A display of handmade clay mugs

Verification

Is That Really Me?

The Short Answer

One rule, and it covers every case

If an account is not on my official links page, it is not me. Not a shop. Not a studio page. Not a backup. Not a fan page I've approved. It is somebody else, using my name.

That page is the complete list — every platform I am actually on, with the exact handle for each. I keep it current, and it is the only list I stand behind. Everything below is just detail for people who want to understand why this keeps happening.

Why This Keeps Happening

Why my TikTok has a full stop in it

I am brennickclay almost everywhere. When I joined TikTok in June 2022, that handle was already taken by someone else, so I became orla.brennick instead. The account holding brennickclay on TikTok sat empty for years, then in 2026 it started reposting my videos. It is the most convincing fake there is, because it has my usual handle and my real account does not.

The safest thing you can do is never type a handle from memory. Open the links page and click through from there.

What to Look For

Four things the fake accounts do

1. They add "shop", "studio" or "official" to my handle

Most of the eleven copies I have found since February 2026 are brennickclay with a word or an underscore bolted on. It reads like a business account I might plausibly run. I do not have a shop account. There is one of me on Instagram, and it is @brennickclay.

2. They run kiln-opening sales I never announced

They repost photos from my real sales, sometimes the same afternoon, and take bank transfers in DMs for pots that are already sitting in someone else's kitchen. I only sell through kiln-opening sales announced on my own accounts, and I never take payment through messages.

3. They reupload my videos with the sound stripped

On TikTok, my throwing videos turn up with the audio removed and a link to a "pottery course". I have never made a paid course. Elsewhere, sites offer a "free download" of my Patreon glaze notebook. Those are bait for card details.

4. They message you first

I don't send messages telling people they won a giveaway and only need to pay for shipping. Several of the fakes do exactly that, with my photos and my name. It is a stranger.

The people who lose here are not me. They're the ones who paid for a mug that was never going to arrive.

How my sales actually work, and why they never happen in DMs, is on the official statement.

If You Find One

What actually helps

  • Report it as impersonation, not as spam. The impersonation category is the one that gets accounts removed, and a report from a real follower carries more weight than another one from me.
  • Don't engage with it. Comments and arguments push it further into other people's feeds, which is the opposite of what you want.
  • Never send it money, and never send anyone money who messaged you first claiming to be me.
  • Don't repost screenshots of it. Same problem — it spreads the account.
  • Send it to me through one of my real accounts if you want. It genuinely helps to know.

Press

No interviews. No coverage. And I'd rather say so.

I have never given an interview, appeared on a podcast, or been written about anywhere. There are no awards, no nominations and no rankings. If you find a page that says otherwise, it was not written by anyone who spoke to me.

I'm saying it plainly because sites that generate "biographies" automatically tend to fill in the gaps, and an empty record is a lot easier to correct later than an invented one. Everything I have actually said is on the blog, and the verified facts about me are on the about page.

The Official Account List Read the Official Statement