Summary

Grace Alley, owner of Nomadic Ceramics, shares her journey from corporate America to pursuing her passion for ceramics. She discusses the challenges and rewards of running a small business and the importance of connecting her art with a greater purpose. Grace also talks about her second location in Durango and her plans to create an eco collective. She emphasizes the value of personal interaction and offers classes for those interested in learning ceramics.

Takeaways

Combining passion with a small business can be challenging but rewarding. Creating an eco collective allows for collaboration and a greater purpose. Personal interaction and connection with customers is important for small businesses. Offering classes can be a way to share knowledge and engage with the community.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Background 02:19 Transitioning from Hobby to Career 03:36 Opening a Shop at Art Queen 05:21 The Nomadic Ceramics Experience 07:15 Expanding to a Second Location in Durango 09:05 Creating an Eco Collective 10:27 Balancing Time Between Locations 12:17 Volunteering and Planting Trees in Ghana 13:37 Long-Distance Relationship and Waiting for a Visa 14:42 Durango's Cycling Community 16:22 Website and Online Presence 17:38 Traveling Between Joshua Tree and Durango 19:29 The Rewards and Challenges of Running a Small Business 21:04 Conclusion

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Danny (00:00.654) All right, Grace Alley, thank you so much for joining me here on the Highway 62 podcast. How are you today?

Grace Alley (00:07.832) I'm good. are you today, Danny?

Danny (00:09.453) Doing great. I'm down in Irvine here. I got to fly out Friday to go to Canada for a show for the weekend and staying down here a little bit during the summer just to, you know, enjoy a little bit less heat. So yeah, it's actually been good. So got the pool right out here and just living life. So, you know, you are the owner of Nomadic Ceramics and you have a location in 29 Palms and

Grace Alley (00:24.984) Yeah. Yeah.

Danny (00:37.152) Yes, also have a second location we're going to talk about in a little bit. But before we get kind of deep into, you know, the shops and what you're doing there and all that stuff, give us a little bit of your background and where you're from and, know, and how you kind of ended up doing what you're doing now.

Grace Alley (00:53.269) Okay, yeah, I'm from Colorado. I was born and raised in Golden.

group traveling and you know long story short it took me quite a while to graduate college. I kept coming in and out of college and traveling and that's where I first went to Africa and then I ended up in corporate America up in Seattle after college and that's where I started doing ceramics as a hobby.

And I always was trying to figure out this balance between my passion and making a living. So I was trying my hand in corporate worlds. And that was a couple of years of a total disaster because I am definitely not meant for a conventional path. And I did everything you're supposed to do wrong times 100 in my corporate life. But luckily that's where it.

sort of learned a little bit of business acumen and ceramics was always a hobby and it just sort of took over. I moved from Seattle down to Desert Hot Springs to work in Cannabis Corporate and that didn't work out either. So my hobby became my career, I guess, about a year and seven months ago.

Danny (02:19.103) so pretty recent, okay.

Grace Alley (02:21.227) It feels, it sounds very reasoned, but so much has happened. But the company I was working for in Desert Hot Springs dissolved and I was like, let me try my hand and see if I could turn this interest of mine, this passion of mine, ceramics, into something I could rely on to make money on. So I wasn't sure what I was gonna do and I just, I came up here and I started doing the pop -up markets at 29 Palms and...

Danny (02:25.586) Yeah.

Grace Alley (02:48.616) got to know the community really well through that. You're interfacing face to face with people every Saturday morning and you're out there with your ceramics and introducing yourself to the community. So I got to know people that way. It was such a great experience there.

Danny (03:01.895) How did you originally get interested or get started doing ceramics?

Grace Alley (03:07.134) I took two semesters of it in college and I shouldn't have been allowed in the class. I was an anthropology major and the art department only wants art majors. So I begged the professor to let me in and I said, this may change my life. Please let me in the class. And lo and behold, it did. So now I think I'm doing it for a living. It still hasn't sunk in, but...

Danny (03:09.274) Okay.

