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Finding Joy and Breaking Rules in Pottery with Tzipporah Schvarcz
225 Plays5 months ago
In this episode of 'Shape Your Pottery,' host Nic Torres interviews Tzipporah Schvarcz, a passionate potter who shares her thoughts on the importance of creative freedom in ceramics. They discuss the negative impact of rigid rules on artistic expression and the value of exploring different techniques, even if one feels inexperienced. Tzipporah recounts her journey into ceramics, emphasizing the joy and fulfillment it brings her. She highlights her shift from making and selling pottery to teaching and hosting virtual workshops, which has allowed her to maintain her passion. Tzipporah underscores the significance of community support, managing comparisons on social media, and the multiple facets of finding one's unique voice in pottery. You can learn more about Tzipporah by checking out her instagram https://www.instagram.com/sipor.ceramics/
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00:00 Introduction to the Joy of Ceramics
00:15 Challenging the Rules in Pottery
01:09 Breaking Boundaries in Ceramics
03:39 The Journey Begins: Discovering Ceramics
05:44 Embracing Failure and Growth
06:55 Navigating Social Media and Personal Growth
11:12 Finding Clarity at NSEACA 2023
13:53 Shifting Focus: From Selling to Teaching
22:19 Balancing Life and Pottery
27:00 Advice for Aspiring Potters and Educators
30:55 Discovering and Honing Your Unique Voice
35:10 Final Thoughts and Farewell
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Transcript
Entering the Ceramics World
00:00:00
Speaker
We all dipped our toes into the world of ceramics and stayed because there was joy. So I was losing that joy by trying to be within the community, hold a space that wasn't right for me. And I didn't want to lose that joy.
Views on Pottery Rules
00:00:15
Speaker
Sephora, welcome to Shape Your Pottery and share with me what is something in the pottery world that you passionately disagree with? Thank you for having me, Nick. Something that I passionately disagree with. I love how we start on this. is i have ah I have feelings about rules, like hard rules. I don't love it when we say, people cannot do this. This is against the rules. I feel like it stunts creative creative license. It stunts our potential for for coming up with unique ideas. I think that in in the art world, there shouldn't be any rules. There should be the freedom to create in a way that feels right for each individual.
00:00:58
Speaker
Absolutely great. Shaping Nation, something that works for somebody else may not work for you and it's okay to break those rules to find something that works for you. I absolutely love that. Yeah. So now, can you tell me what are some rules that you tend to break? Rules that I break in ceramics? Oh, I have a great one. I don't know if I should share this, but I'm going to. I think that a lot of people decide or or hold themselves back by saying like, I need to be at a certain level of experience or have have had enough time doing something or have had enough education in something before I can then maybe move forward in whatever way. And I myself kind of decided I am the only thing that gets in my way
00:01:51
Speaker
of moving forward, of being creative and coming up with ways to be successful. And if I'm going to decide that I haven't done enough or don't have enough education in or don't have enough experience in something before I move forward, then I'm just holding myself back. So For those that believe that one needs to have a certain level of whatever it may be, insert whatever idea here. Um, before one can move forward, I've broken that rule. I've kind of just decided I'm going to try everything and see what sticks. Absolutely agree. When was the moment you decided to just start trying everything, even if your skillset wasn't where it was?
00:02:33
Speaker
I wanna say that from the start, from when I first started learning wheel throwing, I was always, and I think a lot of people are like this, I was 10 steps ahead. I was like, I know that I need to learn how to center, but I wanna throw a teapot. you know I know I can only throw a teapot right now, but I wanna throw a set of of dishes. you know I know that I have only learned ceramics for a year, but now I wanna start teaching. So I want to say like from the start I have had this like 10 steps ahead mentality for better or for worse and not and it has not always worked out and that's something else that I think I'm thankful that I don't struggle with which is like allowing failure to hold me back. I don't really allow failure to hold me back. I try things and if it doesn't work I just move on and forget forget about it. It's not worth like holding on to those kinds of things in my opinion.
00:03:32
Speaker
Absolutely love that. And it's some excellent advice for anyone out there making pottery or any art form at all. I love that.
