J. Davis Studio

John and I have now been working together for 13 of the 25 years we’ve been together. I had a wearable art business for 10 years, when one day in 1997 John told me he was worried about getting a large order of his floral vases out to a gallery on time. I told him I needed a break from my studio, so I went to his to help for the day.

But when I sat down to paint the vases in the colors he had instructed, I knew that was where I needed to be. A feeling of calm came over me. Finally, someone else was calling the shots.

At that time our daughters, Michaela and Hannah, were in elementary school, and life with two separate businesses had become frenzied. I longed to pick the girls up from school and go home instead of taking them to my studio where they’d do homework or play until my work day was done. Designing new creations for the next apparel market had become a dreadful chore instead of the inspirational challenge it had once been.

Once John and I joined forces in his pottery business, life became much easier for the both of us. We made a good team. He got to design more. I got to paint vases, answer the phone, and then go home to be a mom. Orders continued to grow at a steady rate. We both had a routine.

But then one day we got an order for John’s raku line from a major catalog company. It was so large that John and I were going to turn it down at first. But after discussing it and making a plan, we decided we could suck it up and work nights and weekends if necessary. We accepted the order.

Little did we know, as we and our employees were high fiving it while watching Central Freight load the palleted boxes of vases and rattles onto the 18 wheeler, that  Coldwater Creek would be tripling their initial order before the end of the year. And we had no choice but to fill it. The items were already in their catalog. Our professional reputation was at stake.

Although we are very grateful for that experience, John and I knew that we did not want to continue that level of production for the rest of our lives. And even though we survived bursting at our seams so quickly, with time, we’ve been adapting the business to get back to the simpler pace of life we enjoyed before the unexpected growth spurt; back in the good old days… when the World Wide Web was new and exciting, back when it was fairly easy to keep up with life, and change came in bits and pieces.

Remember those days?

Hannah and Michaela now

Hannah and Michaela then