Not-So-D.C. Jobs: Federal worker-turned-pottery studio owner
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Photo illustration: Axios Visuals. Photo courtesy of Ariana Paredes-Vincent
The latest installment of our Not-So-D.C. Jobs series features Ariana Paredes-Vincent, a federal worker who runs the pottery studio Studio Kusi out of a garage in Mount Pleasant.
🔍 How it started: Paredes-Vincent was laid off from her job as a data consultant for the Department of Veterans' Affairs earlier this year "with zero notice."
- She knew it would be hard to find work in D.C.'s saturated market, and she'd fallen in love with pottery a few years before while taking classes at Hyattsville's Art Works Now.
- So she took the plunge into full-time creative life and opened the studio.
☝️ Yes, but: She was hired back at her old fed job two months later — and found herself with two full-time gigs.
- "It's a lot."
☀️ A typical day: Wake up, check on the pottery, then clock into her other job, where she's WFH. On breaks, she'll pop into the studio and say hi to the students taking classes.
- Nights and weekends, it's time to schedule classes, run the kiln, and do accounting and social media.
- "Honestly, this has become my social life."
👀 The intrigue: There's a big gap in D.C. for pottery studios, and many have waitlists, says Paredes-Vincent.
- "I just lucked out that I love doing something where there's already demand for it."
😎 Cool stuff: "Kusi" means "joy" in Quechua, an Indigenous language spoken in the Andean region of South America, says Paredes-Vincent, who's Peruvian American.
- It's also the name of the Peruvian hairless dog her grandparents had when she was a kid.
Plus: She donates all the studio's profits from art sales and workshops to nonprofits and mutual aid groups, and has discounts for activists and people making below $65K.
✅ Reality check: Running a creative biz is hard — you have to wear a lot of hats, she says.
- "Originally it was just a fantasy of 'Oh, I'm going to be a potter,'" she says.
- But she's also managing the finances, marketing, website, inventory … the list goes on.
🚀 Advice for strivers: It's important to ask for help, Paredes-Vincent says.
- She's hired several instructors to teach at the studio, plus volunteers to help around the space.
- And she trades pottery lessons for help with stuff like photography or website design.
❤️ The bottom line: When Paredes-Vincent was first laid off, she was worried she wouldn't be making a difference anymore.
- But seeing people get excited about pottery reminded her "making art really is public health."
- "I just want people to feel joy when they come to the studio [during] such stressful times."