Inspiration and Social Media Challenges
00:03:39
Speaker
So now tell me the story, how you got started making pottery. Okay. So this is a little bit of a long story, but I'm going to give you as a bridge of a version as I can. I did not come up with the idea of my playing with clay. Again, I'm going to have to keep telling myself, keep the story short, keep the story short. I was on a long plane ride with one of my children, my my third, I have four, and he was three months old at the time and I was like struggling. I was flying myself and the person next to me, the gentleman was so, so friendly and helpful. And we got to talking and he, he's a psychiatrist and he, in our long session, our long free session that I got, ah he said to me, he asked, what do you do that's creative?
00:04:24
Speaker
Now, I'm religious, so, and he he he's not religious, but very spiritual person, and he said, and I said nothing. I said, I do nothing. I take care of my family. I don't do anything creative. And he said that he believes that creativity is what bridges the mind, body, and soul. And he gave a little bit more of a spiel than that, of course. And it really was like a worm in my brain. I just couldn't get the thought of it out. So, you know, we parted ways. And a couple of weeks later, after thinking about it and stewing, I was like, I need to do something creative with my hands. He kept saying, you need to be physically creative with your hands. You need to do something with your hands.
00:05:03
Speaker
And so we were talking about ideas and ceramics, you know, came up and I went and booked myself and my best friend a wheel throwing session, a one time wheel throwing class. And that was it. Like immediately I was hooked. I went to, I remember going to bed that night after my one time wheel throwing class. And I think a lot of people are going to resonate with this. And I was like, okay, what can I throw next? I didn't even have, I wasn't a member or anything at the time. I was like, i I want to do a set of mugs and I want to do a set of vases. And I was just like, my brain again was 10 steps ahead of where my skill was at. But that's the very abridged version of how how I first came to find ceramics. What were you feeling when you took that first ceramics class? Well, it's hard because you think, or at least I think,
00:05:53
Speaker
I go into like every new thing, thinking I'm totally going to crush it at this. And then ceramics is one of those things that, it's not so simple. You're not just going to crush it because you think you're going to be good at it. I have like a very, very positive outlook of things. So I'm like, yeah, why wouldn't I be great at this? And then it comes down to it and it's like, it happened the first time I played tennis and it happened the first time I try anything new. Of course I'm not great at it. But I just keep thinking that. And so with ceramics was the same. I was like, I'm going to crush it. And I totally did not crush it. But there's something very humbling about that, that you're going to try something new. And you might think you're going to be great. But there's something so addictive, even if you're not great at it. It's very humbling. This takes time. This takes effort. This takes practice.
00:06:41
Speaker
And even without being great at it, you can still love it and love every second of it and and derive so much joy and peace and, and fulfill this from it. I absolutely agree. I absolutely love that. So now you contribute your growth as an artist to reminding yourself that everyone is on a journey. Can you tell me more about this? Sure. I think that we live in a time where it's very, easy to get caught up by where everyone else is at. In some ways, social media is so wonderful because it really does connect us with people from everywhere. um And I've made some wonderful friends through social media, really wonderful friends that I'm so grateful for. But at the same time, if I think about the amount of people that I've interacted with on social media, let's say over the last year,
00:07:32
Speaker
it's gonna be thousands. And I have maybe gained two wonderful friends in the last one year, right? So that means that for 908 people that I've interacted with, I may have felt positively, I may have felt negatively, I may have felt neutral, but it I'm opening myself up to being influenced in some way or another by what other people are doing and where other people are at. So I think that it's really tricky to be able to be active on social media and separate my journey from everybody else's journey. It's tricky to not compare yourself and to not hold yourself to somebody else's standard. So I try and remind myself that
00:08:16
Speaker
Everyone's social media account is the highlight reel of their lives and of their practice and of their successes. Nobody's sharing, or I shouldn't say nobody, but most people are not sharing the ups, the downs, the in-betweens. I do endeavor to share those things. It's not always clear it's not always easy. Also, you know it's very it's a very narrow vision of what our lives are. Maybe on my social media, I'm sharing everything ceramics related, but that's not everything my entire life related. So I think it's tricky, it's challenging to remind ourselves that we're each on our own path. We might be like going in the same direction and we hopefully are going in the same direction of towards growth and and kindness and and helping others and all of that, but we might just be in different locations in different places on the highway of ah growth.
