Rosa-Clare Willis

Rosa-Clare Willis moved to the Gold Coast with a tech startup, part of a migration of creative talent from Sydney. Something unexpected happened when she arrived, a feeling of permission “to change,” she says, “to have a go. To reinvent.”

What was the reinvention she was looking for?

For Rosa and her husband Andrew, a tragic theme in their families was mental illness. The pandemic, when it came, interrupted their career paths. “Covid was our seed funding round,” she says, an inspiration to “get out of your head and into your hands.”

Literally, into your hands. Rosa knew how to finance and launch a start-up, but she never imagined it would be a creative mindfulness brand, an art business. “The idea was trying not to drink all the time when you’re stuck at home, to do something sane and creative.”

CROCKD, the business, began with home kits for people who wanted to make pottery but didn’t have a kiln or other gear. It was inspired by Andrew wanting to do something with his hands, feeling burned out by work, yet unwilling to embarrass himself in a studio.

The kits were immediately successful, though Rosa and Andrew made mistakes. It was hard to predict what people wanted apart from clay. Paint? Knits? So as Covid progressed and people wanted to get out again, they opened their first studio — an open, unpretentious place to make things. The feeling is open and welcoming: candles, drinks upon arrival, music, fairy lights.

Art, making it without worrying excessively about quality, makes us feel better. “When your mind and hands are on the same thing — pottery, gardening, cooking — you enter a reflective state. On a date where you don’t have to make eye contact, you can be more present.”

Proving the point about Andrew’s initial instinct, Rosa says men often arrive nervous. “They say, ‘I’m going to be bad at this.’ Then they relax. If you hate what you make, you can smash it back into a ball and go again. It’s the perfect medium to find flow with no consequences.”

There are now five CROCKD studios on Australia’s East Coast, 75 employees, and a million YouTube subscribers. Rosa has a book deal with an American publisher, about the wellness benefits of pottery, and a partnership with Ellen DeGeneres. She and Andrew have a son.

“To live here feels like an exhale. You wake up earlier here. You step outside and already feel a bit behind, as everyone’s out running, already with their coffees. There’s always more time in the day here, more room for creativity. There’s no chance we’d have started this business without that.”
 

She says the Gold Coast has the instant-acceptance, permission-giving, lower-stakes culture that makes a deliberately rebellious art brand possible. “This is what Australia sells to the world but the Gold Coast is the only place that still has it.”

Given Rosa’s background in start-ups, she has a nose for big opportunities. “We celebrate and appreciate wellness here more than anywhere, and there is a direct link to the really, really big e-commerce and tech-startup culture. We do collaborations better than anywhere I’ve seen, globally, because brands on the Gold Coast understand and value audience-sharing.”

In every industrial pocket of the Gold Coast, Rosa says, someone is building something special.

“It might look a bit grimy but it hides stunning cafés, designers, cool agencies and boutiques. And there’s so much more of it in the hinterland. Of course it’s more creative here. You can have it all at your fingertips. The Gold Coast feels like an energy. It fills your cup. Every time I stick my head in the ocean, the water’s different. Warm, clear, white sand. It’s such a reset.”