ST9 | Tania Misra On Turning Your Art Into A Business

What do you think of when you hear the word business? I for one, imagine a shop or a restaurant, or maybe like an accounting firm. But stop for a moment. What about artists, writers, musicians? They have to make money selling their work as well. What are the challenges they face and is there a tension between the desire to make high art and the mundane everyday business of making money? Today, we are talking with Tania Misra, an architect by training and the extremely talented founder of Padme Hum Studio studio which are ceramic studios based in Singapore and India.

We’re going to ask her about her journey and the lessons that she has learned that you could apply to your own art-based venture.

Discussion Topics: Tania Misra On Turning Your Art Into A Business

• From corporate work to building art business
• Outsourcing but creating income for women
• Getting Review and Feedback directly from consumer
• Experimenting gets you further

Transcript: Tania Misra On Turning Your Art Into A Business

Tania, welcome to ShopTok. It’s really a pleasure to have you with us today. And maybe before we begin, we could start with a short intro. Tell us about Tania clay studio and what you’re doing with them.

I am the Founder of Tania Clay Studio and Padme Hum. Tania Clay Studio is based out of New Delhi and we sold clips and headbands and very basic things for kids but has gone to be in the wedding space, gifting space. Padme Hum is an experimental teaching studio and a production studio. So the idea is to explore different kinds of ceramic.

If I recall you used to be an architect, you started your career as an architect. And I think an open designer, urban planner. How was that experience and what made you digress into the art world?

I was trained as an architect in India and then urban design in the US, Columbia but I was not comfortable with the way architecture is done in Singapore. I wanted to do something with my hand and something sustainable, non-toxic. I got trained in Japan to make beautiful clay flowers. I thought about how this can be used in various parts of the Indian festival and the Western world. It was a merger between art and my understanding of 3D volumes and works.

It’s actually quite cool that you were able to meld so many different thoughts into your work, which is you’re taking the art side. The architectural training and also this desire to do social good, essentially into one thing. When you first went for that training in Japan, were you already thinking about starting a business around that kind of thing, or was it just one of those things you wanted to do? And then something came off later.

I didn’t know where I was going. There were many things to consider, including financially since I quit the corporate world. There were a lot of questions for me to consider. After I got back from Japan, I got many small orders like clips and headbands. I can do products for kids and get attraction from people. My then boss saw them and encourage me to do this.

Wow. It’s impressive. If your boss tells you to quit and do something else.

She was very encouraging. She got me a very large order to distribute for office Christmas. That’s when I started thinking about packaging boxes, fresh flowers vs clay flowers and started thinking of using sustainable boxes. In India, we use banana leaves for food and some snacks. So, we have old traditional boxes for the distribution of snacks.

So, I took the design and converted it into my boxes with different sizes and make it more modern with flowers, etc. I think that when you’re doing large scale, you should re-use the product and give it a new fresh look. Essentially, you got an order to do X, but you started thinking about how can you make this beyond just the thing that’s been asked for. Because you’re trying to build a business around sustainability and social goal.

But you must’ve been extremely nervous about whether you can do this at all. And given that it’s a sort of a high-profile or a time-bound opportunity, not exactly something that you can just give up, how did you actually, source the raw material or the components that you needed to make all of this? There was a temple in the place I grew up in that used palm leaves boxes and multiple villages made these boxes. I went back home and asked, “Can we make these boxes”?

A lot of villages turned into urban places but I got there and gave 40 boxes of orders with shapes and sizes. It’s building a network for livelihood for these women and I wanted to work with them without a middleman. It was a beautiful way of starting a community and we go to the village and gave x amount of money for the entire month to finish 500 boxes. We also ask to work on modernizing designs with new shapes and sizes etc. They now sell those to others as well.

You’re giving some income assurance to a large number of people and upskilling them so they can sustain themselves with other clients. This is very nice and new. Now, you are getting the supply chain sorted out but somebody has to stick the flowers onto these boxes or color them, etc. How did you build a team to do that?

In the first order I did, I wished I had four heads. Slowly, I realized it was time to grow large in terms of gifting products, etc. There was nothing to compete with. Back then, my mom and I were doing it with the flowers but at some point, I asked the domestic lady we had to work for me and the house at the same time with doubled salary. It started becoming like a community which is a safe space for people to do flowers and people now ask me to take them to the studio.

For moms to hang out with their kids during their lunchtime or after school and since we are women and have kids, we totally understand that but there are also women cast from the traditional society because of different reasons but they now become our extension of the family. Tania, this is obviously a skill that you need to build, right? To make these kinds of photos realistic things. So are you saying that any woman who applies and gets accepted is able to perform to that skill level?

No. We have little segregated pockets or departments like people who are good at photography do the photography. Older generations are more of the crafters and some pack the product for shipping and do labelling, some do the printings and some do the frames. Every Sunday, we did some basic English lessons for them to work with us and for themselves as well.

Yeah, it’s actually departments. How do you decide who should join and who you would rather not have? Because it seems to be not based on skill or knowledge because you are actually training them.

I get a lot of resumes from NID and NIS. The women who can get a job elsewhere, I encourage them to go and work there but if some women have difficulties getting a chance, and have to acquire English speaking skills or are uncomfortable showing their faces or other reasons, I choose them. So this is going in line with your desire to do social good.

Essentially. You’re bringing on the people who have no other opportunities open to them. And you also worked out on a system to train them in areas which they may be more amenable towards, that’s very nice. You found a way to get people without this knowledge and training and make them productive and upskill them. So how do you grow your business from that point onwards? Was it all social media? And if so, how did you actually use it?