00:09:07
Speaker
So i have I know I personally have to keep reminding myself of this in order to in order to stay positive and hopeful about my own journey. So you mentioned that we often compare ourselves with others, which is very true. What is something you do to help you not compare yourself with other people? I think that the best thing that I can do is remind myself that just like I'm somebody's looking at me and maybe comparing themselves to me and I wouldn't want that. I wouldn't want somebody to compare themselves to me and feel negatively about themselves. I have to remind myself that that's probably the mindset of the person that I'm comparing myself to. They don't want me looking at them and me feeling negatively about myself. Maybe I'm
00:09:55
Speaker
Maybe I'm too you know giving everybody too much of that grace, but i I do think for the most part we all want everyone to succeed and there's room for all of us to succeed. So i I just need to remind myself of that. I think it's helpful to have people within this community that you connect with that are going to be supportive of you and and remind you of that. Just because so-and-so is doing really great doesn't mean that you can't also be doing really great. just because this and this person is doing something that you wanted to do or or something doesn't mean you can't do it. So having kind of community and people that you can connect with that are going to remind you of your worth, even though of course we should be the first person to be able to so speak of our own worth, it's helpful. and And also just trying to humanize everybody on this social media platform, like nobody's
00:10:46
Speaker
nobody's above the other we're all on the same you know level of of of humanity right we're all just people doing our best so i think those those things are helpful absolutely love that shaping nation we're all on different journeys and it's okay to not be where somebody else is at right now but as long as you continue growing continue improving your pottery you're gonna get there eventually i absolutely love that Yeah. So you had a great experience when you went to NCCA 2023, where it helped you put your own journey into perspective. How does this experience help you with your own journey?
Shifting Focus in Pottery Business
00:11:22
Speaker
I did have a great ah experience. For so many reasons, I had a great experience at NCCA 2023. That was my first time going. The first thing that was amazing about it was just being in one place.
00:11:35
Speaker
where everybody understands your obsession. Everybody understands this passion that you have. You don't need to explain anything. So that's really special and unique. It was an unbelievable joy to be there for the first time. And the other thing that I had was a moment of clarity, which came to me slowly over the few days that I was there and then really hit me like a ton of bricks when I got home. And that was as I was walking through Enceca and you see a lot of people's work, you see in thousands of pieces of pottery, and you pick it up and you look at it and you appreciate it. And I recognized that there were people, that there are people, and this may sound silly to some, it may sound very obvious, but I had been struggling up until that point and onward to sell my work. And I realized in that moment that people that are creating art, that have a vision, that are creating work that is so unique and so
00:12:35
Speaker
specific to them. They are the people, in my eyes, ah that that I want taking up space in the selling market. I'm not saying that anybody should not sell their work. I would never tell a person not to hold their work to that standard and then sell it. Of course not. There is room for everybody to succeed and sell their work. But for me, I did not need to be sitting in that space with people who have such vision. For me, it wasn't right. And so having that clarity was a huge shift in the trajectory of my business because I was able to really
00:13:14
Speaker
focus on what brings me joy because we all started doing pottery because it brought us joy, right? We all dipped our toes into the world of ceramics and stayed because there was joy. So I was losing that joy by trying to be ah within the community, hold a space that wasn't right for me. And I didn't want to lose that joy because it's so amazing. It's such a wonderful place to be. So after Nsika, I was able to really be introspective and think about what works for me and what's going to work for me moving forward. And it was a shift. It was an amazing one. What was that shift? The shift was from making work or finishing work even, which I hardly ever do now, to finishing work and selling work, to just teaching, just teaching.
00:14:06
Speaker
I first buckled down and was teaching many, many shifts in the local studio that was near me that I learned that. And from there I went to teaching virtually, teaching wheel throwing workshops virtually. And then from there, and this all snowballed and it all built on top of each other, I started hosting virtual virtual workshops where I am just the host. I'm not doing any teaching, but I'm doing community building and I'm having other potters with unique skills.