Danny (03:34.842) Hehehehe

Grace Alley (03:36.105) The pop -up markets in 29 led to getting a little shop over at Art Queen. And Art Queen's right in the heart of Joshua Tree, as I'm a lot of your viewers and watchers know and listeners know. So I got super, super lucky and super blessed to get one of the little shed shops at Art Queen. And I still have that shop and I've had that shop for a year and three months now.

Danny (03:44.675) Yeah.

Danny (03:48.463) Sure.

Danny (04:02.019) Gotcha. And Golden, Colorado, that's that's where the Coors plant is, right? OK, yeah. OK, I I've spent a lot of time in Colorado. Actually, I just got I was just in Denver to Wigan two weekends ago. And but when I was younger, my uncle, who was originally from Wisconsin, I grew up in Chicago, but my uncle went to school in Boulder. So we would come out and visit and.

Grace Alley (04:06.418) That's right. Yeah, grew up across the street from Coors, actually.

Danny (04:30.422) Yeah, I remember going up to Golden and going to the Coors factory and it had that smell, that brewing smell like every everywhere.

Grace Alley (04:36.476) Yeah. Yeah, I grew up smelling that smell every single day. I love it, by the way.

Danny (04:44.362) Yeah, I'm sure you get used to it and whatnot, but I love that area. It's beautiful. Beautiful out there.

Grace Alley (04:52.003) is really beautiful. Colorado is an amazing place. There's plenty to do if you love doing things outside. And it's developed a lot and changed a lot since I was little. There's a lot of amazing microbreweries, amazing restaurants. now that I've opened my second shop in Durango, that's like the southwest corner. I had never gotten to explore Telluride, Silverton, Durango. It is so beautiful down there.

Danny (04:54.709) Yeah.

Danny (04:58.027) Yeah.

Danny (05:17.649) Okay, yeah.

Yeah, it sounds like it. Tell us a little bit about your shop that you have in Joshua Tree there. You know, what is it exactly you sell? What all do you do there?

Grace Alley (05:31.27) I've always been unable to be a production potter, which means everything I make is a one -off or a small set or like something big and complex. luckily having the opportunity over at Art Queen afforded me the opportunity to be experimental in ceramics. It's harder to do that if you're just selling online or at pop -ups because you can't cultivate an audience plus you can't fail. You can't try things.

Danny (05:39.524) Okay.

Grace Alley (06:00.888) mess it up and have it not work out if you're always hustling and trying to get to markets and trying to get in front of your audience. So this is why I say I'm incredibly blessed to have the opportunity over at Art Queen. And that's what they're all about over there too. They're all about giving artists access to customers and access to a brick and mortar or a between. I have a little shed shop over there. It's affordable. It allows me to experiment and bring in things I never knew would sell.

Danny (06:00.892) Mm -hmm.

Danny (06:25.745) Mm

Grace Alley (06:30.435) and see the reaction on people's faces when they want to consume these products. So it's been given me a lot of direction as an artist and a great foundation of clientele to build relationships with. Art Queen is an amazing place. I got it before and now it's been transitioned into new ownership. It's owned by a nonprofit now called AHA Projects and they are doing some massive renovations over there.

Danny (06:42.681) Yeah.

Danny (06:54.81) Okay.

Grace Alley (06:59.172) And it is just so exciting. Everybody's so excited. It's under construction right now. If you're used to this area and you drive by, it looks really crazy right now. They've torn out everything and come fall it should be really nice to walk around in there.

Danny (07:01.495) Awesome.

Danny (07:15.858) Now, so you're primarily just selling ceramics that you create, not anything from any other creators, is that correct?

Grace Alley (07:24.714) I used to just be me, but I actually have a couple people on my team now, some amazing and talented people who want to help out and want to see other things do and it gives me the opportunity to help them too.

Danny (07:26.733) Mm -hmm.

Okay.

Danny (07:35.882) Yeah, gotcha. Okay, do you do classes or anything for people that want to learn how to do ceramics? Okay, great.

Grace Alley (07:45.419) Yeah, I do classes. do things at people's Airbnbs where I'll come have a custom class for them. Sometimes an engagement party and the ladies want to get wild and make pinch pots. Other times it's people who want to do energy work and healing and all the things. So luckily with Clay you could do all the things.

