For pottery artist Hayley Eckhart, working with clay is a means of bringing herself back to the earth at the same time as fostering creativity. The material is grounding, as is the process.

Attending Coastal Carolina University in South Carolina to study marine science, she realized her degree would not mean spending a lot of time in the ocean, and decided to enroll in a variety of classes including art history. In addition to the ocean, art had always been a passion of hers. This class revived the love of working with clay she experienced during her high school art classes, and she discovered this is the path she needed to take.

“At first I thought I could work in an art museum, but following those lines, it felt like balancing my own work would become a challenge,” Eckhart said. “I got more into studio art then, and began thinking about art as a business.”

While her joy was originally in sculptural work, she reached a turning point when she began considering where to focus her art in order for it to be part of her income. While she learned a lot in school about studio art as a livelihood, many college art programs do not include business classes.

For Eckhart, as well as many other WNC artists and makers, supplementing a creative income is a necessity. While it could be possible to produce repetitive pieces in bulk to make more money, that process would eliminate her ability to produce unique, show-quality pieces. “As much as I would love to step away from bartending and focus exclusively on pottery, the extra income actually gives me the freedom to do what I want to do with my craft,” Eckhart said.

Finding and entering a studio space can be challenging for local artists. Eckart was able to get her foot in the door at Clayspace Co-op, where she shares studio and gallery space with other actively-working artists. Locals and visitors can visit Clayspace and see artists at work and see a variety of pottery styles and pieces on display. 

Located in the River Arts District, Clayspace sees a large number of visitors, exposing local makers to an ever-growing population from all over the country and the world.

“The River Arts District is a big staple of Asheville and draws so many people here,” Eckhart said. “I’ve heard a lot of people say they come here specifically for the art and artists. It’s common to hear visitors, including art teachers, say they’re saving up all year so they can come back again.”

If the RAD did not create such a tourist draw, Eckhart’s business would be very different. She would have to rely more on e-commerce, which would require a significantly larger focus on business aspects like marketing that her current studio space does not require.

Through Clayspace, Eckhart sells flowerpots, mugs, bowls, planters, trinket dishes, and more. Making everything in small batches, her creative flow varies along with the number of products she is able to produce at one time. With multiple steps for creating each piece, from throwing and trimming to carving, glazing, and kiln firing, the required time for each batch varies as well. 

Mistakes happen during the process, so for each piece on gallery shelves, there are always lost pots that the artist must recycle.

“Sometimes I get requests for custom pieces, but people don’t always realize how much work goes into each piece produced,” Eckhart said. “I may schedule a new idea for several months down the road, but having available pieces in the studio is my priority.”

In addition to participating in the Co-op, maintaining a studio at home helps Eckhart maintain her focus. Working alone in her established style helps her perfect and streamline her process of creating functional pottery. She also envisions doing more hand building and sculptural work in the future. 

“I’ve recently been playing around with a sculpture in my studio,” said Eckhart. “I didn’t really have a design for it; I was just playing around a bit. I put it into my recycled clay because that’s part of the process, but I got to play with this form and it was an experiment. I was throwing it away per se, but I need to play again. It’s really the birth of a fun, magical process that may not turn out to be anything that’s sold, but knowing I can play around is the first step on the journey to adding that type of art to my repertoire.”