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#46 Creating Newsprint Transfers w/ Lexi Shockey
35 Plays3 years ago
On this episode of Shaping Your Pottery we got the pleasure to Interview Lexi Shockey. Lexi's story on how she got started in pottery is truly amazing.
Top 3 value bombs
How to make newsprint transfers?
Taking a 2 year gap between highschool and College
Taking Inspiration from things around you
and so much more
Follow Lexi on Instagram @bluelemonadeceramics to check out her work also check out Lexi's website https://bluelemonadeceramics.com/
If you have questions about pottery send them to us on Instagram @nictorres_pottery
Check out our website for more episodes https://www.shapingyourpottery.com/
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Transcript
Meet Lexi Shockey, Potter Extraordinaire
00:00:00
Speaker
How is it going, my pottery shapers? On this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, we got to interview Lexi Shockey. Lexi makes a wonderful pottery and her story on how she entered the pottery world is really, really amazing.
Exploring Pottery Techniques and Styles
00:00:18
Speaker
In this episode, you will learn how to make newsprint transfers so that you can make some really cool designs onto your pottery and find out how you can discover your own pottery style. If you love pottery and want to take your skills to the next level, you're in the right place. Find your own pottery style right here on Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Let's get started.
00:00:46
Speaker
Welcome to Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Today I have Lexi Schocki with me and she makes some wonderful pottery using underglaze transfers that she makes herself. Lexi, welcome to Shaping Your Pottery and tell me one thing that you love besides pottery. First of all, thanks for having me on. I'm very excited. Some things that I do besides pottery. This year I've been decorating weddings a lot and like helping out with weddings. I love them.
00:01:16
Speaker
I also play volleyball once a week, so I'm on a volleyball team, so I love to do that. I also really love to read, so those are some things that I do whenever I'm not in the studio. Love it. So now,
The Story Behind Blue Lemonade Ceramics
00:01:32
Speaker
could you tell me the story, how you came up with the name Blue Lemonade Ceramics?
00:01:37
Speaker
Yes, I do have to, I always put a disclaimer out there that it's a little bit depressing, but just hold on because it does get better at the end. So just hang in there with me. So in high school, I was very depressed, like very, very depressed. I was working on medications, things weren't working. So things were just bad. I just remember this like cloud being over my head all the time. So I had actually,
00:02:06
Speaker
As in my senior year, I actually wasn't planning on being alive when I graduated. So when I graduated, I didn't have anything planned because I didn't think I was going to actually make it to that point. I didn't make college plans. I didn't do anything. So I started working full time and my art, my high school art teacher actually recommended that I, um,
00:02:31
Speaker
joined my local pottery studio. So I did. And it started to bring this light back into my life and I felt very, I just was rewarding to make something completely from scratch. So I was starting to find this happiness again. So that's where Blue Lemonade comes from is like the blue part of it is that really depressing, you know, people say blue state of mind that I was in. And the lemonade is
00:02:57
Speaker
what I made from that situation in my life. So I decided to make lemonade. My lemon's just so happy to be blue at the time. So that's kind of the story of how I came up with the name. Wow, that is an amazing story. So could you tell me, when you were starting your ceramics business, what was the biggest challenge you were facing?
Building a Ceramic Community on Instagram
00:03:19
Speaker
So there's a couple things that I remember from when I started it. So it's been about six years, I would say. Um, one of the big things that I found in the beginning is, uh, creating a following and like sort of, um, cultivating a community. So I found that to be really challenging, especially on Instagram in the beginning. Um, I saw all these great people, but I wasn't feeling like it wasn't, I wasn't making connections with people. So that was really hard for me in the beginning.
00:03:47
Speaker
And eventually it did get better and it is better now, but that was really challenging for me in the beginning. I also felt very overwhelmed in the beginning because there are so many different directions you can go with pottery and what you're doing that it felt like, where do I go? What direction do I go? How do I find something that's me? So that was really challenging for me to find what I wanted to do and find a way to make my work look like my work.