Danny (07:52.362) cool.

Danny (08:03.297) Gotcha.

Danny (08:06.838) Gotcha. And again, I mean, a year and seven months seems like a really short. mean, it is a really short period of time that goes by in the blink of an eye. And, you know, I'm still a small, I've had a small business for 20 years now and, know, just planning things and it just. Everything just seems to be upon you so quickly all the time. And so in that short period of time, then you have also opened this second location in Durango. Is that correct?

Grace Alley (08:36.204) That's right. And I attribute that to what I've been given at Art Queen. Having an affordable space and the opportunity to develop my skill set in both creativity and the business side. I have been running around the desert like a chicken with my head cut off for a year and a half because of the perception of the demand of running a business and what you think you need to do and what's enough.

Danny (08:48.862) Mm -hmm.

Danny (09:01.512) Yeah.

Grace Alley (09:05.969) And luckily I could spin my wheels a little bit because, you know, owning a small business and being creative, you might go in the wrong direction a little bit here and there before you figure out, I don't want to be doing that. But I've been putting in the effort and trying to grow the business and trying to take care of others too. The things I'm ready to progress on from other people are excited to do. So.

Here's a good example. I have a thrower. So I have a guy who throws for me because I want to do more of the embellishment and more of these carved vessels. So I've got a kid who loves throwing.

Danny (09:45.298) What is that exactly for someone like myself that knows nothing?

Grace Alley (09:51.264) That's when you put the clay on the wheel and make it spin and pull it and create the item. So that's throwing pottery.

Danny (09:53.617) Okay, okay, gotcha.

Gotcha, okay.

Grace Alley (10:01.01) Yeah, and that's what I kind of want the Art Queen store to be now, is I want to be able to bring in artists who want to learn how to learn how to talk to people, how to learn what to make and how to sell their things. as I'm moving on and changing my focus into the Durango location, I'm sort of opening up the Art Queen store to other artists who want to contribute and see how their things do over there.

Danny (10:24.005) How are you splitting your time between these locations?

Grace Alley (10:27.901) Right now I have a couple people doing things for me over at Art Queen and I've been focused on Durango. I've only had the Durango store for about a month and a half now. So I'm back in the desert right now to get things to bring up there, but I've been focusing on Durango and both shops are intended to be part of the eco collective. So up until very recently, it was just me, just my work and just me experimenting in creativity and business. But now that I've got a little time under my belt

Danny (10:37.38) Gotcha.

Grace Alley (10:57.343) business is growing a little bit, decided to bridge my two worlds. And like I talked about in the very beginning, I've been going back and forth to Africa for 12 years. I've been going to Ghana. I've gone to Ghana like eight times now. And I volunteered over there. There's a whole story in there, but I've always been wanting to connect the two worlds. And what I decided to make happen was to create each business, the art queen business and the Durango business into an eco collective. So that means

Danny (11:15.873) You

Grace Alley (11:27.358) whoever's art is in there, mine and my team's art, inherently within the purchase price of some of the items is the $10 to plant a tree. So we add $10 on to some of the items and we give clients the option to give us increments of $10 over the asking price of the art and that those funds go directly to my husband who's in Ghana and he plants trees with those funds. So they can plant a tree for $10 anytime.

Danny (11:39.926) Mm -hmm.

Danny (11:52.811) you

Grace Alley (11:55.901) And sometimes on the larger pieces, maybe I'll add 20 or $30 onto the price or maybe even $100. And they're planting 10 trees. So when they take this home and they have it in their home forever, they know that their trees are out there growing as reviewing this item.

Danny (12:07.457) But yeah.

Yeah, that's cool. How did you originally get interested in going to Africa and doing work there?

Grace Alley (12:17.085) Towards the end of college, I did a child labor and trafficking mitigation project with a college group. And it's a non -governmental over in Ghana. I just went and did six months. It was like an extremely abrasive and life -changing event. And that's where I met Safo. And 13 years later, we're married now, and he's got his non -governmental. They've planted 15 ,000 trees. And he just opened a school.

