Meet the Kansas City creator who sells her colorful ceramics all over the country
Priscilla Butler, 30, who goes by Lila with her family, never considered herself a creative person before she started her art business, LilasClayground.
“I do this all by myself. I don’t have any employees; the exception (is) my dad coming to help me pack orders,” she said.
Over the past six years, @LilasClayground has amassed over 18,000 followers on Instagram. Followers watch Butler’s whole process of making her ceramic products and hear first about when her new products drop at the beginning of each month.
“I was very fortunate that from the beginning, a lot of people seem to like what I was making, and in terms of design, I feel like I’m a very girly person,” she said. “I love the pastel, the pinks and that’s something that I really liked.”
Originally a paraprofessional at a Kansas City middle school, Butler decided to take up a creative hobby: making earrings out of polymer clay.
“It was 2019, and I just felt like I was at this point in my life where I’m just like, ‘I don’t know what I want to do next,’” she said.
Butler took the leap of faith seven years ago now, quitting her day job to follow her newly discovered creative thread. It became her first business venture. For three years, Butler did pop-ups around Kansas City until she felt the itch again to start something new.
“I loved jewelry, but I knew ceramics was something that I wanted to try, and I had left my job at that time, so I was doing jewelry full-time,” she said.
Butler enlisted the help of a friend who was a ceramic artist to show her the ropes and took a few classes before relaunching her company in April 2023 from her apartment’s living room.
“From the beginning, I mean, it did so well, and I was like, ‘OK, I really think this could be my career. People seem to love it,’” she said.
At the onset, Butler’s work spread mainly through word of mouth. Each week she would try to make it to two pop-ups and built relationships with several customers along the way.
“I feel like I was just growing, growing, growing really fast in a way that I didn’t with jewelry, and it was amazing,” she said.
Butler sells both wholesale across the country and to customers directly through her website. This year, she has between 13 and 15 wholesale customers across the country, including in New York and California. Businesses range from small boutiques, retail stores, coffee shops to matcha shops.
“I think when I look at my pieces, I think very girly,” Butler said about her art style. “I love to have a variation of color, so if you like color, maybe more like pastel colors, I think I definitely have options for you.”
How LilasClayground makes her artwork
Butler typically works out of her art studio five days a week, starting around 8 a.m. To meet her own deadline of launching new products, Butler divides up the process into weeks (one week she throws, the next she fires, then glazes, etc.).
Butler aims to work on between 20 and 40 items a day, depending on the number of online and wholesale orders. The amount of time it takes to make the various objects vary depending on the size of the product. Throwing one of her big bowls or mugs, for example, takes anywhere between five and six minutes on the wheel.
Her pieces then sit to get leather hard, meaning not fully dry, but not sticking to the artist’s hands. Butler’s newest product, a travel mug gets the top put on at the leather hard phase.
“Some are more labor of love than others,” she said.
How KC artist is inspired by family
Looking back at her upbringing, Butler credits the urge to have her own business to her parents. Her mother and father are both from El Salvador and met in California. Butler’s mother began a cleaning business that became very successful.
“I saw my mom work so hard when we were so young. My mom worked so much, raising four kids by herself for a majority of her life,” she said. “I think deep down I probably had that, and I didn’t know until having this business, understanding more of my parents’ life here in America. I think it really did shape me.”
Butler said she gets messages from other Latinos all the time, who say they are excited to see a Latina artist creating cute ceramic kitchenware.
“It’s so special to have the opportunity to bring our culture and our people into this space and also just follow in the footsteps of my parents, who also own their own business,” she said.
When Butler started her own business, she knew there would be challenges.
LilasClayground didn’t take off instantly, according to Butler, who said she spent hours researching popular silhouettes, colors and figured out what people were drawn to.
“I took maybe a couple months of learning where I wasn’t selling anything,” she said. “I took a couple classes, I had a friend who was a ceramic artist, and she taught me a little bit more.”
It wasn’t until around the three-month mark that she began selling.
“I don’t really know if there’s anything you can fully do to prepare yourself,” Butler said. “You just have to throw yourself out there and see what works, see what doesn’t, and adjust.”
Butler has grown her business through the help of social media, word-of-mouth and selling wholesale on a platform called Faire, where businesses across the country can find her products and order from her.
One thing Butler noticed about the ceramic market was the lack of large mugs, something she prefers for her coffee.
“I love a lot of coffee, so I knew that I wanted to throw pretty tall and my cups hold anywhere from 16 to 20 ounces, which is pretty big in ceramics,” she said.
Butler aims to launch a couple of new ceramic designs each month and feels like she’s constantly brainstorming ideas off of what she’s already designed and what seems to be trending.
“I utilize Pinterest a lot to help me see what is out there, what’s popular, the colors that people are using,” Butler said. “. That kind of helps me know, okay maybe this year I feel like yellow is very in season, so let me try yellow, see how that’s going, see if it goes well.”
Taking risks with Valentine’s Day art
There are seven designs Lila is dropping this Saturday, including one that is customizable and her new shape: the travel cup.
“I’m excited, I’ve also never done this before,“ she said. “I feel like I’m known for just my basic tall cups. I rarely do mugs, and I’ve never done this before, so this will be the first time.”
The Valentine’s Day designs include one for book lovers, smut readers, hearts, pink plaid and an advocacy one on human rights. The only cup not in pink and white is the customizable locket design, which is in blue and white. Customers can include the two initials of their choosing to go inside the heart locket.
“...I think if you like to have fun pieces, colorful pieces in your home, you could like my pieces for sure,” she said.
The Valentine’s Day designs can also be bought in the mini cups and the regular tall cups. Custom cups will cost about $68 and normal cups are $60, according to Butler.
“If I could do this forever, I would love to,” Butler said. “Just having the opportunity to do it now for however long it may be, even if not forever, I feel very privileged to have the opportunity.”
“I’m so lucky to have this chance, because I know a lot of people don’t,” she said.
Throughout the rest of the year, Butler will continue to come up with more designs, with the other big themed drops being over the summer (farmer’s market theme), fall (Halloween), and winter.
“I have a lot of people who if I don’t have those designs anymore, they can reach out to me, and I’m happy to make it for them,” she said.
More about Butler’s artwork can be found on her Instagram @lilasclayground or her website, lilasclayground.com.
