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For so many of us, perimenopause shows up quietly (and often years before we expect it), scrambling the energy, focus, and follow-through our creative businesses depend on, while the people around us either miss it entirely or chalk it up to us being “cranky.” What if this season isn’t your capacity breaking down, but an invitation to finally stop pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and start asking what you actually need?

In this special Kiln Me Now takeover, Community members Debi Stoliar and Nadine Winsor sit down with ceramic artist Lori Elling. Lori shares how brain fog left her one-woman business without a “manager,” and how loosening her grip led her toward a simpler, unexpectedly joyful body of work without compromising her voice.

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Looking for support in building your own creative life? Come join over 100 other makers from around the world, having these very discussions, inside of The Community. Click here to learn more.

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Some days the clay is calling and you still can't make yourself go down to the studio (and the story you tell yourself about why is rarely a kind one). For potters in perimenopause, that tug-of-war gets louder: bigger feelings, words that won't come, and fewer spoons to spend. It's easy to read all of that as proof you're falling apart. But what if this stretch isn't a slow decline at all, and is instead a kind of fermentation period where you're quietly becoming someone new? In this Kiln Me Now takeover, Community members Debi Stoliar and Nadine Winsor sit down with Taylor Swilley of Backyard Kiln to talk about how perimenopause collided with neurodivergence, why spoon theory changed the way they think about rest, and how caring less about outside opinions led Taylor to value their time and price their work like it matters. Could giving less flux be what finally makes room for your most meticulous, confident work yet?

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Looking for support in building your own creative life? Come join over 100 other makers from around the world, having these very discussions, inside of The Community. Click here to learn more.

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Love this podcast? Support an episode!

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Have you been waking up at 3am wondering where the focus and stamina you used to have has disappeared to? Did you use to accomplish 100 things in the first half of your day, and now barely manage 10 things in 3 days? What if the real conversation us small, handmade artisan business owners need isn't another productivity system, but an honest one about what's happening in our changing lives (and bodies) while we're also trying to run a creative business?

In this special season-break handoff, potters and podcast co-hosts Debbie of Curiosibee Ceramics and Nadine of Calgary Clay Co. introduce Kiln Me Now, a new side-quest show exploring the messy, funny, and often unspoken overlap of perimenopause and making a living with your hands. It's a reminder that our businesses were never meant to run separately from our bodies. And that naming the chaos out loud is often the first step toward feeling less alone in it.

If you love this side-quest, come follow along @kilnmenowpodcast on Instagram!

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Looking for support in building your own creative life? Come join over 100 other makers from around the world, having these very discussions, inside of The Community. Click here to learn more.

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Love this podcast? Support an episode!

Follow The Maker's Playbook on Instagram @themakersplaybook