The ceramicist creates something that you don’t want to let go of – you even have to pause orders

Motherhood has been slowing revs lately. The child is only a year old, and there is not always enough time and energy to complete the orders.

Must be visible

“I thought I would miss the spring fairs this year – I wouldn’t go to them, but my mother insisted. They say, I have to participate in them, because this is my business, I have to be visible to people, and the main customers live in the big cities”, – saying this, 28-year-old M. Mančinskė closed the trunk of her car loaded with ceramic works.

That day she was just getting ready for the Kaziuk fair, and Vilnius is about two hours away from her home in the Jurbarkas district, in the village of Lybiškii.

Such travel time seems insignificant compared to the time lost in the traffic jams of the capital. Ms. Mančinskė has experience of what this means, as she lived in the capital for four years studying ceramics at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

“There are advantages in the capital that are not left when living in the countryside. You can teach ceramics to others, you can get a job there – there are more ways to earn money. But I chose the village, because I believe that ceramics is a craft related to nature and the land”, said M. Mančinskė.

Combines work with motherhood

“MILDÙ”, M. Mančinskė has been imprinting this brand on clay cups, plates, and bowls for the sixth year.

But according to the ceramist, things have been going slower lately. She is currently on maternity leave, and the child is only one year old. Milda can work longer in the studio only when her husband Victor returns home from his travels.

“He is a sailor, he spends a month at sea and the rest at home, so I plan my work according to his rhythm,” said M. Mančinskė.

Lybiškiai is Viktor’s hometown, where the family settled and set up a pottery studio in a former farm building. It has everything necessary for working: a separate entrance, windows necessary for ventilation, three-phase electrical input, sanitary facilities, a combustion furnace, and recently a ringing machine has appeared.

“First of all, we needed a ceramic kiln – it is impossible to work without it. It is possible to knead clay and mold dishes from it in the room, but the products must be fired.

Although I had some money saved up, as a fresh graduate, 2 thousand. The incinerator, which cost 100,000 euros, was unaffordable. The family helped to buy it.

Setting up a studio also required a lot of money, but working in a living room is difficult. In cities, many potters do this because they have no other choice. Renting a studio while also paying for housing rent is too expensive for developers.

In addition, funds are needed for clay, putty, advertising – there are many nuances that were invisible until I started working independently,” said Milda.

However, time proved that her choice to settle in the village was the right one. Currently, the network of post machines is well developed, so it is not difficult to send parcels.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic, during the quarantine, people from Šiauliai, Kaunas and other cities came to pick up products in the village. They asked me not to send mail because they wanted to entertain themselves,” she mentioned.

Lately, there are also such buyers, only that, while raising a baby, Milda cannot always open the studio door for them.

Spring also forced a short reordering of work.

“When spring came, I started to feel that I couldn’t go to the studio anymore. Accumulated orders are breathing down my back, sculpting has become exhausting work, and I am on my mother’s vacation.

It’s not possible to enjoy a little bit of everything, so I’ve decided to fulfill existing orders and not accept new ones for the time being. I will be able to offer what I have made in the studio,” Milda warned her clients in a post on her Facebook account at the end of March.

Polished his style

After graduating in 2018, Milda did not immediately know what clay would turn into in her hands. She had decided on only one thing – that she would not sculpt sculptures, but take up functional ceramics.

“The first year after graduation was a time of searching. I studied artistic ceramics, attended painting, sculpture and drawing lectures. It wasn’t like I knew everything about functional ceramics perfectly and knew its various techniques. You had to find your own style – choose colors, shapes, and work tools.

I was also interested in the fact that the moldings would be used – so that people could take them in their hands, put food in them. This resulted in dishes made from natural white German clay, although I like to mix it up with naturally dyed black clay as well.

I have no doubt that it tastes better to drink tea from a nice cup than from a “loader”. That feeling is caused by naturalness – the land from which it is made,” said M. Mančinskė.

Instead, customers willingly buy hand-molded cups, some even collect them, because they are different creations. They can’t be cheap – a cup costs 18-20 euros, a larger one costs more.

Learned entrepreneurship

According to the creator, sculpting is not all, the craftsman must also take care of how to sell what he has created. Especially since ceramics is a narrow specialty that you have to create yourself after getting a job.

In order to overcome this challenge, Milda participated in the “Spiečius” mentoring program after her studies – she had a mentor who taught entrepreneurship, and the accumulated knowledge was not lost anywhere.

Patience, perseverance, diligence – all these qualities are necessary for every potter, because the process until the clay becomes a cup for tea is long. It is molded or ringed, dried, fired, glazed, fired again, scrubbed.

And this is only part of the job, because the products need to be photographed and advertised in such a way that they can be sold.

The news portal lrytas.lt continues the project “Business gene 2024” for the eighth year and invites young entrepreneurs, people and teams to participate. Registration takes place on this page: Business gene 2024.