Makiko Hastings is based in a small Yorkshire town in the UK, where her little pottery garden studio is located. She currently makes two collections of tableware, one with blue and white whimsical designs and another with beautiful four colors of handmade glaze. She works with stoneware, mostly hand-thrown on a wheel. Her passion for tableware is strongly influenced by the food culture from her native Japan. On Heiter Magazine she says this about self-employment:
“Being my own boss is certainly an advantage! I had worked for an organisation for a long time, and there were times where I felt I was going nowhere (because of the management system). I like the fact that I don’t have to bang my head against a wall anymore for such reasons. Of course there are difficult times being self-employed and you have to work hard. But having control over how I work is great.â€
“Another good thing is flexibility. Whilst before I had to juggle a lot to take time off work, but now I can organise my time without much restriction, so that I can arrange to come and see my daughter’s show at school etc. and sometime I can take a day off to go to ceramic events, which I did a couple of times this year and it was great!â€
“Lack of time is the most challenging part for me. At the moment, my girl is in her first year at school, so she still needs me quite a lot. So I can only work during her school hours and when my husband is available to look after her in the eveving or on the weekend. I never have enough time for the making process, but I guess lack of time is everyone’s challenge. Pottery is time consuming, and you need to get work done at the right condition of clay, so balancing timing within your limited time is hard.â€
More of her work can be found on her website, Facebook and Instagram.
Images: Courtesy of Makiko Hastings.
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