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TogetHER Spotlight: Meet MudFire_Deanna! ✨

We've got another spotlight featuring one of our incredible TogetHER group members!

 

The purpose of our TogetHER group is for members to find connections, advice, encouragement and community with fellow women in business and allies. 

 

Today we're featuring @MudFire_Deanna !! 💕

 

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Tell us about your business!

 

My partner Daphne and I own MudFire, a pottery studio and gallery in Decatur GA. We have been in the ceramic industry since 1999 and 2008 respectively on the supply side. In 2013 we were offered an opportunity by a customer of our ceramic supply store to invest in and take over their ceramic studio. I am a published author in the topic of glaze chemistry and formulation and commercial glazes. My book Off the Shelf:O utside the Box was published in 2018.

 

MudFire is home to 200 members using the space to create joy in making whether it be a side hustle for some (selling ceramic work), and for others a place to escape the confines of life and work. Clay is incredibly healing, creates neural pathways to help deal with stress, and provides touch in a world that sometimes lacks it. We love best sharing what we know and love about clay and glazes with others. We offer singular date night experiences for people that want to learn to make pottery with no prior experience. The former owners of our space used to live here and use part of the space as their solo work space. Daphne and I wanted to make it easier for people to start a career in ceramics so we tore down those spaces and we made them into an incubator space for young artists (specifically women, LGBTQ, BIPOC, and all intersections thereof). They help us to teach others and care for the studio and in return they have 24/7 access to a space to make and sell work of their own. We teach them business skills, accounting, marketing, photography, and anything in the ceramic realm that they need to know from making work to repairing kilns.

 

We have an active, vibrant, and diverse community of members at our studio. I am very proud of what our messaging and politics have done for the space. At first it was hard to be public facing with those things but it makes a difference in who feels comfortable to use our space and that has been an amazing evolution from 2013 forward.

 

 

 

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Where is your business located? 
 
Decatur (Atlanta Suburb), GA
 
What has been your proudest moment in your business? 
 
Creating a residency program for young artists, specifically those who have faced marginalization in art spaces. We support a diverse community of LGBTQ, BIPOC, and female artists whom we are supporting inside of our studio container. That is followed closely by surviving 2020 and the PPP and EIDL loan processes which tested me in ways day to day operations does not.
 
If you could give yourself one piece of advice when you first started your business, what would it be?
 
Sweat the small stuff less. It is hard as an entrepreneur not to worry about things on the granular level and concern your self with every detail. Learn to delegate.
 
What’s been the most challenging part of running your business?
 
I need a clone. One that can do everything I can do. All joking aside - time. There is ALWAYS something to do.
 
Who is a woman identified business owner that you consider a role model and why?
 
Reshma Saujani (technically a non-profit founder) Girls who Code. I like her because she is disrupting "who" has permission to code. I like to think our studio embodies that mission as well.
 
That I LOVE what I do 🙂 - Here's a picture of me loading a kiln:
 
PXL_20210127_204012534.PORTRAIT - Deanna Ranlett.jpg
 
Where can I find out more about Mudfire?
 
@mudfire on Insta and Facebook
 
Thank you so much @MudFire_Deanna ! I loved learning about your business 💕🌈 🖼

 

️ Isabelle | she/her
Seller Community & Super Seller Program Manager | Square, Inc.
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Super Seller

Thank you @isabelle 💖

Deanna [they/them]

MudFire CEO | Square enthusiast

Visit me at MudFire online
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Super Seller

@MudFire_Deanna Great piece.  I can't wait to check out your products.

Jacqueline
Owner of Jackie's Uniquely U Boutique
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@MudFire_Deanna , this is so awesome!!  I cannot wait to come out to Atlanta and check out your shop!  

~Cheryl!
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Cheryl! Tisland
Burst Of Butterflies Create & Paint Studio

BurstOfButterflies.com
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Beautiful story, Isabelle.  Thank you for sharing and wish you all the very best!

~Susanna

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Great learning about other creatives

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Super Seller Alumni

Excellent advice! I think I need a sticky note right here in my office - "Deanna says don't sweat the small stuff!" 😊

Emily ( she / her )
The Violet Fox Bookshop
https://thevioletfoxbookshop.square.site
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