{"id":21107,"date":"2020-09-22T10:27:48","date_gmt":"2020-09-22T15:27:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/?p=21107"},"modified":"2020-09-28T15:47:15","modified_gmt":"2020-09-28T20:47:15","slug":"artist-spotlight-jack-akers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/business\/artist-spotlight-jack-akers","title":{"rendered":"Artist Spotlight – Jack Akers"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week at Grey Fox Pottery we are interviewing one of our Co-Founders, Jack Akers. Read our Q&A below to learn a bit more about Jack and his role.<\/p>\n

Question: How did you get started in pottery? Was it the first art form you picked up? Where\/how did you learn the skills?<\/strong>\"\"<\/em><\/p>\n

Answer: I worked in sales for another potter who unfortunately went out of business. An angel investor funded a new venture for my partner and I with a few other displaced people.<\/p>\n

Q: What’s a day in the life like? How many mugs\/steins\/pieces do your artists make or design in a day?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: I answer emails and phone inquiries from new customers and work with them on logos and styles and colors. Each order is fun and different.\u00a0We make a few hundred mugs a day and have about 20 artists on our team. We’ve made more and had more people doing it in the past but lost some of the team atmosphere I think. Being bigger doesn’t matter as much as enjoying what we do and having the chance to wear multiple hats and doing so at a comfortable pace.<\/p>\n

Q: Do you have a favorite color\/glaze combo? What about a mug\/stein style?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: My favorite color combination is pansy with green. My favorite style is the slimline coffee or chalice stein.<\/p>\n

Q: What’s your favorite thing about this company you’ve built? The artists you get to hire, the work you get to do, etc.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: My favorite thing about Grey Fox Pottery is the variety of duties I perform, from sales and marketing to helping with new mug designs and glazes and better ways to make mugs. When customers are happy it’s the best reward.<\/p>\n

Q: Tell us about your most memorable project. Who was it for, and what did you like about it\u2014the design process, the company logo, the cause, etc.?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: No project stands out really. I love opening the kilns each day and seeing a new glaze or style come to life.<\/p>\n

Q: What’s the hiring process like for bringing in new artists?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Lots of times new artists find us on a local online arts forum. We have them try out for an hour or two and see how they vibe with the current team.<\/p>\n

Q: How did you settle on a location for your studio, and what has kept you there all this time?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: Our current location in a artsy urban area of Minneapolis happened thanks to a renaissance festival owner who has a building next door. He tipped me off to our building being for sale and we snagged it before it was even listed.<\/p>\n

Q: When you’re not busy with Grey Fox, what are you up to? Any interesting hobbies?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

A: On the side I like to jog, collect watches and spend time at my lake cabin.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
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This week at Grey Fox Pottery we are interviewing one of our Co-Founders, Jack Akers. Read our Q&A below to learn a bit more about Jack and his role. Question: How did you get started in pottery? Was it the first art form you picked up? Where\/how did you learn the skills? Answer: I worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":21109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[232],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21107","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21107","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21107"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21107\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21107"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21107"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/greyfoxpottery.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21107"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}