We had the good fortune of connecting with Brenda & Aaron McEuen and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Brenda & Aaron, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We thought about starting our business for way too long. We always put it to the side, thinking that it wasn’t the right time, but in the end, we did it anyways. We were both at home, with a hobby in mind that we could do during our free time, and we decided to go for it. We had a lot of help because we had no idea where to start. I saw a photographer on Instagram (Seleni Hernandez Photography) post stories about how she started her business, and she briefly explained Dbas and LLCs. It gave me the courage to ask questions. So we asked a family friend, an accountant, and he helped us through the process of starting the LLC. The rest was just paperwork! That was it; the only thing standing between us making stuff and selling it was paperwork. We had saved up a little bit of money and used that to buy some materials, and the Ceramic Store of Houston helped a lot with questions we had/have. It took a village!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
We try and source all of our materials locally. We support other small businesses in Houston by shopping with them first before finding items on the internet. We make everything by hand, work almost every day (when we aren’t working our day jobs), and have a weekend here and there. We make our designs, and we use different techniques like 3D printing and hand-building to create pieces that we can cast molds of to produce multiples. It isn’t always easy. Initially, there was a big learning curve, and we are still learning today. We have read a couple of books, asked many people, and made tons of phone calls to try and be better every time. There is a lot of fun to be had in the process, and it’s cool when the ceramics community backs you up and helps you out!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
All over the place! We would probably take them to the Nook first to grab a cup of coffee, and then if we were in a brunch kind of mood, we would probably go to Common Bond. We love going to walks on Buffalo Bayou and would likely have to go to the Johnny Steele dog park. Another place we love is Gypsy Poet. They have the best pizza we’ve had in Houston by a long shot. There is so much to do here, many museums and exhibits to visit!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Heck yeah! Giovanna from Kindred Spirits Design Co. helped motivate us to do our first market last year! Jesus Garcia helped us with our LLC and our accounting questions. My dad who owns Panaderia Tierra Caliente hooked us up with a bigger space to work in and feeds us during our markets. Our families cheer us on by coming to almost all of our markets rain or shine. Our best friends Scott & Wendy help us with our reels and hang out with us at Houston markets! The list goes on and on!

Website: www.studioluto.com

Instagram: studio.luto

Image Credits
br.mixedmedia – Richy

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