Today we’d like to introduce you to Zoe Storm.
Zoe, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up with my dad being a working artist in Spanish Village. Eventually, I grew up to love arts and ceramics. I had inherited my dad’s creativity and worked with him almost every day. From ages two to seven I would watch him and he would try to teach me little things like how to make a slab, a pressed and rolled piece of clay, or how to recycle clay so we can save money. Fast forward a few years, I started to make my things like a cat and a duck for my grandparents at age eight and nine. I learned how to throw a pot on the wheel at age ten and just kept learning more from there.
The real story starts at age 11 when I started making things that people wanted to buy. I had made simple things like a wind chime or a snail just for me to put in the garden, but people liked my work. I then started to make sets of things. My mindset changed from wanting to make stuff for fun, to making stuff for fun and getting paid for it. I realized that that is how an artist’s life is and I wanted to continue doing it. Around the same time as that, January of this year, an opportunity came up to sell my work at a girl scouts entrepreneur fair. It was a very successful event and I was inspired then to sell my work as Native Ceramics as well as teach younger kids that you can start from scratch and build to do anything.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Because I am only twelve years old, my life has been pretty easy. One obstacle though is finding time in my schedule of school, volleyball, and musical activity to do my work.
Tell us more about the business.
I work with clay. I love plants. Putting them together I made a small business called Native. In Native, I create unique planters and home and garden decor. My most known thing is my “Hippy Houses” as my dad likes to call them, which are triple planters in shapes of houses or structures filled with succulents.
The name Native comes from all the materials that I use are Native to California. I grow my succulents from a garden in the back of the art studio as well as buy them sometimes when I am looking for a certain species. The clay I use comes from the Californian clay disputer, Free form.
I am not very well known other than my school friends and some of their parents. I think that the thing that sets me apart from others is that I am the youngest working artist out of 200 in Spanish Village, and that is what I am proud of as well.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
The role of luck plays a big part in ceramics. Sometimes you put your hard work in the kiln, fire it, open it up the next day and something beautiful lays inside. Other times, you open the kiln and can be defeated by the technical challenges of glaze and clay (explosion or runny glaze/ weird color mixture).
Pricing:
- All things are usually priced under 25 dollars so people can buy and enjoy it.
Contact Info:
- Address: Native Ceramics
1770 Village Place Studio 15, 92101
Spanish Village Art Center - Email: native.ceramics@yahoo.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/native_ceramics_succulents/
Image Credit:
Doug Snider (Personal Image, me throwing, me at the girl scouts event)
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