Made by Madelyn: Where Everything Becomes Something
When Madelyn talks about pottery, she doesn’t describe it as a hobby or even a career. She describes it as something much deeper. It’s a creative practice that feels instinctive, necessary, and entirely her own.
Before becoming known for her handcrafted ceramics, the Wilkes County artist spent nearly a decade experimenting with different mediums through her business, Cat Scratch Designs. Polymer clay jewelry, oil painting, woodburning, pet portraits, and ceramic casting each played a role in her creative evolution. With every new project, she learned more about what she wanted from her art and what she didn’t.
Then she decided to pull the trigger on buying her first pottery wheel and she felt like something clicked inside. Her search finally ended.
“With everything else versus ceramics, it just feels like the thing that is most natural in my core. Something tells me ‘okay, this is what you’re supposed to do more than anything else’. It took 5 or 6 things for me to really hone in on what I want to do and it just completely changed everything.”
“Being so sure about something, made my drive so much stronger.”
While she knows there is still plenty to learn, Madelyn can already see how much she has grown since those first days at the wheel.
"I feel like I get better every day," she said with a laugh. "Progress, not perfection. With ceramics, you're going to fail three thousand more times than you're ever going to have a success. That's true with any art medium, but especially ceramics."
Over time, she has learned to embrace those failures as part of the art.
“I’ve had things melt. I’ve had things crack. Nothing too serious to where I cannot go on. [Ceramics] can be expensive. I’m not rich by any means but I’m rich in doing what I love. Every single part of the process is so crucial that if you mess one thing up, then it's over. It is what it is. I try not to get heartbroken about things I've worked super hard on that don't end up turning out because it just gives you the opportunity to try it again and learn from the experience."
“I’m not rich by any means but I’m rich in doing what I love.”
On top of selling through social media and making custom pieces, Madelyn has her art in a couple local businesses in Wilkesboro, when she is able to keep it in stock. “It’s a good problem to have,” she says. “I also have these events, these markets where it’s just me, not anybody else. I usually set up for a couple of days.”
Madelyn has built enough of a local following that she can host her own events as a solo artist in town and her community responds well.
“I make a post and say I’m gonna be at this place at this time, come check it out! I’ve had good turnouts. Weirdly enough, more than a market that I’ve done somewhere else where there’s other people. When it’s just me, I like that better. You don’t really have to worry about the pressure of ‘are you selling’ versus ‘what other people are selling’; ‘who’s the most popular at this event’. It’s just me and I like that. And they’re here to see me! Well not really me… but they’re here to see my passion and I just love that. I don’t really travel outside of town to do events anymore because I have just found so much love within my community. I have found so many local people who support me.”
That support has also given her the confidence to keep experimenting.
“My style is forever changing and my products are forever changing and there is nothing about that that scares me. That to me is what makes it feel like it’s natural because it’s literally myself expressed through what I’m doing. There’s stuff from 2 years ago that I look at and think that’s so ugly! I hate that! I wish I was better then! But it’s like well… you had to start somewhere. Sometimes you cringe. Sometimes it’s like why would I ever in my right mind sell somebody that but I also feel like… we’re our toughest critics. We’re so hard on ourselves and the flaws that I see sometimes in my pottery is not something that anybody else is going to see.”
“My style is forever changing and nothing about that scares me.”
Ask Madelyn about her favorite part of ceramics and she laughs. “I wish I could give you a whole answer,” she says. “There’s things that I love and… finicky, frustrating things” about every part of the process. One quality she does appreciate is that almost nothing goes to waste. Clay scraps are reclaimed by soaking them in water, blending them into a slurry, drying them, and wedging them back into workable clay. Even fired pieces can be crushed, ground down, and mixed into future work.
More than the process itself, it’s what ceramics has come to represent that keeps her creating.
“That’s the position I’m in now: I only want to do things that feel authentic to me. I think people tend to get crafting or DIY-ing confused with people actually doing creative work that is substantial enough for everybody to look at. It’s not just for your spare time. I feel like I have made somewhat of a name for myself in this town.”
Madelyn’s authenticity isn’t just an artistic goal, it has become essential to her well-being.
“I know that as long as I keep doing this… It’s really weird, it almost feels like a lifeline. It feels like if this was not something that I was constantly working on, my mental health would be so far down the toilet.”
The answer lies in the experience of making itself.
“It is meditative, in a way. It’s relaxing. I love the panic. I love being on the verge of ‘Oh god, it’s gonna collapse!’ and then bringing it back and keeping that strength. You’re never able to be lazy when you’re doing pottery. You’re never able to slack off. You have to be there, present, in the moment, arms locked, very much concentrated on what you’re doing. And I don’t know, it feels like something comes out of me from within when I’m in this room.”
Madelyn with pottery her mother made when she was a baby.
Since our interview in March, Madelyn has made huge leaps in her ceramics journey! She changed her business name to “Made by Madelyn Manus”. She also moved her studio from a spare bedroom in her home into a building on Main Street in North Wilkesboro. Part frame shop, part studio, and part gallery, the space has allowed her even more freedom to evolve in her art and connect with her community. She offers private lessons and group classes for everyone to take part in her passion.
Today, the same community that embraced her work now has a place to experience it firsthand. For Madelyn, ceramics has become more than an art form. It’s a way of staying grounded, connected, and her most authentic self.
Please check out Madelyn’s studio and gallery located inside the Quick Frame at 823 Main St, North Wilkesboro in NC!
Follow her on instagram @madebymadelynmanus