As the rain gently sprinkles the windows and the warm lamp illuminates the room, I sit on Ashley Akerson’s couch with her adorable puppy curled up in the corner and listen to her share about her journey of hard work and artistry. Her living room is filled with clay, her pottery wheel and all the other ceramics supplies. There is evidence of her hard work as I look at the mugs and pottery displayed on the shelves above her couch. And as a mug connoisseur myself (which becomes a problem when they don’t all fit on my shelf), I’m intrigued by the process of making something I use every day of my life.
Ashley Akerson, in addition to her job as a resident director, is the owner and operator of Ashley Nicole Pottery, a ceramics business run through her Instagram account.
Akerson entered the art department at Union thinking she would become a teacher or an art therapist, but when she walked into the ceramics studio, she fell in love. It was the community, sincerity and welcoming spirit of the older students that drew her to major in ceramics and sculpture. Akerson graduated in 2016 and moved to Nashville to teach art for two years. While she was there, she bought her own wheel and began crafting her own pottery.
“I really love that it just feels like play,” said Akerson. “The material is really unique, and it is very therapeutic to go through the motions of wedging the clay and using the wheel to make a mug. It really involves the whole body because I use my feet, my hands and my arms… And at the end you have a mug you can use, and it is permanent. Once you fire ceramics, it will never not be there. It’s just a really rewarding way to create.”
In January 2020, Akerson and fellow Resident Director Nathan Heatherly decided to create businesses out of their hobbies and started their own Instagram accounts dedicated to ceramics. Next came her website, and then local businesses began to reach out. Soon enough, Akerson was running her own business. She has simply taken the next step ahead of her.
Running a business primarily through Instagram speaks to where we are in the 21st century. Social media allows Akerson to gain more business through those who may not even know her. For instance, Akerson received an order from a client she didn’t recognize and soon discovered that the customer had found her business through a hashtag.
“I was like, ‘Bless the hashtags!’” Akerson exclaimed as she told this story. When she started this business a year ago, she was content with pottery simply being a hobby, but as the months have passed by, the business has grown more and more. She went from selling fifteen mugs a month to fifty mugs a month in just one year. Now, she ships out most of her work and is even working on a project for a customer in Seattle.
“Every few months, someone was like, ‘Hey, have you thought about this?’” Akerson continued. “And I’m like, ‘No! But let’s think about it.’ It’s really been the smallest next steps.” Taking these small next steps has grown a business will tremendous social awareness and impact.
Ashley Nicole Pottery is more than just selling mugs to make a living; Akerson wants to confront the current issues of society. She started her Black Girl Magic mug collection during the month of February to raise awareness for the work that black women have done through history. The mugs are made from a black clay body that turns pitch black once it’s fired and are engraved with quotes from historic black women including Amanda Gorman, Maya Angelou, Shirley Chishom, Michelle Obama and many more.
“Reading more about their lives and picking the specific quote that is relevant to our current day was really inspiring,” Akerson said as she reflected on these women. “I was reading about Coretta Scott King, and I was almost crying because we don’t know enough about her. Like, she’s a saint!”
Akerson has leveraged this unique opportunity of her gifting in ceramics to speak to a broader audience about issues that are passionate to her heart.
Through buying these mugs, customers are encouraged of the impact these black women had on society every time they drink their coffee or tea.
“Ashley has a wonderful ability to encourage others in who they are,” Heatherly said. “And has used her art to help others grow in that area.”
In addition to raising awareness for racial injustice, the process of ceramics also applies to Akerson’s job as a resident director because it initiates curiosity among the RAs she oversees. It isn’t something college students grow up doing in art class, and because of this, it provides a bonding activity for any student who wants to learn. She is able to teach her RAs the lessons that come with making a piece of pottery by hand.
“From an artist’s perspective, when you’re throwing you have to slow down and pay attention, because each movement effects the next,” said Akerson in her final words to me. “And in our jobs in Res Life, that is really what we are doing. Slowing down and paying attention to people, and listening, and not going so fast that you miss out on the small moments of ministry.”
Photo by Maddie Steele
I am glad to see that. Through buying these mugs, customers are encouraged of the impact these black women had on society every time they drink their coffee or tea.