00:14:38
Speaker
teach whatever it is that they love doing the most it's it doesn't matter exactly what it just matters that they love it so it could be wheel throwing it could be hand building surface decoration business side of things these workshops. For me, the goal for them, and again, this all came from recognizing that my place was not where it was. It was something else. My goal was to create a space where learning is accessible to anybody. You don't need to be at a certain education level or skill level. It's virtual. So you can take these classes from anywhere affordable. I really wanted it to be affordable as somebody who's always been low income.
00:15:19
Speaker
Until now, I wanted it to be something that people don't have to feel priced out of. I wanted it to be really laid back because, again, like i'm I built all of this for what I would want to be a part of. So it's like, I'm a very laid back person, and no frills. So I didn't want it to feel like something that like, it is it's too too fancy, too polished for someone. Everyone can join. This is on Zoom. It's not so fancy. You can be in your pajamas on your couch. I'm on my pajamas in my couch at every workshop. So it's like, it's I just wanted to create a space that felt like
00:16:00
Speaker
you're throwing with friends or you're you know doing surface decoration with friends or you're learning with friends and it's super laid back and and nobody should feel like they can't be a part of it in whatever way so that to answer your question is the direction that my my my business the shift that it took and it's been the greatest joy. So I thought wheel throwing brought me joy. I mean building space for people to learn and connect with other potters from everywhere in the world to learn from people that they've looked up to but haven't been able to go to a workshop with. That has brought me joy. I didn't i couldn't have anticipated the joy that it would bring me. I'm the fulfillment.
00:16:42
Speaker
I absolutely love that. Shaping Nation, find what you enjoy in pottery, and your joy will probably change as as you go along your journey as well, whether you are throwing on the wheel, sculpting, hand building, or even if you're just simply teaching, find your joy and pursue that. I absolutely love that. yeah And I definitely agree with you on teaching workshops, because I just did a workshop like last week, and I thought it was, it was the first one I did, it was really fun. I definitely enjoyed that. Isn't that amazing? We don't even realize how many things we could enjoy doing until we try it. It's crazy. Absolutely.
Teaching and Community Building
00:17:19
Speaker
So let's talk about your park the pottery side of your journey. Can you tell me the story when you started teaching pottery?
00:17:26
Speaker
Sure, it's actually pretty amazing what being in a community space can offer you for so many reasons, but I learned wheel throwing at the same studio that I taught wheel throwing. And the the owner, Mel, she's an amazing business owner and teacher, and she She saw something in me and I attribute a lot of my successes to that support where a few months after I was, I want to say it was like six months after I started learning, she said, you can teach in my studio. I, I see that you're, ape she taught me. So I had a lot of her, her techniques that I then, you know, as everybody does adapt and I started teaching in her studio and
00:18:09
Speaker
connecting with students and watching people grow and also just being in a space where people are uplifting each other is a really it's a really shifting experience because I think a lot of outside of creative world everybody's kind of climbing on top of each other trying to get higher up whether it's in corporate worlds or really in anything outside of this is my experience of this world that we're in So it's really it was really a very beautiful thing to be able to be in a space where you feel supported by even even students supporting teachers, teachers supporting students. It's a very fluid space where everybody is kind of
00:18:51
Speaker
hoping for the best for everybody else and and uplifting everyone else, supporting everyone else. So I loved teaching in the studio. I loved the students that I connected with that I don't even see as like, it's not a teacher-student dynamic. It's friends teaching friends and hanging out with friends and it's really a beautiful thing. So I would say like being a part of a community space, while I do everything now remote, I teach wheel throwing remote from my home. I teach, and you know, I host my workshops from my home, but there's something to be said if it's within someone's means and they have a studio nearby that they feel comfortable in to ah maintain that connection with the studio because there's something really special about it. Absolutely love that. So now,
00:19:38
Speaker
What is your favorite thing you like to teach? Oh, I love wheel throwing. I just love teaching wheel throwing. Any wheel throwing skill that is within my skill set. So I want to say like seven pounds and down. I've taught, ah basically I've taught everything in the wheel throwing like different projects. It's my favorite part of the process. I hardly ever finish work. I just want to throw and then like recycle and throw again and recycle. It really is just the best part of the process for me. So anything wheel throwing is what I love teaching myself. What are some of the common mistakes UC Potter is making that hinder their progress on their wheel throwing journey?