00:04:17
Speaker
with all of those different things out there. So that was probably the biggest thing that I found. I didn't really ever have a problem doing shows and such. That was the easy part for me. It was really about cultivating a community and creating a following on Instagram. So how did you go about building your community?
Local Shows and Personal Connections in Pottery
00:04:41
Speaker
So I really started with my local community. So I did a lot of local shows.
00:04:47
Speaker
and really just built a network of local people. And that's when it started, you know, they all followed me on Instagram and it started kind of growing. And actually it kind of like took off a little bit in 2020, whenever everything shut down and everybody was online. I started to create these really awesome friendships with potters, but also customers.
00:05:10
Speaker
So a lot of those people have also been like returning customers, which is super amazing. So that's when I started to really sort of now I don't have like a massive amount of followers, but it's just like I started to create a different mindset of instead of, you know, reaching a whole bunch of followers, reaching people that I actually build connections with and
00:05:32
Speaker
who comment on my stuff, who message, who I know about, who they know about my life. So that was really important to me is creating actual relationships with the people who are buying my work instead of just trying to get to this crazy high number for the sake of saying, I have this many followers. So that was something that was really important is like the people who are following me and the people who are commenting, me taking the time to really build a connection with them and learn about them. And I found that has been super, super helpful.
00:06:02
Speaker
For those that are listening, it's about quality, not quantity. If you can build your connection with just a small amount of people, you can go a long way. Right, exactly. So could you tell me, what is the best thing about having your own ceramics business?
Benefits of Being a Self-Employed Potter
00:06:18
Speaker
I love being my own boss. I have always had a thing with authority.
00:06:26
Speaker
Um, so I really love being able to do things on my own terms. I also have a very flipped schedule. So normally I start working around 2 PM and don't stop until like, I take a little break in the evening and then stop at like two or three in the morning. So it's a very flipped schedule then like a normal nine to five. So I like that I can do that, come out here.
00:06:52
Speaker
And I like the flexibility it allows. I can stop if something needs to be done. So that's been really helpful. Um, there's definitely some cons to working for yourself for sure, but I find that there's way more pros. I enjoy setting my own pace, setting my own deadlines. I get to make as much or make not as much as I want. So that's really awesome to me is like, I get to create all of that myself.
00:07:22
Speaker
I get to dictate what my work environment looks like. So that's been really awesome. And something like I'm going to school for art education right now, I think that's going to be hard transition for me is going from one to the extreme, extreme this way to the other extreme. So we'll see how it goes. So now, could you tell me or could you explain me? How do
Creating Unique Designs with Underglaze Transfers
00:07:46
Speaker
you create one of your underglaze transfers?
00:07:49
Speaker
Yeah, so I start with newsprint. So you can actually use like newspaper, but I just buy reams of blank newsprint. So that's the paper that I use. And then I use squeeze bottles, which I have some, I have one right here, like little squeeze bottles of underglaze. And I use those to draw all the black lines that you see on my work.
00:08:13
Speaker
And so I let that dry and then I color all everything in with colored slip. So all of the color that you see on my work is white slip that I've colored with mason stain. Um, I use some inclusion pigments, but mostly it's mason stain. So that's all the colored parts. And then you let it like dry too. It's like not glossy anymore. It's kind of like tacky looking. And then you wrap it around leather hard clay.
00:08:42
Speaker
and you burnish it and then peel it off and that's the transfer. So it's only like one, it's monoprinting, it's only one print. As soon as it's peeled off, you have to throw it away, you can't reuse it. But that's sort of the process of how I go about making one. So it's underglaze to make the black lines colored slip for all the other stuff. So when you're coming up with a design, how do you come up with different designs?
00:09:09
Speaker
Yes,
Finding Inspiration in Daily Life
00:09:10
Speaker
so a lot of it comes from my daily life. So an example of this is I have a bee design, like a bumble bee design, which is a pretty popular one. And my sister and her now husband had a bee farm. So they were buying bees and doing all of that stuff with it. And that's when I came up with the design, because it was like they were talking about bees, and that was becoming incorporated in my daily conversations with her.