Yes, 70% of the credit goes to social media. With social media, how I grew one or two images a day, lots of messages, and lots of conversation because I strongly believe social media is not a school marketing tool.

They are for social interaction. People want to see the journey, your work and interact. As an artist, it’s very important that people understand your journey. I did two small fairs although I’m not comfortable with standing in front and speaking about my product. But for everyone who starts off new, you need to stand there, let people see your work, and tell you whether they love it or not. The reviews will tell you if there’s scope for improvement or if you’re going in the right direction.

That’s right. Normally, most businesses use social media as a distribution channel or an advertising channel versus you’re actually using it as a way to also grow as an artist. The more you develop, your pieces become the talking points in themselves and land in word-of-mouth marketing.

So I strongly believe if you are selling an experience, if you are selling the essence of your art or The essence of your product, you will be remembered. They will come back because it’s an experience and moment that they will remember. Padme Hum is an experimental studio. I asked our students to experiment and try various different techniques to figure out their own style because it’s not only about learning to perfect your piece but also about exploring your sense of art and creating your own style.

The other thing we encourage you is to de-stress, de-compose in two and a half hours of no-cell phone, and just look inwards. People are constantly filling their mind space on the grid but at Padme Hum, it’s very meditative and therapeutic. The product is part of the process and not the final result but the process is very important because you go through various experiences. Your product will be affected by your emotional state as well. It depends on whether you’re sad, upset, happy, or mindful. If you want a perfect cup, you can get it for 2$. But I’m selling you an experience where you make something beyond you.

This is very valuable input Tania because I think many people in creative disciplines who want to try and make a business feel like they’re competing with exactly what you said, the perfect cup in a shop. But you’re right. I think people buy art or custom-made stuff because of the backstory, the provenance, and the experience of it. And what you are doing is you are wrapping the actual object in such an experience that the object almost becomes irrelevant.

So, slightly changing track over here. You said that many people who come to Padme Hum, actually come from a sort of place of poor mental health, especially over the last two years. And it’s a way for them to work out some of their attention. During your journey, did you face any challenges on the way? Are there times when you feel like it’s not working and you can’t keep going and how did you keep going?

At the start, Padme Hum was a home studio for several studios. Since it’s an experimental studio, I wanted to try different things and I had to move out to a larger space. You’re always nervous when you’re making an investment in an art business and whether you will be successful. I had friends who stood behind me. I believe that having a community of other artists and people who share the same interests and mind space is also very important. Also, have faith in whatever you are doing and you shall get there.

Yeah. Unlike a regular business that sells purely for sale, with artists, there are some obvious values that are subjective and it makes more sense to create a community with artists. At Padme Hum, you also work with other wanna-be artists. There are almost 200 people in and out of the studio and a lot of them are amazing artists in different sectors but a lot of them don’t have a platform or confidence to take it to the next level. So, my idea for Padme Hum is to create a platform/ community space for other artists to showcase their artwork and a community of people who like handmade products to support each other and grow together.

This is a really good way of giving back. You’ve managed to keep this essence of giving back at the core of everything you’re doing. You’re helping villagers earn a living, giving employment to underprivileged women and training, upskilling in your own business and now you’re actually also helping other artists to develop themselves and build their creative businesses. That’s fantastic.

Thank you so much. I’m always happy to share how you can help people do business in art and enjoy the art in their business.

So Tania, thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. And I was actually noting a few key points that I thought we could leave our listeners with.

I think the first point is just about belief in your creative idea. So if you have something, just go ahead and do it. Even if other people don’t think it’s going to work or even if you have to innovate your ways until you finally find that audience but just keep at it.

The second thing is you can use education and upskilling as a vehicle to build a team. And by doing that, you also do some good for the world.

The third point, I think that art is more than about money. And if you can make it such that it’s an experience and it’s not just about the end object and how much you’re paying for it, you actually don’t need ads and performance marketing and all of that kind of stuff. You just make pieces that add value to the person holistically and they create some amount of joy. And then with the added societal benefit and all of that, that you’ve incorporated, people keep coming back because the pieces themselves act as their own advertising.

The next one is. I think what you’ve done is that you’ve not been afraid to keep experimenting and pushing the envelope.

So with Tania Clay earlier, you kept making different kinds of pieces. You kept thinking about how the piece can be useful beyond its intended purpose and then you set up Padme Hum to be even more avant-garde and try out all kinds of other stuff. And in the process help other creative artists. And because you keep doing this, you eventually hit upon things that work, but if you don’t try, you will probably never hit upon the audience for your work. And also you are a very successful entrepreneur now, but you’ve been on this journey for quite a while.

I think maybe 10 years. So it seems evident that one can be successful, but you have to be in it and keep trying and experimenting. But if you’re there in the game and you keep doing it, you will eventually get to a point of success. And in fact, I think more success than maybe what you were going to have in your corporate career. I did measure the financial benefit from the corporate job and what I do. It’s not comparable to the benefits today but the journey was tough and I have failed many times at many things but my art is flexible, and experimenting will make you feel less nervous than copying someone.

Yeah, so I think these are great lessons. I’m hoping that anybody with a creative bent of mind listens to this episode and is inspired to follow in your footsteps and start their journey as well. I’ll keep on their journey if they’re struggling with it right now.

Once again, Tania really appreciates having you with us today and for everyone listening, thank you so much for tuning in.

Thank you, Tania, for being with us today.

We were Tania and Amit with ShopTok. See you next time.