And we're waiting on his visa so he can come to the US for the first time he's ever been here. But in the meantime, I'm collecting funds for him and sending it to him so he could continue planting the trees.

Danny (12:44.074) Wow.

Danny (12:48.383) Okay.

Danny (12:55.134) Wow, so he's there full time and you guys have been doing this long distance and thing for quite a while. That's gotta be a challenge.

Grace Alley (13:02.328) Yeah, for a very long time. It's like so ingrained at this point. I don't even think too much about it. But right now, it's been over two years since I've seen him. And the Ghana visa office is extra, extra backed up because of COVID. And plus, they don't have the infrastructure we have.

Danny (13:27.909) Yeah.

Grace Alley (13:28.931) So we're just waiting on the visa, we're planting trees and making art, and we know we'll see each other again someday, but it's just the nature of what we're doing. But there's no alternative for us.

Danny (13:31.021) Okay.

Danny (13:37.649) Sure.

Danny (13:42.075) Gotcha. Gotcha. What made you choose Durango for your second location?

Grace Alley (13:48.588) it wasn't that I chose it. It's that I was coming up on summer here in the desert last year and I was trying to get a strategy together of how to supplement with the seasonality. We all know up here in the summer, there's a bit of a drop off. So I just started looking around for retail locations and I, it was pretty serendipitous that it was in my home state. It was on, at a main street location with big, huge windows and it came with a bigger rent.

Danny (13:56.571) Mm -hmm.

Danny (14:12.208) Yeah.

Grace Alley (14:17.986) So I was like, can I do this? I gave it a go. It's always a risk growing your business. And it's been a month. So we have no way to know if my risk is going to pay off yet. But I'm here to try. And I'm here to make art.

Danny (14:26.521) Yeah, yeah, sure.

Danny (14:32.622) Okay, gotcha. Yeah, wonderful. Are you a cyclist by chance at all? you into cycling?

Grace Alley (14:40.474) I need to get a bike or not show my face in Durango.

Danny (14:45.795) Exactly. I mean, it's home to Sep Kuz who's like, you know, this amazing American cyclist, winner of the Vuelta a España Tour de France stage winner. I'm a cycling dork. So, you know, you said Durango, the first thing I said to my girlfriend yesterday, I'm like, that's where Sep Kuz is from, you know, and like most people are like, I've never heard of this person you're you're talking about. So but yeah, it's a hotbed of the cycling community and

mountain biking and whatnot. So it's, it's, it, you know, it's one of those places that has, you know, I have a soft spot for, so I love all those, those mountain communities that are, you know, have such a cycling, background. So yeah, you'll be riding, you'll be mountain biking and riding bikes in no time.

Grace Alley (15:20.967) Mm -hmm.

Grace Alley (15:29.229) That's right. know it really is amazing. It's everybody around there just loves nature. Everybody's really happy, healthy. It's a really big blessing to be able to have a shop there. I maybe should turn it into a ceramic, like a bike themed ceramics.

Danny (15:34.623) Yeah.

Danny (15:40.617) Yeah, that's great.

Danny (15:45.986) Well, yeah, yeah, definitely. I think you got it. You got to got to work some cycling into the ceramic shop for sure.

Grace Alley (15:52.81) Yeah, I'll park little bikes into the side of the cups or.

Danny (15:57.404) Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. You do a Tour de France edition. So, you know, something every every July during the Tour de France. So what is so beyond visiting the shops? Do you have a website or is there? Is that not work within the model since everything is kind of one off creations?

Grace Alley (16:07.97) Yeah?

Grace Alley (16:22.315) I do have a website. I'm working on being better with the computer and updating the website. My focus has always been person to person interaction. And I tell all of my clients, my customers, just call me, just text me. I'm small enough to where if you want something, you can literally just text me. I'm making it special for you. And that's how that goes. But if people want to plant a tree,

Danny (16:33.214) Mm -hmm.

Danny (16:43.006) Yeah.

Grace Alley (16:47.415) It's nomadicceramic .shop. It's $10. We plant the tree and we watch it for two years and make sure it grows up nice and strong. And it's $10 anytime. So if anybody wants to get a gift for somebody or plant a tree at any time, it's $10. The funds go directly to my husband, Safo. And that's also a place where you might find some of the things I make once in a while updated to my website if I have time.

