Meet Brianna Rashbaum | Ceramicist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Brianna Rashbaum and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brianna, can you share the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?
That life is too short and corporate America doesn’t see you, the employees, as anything more than a pawn. Starting my own business was more about the quality of life I wanted to live. After years of exhaustion in a 9-5 with little appreciation I decided it was time to invest in myself and the lifestyle I wanted to live, instead of the rat race everyone seamed to be caught up in. In March of 2017, I took that leap of faith in myself and I’m so happy I did. My life is mine now and I’m living it to the fullest, muddy hands and all.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Spinning Silica is a combined studio for borosilicate glass and stoneware ceramics. We focus on functional wares that can bring joy to your every day routines while doing it sustainably. We are a 100% solar powered studio and we believe in making long lasting wares with little environmental impact. We ship with 100% compostable and recycled materials, so that your children with be able to enjoy Mother Earth as much as we do. Living more and leaving less of an impact once we are gone is what is so important to Max and I as makers, business owners, and humans.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Living in the heart of the Rocky Mountains is one of the best tools when showing someone our beautiful home town. Being 5 mins from the Eldora ski resort and surrounded by hundreds of miles of trails, mountains, lakes, reservoirs, wild life, and pine trees, Nederland is a destination for many year round. The second weekend of March our town hosts a whopping number of 30,000 people for a 3 day long festival called Frozen Dead Guy Days. It’s a once in a lifetime experience of celebrating the life a a cryogenically frozen man. We get together and have coffin races, turkey bowling, ice carving, polar plunges, and so much great music. This is just one of the fun quirks our town has. With award winning brewing at Knotted Root to locally and organically made pizza at Crosscut this town has much to offer. The Carousel of Happiness is a art installation of its own and a great place to take the kids. Nederland is a quirky town with lots of art and nature. It’s a great place to bring your family and dog and spend a day or two exploring! Next time you come to Ned, make sure to stop by Spinning Silica and say hi!

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
My husband Max joined the team almost one year after I took that leap. March of 2018, we became Spinning Silica. Joining glass and ceramics and love and happiness where two of the most powerful muses any maker could stumble on! We decided to move back to my husbands home town, Nederland Colorado, and that’s when the magic of a community lifted us to where we are now. Like most new businesses we struggled with finding a location where we could not only make our wares but also sell them. The hunt for the perfect shop had begun. The power of a small town is something I couldn’t even fathom until I moved here. It wasn’t long before we had the perfect starter location. Resham, the owner of Kathmandu, a local Nepali restaurant, had a store front available for us! We moved into our Brick n Mortar in June of 2019. We started teaching private wheel throwing classes as well as ceramic hand building workshops and glass blowing. Our community was excited and so were we! We were up to 15 local makers supplying inventory for our shop and damn did it feel good to be a maker, supporting other makers. After 9 glorious months COVID hit and we were sure our non essential business wouldn’t survive. But yet again our small community showed up and surprised us! Our online community showed up and surprised us. The people started buying online and requesting Take Home Kits for the clay workshops. We decided if we wanted to succeed we would have to adjust with COVID. We decided to take our workshops and classes and turn them into virtual YouTube videos that each and every crafter could do from home. We have had our brick n mortar closed now for almost a year. But yet our business has continued to grow and blossom with the help of our local community here in Nederland as well as our online community which stretches across the world. It’s not a lonely lifestyle, it’s one filled with love, happiness, creativity, and joy. March 5th, 2021 we will finally be reopening our doors to the public and we are so ecstatic to be engaging with our customers, students, and community once more! We have missed you Nederland

Website: https://www.spinningsilica.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/spinningsilica/