Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Dooreck.
Hi Daniel, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have a long history in restaurants. I moved to Toronto after graduating McGill University with a degree in Kinesiology and dove head-first into wine education and restaurant work. After a couple of years, I randomly decided to take on a membership at a studio in Toronto, where I walked in without any previous experience, and just tried everything out. No classes, nothing. I quickly began to find a small passion for the hobby. I would easily commit 15-20 hours a week to ceramics while working full-time. During my tenure in Toronto, I found myself as a managing partner in a restaurant and still made time for it. Eventually, after a few years and in the middle of the pandemic, I found myself driving my old truck across the country to settle in LA. Restaurant work didn’t interest me here, and it took my over a year to realize that it wasn’t melding and I had no interest in working for anyone else. After a little instagram sale with some vases in my garage and a touch of advice from friends, I quit my job immediately and started the company. I took a little over a month to figure out branding, logo, website, and inventory. In the beginning, I got fairly lucky. I found a great wholesale client in Toronto (a friend of a friend) and that helped me launch and get a little head start. The website and first month really was a success. Within 6 months I found myself with about 5 wholesale clients on top of a retail/direct to consumer-based business.
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?
I feel fortunate, I haven’t faced any major hurdles just yet. The major challenge is finding balance with life and work. Becoming freelance or a business over requires responsibility but should offer the freedoms of doing anything you want. I’m finding the balance in this at the moment.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a potter by trade now. Some people call me an artist which is weird. I focus solely on wheel-thrown ceramics. Each piece is trimmed, freehand carved using simple tools and then painted with brushes. I find inspiration everywhere, but primarily through illustrators and tattoo artists that I admire over social media or locally. It’s kind of this carved illustration on clay which I haven’t yet fully found anyone else doing. Clay is an awesome medium for lots of fun designs, and I definitely play with it a lot. Lots of cartoons, bright colors, stupid captions, and western themes. I’m most proud of the volume of work I am able to put out, the consistency in quality, and pretty wide range of themes and designs I’m working with. It takes time, but it’s very rewarding and constantly refreshing as nothing is the same.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was a nerdy kid who played a lot of video games and legos. I drew a little bit, but nothing serious.
Pricing:
- Small Tableware 14-35
- Specialty Cups 65- 110
- Vases 100-1000
- Planters 75-200
- Custom Starts at 300
Contact Info:
- Website: dannydsmudshop.com
- Instagram: dannydsmudshop
Image Credits
@Alex.m.kennedy
@Laurenwithrow