00:20:22
Speaker
Hmm. Great question. I would say speed is really a big one. I think a lot of people are trying to rush the process or or the opposite. They're going much, much, much too slow. It's like, it's a really weird thing that to throw successfully, you need to both be very, very in your head and present and also very, very out of your head and not too overwhelmingly mindful. It's a very weird balance that people have to strike and it's It's something that just comes with time and practice. It's like we want to be really mindful and really present and really centered, of course. But at the same time, if we are overwhelmingly nit-picky about what we're doing, we're not going to be able to throw successfully. We're going to get in our own way. So I would say the speed, the mindfulness, those are probably the places that that hold people up in their wheel throwing. I think that when it comes to technique,
00:21:19
Speaker
There's so many ways to be successful. I say this all the time. i you know i so We started with ah rule breaking. I don't believe that there's any rules in wheel throwing or in pottery or in ceramics, except that we use clay. Everybody's using clay. That's the rule. Everything else is a technique. It's a preference. It's a teaching option. It's a throwing option, a hand-building option. They're all options, but nothing is a rule. So everyone just needs to find what works for them. I think a lot of people get held up when they believe something to be a rule and then they aren't being flexible or trying to think, what can I figure out that's going to work better for me? There's my answer. I absolutely love that. Shaping Nation.
00:22:05
Speaker
Rules are meant to be broken pretty much in ceramics, in art. Go out there, if something doesn't work for you, go out there and find a different way of making so it's better for you. I absolutely love that. So let's talk about the business side of
Balancing Pottery and Family Life
00:22:19
Speaker
pottery. Can you tell me about the moment when you decided to become a full-time potter? Oh, sure. Well, it was kind of a journey, as most things are. Before I touched clay, I was saying before I have kids, I was staying, I was taking care of my family. So it was, I had three kids when I started doing ceramics. I've had a fourth since then. And it was something that was first just, this is bringing me joy. And then it became, okay, I can't afford this thing that brings me joy unless I start selling my work and teaching in the studio. So that was really to cover the costs. And then from there.
00:22:59
Speaker
the more you know how I was saying before how I would I just kind of try things and see what sticks so the longer I was you know throwing teaching the longer I was like well maybe I want to try this and I'll try it you know throw something up on Instagram if it works great if not not and then I move on so it kind of just became something that was on my mind a lot again I wasn't working. I wasn't bringing in any income. So anything that I was starting to bring in with pottery became like just something wonderful that was helping our family. So
00:23:37
Speaker
That was the way that I started like leaning into doing pottery longer, more more hours per day. um Still, I like to say I'm a full-time mom of four kids and I am a full-time pottery educator. So I do both of those things full-time. One of them helps financially support my family. One of them is my family. So I would say there was never an active decision. I didn't leave a corporate job or something like that. I didn't leave a nine to five. I didn't have a nine to five. It was just about figuring out how am I going to juggle continuing to be there for my family in the way that is important to me and making time for this amazing new thing that I love so much, which is being a part of the ceramics community. I absolutely love that. So you mentioned that you're also a full time mom, but outside of that, you also have a couple of part time jobs. Tell me more about that.
00:24:32
Speaker
I do. I have three jobs. That's interesting. Okay, so i'm I'm more than happy to share. Like I said, I mentioned, we've always been low income. We have four kids. We're religious. We keep kosher. kosher food is more expensive. Jewish school is more expensive. So our expenses are very, very high. And being at home with the kids made sense when they were young because the cost of child care is so high. But once my kids all were out in school, and then I was fully focused on my ceramics business, and I was, as I mentioned, not selling work much as I tried. I hadn't yet you know kind of figured out this business that with the with the hosting workshops.
