Meet Hannah Wagenmaker | Small Batch Potter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Hannah Wagenmaker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Hannah, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I have wanted to pursue pottery (ceramics) since I was 13. Like many people my first exposure to pottery was in Junior High (I was bad at it but was one of a few students who stuck to it enough to make something identifiable). I didn’t touch clay again until my last year of college, I found myself again one of few who stuck with it enough to make something decent. I realized I may have a niche: a lot of people are interested in playing with clay but often end up moving on to something more approachable after some experimentation. After getting married and having kids I found myself here in Texas and finally close enough to a studio that I can get work fired.

The thing is that this “hobby” is not easy, nor is it cheap. If you are going to actively make pottery you have to either have a large disposable income or sell it. I started out only selling it to family members, or giving it as gifts but the investment quickly grew too large. Ceramics takes a great deal of practice, testing, and refining; I made a lot of work just trying to learn to make better pieces. I began promoting myself through Instagram in 2022 so I could sell.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
One of the most important aspects of a business is finding your niche, this holds true for pottery as well. I’ve spent a great deal of energy trying to find my specialty within the ceramics world. What I’ve observed is this: most potters really like building or throwing, and some like glazing. There’s a small group of potters who carve and/or paint (underglaze is the ceramic worlds paint) their work instead of just glazing. That’s where I sit. I have ten years of experience painting and carving. Growing up all I could afford was paper, pencils, and some paint. I would also carve wood scraps from my dads workshop. In college I also worked as an onsite artist carving large cedar signs for state parks. I loved this work, it was so methodical and contemplative. Translating these skills over to pottery means I’ve found my niche in carved functional ware, which I often glaze with clear on the outside and inside I put luscious colors.

As a wife and mother of three boys (4yrs, 2yrs, and 0), starting a business in ceramics has been rife with challenges. When do I do my work? How do I keep our apartment clean while I’m in the middle of throwing on the wheel? How to I keep delicate finished work safe from little hands? How do I market myself when I hardly have time to make dinner? I’ve thankfully been able to overcome most of these, perhaps not completely, but enough to continue toward growing my business. I work two hours in the morning and do detail work for an hour an a half every night. I put a gate between my work corner and the rest of the house. I do marketing and instagram videos interspersed throughout the day whenever there’s a good opportunity. Sometimes I’m too tired to get anything done, I just conserve that energy for another time and do simpler tasks until then.

It hasn’t been easy to balance life with three little boys and starting a business, but the whole family has adjusted. My kids have gotten surprisingly comfortable with playing on their own in the morning while I work and I’ve even started to find time to teach my oldest to read in there! I have a long way to go before I have a distinct brand I think, I am still working out a lot of kinks and trying to find my personal style- though I’ve just completed some carved back peonies and animals that I feel is very close to my distinct style. I often feel like I’m a bird looking down at my prey (my style/goal) way off in the distance and flying circles slowly as I get closer.

I’ve come to realize my ultimate goal is to find the perfect aesthetic functional ware: items that fit their use perfectly and are beautiful. It’s very hard for me to make all of the dozens of ideas that I have for functional ceramics forms, I have new ones almost every day. This is why I became a potter, in a way you are an inventor, you can create just about anything you can imagine in your head!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I have to be honest, if my best friend was coming here the very first place I would take them is one of the local pottery studios for a few hours of goofing off in the clay. There is Texas Pottery Supply and Clay in Haltom area, Front Porch Pottery Studio near Westover Hills, and Garrett Pendergrass Pottery SE of downtown Fort Worth.

Other than those one of my favorite places in the city is the Botanical Gardens, they have really nice staff and so much variety. The Japanese Garden there is stunning all year, but especially in the fall. I take my kids all the time, they love it.

Having kids means that we spend a lot of time at parks, they are free, wide open, and my boys can’t break stuff. We like Hidden Waterfalls accessed via Airfield Falls Trailhead, Z Boaz Park (not to be confused with North Z Boaz Park), and Dream Park. We also spend a lot of time at the Fort Worth Zoo, if you go don’t forget to go over to the Texas Wild side of the zoo, many visitors think that the zoo ends at the Reptile exhibit (MOLA) but it actually continues on with birds, kangaroos, bears, and local wildlife if you are willing to walk down to the other end.

If you want to just hang out you can walk around downtown, the stockyards are free to get in and have lots of kids things to do. The Water Gardens are nice and shady in the summer, especially the less-popular quiet pool. Honestly there is quality food on just about every block of downtown! That being said I don’t eat out much, I usually get coffee ( I recommend Fort Worth Coffee Co. and Summer Moon Coffee) but if I did go out to eat I’d go to Pappadeux Seafood Kitchen off the Trinity River. Another one I’d like to try is The Press Cafe. It sounds like a coffee shop but it’s actually a sit down restaurant with a bar and extensive outdoor seating near the Trinity river as well. There is also a Jazz bar hidden in the heart of downtown, it’s called Scat Jazz Lounge, entering via an elevator through an alley gives it a speakeasy vibe right away. Be sure to check on their site to see who’s playing first!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
There are two people who have made sure that I pursue creative work throughout my life: my dad and my husband, David.

When I was a kid my dad saw that I wanted to draw and paint he found a way for me to take some lessons from an artist friend of his. I was home schooled so we really had to hunt down ways for me to get lessons. I took one class in Junior High and otherwise he would get me books to learn from. To this day he always wants to see what I’m working on and talk about how important it is that I keep doing whatever creative pursuit I have on my mind.

After I got married I found my biggest fan: my petroleum engineer husband. I’ve never met anyone so completely enamored of my work. Originally I would draw and paint, and he supported that. When I said I wanted to get into pottery and I told him how much it would cost he said it was worth it. I never would have started a business at all if it weren’t for him! Whats funny is that he hates that I have to sell my pieces, he says he wants to keep them all for himself (I have to tell him I will be able to make more if I sell them).

Website: WagenmakerStudio.Weeblysite.com

Instagram: @WagenmakerStudio

Facebook: Wagenmaker Studio

Other: hlwagenmaker@gmail.com

Image Credits
Hannah Wagenmaker