Flynne Tytherleigh balances finance policy work with creativity. Photos: Flynne Tytherleigh.
A surprise discovery has led a Canberra public servant to find much more than creativity in her side hustle.
Public servant and ceramicist Flynne Tytherleigh is the first to say her two jobs are very different.
“I like being able to work my brain 9 am to 5 pm and work my hands 5 pm to 9 pm,” she says.
“I think it’s good to have a bit of a creative outlet.”
Flynne began throwing pottery as a therapeutic way of managing her endometriosis.
“Honestly, it started as a side hustle … Pottery was just a way of helping me to manage endometriosis pain.
“In hindsight, I had been seeing doctors and going and going to a pelvic physio … [It reached the point of] asking, ‘Do I try to get cannabis gummies or do I get a pottery wheel?’
“They were both around the same price.”
Flynne jokes her love of buying new glazes hasn’t meant it’s taken over her whole house – yet.
While she jokes her practice mugs mean her “gift cupboard is pretty good”, a strong reception to her early creations kept her going.
And it soon translated into an increasing number of online sales.
“It was very much friends and family and friends of friends, or people who had referred people to me,” she said of early purchases from her store.
“Then, one random Tuesday in June, it took off.”
Now, she’s kept busy with regular drops of about 10 mugs each week, custom projects (including repairs to sentimental mugs) and filling larger-scale orders for local businesses.
Most of her designs bear brightly coloured glazes and lower-case cheeky messages about our work life – think the Sunday scaries or the memes you text your mates.
Flynne’s designs – with sold-out designs like ‘good morning but at what cost?’ and ‘(completely overwhelmed) will do!!!’ – represent workplace stress.
“It is quite organic,” she says when asked how she comes up with a design.
“I’m thinking about what’s funny … What’s zeitgeist-y or popular on the internet, playing with trends.”
Cheese (the Chief Packing Officer) keeps a careful eye on your mugs. Photo: Flynne Tytherleigh.
Flynne splits her time between the public service and her pottery shop, after dropping back to four days a week in the office before the shop’s launch.
Beyond finding a creative outlet, she says it’s given her a way to de-stress.
“It can be physically demanding if you’re carrying clay up the stairs. I’m lucky that I’ve been able to turn something that I enjoy and find quite relaxing and meditative into a business – even if it was by accident.”
The support she’s received from her colleagues, customers and local businesses alike has left her “pinching herself”.
She says a major learning from launching her studio has been how it’s helped her embrace different parts of her personality.
“That’s just as important a part of your life as what you spend 40 hours per week on,” she says of our creative pursuits.
“You’re not just one person at home and one person at work … All those aspects of who you are are important.”
Follow the drops (or place your own order) on Flynne’s website.