Danny (17:14.737) Gotcha. When do you think you'll, you'll be back out in Joshua Tree?

Grace Alley (17:19.83) I'm here now for the Leo Party and I'm wrapping up some work at the studio and then I'm gonna head back to Durango and kind of see out summer there. And I'm just gonna bounce back and forth. only a 10 hour drive and the drive goes through Navajo Nation, which looks like Mars. So I'm intrigued by the nature between. Yeah.

Danny (17:21.552) Okay.

Danny (17:37.243) Cool. Yeah. That sounds like a nice road trip.

Grace Alley (17:43.989) It is, if you like 118 degree heat.

Danny (17:47.259) You're used to it. Come on. You live in the desert, you know.

Grace Alley (17:51.145) I know, I actually really like prefer the heat. So I know that I'm a desert dweller. I know that my spirit is happy here. Cause even Colorado in the summertime, I'm like, it's not quite hot enough.

Danny (18:05.125) my God. Yeah. You know, it's so weird. It seems like the older I get, the less I'm dealing with like really hot as easy as I used to. But in general, if I got to choose hot or cold, I'm definitely, I'm definitely a hot person for sure. I definitely would rather deal with a little bit of, you know, warm temperature versus cold weather. I hate the cold, but that is a...

Grace Alley (18:23.04) Yeah. Well, it like it offers that in a nice spring and fall out here, huh?

Danny (18:34.617) I know God, I used to do so much spring skiing in Colorado when I every, you know, when I was in Chicago, I'd always make that pilgrimage in the spring to go skiing out there and always just, that, that was great. Great, great weather and just such a great time. Yeah, I'm to have to come out for sure. grace, thanks so much for taking time to be on the show. I really love what you're doing. you know, combining these.

Grace Alley (18:49.097) Welcome come shred and drink. anytime.

Danny (19:02.23) two things that you really have a passion for. I mean, you know, again, I'm a small business owner and I know how hard it can be. It's always up and down, but you know, the other side of it is you're, you know, how keeping, always keeping in mind how lucky you are, you know, to be able to do these two things when somebody else, you know, has to go off to work. you know, every day, you know, I'm down here at my girlfriend's house. She's a nurse, you know.

Grace Alley (19:03.011) Absolutely.

Yeah.

Danny (19:29.703) Every day she comes home and she's like, God, you're so lucky. What'd you do today? And I'm like, well, you know, I did some stuff on the computer, but I went for a bike ride around two in the afternoon. And it's like, there's all these positive elements of working for yourself. And then there's the negative, you know, sides of it as well. But you know, I think you're real lucky to be able to combine these passions and do something you really love and do something good with it at the same time. I think is really wonderful.

Grace Alley (19:58.601) Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more and I think that that has to be part of it for me I can't just sit here and be a ceramist living in the desert having two shops I had to connect the two worlds because it's such a blessing to have worked for myself to be able to do this that I cannot just

Danny (20:08.863) Yeah.

Grace Alley (20:17.902) enjoy that by myself. And enjoying something by yourself, it just isn't as fun. Thank you.

Danny (20:19.541) Yeah.

Danny (20:23.61) That's great. Grace, thanks so much. I will put in the show notes. I'll put the website, the Nomadic Ceramic Doc shop, said, correct. If people want to donate to plant a tree, I'll put your Instagram, all that kind of stuff down there so people know where to find you. yeah, for anybody that's listening to the show that isn't in the area, because I do know I look at the demographics and we do have a lot of.

Grace Alley (20:42.117) Right on.

Danny (20:50.225) you know, listeners and a lot of people following the Instagram that, you know, live in LA and stuff like that. So, you know, make sure when you're coming through town and you know, you make a stop there at the art queen, you can't miss it and, check out the ceramics. Thanks so much.

Grace Alley (21:01.701) Right on.

Thank you so much, Danny. was such a blessing and an honor to be here. Thank you. See ya.

Danny (21:08.241) My pleasure. All right. Cool.