Today we’d like to introduce you to Halli Kromer
Hi Halli, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Hi I am Halli, the owner of Thyme of Day ceramics, but when I started my company, I wasn’t selling pottery at all. I started Thyme of Day in June of 2020, selling handsewn masks and scrunchies out of vintage fabric that my grandma had collected. A few months prior to this, in the second semester of my freshman year of college at Indiana Wesleyan University, I took my first ever ceramics class. It was a hand building class, and just when I was starting to get in the groove, covid hit and we were all sent home from college and let’s just say you can’t really do ceramics virtually. When we got back to school in the fall, I asked to make up the studio time I lost and my professor let me have free use of the studio for the semester. My roommate and I both wanted to learn how to throw on the wheel, so after a few YouTube videos and with some very optimistic “how hard can it be?” mentalities, we attempted to teach ourselves how to throw. Let’s just say it’s harder than it looks! I don’t think I successfully made anything that night, but I love a good challenge and I knew I didn’t want to give up that easily. That was the day I fell in love with pottery and now, here I am, years later still loving it! In the spring of 2021, my school was hosting a music festival and they were asking for vendors so I told my pottery for the first time and I made enough money to buy myself my first pottery wheel, and that summer I set up a pottery studio in the tree house that my siblings and I played in as kids. It wasn’t very big but it was just enough space for me to set up my wheel some shelves, and a work table. I used this space for a couple summers between college, but in the fall of the year I graduated, the tree house wasn’t warm enough for me so I moved everything to a corner of the basement at my parents’ house and that was my studio for the next 8 months. In the summer of 2023, I moved into a house with friends and I turned the garage into the studio of my dreams! A friend of mine, who is now my fiancé, helped my paint a mural of my logo onto the wall of the studio, and it was amazing to see all of these years of hard work and silly studio spaces turn into this amazing work space! After years of selling my work at markets and online, I was able to invest into my business and purchase equipment and grow it into a part time job. I have also spent 4 years working part time as a studio assistant for production potter which has allowed me to learn a lot about the process of running a ceramics business. I enjoy this balance of work now, but I hope to rely fully on the income from my business in the future.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Running a small business is definitely not a smooth road but the bumps along the way have taught me a lot. Time management can be very difficult for me. I have a variety of responsibilities outside of work, including serving at my church, time with family, and right now, planning my wedding. I enjoy investing time into my business and working hard to grow my brand, but I also have to remember to take time to slow down and be present in my life. I think something that makes this more difficult is that running a business like mine, where my income is dependent upon people making the decision to purchase my work, my paycheck is not as guaranteed as a more traditional job. Even when I put in the hours to make a bunch of pieces and take them to a market to sell them, there are still days where I come home with significantly less income than I had hoped. This forces me to be strategic about the markets I select and intentional about curating my work to my audience. Even when this job feels hard, I am grateful for the work I do and the connections it has allowed me to make.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Most of what I create is functional ceramics like dinnerware and kitchenware like plates, bowls, and mugs, but recently I have been exploring some new forms like teapots, Dutch ovens, casserole dishes, and honey jars. I enjoy challenging myself to throw forms that are larger or more complex, and it always brings a special type of satisfaction when I succeed at creating something new. The pieces I have been the proudest of lately are my tea sets. I create a one-of-a-kind, handmade teapot and a set of coordinating tea cups and a loose-leaf tea strainer that fits into the opening of the tea pot. Both the potter and the tea drinker in me love these sets. In some ways, getting all the pieces of a tea pot to fit just right feels like putting together the pieces of a puzzle.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
I think one of the best ways to grow as an artist is to get to know other artists and to ask good questions. In my senior year of college, a professor asked us to interview other artists who run their own businesses and I met some of the coolest people! I learned so much about ceramics and the amazing work that people are doing. I got some really helpful advice and was encouraged to know that if people in so many different stages of life, all across the world are creating great work, so can I. Start small, talk to a few people at a time, maybe the vendor next to you at a market, maybe a person running a boutique. You never know who you are going to meet, and sometimes those little connections can lead to new opportunities.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thymeofday.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thymeofday_
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Thyme-of-Day-100068713024754/
