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3 Hardest Things About Finding Your Own Pottery Identity
184 Plays2 months ago
In this episode, Nic Torres discusses the three hardest obstacles potters face when trying to find their unique pottery voice: overcoming self-doubt and imposter syndrome, finding time to practice pottery, and dealing with a lack of resources and skills. Nic offers practical tips for overcoming each challenge, such as maintaining consistent practice to build confidence, creating habits that integrate pottery into daily routines, and utilizing available resources creatively. He also emphasizes the importance of persistence and intentionality in honing one's pottery identity.
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00:00 Introduction: The Three Hardest Things in Pottery 00:19 Overcoming Self-Doubt and Imposter Syndrome 01:07 Finding Time for Pottery 03:47 Building Pottery Habits 06:35 Dealing with Lack of Resources 08:11 Conclusion and Final Tips 08:22 Bonus: 53 Themes for Your Pottery
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Transcript
Introduction: Pottery Identity Challenges
00:00:00
Speaker
What are the three hardest things that keep you from finding your own pottery identity? What is up, Shape Nation? This is Nick Torres here, and on this episode, I'm going to give you the three hardest things that are going to keep you from keep finding your own pottery voice, and just the three things that are just hard about finding your voice in general.
Challenge 1: Overcoming Self-Doubt
00:00:18
Speaker
So the first one is the is just really your own head. It's simply your ah your own head, right? Sometimes we all feel like we have imposter syndrome or we look at other potters out there and we feel like that our potter will never reach their level.
00:00:36
Speaker
And we all have these these moments in our pottery, especially in the beginning part, or when you start getting a little bit more serious about pottery, you're going to start feeling a little bit more because you start seeing these potters out there and they make it some wonderful work. And you just wish that you had their success. So that's the first thing that kind of gets in the way of us finding your own voice. It is really looking at the potters and it's comparing and it's, you know, getting in our own head a lot. So
Challenge 2: Finding Time for Pottery
00:01:07
Speaker
that's the first thing. The second thing is, is that we like what we we like what we're making, but we find it so hard to get into the studio, or we find it so hard to find time to actually make pottery. And this is a big one.
00:01:21
Speaker
Everybody, we all have the same amount of time, but some of us don't use it all that wisely. And it can be very hard, especially if you're a parent or if you're working very long hours, it can be very hard to get into the studio sometimes. And that is when we are, that's the that's one of the struggles, right? That's one of the hardest things to about finding your own voice and making time to actually get into the studio. And in a little bit, I'll give you some tips on how you can solve that.
Challenge 3: Accessing Skills and Resources
00:01:49
Speaker
But the third thing is, the third hardest thing about finding your voice is and sometimes it's just lack of skills, lack of resources, lack of just really anything. And really that can hold us back a lot.
00:02:04
Speaker
But what can you do to cure these three things I just said?
Strategies to Build Pottery Confidence
00:02:08
Speaker
So the first one I mentioned was that it's a lot of it has to do with the head, you know, imposter syndrome, comparison, all these different things. What can you do to to get out of your own head a little bit and maybe start making more confidently confidently with your pottery?
00:02:23
Speaker
So the first thing I recommend is that if you're in your own head and maybe you have a little bit of a posture syndrome, maybe you don't have the confidence for your pottery, the first thing you have to do is just to continue making. That's the most important thing. Continue making, continue practicing, continue trying to improve your skills because over time you build confidence through the practice. Have you ever heard that quote before that success comes from practice or from preparation, right? Or confidence comes from preparation. And it's very true.
00:02:52
Speaker
You see, sometimes you're just not spending enough time on the work that you're currently doing or you to the technique that you're doing, or whatever it is that you're making, where your sculpture, hand order or wheel thrower. Sometimes you're not spending enough time. And the more you start making, the more confidence builds up inside you because you have done it so many times and you know what's going to happen. So confidence starts to become that much more. Something else you could do is just start documenting what you're doing. Start documenting and just force yourself to put your pottery out there, because the more you document, the more you practice, the more you're going to practice, the more you practice, the more confidence you're going to get. And who knows, people might start liking what you're making. And when other people start liking it, that gives you more confidence in your own work. So that's the first thing to get over, get out of your own head, get out of that posture and stop paying yourself.
Creating Pottery Habits in a Busy Life
00:03:42
Speaker
The second hard thing I talked about was finding time to actually make pottery. So a lot of it comes down to actually just building the habit of making pottery. I read a book a little while ago, and I've read it a couple of times as well. It's called Atomic Habits. And basically what it says is that habits pretty much run our entire life. You have ever heard of Pavlov's dog where he rang the bell and the dogs came.