00:25:15
Speaker
started in that journey. And so I was looking for some part-time jobs that I could do to continue to help bring bring income for my family, but also flexibility to focus on my pottery business. So over the last, I want to say eight months, I had, I did, I took on two other part-time jobs. So now let's break it down. Full-time mom of four kids, full-time pottery educator, and then two other part-time jobs. So now I do four things, three of which I get paid for, and I do it because I was finding that the more pressure I put on my ceramics business to be successful in order to help support my family,
00:25:56
Speaker
the less I was appreciating and enjoying all of the moments that I was experiencing while having the ceramics business. So what I realized is if I can find other streams of income, again, not full time. I ah so i don't can't really tell you how many hours a week I'm working because I don't think there's hours in the week that I'm not working. But I want to say that these things have alleviated some of the stress that I was putting on myself. only self-inflicted stress for my business to be successful so that it can help support our family. So I got those jobs as a way to, as I said before, retain the joy, the reason why we all began this journey, right? So that alleviated some of that stress and allowed me to retain that joy.
00:26:44
Speaker
I absolutely
Starting Virtual Workshops and Finding Unique Voice
00:26:45
Speaker
love that. Shaping Nation, if you are somebody that's a full-time potter or full-time artist, it's okay to get a part-time job to help with the business side of pottery because the whole most important thing is to find what you're doing and continue doing what you enjoy. I absolutely love that. So you mentioned earlier that you spend most of your time doing virtual workshops. What is something you wish you knew before you started doing these works virtual workshops? Hmm. That's a good question. I think I kind of just dove in without without any sort of like market research.
00:27:21
Speaker
I mentioned this a little earlier, I kind of built what I would want to attend. So I used myself as the, as the the ah whole, the whole market research was just me. And then also, you know, friends that I spoke to, it probably would have been wise to gather a little bit more information, to take some more time to think things through, not because anything went wrong, but just because information is helpful. but at the same time, and my friends know this about me. I'll think of something and I'll act on it right away. And then i i'm not I'm not an overthinker in this. So I just kind of went with it and I had the idea and with the support of the people around me, I was just like, let's just see what happens. So I wish that I had the, I also wish I had the luxury of time because again, this was like me trying to,
00:28:19
Speaker
make my business successful in order to help my family. There didn't really feel like there was a luxury of time to to kind of do that research and everything like that. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. I would say that if I felt like I was missing something, it was just a little bit more information on what do people want? What do people need? But you know what? It's all working out in the end. So who needs that anyway? what advice would you give to someone that wants to start doing their own virtual workshop and to be able to also sell the workshops as well? Great question. i Let me just preface this by saying I firmly believe that there is room for everybody to succeed. So we can all be doing the exact same thing and there's still enough of a market for all of us to succeed. Think about how many potters are out there selling their mugs and
00:29:09
Speaker
You know, there's always a buyer for every seller. I think for anybody that wants to do a virtual workshop, I would say start low frill. And then if you want to make it a little bit more fancy, you want to be a little bit more polished, then you can go from there. Because I think that what is the quote perfection, perfection gets in the way of progress or something like that. So if we decide that something needs to be perfect before we launch it, we're never going to get there. We're never going to be happy with it. So. I would say you want to do a virtual workshop, post it on Zoom, you know, make it low frills, make it just do your emails, regular emails. You don't need to send out fancy emails about it. Post it on Instagram, see what people's interests are, start low frills. You get the recording from Zoom and then pop that up on your website as a option to buy the recording. It doesn't need to be something that's too professional if it's going to get in the way of you actually doing it.
00:30:04
Speaker
and Now, if you do want something very polished and professional, then my suggestion would be, I have not done this, but I wish I had to hire somebody to help you with the photo, the video and the video editing. So if you want it to be a very polished thing um and you're going to be the one that's trying to do the videoing and the video editing and then the uploading and making it exactly what you want it to be, that's so much time. and so many opportunities to step in front of yourself and get in your way. So if you can, you know, ah support other artists, videographers, cinematographers, there are other artists as well. Support them. Let them do that work for you while you do what you do best, which is, I assume, some form of teaching in the ceramics world.
