Made with a Bailey Interview featuring L'Impatience Ceramics

Made with a Bailey Interview featuring L'Impatience Ceramics

Do you have a favorite part of the ceramic process?

We enjoy each and every part but throwing on the wheel, and especially working on new shapes and ideas is what we enjoy the most. Trying new forms and seeing them take shape on the wheel as we go and refine them is for us the most exciting part. We’re production potters so sometimes working on the wheel can feel very repetitive, especially after repeating the same piece hundreds of time. But even though the repetition can sometimes feel boring, we try to stay in the moment, focus and enjoy each movement in its uniqueness. We used to have office jobs working on computers all day long, and often people ask us if we have lost the joy of making pottery by turning a hobby into a full-time job. But even after a long day of throwing pots, we’re still a hundred times happier than when we were spending our weeks writing emails all day long! And we’re not short of other hobbies and new crafts we want to try!

Can you tell us about your Bailey equipment and how it helps you create your work.

We bought our first Bailey kiln (7cuft TL-2327) in 2019. After renting kiln spaces in community studios in Brooklyn, we were so excited to finally have our own kiln. In the community studios, we weren’t always able to load our own pieces in the kilns, so it made troubleshooting pretty much impossible. How frustrating it was to have a piece come out great the first time, and then completely different the next time… Having our own kiln completely changed our way of working and made our work so much better, achieving the desired results a lot quicker. We bought our second Bailey kiln (10cuft TL-2827) in 2021. Both kilns are now constantly running. We love our first kiln, so when we moved our studio to Kingston, two minutes away from Bailey, it was a no-brainer than we would get a second Bailey Kiln. We love being able to pop by Bailey anytime we need to change an element or anything else. And Sue is always there to help! We also bought in 2020 a Bailey mixer/pug mill (MSV25T). Most of our work is made of colored clay using ceramic stains. One day, after countless hours spent hand mixing stains in buckets and buckets of slips, we had enough and decided to buy a pug mill and it was the best decision! Mixing and pugging our colored clay still takes quite a bit of time, but it improved our workflow incredibly while making our clay a lot more consistent. The stain gets mixed in super well and pretty quickly, we love it!

You have such as strong brand aesthetic, how has your work evolved over time?

We tried lots of different clay bodies and glazes for a little while but there was always something that wasn't satisfying us. But when we started experimenting with ceramic stains, that’s when it clicked. We love the look and feel of bisque pieces, so being able with stains to keep that raw feel and look of the clay, while creating a strong color palette, was what attracted it. We love how the transparent glaze enhance the depth of the colored clay, while creating a nice contrast between the glossy feel and the raw aspect of the unglazed clay. We’ve always been attracted to timeless designs with modern and clean lines. The texture of a piece is very important to us. We burnish our pieces quite a lot to give them a super smooth feel. But recently we’ve been working on new pieces with a bit more texture and a rougher feel. We’re inspired by raw materials, like minerals coming from hostile environments: Volcanic rocks, Icelandic landscapes fascinate us by their dramatic beauty.

Bailey Pottery has been operating out of Kingston for over 30 years and our founder, Anne Bailey has been an integral part of establishing Kingston's Midtown Arts District where your business is located. How did you decide on Kingston and what do you love about it?

We had been looking for a studio space for over a year. Our studio had taken over pretty much our entire house during the pandemic and we were desperate to find a new studio space. A dear friend of us introduced us to Scott Dutton, architect and owner of the Fuller Building where our studio is currently located. Scott offered us a dream space in another building, where his architecture firm is on Broadway. We couldn’t believe it when we visited it, 1200 sqft in a beautiful old brick building. Quite an upgrade from the 120 sqft room we were working from in our house! But then six months later, a 3000 sqft space opened up in the Fuller Building and Scott offered it to us. At first we thought he was joking, that was way too much space! But Scott believed in us and made it possible for us to dream big. We still pinch ourselves every day to have the chance to work in such an amazing space, with such an amazing landlord! We absolutely love working in Kingston, there is such a great community of makers all around, everyone is so welcoming and supportive. It’s pretty crazy to think that we’ve met more people and built stronger relationships since moving up here than after six years living in NYC!

We're so happy to be a part of this local artistic community with you. Please tell us about your recent showroom venture and what's you're currently working on.

One of the great things that attracted us about the space in the Fuller Building was the possibility to turn one part of the studio into a showroom. We started building it ourselves with the help of one of the amazing local makers Kingston has to offer, James Harmon (http://www.workshop-brooklyn.com/). He’s a fantastic millworker and the sweetest person ever. We highly recommend him to anyone looking for beautifully crafted millwork! We opened up the showroom in May for the Fuller Market. It is now open everyday of the week and the first Saturday of each month. The Fuller Building is also home to Eleven Six (https://eleven-six.co/) and we recently started organizing the Fuller Pop-ups with Catherine Carnevale, founder of Eleven Six. Each month, we invite a couple other makers and brands for a one-day pop-up event in the building. And our dear friends at Black Dot Cafe (https://blackdot.cafe/) join us to offer delicious coffee and treats. The next one will be on Saturday September 3rd, follow us on Instagram to know who will be joining us! Other than that, we’re super busy working on wholesale orders for the Holiday season that is already just around the corner. But one of the most exciting thing we’re working on right now is a collaboration with fiber artist Kat Howard (another Kingston local) (https://www.kat-howard.com/) that we’re hoping to showcase at the beginning of October. We have been working together on a collection of pieces incorporating ceramics and fibers. We have been obsessed with Kat’s work since we discovered her 3 years ago at Ravenwood, so working with her has been a dream come true. We currently have 2 of her wool sculptures in our showroom and we can’t wait to show the pieces we’re creating together!