Life & Work with Julie Cruz

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julie Cruz.

Julie, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My journey in pottery started in high school back in the 70s. Art and PE. Those were my favorite subjects in high school… oh and my boyfriend. One semester seemed to be all it took to imprint into my brain the love of ceramics.

Then, 40 years later, I started my pottery “career”. 2 kids, and a few jobs later I rediscovered how much I love pottery.

After a layoff, I turned my hobby into a “job” I am now a full-time potter with my little studio set up at my house in Yorba Linda California. I’ve confiscated half of the garage and left the other half for my husband – that guy who was my boyfriend in high school… yeah, that guy. His half of the garage is used mostly to make stuff for me and my pottery shows.

I created my studio name by combining my married name – Cruz – with my maiden name – Arter – and viola – CruzinArt. There’s just something so therapeutic about getting my hands into a blob of mud and making something useful out of it. My only regret is that I hadn’t started this journey sooner.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
One struggle I felt was not being as good as I would have liked as I got started. Even to this day, I strive for more perfection. That just means more practice!

Where to make my pottery was a challenge. I started at public studios and decided that it was too inconvenient to drive miles to the studio. I began building up my own studio in my garage by buying a 35-year-old kiln and a 30-year-old Lockerbie kick wheel and setting them up in my garage. Today, I still use that old kiln but I splurged on a new electric Soldner wheel. Along with all of the other tools of the trade, I have a fully functioning pottery studio.

Then there is always the tension of making my pottery business financially successful. What shows to do, where to display my pots, what pots to make. Even with that, it’s another fun and interesting aspect of this business I of mine.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
My pottery has been called “quirky, relevant, creative, fun to look at” by customers who have come into my booth. Since most of what I make is functional – I love that. I don’t want to make boring things that people use every day. If you smile when you drink coffee from one of my mugs – that makes me happy.

I am always looking for new and different things to make or ways of making things. In school, ADD was how I was described – that has played well in my pottery life – I can’t do the same thing over and over without getting bored – I lose interest. I would like to sculpt more – so that’ll be my new thing.

There is a world of amazing potters out there and I learn from them all the time. What sets ME apart? I guess it’s adding those different creative elements to what I do. Plus it is ME who created them. We like to buy from people we like and people with a story.

Any big plans?
No real big changes – maybe a few new pottery lines… but that’s always in the works.

I am limited by the size of my studio – I would love to have 2 times the space in order to put a large work table in the middle of my studio but my garage is only so big in my 1960’s tract home.

I drive hundreds of miles to art shows and manage to squeeze everything (barely) into my ’05 Astro Van – my biggest future plan is a larger, full-sized van to haul my goodies. A passenger van converted to a pottery van so I can use it for grandkids as well as trekking my pottery to shows is ideal. Budget challenged but I can do it in the future.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cruzinart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cruzinartceramics/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cruzinartstudios