Check Out Cora Smith’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cora Smith.  

Hi Cora, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Cora Smith, owner and artist behind Little Traverse Tileworks that is based in Harbor Springs. I grew up in Grosse Pointe MI and went to school at Northern Michingan University in Marquette MI and I always joke that I landed right in the middle.  I have no formal ceramics training except the 3 classes I took as extra art requirements in college.  I have a BFA in photography and happy that I have a job doing art working with my hands and really happy its not photography.  I learned all of what I know today on the job and spent many late nights studying and reading up on methods of others.

The company was started in 2010, I joined in 2012 and that’s when things really started rolling. It was just kind of a minimal side operation for a larger pottery then. It started off as an internship right out of college. What was supposed to be a summer job while I figured out what to do and it turned into my career. Our first location was collocated with Sturgeon River Pottery (Petoskey), where we began and stayed for 9 years. I really credit them with a lot of my knowledge about clay. They have been potters for 40 years and taught me everything they knew so I could apply it to learning the tile-making business. We moved across the bay to Harbor Springs March 2021. 

No one was in charge of the tile works at the other pottery, everyone was just kind of doing it on the side. They put me in charge and the rest is basically history. At that point, we were mostly unsuccessfully creating one tile for one customer. To this day we create a custom tile for that customer every year and I always credit her patience in those first years as part of our success. Slowly people started asking us to create more and more designs. I also have a lot of appreciation for anyone who has been a part of our journey since the beginning. I had no clay skills (I have a degree in Photography) and our first few designs were not the best. Practice, practice…more practice and some pointers from people in the field have “molded” (hahaha tile joke) me into the carving artist I am today. Every day we in the potter business are learning new tricks and hacks to make what we do easier and simpler. It is definitely a job/art you never master, just get better and better at in my opinion. 

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
NOTHING IN CLAY IS SMOOTH! Haha! A potter saying is that clay is one of the most humbling art forms. You spend so much time on something for it to break on the way to kiln, crack in drying, explode in kiln, have your kiln not shut off and ruin it, or having glaze melt the piece to the shelf. Those are just a few of our everyday things that can go wrong! Some of our larger struggles were learning how to dry our pieces so they did not warp or crack and dealing with having to change our clay. That was the worst. Something changed in our clay body that we had been using for 7 years. For the next two years, we tried to problem solve, unsuccessfully. We were having a 40% loss rate of all of our work. We finally decided to change our clay body and no two clays are the same; look the same, feel the same, fire the same, shrink the same or take glaze the same. We found one that worked the best for us and we are very happy with our decision but it did change the look of our tiles a little bit. We have been working through it and we are at about 1 year and half with the new clay. Almost all of our work has been rephotographed for the website and our customers have been extremely understanding. 

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?
We handmake ceramic tile in a traditional arts and crafts style from plaster molds that we hand carve. We do everything by hand in our shop from hand carving the designs to hand pressing the tiles and glazing. Our studio consists of only three people who all help make tile and also run our small shop/gallery where we have work from about 30 other artists. 

We specialize in custom tiles. As long as you don’t need it tomorrow, we can make a tile with just about anything on it! We have done wedding favors, business logos, family crests, houses, and vehicles! We also create tiles for installation. We have done backsplashes, showers, fireplaces, and many other creative spaces. I think currently we are most proud of our new space. We are so incredibly excited to have a space that is almost 5 times bigger than our old space, also a place to display everything we offer. AND a place for emerging artists to sell their wares. I have really enjoyed working with new artists and teaching them what I have learned over the past few years about pricing and selling work. It has given me a whole new part of my job that is extremely rewarding. 

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
My mentor is my old boss. I think searching for a mentor is a hard thing to do but asking questions and opinions of people is easy. Once you find someone who you can relate to and whose guidance you appreciate, you will continue to reach out to them when you need help or advice. My mentor always told me you cannot just take my advice; you need to find the advice of others and create your own path. As I have spread my wings, I continue to repeat that to people I feel that I “mentor” in one way or another. People can tell you how to do everything but they are not in your shoes so eventually, you have to take the advice given and create your own path. 

I also hate the word networking. It makes me feel panicky all over. Surround yourself with people who you respect and they will introduce you to more and more people. ALSO, get with your local chamber! Anyone can join a chamber and ours in Harbor Springs is great at promoting us and introducing us to other local people and businesses. 

Contact Info:

• Website: www.littletraverse.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/littletraversetileworks/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LTTileworks

Image Credits
Crooked Porch Photography