your business to be.

Over the past three and a half years, Gemma and Izzy have proved that they've

got all of these things in spades. And I've absolutely no doubt they'll both go

on to even bigger and better things.

Want some help building a business that lasts?

Visit the Open University's interactive guide for practical help to sustain and

grow your business.

Scan the QR code on the screen or visit connect .open .ac .uk forward slash

I made it at market.