00:09:40
Speaker
I drew up a bee design. So that's sort of how I come up with my designs. Um, like the one day I was drawing in a ladybug popped on my leg. So I started drawing ladybugs. So it was just like, it's just things that happened in my life. I sort of jot down things I see during the day. Um, I also jot down things that I hear people say, like I, like my gnomes. People love gnomes. I didn't know people loved gnomes that much.
00:10:07
Speaker
But I heard people talking about it, so I started drawing up some gnomes. So it's just like things I hear and see during the day, I sort of take notes and draw later. So that's sort of how I come up with all of them. So it's cool to see the connections that people have with them too. Like I have my own reasons for them, but I had some people buy them because like for their 10th anniversary, their
00:10:30
Speaker
you know, her and her husband, they love pineapples, so they bought a pineapple mug, and it's like, it's just really cool to see the connections people have with them. I love that, because it's like, you take it from life itself, and you just make it. Right. Yeah. So,
Collaborations and Aspirations in Pottery
00:10:45
Speaker
now this is a weird question, but if you could make pottery with anyone in the world, who would it be? For example, I've said Clay Thompson and Tony Robbins, but I also think Tim Ferriss would be a very good one to do.
00:10:59
Speaker
Yeah, so I had a hard time with this one because I have a lot that I would love to, but I'm such a surface decorate, like a surface person. So Lily Lund is one of my favorite ceramic artists. She makes these gorgeous surfaces. I would love to just sit down and learn how she makes hers and work with her. I think they're so gorgeous. I finally got one of hers and it is like one of my most prized possessions.
00:11:29
Speaker
I love her work. There was also one more that I had written down. Her name is Rebecca. I think it's Zweeble. Z-W-E-I-B-E-L. She also makes really gorgeous surfaces. I'm just such a surface person that if you do anything with your surface, I'm down to learn about it. I'm not really much about form a little bit, but I really love to see what people do.
00:11:55
Speaker
to alter their services and to decorate them. I think it's I think it's so cool. I agree. That's one of the reasons why I started this podcast is to literally just learn. And I love like seeing all that stuff. Yeah, it's awesome.
Life Lessons from a Two-Year Gap
00:12:08
Speaker
So can you share with me why you decided to take a two year gap between high school and college?
00:12:16
Speaker
Yeah, so it comes a lot back to the story of how I created my name. So I really didn't have anything planned when I was in high school. So I got out and I just started working full time and I was making pottery, you know, any minute that I wasn't at work. And it eventually got to the point where I decided I didn't want to, I was working full time as a waitress. So it got to the point where I didn't want to work.
00:12:41
Speaker
as a waitress anymore, so I decided to go back to school. But I think that two-year gap was really important. I think I learned a lot about myself. I think I learned what direction I wanted to go in life. So that two-year gap was really important, and it's not something I think that I consciously made a decision about.
00:13:03
Speaker
I'm going to take time between high school and college. It just sort of happened that way just because of circumstances that were going on with my mental health. So, um, but like I wouldn't go back and change anything. And I often recommend to people who are graduating high school, like if you don't know a hundred percent what you want to do, take some time off. It's not going to be that big of a deal because when I went back, it was because I wanted to go back and it's because I wanted to do what I wanted to do.
00:13:30
Speaker
So I didn't feel forced into it and I took my studies way more seriously than if I would have just jumped from high school to college So it was really really helpful for me, especially at that time because I just didn't care I was super depressed. I just I Didn't care at all. So if I would have went to college, I would have just wasted
Pottery as a Tool for Personal Growth and Education
00:13:47
Speaker
a whole bunch of money Right. I totally agree with that. You have to like either go all in or like not do it, right? Yeah
00:13:55
Speaker
So could you share with me what was you, what did you learn personally that helped you grow during that two year gap? Yeah. So I learned a lot about myself during that time. Um, you know, obviously I had some mental health issues going on and
00:14:12
Speaker
I learned, especially from making pottery, that there's always a solution. You just have to solution to any problem you have. You just really have to work at it. It might not come in a straightforward manner, because with pottery,
00:14:30
Speaker
There's always a solution, but sometimes it's a pain in the butt to get to the solution, but there always is a solution. Um, so that was something that I took from pottery is like learning this new skill and trying to figure things out, but then also relating that to my personal life. So it helped me work through a lot of stuff that I was going on in my brain that like felt like there was no way out or no solution to it.
