Conversations with Molly Brice

Today we’d like to introduce you to Molly Brice

Hi Molly, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
One of my best friends initially suggested that we sign up for a local clay class. After getting started in 2019, we were both immersed and have continued ever since. Gradually, I started taking projects home so I could spend more time playing with small details. When COVID lockdowns came about, our classes were paused I couldn’t get anything fired. So I kept making things at home, then squishing them back down, and making new things, and squishing them… I spent a lot of time just being playful and not having expectations.

I’ve had plenty of short-lived hobbies, but this was the first time something tedious really consumed me. The first time I could sit down with something and lose hours of time. As other artists have recognized, much of that credit goes to the change of pace that the pandemic forced on us.

I still love long days at my desk, carving away with music and audiobooks. I love playing with texture, intricate details, and trying to improve on illustrations. The perennial focus is nature, and I’m most invigorated by projects that try to connect to a specific place. My favorite experience to date was collecting clay from the Little River in TN, just outside of the Smoky Mountains National Park. I brought it home and sifted out the rocks and twigs, then thinned it to a paint-like consistency. After painting it onto a mug, I carved out the topography lines of that park’s Mount LeConte (my son’s favorite mountain). The next year, we climbed that mountain again and brought the mug with us, looking for someone to give it to. We ended up meeting the winter caretaker of LeConte Lodge, who goes by Wildcat, and spent our time on the summit talking with him and learning about his long history and adventures with the mountain. Of course, we gave the mug to him. And I’m thrilled with the notion that my mug, with it’s visual and physical ties to that place, might still be living on top of that mountain right now, in the lodge’s kitchen. The thought is a burst of sunshine in my chest.

I’ve since made similar projects using collected clay and it’s still my favorite facet of all this. I love hiking in new places with my family and I feel like I’m creating a clay “scrapbook” of where we’ve been together. “Trailside Ceramics”, get it? It’s an ongoing experiment to see what will happen, what color it will be in the end, how it varies with other places I’ve collected from. I can’t express how much fun I’m having with it.

I’ve recently taken a break from selling online and vending shows because I’ve been missing this playful essence. I hope to get back to creating things more regularly again in a few months, but it seems I’m still feeling out the relationship I want to have with public aspects.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
An ongoing struggle is just working out the balance I want to have between making and selling. I love seeing people connect to what I’ve put so much of myself into. But pricing, promoting, announcing, updating… I’m a little reclusive and unsure of how much energy I want to put into these things. I’ve found myself making more of what sells better, or putting in less detail so I can have more quantity. And then suddenly, it’s another job and another task on my list to cross off.
I’m still learning how to keep those playful attributes that make it so much fun.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work is a way to recalibrate and spend some time alone. Everything around us today can feel obnoxiously loud and intrusive, demanding our attention unnecessarily. I love having a creative way to separate from it and feel back to earth, back to this room, back in this body.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trailsideceramics/