Watch out, Mandurah! The Two Muddy Men are in town, and they're on a mission to bring artists and the community together through pottery, laughter, snacks and wine.
Isaac Gould and Joshua Abercrombie may have taken different paths to finding their love of pottery, but the friends, who met working at Groundswell Drivethru almost three years ago, share the same vision of bringing that passion for ceramics to the community.
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Mr Gould, who helped establish Groundswell Drivethru with his brother, Purri Gould, studied pottery and ceramics in university; a master of the trade.
Mr Abercrombie found pottery on his honeymoon, falling in love with the art immediately.
"My beautiful wife and I were very competitive. So it was not like the Ghost scene and it wasn't sexy. We just wanted to make the best thing possible," Mr Abercrombie said.
"I love the fact that once the piece has been fired, you've created something out of literally the earth. And then you pull it to whatever form your heart desires.
"And then it can exist forever. We're still digging up pieces from people thousands of years ago and it's a really humorous thought to think that some strange archaeologists might dig up my pottery one day and be like, 'oh these poor sods had no idea what they were doing', but I really liked that concept of that potential legacy."
Discovering their mutual passion for pottery, the two friends decided to bite the bullet and start working towards establishing their own pottery business.
"We spent a weekend planning and budgets and, you know, business models, all that kind of thing. Isaac, he's brilliant at that kind of stuff and I pretend to like cash flow sheets," Mr Abercrombie laughed.
They planned to focus on pottery workshops and hiring the wheel out to other ceramic-lovers.
"I actually didn't want to run them [workshop], we thought the people in Mandurah don't want this," Mr Abercrombie admitted.
"But our two gorgeous wives said, 'you will do at least one and then you will see how it goes'. And we sold out in less than 24 hours."
They host Wheel and Wine nights on the first Saturday of every month, with April and May already sold out.
The workshops are only open to eight people, keeping it intimate and community-focused.
"We spend an hour and a half doing wheel work. Some people can get on the wheel and it just clicks, some people will barely be able to pull walls up," Mr Abercrombie said.
"We want people to walk away achieving something.
"And so the mix of the glass of wine, because it feels rough when you don't make something, it's that social lubricant to help them be like, it's actually okay that I'm just having fun or not making anything on the wheel."
"We want to be doing a workshop every week, we want to be doing a 'wheel and wine' night, and we want to be doing a 'pie and pottery' for kids as well."
Speaking with Mr Abercrombie, it's clear his love for pottery and passion for helping other artists make a successful career out of their work.
Too often, Mr Abercrombie said, artists were forced to make a decision between pursuing their craft, and often struggling financially, or committing to a 9-5 job, and giving up on their dream.
He wants artists, especially those in Mandurah, to be able to run a sustainable business without relinquishing their passions.
"We started this [Two Muddy Men] because we believe in Mandurah and we think that this is probably the best place in WA to live, without a doubt," he said.
"We believe that Mandurah will be the place to be in the next 10-15 years and we want to be part of that journey artistically.
"Because I know that we have enough talent, especially in young people in Mandurah, to be able to market themselves effectively on a national or an international stage, make their work, work for them, and be financially successful within their craft.
"And so that's the dream that we have that we can we can raise up some awesome artists to be able to do that."
Mr Abercrombie went on to discuss how discipline and consistency were key to making it as an entrepreneur and artist.
"We want to encourage people in the future to be able to hang on, past that first six months, past that 12 months, because that's where most businesses fail is that, 'oh, I gave it a shot. Nobody likes me, I'm going to shut down'," he said.
"So yeah, that's kind of I think that's our dream."
If you don't stop and listen and take those risks... That's where the reward is. That's where you come alive...
Unfortunately, many people struggle to take that leap, from the mundane, repetitive lifestyle that's become the norm, to following through on their passions, Mr Abercrombie said.
"If you don't stop and listen and take those risks and, and move away from comfort into something that's scary and hasn't been done before.
"That's where the reward is. And that's where life is. That's where you come alive.
"That's where you find where you're truly meant to be and what you're truly meant to do. And the community needs it, we all need it."
Having only run two workshops so far, Two Muddy Men are already rising in popularity, they said.
Jumping into an overly saturated market, with hundreds of 'paint and sip' businesses already competing for customers, the two friends found a niche they were passionate about, and it turns out, the Mandurah community were passionate about also.
"We have good business sense on how to survive and not just survive, but actually make a living from making art," Mr Abercrombie said.
"And that's really the exciting phase we're at.
"And to bring that to Mandurah where, yes, ceramics like pottery can be a career, not just a craft, but get some of the younger talented artists really collaborating with other artists and what they're doing rather than thinking it's a competition.
"But we just want to make it fun and kind of break that ice by having, you know, a bottle of wine and some snacks.
"It's about the interaction and hopefully we get a few people that also get the pottery bug."
For more information and to keep an eye out on new workshops, head to the Two Muddy Men Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/twomuddymen/ .