00:14:55
Speaker
But learning those problem-solving skills, which sounds so crazy, but learning that from pottery, it just helped me apply it to my life so much better. So I think that was the biggest thing I learned from that gap. And I also learned about hard work and putting work in and creating something myself and building something myself, which is why I think I ultimately went back to college because I was, for the first time in my life, actually
00:15:25
Speaker
felt like I was stepping up and I was creating something for myself and I wanted to take that further. So I went back to school. So that was really what I learned during the time. And yeah, I'm really grateful that I did. For those that are listening, there's not, there are going to be times when you aren't going to know everything, but you have to figure it out and you're going to figure it out eventually. Right. So could you tell me how has studying in art education kind of helped develop your pottery further?
00:15:55
Speaker
Yeah, so this one took me a little bit for me to figure out an answer to because I'm not quite sure it has because I'm going to school for art education and a lot of times and especially in school I've learned that when you go to school for art education you're choosing to be a teacher. You can't also be an artist. There's this big gap between
00:16:20
Speaker
being a teacher you either choose that path or you're an artist and you choose that path. There's not much overlap. So I think the biggest thing I've learned from that is that I have to actively be aware of that divide because I love being an artist but I also love being a teacher. So it's helped me realize that if I want pottery to be a part of my life
00:16:44
Speaker
I need to like actively think about it and actively incorporate it into my daily life or it's going to go out the window really fast because as you know, as most people know, teachers jobs take up a lot of their time. They don't have much free time. So you have to actively incorporate it into your schedule or you know, your life as an artist disappears pretty fast. So that's probably the biggest thing I've learned, you know, relating to pottery with art education is
00:17:13
Speaker
Yeah, like you have to make time for what's important to you and that's something that's important to me so I will always make time for it. That is such wonderful because it's so true you need to make time for what you want. Right. Now could
Advice for Staying Focused and Inspired in Pottery
00:17:29
Speaker
you tell me when you feel overwhelmed or unfocused what do you do to get back on track? This is a good question because this year has mostly been that for me.
00:17:42
Speaker
I had a really big burnout stage this year and it was hard for me to stay focused and it was hard for me to get in the studio. So what I did was I stopped what I was doing. So I was doing transfers. So I put transfers on hold for a little bit and I started doing something completely new, something that started challenging my brain, something that made me figure things out. So that's what I would recommend to anybody who's feeling unfocused or overwhelmed.
00:18:12
Speaker
is take a step back from what you're doing and try something else. That's for anything in life, really. If you're ever feeling overwhelmed, take a step back and just go do something else. Let this off to the side. It'll be there. You can come back to it. That really helped me get my brain back to where I wanted to be. I felt like I was able to conquer
00:18:37
Speaker
Transfers later, but I was able to figure out and you know really help my brain feel excited about something again, so That's what I would recommend. I think that it really helps for me, so I hope it's helpful to other people who are listening When you did that did it kind of help like spark ideas like with your pottery and
00:18:59
Speaker
Yeah it did and it was really helpful to take a step back because I think I was so invested you know like whenever you're too close to a problem you can't really see it so I was too closely invested so like taking a step back made me look at them in a different light and
00:19:16
Speaker
it did help to spark ideas that I would not have thought of before because I was too close to it. So that was really helpful for me. And I also, it led into me learning and teaching myself how to screen print my transfers, which was really cool. So it pushed me in different directions that I normally wouldn't have gone in. So that was really awesome. So I'm really glad that I took a step back. Cause like you said, it helped to spark new stuff that I would have never thought about.