00:30:52
Speaker
Absolutely love that. Some excellent advice right there. So let's talk about discovering one's voice. What do you think keeps people from finding their own voice in pottery? I think comparison is a huge part of that. I think that when we're constantly looking at other people's work and other people's creations, we lose sight of what works for us or what we might enjoy doing most. I think if we see somebody else being really successful with A, then we're kind of nervous to start trying B because A is super successful. Why wouldn't we just stick with what we know works? So I think it's important for people when they're trying to find their vision, certainly find inspiration from other artists. That's what we're all doing.
00:31:36
Speaker
Certainly find inspiration, but then take time to separate yourself from watching other people and to just focus in on what you love doing and that is absolutely going to change over time. So if for six months you love carving your work, and then you've kind of made this your signature thing, but then at month seven, you're kind of like, ooh, a part of me wants to try something new. Don't let what you did for the first six months stop you from exploring in month seven on on. You know, don't, as I say, get in your own way for progress and and inspiration by saying, I've done one thing, so now I have to do the one thing.
00:32:22
Speaker
So I think I would say don't compare yourself to others. Try and find what, what you love doing. And then if what you love doing changes, change with it, change with it. Absolutely love that shape nation. Your party voice is going to change along the way. And that's completely fine. Get involved with it. So you continue growing as a party, continue growing as a person. Absolutely love that. Now, what does it mean to you to find your own voice? I think there's a lot that goes into me finding my own voice. It's not just ceramics related. It's going to be taking a lot of other factors into consideration, a lot of other parts of my identity. And I think that that's what we should all do. If there's parts of you that
00:33:08
Speaker
separate you from others, parts of you that make you unique, whether that is race or religion or history or upbringing or where you live or what hobbies you have. Find the thing that separates you from others and ah hone in on it for the time that it brings you joy and the time that it resonates for you, hone in on it. And so for me, a lot of my upbringing, my religion, my culture, all of these things have taken a part in the direction that I've leaned my business in. And it's it's made a huge impact on my voice.
00:33:49
Speaker
So like I grew up in ah in a religious world and so community, which is a huge part of the religion that I value so much, community is a huge, huge part. So that is something that was natural for me to then lean into creating. for the ceramics world. Not that it did not exist already, and it will not continue to be created and and adjusted with so many different people from so many different backgrounds. But this is my little piece in my little corner that I'm creating. And to create that, to come to that place, that voice came from, you know, everything about me, my history, my culture, and everything like that.
00:34:30
Speaker
Absolutely love that. So now what advice would you give to someone that is looking to cover their own unique voice with their pottery? I would say taking the time and not feeling like you need to rush and just enjoy the process of of learning what you love and learning what your vision and voice is. I don't think that there's a race. And like you said before, it's going to change and that's okay. And that's okay. So take the time to learn what you love. Take the time to find your voice and then also take the time to be flexible and go with the flow of that changing. Absolutely. Definitely agree a hundred percent with that. Sapporo, it's been great chat today. And as we come to a close here, what is one thing you want to hammer home with my listeners today?
00:35:16
Speaker
If I could say one thing, it's to just remember that while this is a community and we are so many people, it is also you. You need to remember that you can find joy in what you're doing with the support of the community around you, but you're the one that needs to ultimately love what you're creating, love what you're doing, love how you're spending your time. You don't need to search for the approval of others. You don't need to search for the reaction of others. You need to be proud and as much as you're proud, that's how others are gonna feel and reflect to you. And so I would say if there's one thing that I could say is to remember that you need to find that joy and you need to hold onto it and your community will support you once you do find that that space for yourself. Absolutely agree. Sephora, so as an exit part of Words Advice, where can my listeners go and learn more about you?
00:36:13
Speaker
Well, you can find me on Instagram at seaport.ceramics and my website is seaportceramics.com. You can find all of my virtual workshops and exciting virtual summit that is coming up in August and, and lots of other ways to connect and become a part of a community. Hey thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to master the art of pottery and dive deeper into the techniques of the potters I interview, I created a newsletter that does just that. It dives deep into the techniques of the potters I interview. If you want to learn more, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash newsletter or click the link in the description to learn more.