I had the opportunity to intern with Local Artist Julie Guyot this Spring ’13 semester. Julie is a ceramic artist in Tallahassee who works from a quaint studio at her home. She makes functional and wall pieces that focus but are not limited to printing on clay with methods including screen printing under glazes and decals. Her pieces can be found through her website and in certain stores around Tallahassee.

In this internship my duties have included organizing the studio by printing labels and cleaning out old glazes. I have made a set of all new glazes and slips for her upcoming work. I have typed up all her glaze recipes in a large font and laminated them for ingredient checklists to mark while mixing and put them into an organized binder. I had the opportunity to help her make many sets of her signature “Nesting Bird Bowls” my efforts included weighing out and wedging clay, smoothing, glazing and putting decals on them. I helped load and unload the kiln as well. I also have helped her manage online sales on Etsy. I learned about photographing and documentation of work for sales and galleries. I also helped with shipping to galleries for shows and learned how to safely package and mail work.

As a ceramic artist this internship has benefitted me greatly because I have learned many new techniques to take with me and even implement into my own work. I will take away business skills in self marketing and sales. I also learned time management in having a studio at home and living off what you sell.

Working with Julie has been such a pleasure. I have acquired a great colleague, mentor and a friend from this experience along with experience and new knowledge of techniques that I didn’t even know we’re possible.