Interview with Yolanda from Yolanda’s Clay on Etsy

1. Introduce yourself and what you do? My name is Yolanda and live in Southern California. I make ceramic beads and pendants primarily, I also make jewelry out of my handmade ceramic pieces. I do a little bit of everything in ceramics as long as it’s small like tiles, bowls, coasters, ornaments and small sculptures.

2. How did you get started and what made you decide to sell on etsy?
I got started in ceramics in 1998 when I took my daughter to a class for kids. I liked it so much I started taking classes at the local community college and I also learned a lot from reading books. I have a small studio at home that I started filling with equipment and tools right away. Over the years I developed chronic shoulder problems and had to stop throwing on the wheel. The idea of making jewelry came to mind when I had to find something small and easy to make and from there I wondered if I could make beads and pendants from ceramic. I did research (google) and I found a group on yahoo called Beads of Clay that had information in ceramic beads. I met other people who were also making ceramics jewelry as it was starting to emerge and become more popular in 2006. I gave it nine months making things, testing clays and glazes, figuring the most productive ways to fire things and make the most use of my small kiln. I decided to open an etsy store to have an internet presence and make my products available online.

3. There is a lot of clays that one can use, but my favorite one is porcelain. It’s soft to work with, very white, and easy to manage. It’s a little particular in the drying process which I have to be careful with and dry pendants very slow. If pendants are dried too quickly the clay tends to warp and makes the pendant look bent, so that’s the only thing I can say would be a con. But the glazes look beautiful on it and that’s ultimately what makes me keep coming back to it. I use a porcelain that is fired to cone 5 (2167ºF).

4. The best advice I’ve gotten to sell my product is, to have great pictures. And that’s mainly for the etsy store. When I do shows the product sells itself, people look and feel it, turn it over and feel the textures, put against their neck or ears and look in the mirror, so it’s easy to sell that way. But on the internet is harder. I have just recently bought a light tent to take better pictures, still working at it, so I need to be patient and hope I get good real soon.