00:04:06
Speaker
And then they were hungry, but and then he and then he he rang the bell, and he took away the food, but the dogs were hungry still. That's because it was a habit. It became a habit. And it's the same thing for us. We have to build a habit of making pottery, making things that we enjoy, and finding time to actually make pottery, and being intentional about it. But how do you do that?
00:04:29
Speaker
So something that helps me with, you know, finding time to make pottery is one is I'll make pottery as soon as I wake up. I find that this helps a lot because if you like if you wake up, you know, you do your you're normal you but wash your face, brush your brush your teeth and stuff like that. You do that and you immediately head in studio and you start making something. It's easier to make that habit because it's the first thing you're doing right in the morning. I find that's very helpful.
00:04:52
Speaker
Another thing that you could do that I've learned this from a couple of people I've interviewed like Sarah Pike and some other people is that she spent five minutes a day just making something, make art, make whatever. What Sarah did was that she spent five minutes a day just making stamps, making stamps because she likes making stamps, but she was finding it hard again to get into studio because of you know some some life circumstances that happened to her.
00:05:18
Speaker
and she was finding it hard to get into the studio so she spent five minutes a day, every single day, just making the stamps. And that's all she did. And that five minutes a day helped her tremendously tremendously to get back into the studio. But what happens if you are somebody that is a, maybe you're a parent or maybe you have a full-time job and it's very hard, you work very long hours. What do you do about that then? So it really comes back to the same thing as I just said. So one, try to,
00:05:46
Speaker
find it, whatever the whatever the easiest thing is, do that. So like for me it was waking up and going right into the studio. We're doing the five minutes a day pottery challenge or art challenge, whatever. You could also, instead of just resting right when you get home, like if you work long hours, try going to the studio for just five minutes because you're already in that work mode, you're already in that work mode. So what's five minutes more if, compared to if you, and if you sit down and it's just gonna be a long, it's gonna be a lot harder to get into the studio.
00:06:20
Speaker
And if you're a parent, try doing when your kids are asleep or when your kids are at school or when you know you find those little times to make pottery and just set five minutes just to make pottery or make art. And that way you start building that habit.
Resourcefulness in Pottery
00:06:35
Speaker
So the third thing I talked about, but the hardest thing I talk about for finding your own pottery identity and finding your own pottery voice is you know lack of resources or lack of tools.
00:06:46
Speaker
and So we all have a lack of tools especially in the beginning because pottery can be very expensive sometimes But you don't need all that to actually make beautiful pottery and find your voice You know, so for me I spent three years not firing my pots I would I was throwing the wheel in our recycler throwing the wheel and recycling throwing the wheel recycling That's because I didn't have a kiln, but I didn't know that there was a thing called kiln share.
00:07:10
Speaker
And once I found Kill and Share out, that's when I started getting my pieces fired, at least this fire, please. And something else that helped me with that is I had a friend to talk to. I had a friend to talk to me every single week, and she really helped me push things to that I should be getting my pottery fired. I should be getting doing things right. And it's been from those talks that really helped me grow a lot.
00:07:36
Speaker
And I'm very grateful to that. And so all you have to do is just find there's there's resources available that are cheaper. You may be if you don't have a kiln, join the community studio. If you don't have a wheel, join the community studio again. Or if you or you can hand build or you can sculpt, whatever it is, you don't need the resources that you think to actually make the pottery.
00:07:56
Speaker
if you Maybe if you're into carving, try finding a tool around your house. Maybe it's ah it's a long shish kabob stick thingy. Or maybe it's a fork, whatever it is. Find the tools and use the tools you already have around you to build the resources that you want. So those are three my three tips to helping you overcome the three hardest difficulties with finding your own voice. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one.
Guide to Finding Pottery Themes
00:08:23
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery.
00:08:26
Speaker
If you are struggling with finding your own theme for your pottery so that you know you are known for something, I put together 53 themes that you can use and you can take. All you have to do is go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash 53 themes. That's five, three themes to get these 53 themes.
00:08:51
Speaker
It's really important for you to find a theme for your pottery so that you're not gonna get burnt out. You you can have multiple styles with your pottery and you can be known for something. So again, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash 53 themes, that's five, three themes to get these 53 themes. Thanks guys, I'll see you guys next time.