00:19:46
Speaker
And for those who are listening, sometimes you need to just kind of do different things to spark different ideas. So before
Developing a Unique Pottery Style
00:19:53
Speaker
we started this, I asked you a question, what inspires you? And you said, my art reflects the small details and stories I see in throughout the day. Could you explain this a little bit more in detail? Yeah. Yeah. So, um, I like to listen to what people say. I like to take the experiences that I experience every day.
00:20:15
Speaker
and use those to create the images that I put on my work. So I really enjoy, I'm an introvert, so I usually like to listen to people before I
00:20:29
Speaker
talk so I like to observe the world before I put my two cents in so I really enjoy listening to what people have to say and listening to things that they experience and then using that to put into my work so you know the different images that you see might not you know be
00:20:47
Speaker
something that i would normally put on but it's something that i heard other people say they really enjoy so i was like so like from that experience i was like that makes me want to put it on something so that's how i sort of take the experiences and stories that i hear through the day and incorporate them into my work so now if you had to give one piece of advice to someone looking to find their own voice in pottery what would you say i would say um to find some aspect of
00:21:17
Speaker
pottery whether it be form or glaze or technique that is consistent. So whenever I first started I tried a whole bunch of different stuff as most people do whenever they first start out because there's a whole world of stuff out there. So what I did to keep my stuff looking like you could tell that it was something from Blue Lemonade was I trimmed all of my feet the same way for everything.
00:21:47
Speaker
So despite there being two different techniques going on, you can still tell it was mine based off of the form and the way that it was trimmed. And I still do that now. If you look at the feet of all of my work, they're very similar. And the forms on my work are very similar to each other, but the images are different. So I would say find just one little piece that could be consistent throughout.
00:22:16
Speaker
I don't know, you could also do your handles, the way that you do handles, like everything else could be different, but your handles are the same. So just finding one little consistent piece is really gonna help people hone in on that and recognize that it comes from you, and they're gonna look for that whenever it's your piece. So that's what I would say, and that's how I started out whenever I was figuring out my voice and trying to figure out what I wanted my stuff to look like. I just honed in on one specific thing,
00:22:45
Speaker
and just focused on that being consistent through everything and then everything else could be different. I love that so much because you literally took something that was complicated and simplified it as much as you could and that's how you were able to find your voice eventually. Right, right. So as we're coming up on this last question, what is one thing from this interview you want to hammer home with my audience? Yeah, so
Keeping Pottery Fun and Embracing Change
00:23:09
Speaker
I really want to hammer home
00:23:14
Speaker
that we talked about mental health, we talked about learning lessons, we talked about a whole bunch of different stuff. I really want viewers to take away from this that you don't have to have it all figured out. I didn't have it all figured out in the beginning. You still have plenty of time to figure things out. You also never have to be stuck into one specific thing forever.
00:23:43
Speaker
I felt very stuck into transfers and I talked about trying something new whenever I was unfocused. Just really keeping your mind open and not feeling like you're ever stuck in one specific thing or that you started too late or any of that. So you always have time and you can always change what you're doing. I think that was something that I needed to hear like a year ago. So I think it's really important that you keep it fun for you
00:24:13
Speaker
Despite you know, you know money comes and goes it can always be made up but you need to do things that make you excited or You're gonna end up hating it So just keep that in mind and you know, don't ever feel like you're stuck in one place. You can always change No, so that's what I would say that I really want the audience to take away from this Absolutely wonderful Lexi. It was great chatting with
Where to Find Lexi's Creations Online
00:24:38
Speaker
today. Where can my audience go and check out your work? I
00:24:41
Speaker
Yes, so I'm on Instagram and Facebook as Blue Lemonade Ceramics and you can go to my website BlueLemonadeCeramics.com as well. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Do you have questions about pottery that you'd like Nick to answer? Send them to us on Instagram at Nick Torres underscore pottery. We'll see you next time.