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Art You Making Pottery For Art Or To Sell
168 Plays3 months ago
In this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, Nic Torres discusses the important decision potters face between creating pottery as an art form or focusing on selling their creations. He emphasizes the need to determine one's primary goal, as it significantly impacts the style and approach to pottery making. Whether choosing to pursue pottery purely for artistic enjoyment or aiming to sell pieces, Nic encourages finding a balance and ensuring personal enjoyment in the process. He also highlights the importance of making art for oneself before considering commercial viability.
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Transcript
Art vs. Sales in Pottery
00:00:00
Speaker
Are you making art or are you trying to sell your art? What is up shaping nation? This is Nick Torres here, and on this episode, I'm going to be talking about whether or not you should be focusing on selling your art or actually making the art. You see, it really just depends on what your goal is.
00:00:18
Speaker
You know, some people get into pottery not to sell their pot, right? Most of us get into pottery because we just want to try it out. We want to try it out and then we liked it, so we keep doing it. And that is perfectly fine. But then there are some other people that want to actually be able to sell their pottery.
00:00:36
Speaker
And that is perfectly fine as well. If you want to go down that route, you can go down that route. It takes a little bit more time, but you can go down that route regardless.
Creating vs. Selling Pottery
00:00:44
Speaker
But I asked you the question again, are you making pottery for the art side or are you making pottery to set? And you could do both, but it's important to pick one or the other.
00:00:56
Speaker
Why is that? Well, you see, depending on what your goal is, if you are trying to make pottery to sell, for example, it's going to look a lot different compared to pottery that is art, right? You're you're doing it for the art.
00:01:11
Speaker
It's going to be a lot different. Those two things are going to be a lot different. Right. So maybe for the art side where you're making pottery for art, maybe you like making sculptures and you don't really plan on selling it. You just want to make it for the art. You just want to make it like for decoration, for your own house. You just want it. You just want to make that thing. You know you don't care about the result of selling it. That is a really big goal. That's right. that's ah That's going to determine how you're going to make your pottery.
00:01:38
Speaker
and For those that are more hobby potters and just want to focus on the art side of it, that's completely fine. You don't have to sell your pottery. You don't have to. You don't have to if you don't want to. If you want to focus on the art side of pottery, you could do that.
Balancing Personal and Market Interests
00:01:53
Speaker
But now if you are somebody that wants to sell your pottery, your pottery is probably going to change a little bit, right? you It's still important to make what you want to make. Make the things that excite you.
00:02:03
Speaker
But now you have to kind of think about it. like is it Is other people liking this at the same time like are are or are other people buying this as you say, if they're like it or other people buying it? Because if then that's going to determine how you're going to make your pottery, right? If something is working, you probably want to keep doing the same thing over and over again. Like a lot of people make mugs and they try to sell those mugs.
00:02:29
Speaker
because everybody uses mugs and that's perfectly fine. That's going to determine how you're going to make your pottery, how you're going to make your own style. Right. And but on the art side, if you're only focusing on the hobby, if you're a hobby potter, you only want to make it for the art because you like making art.
Prioritizing Art for Personal Fulfillment
00:02:46
Speaker
Then your style is going to be different compared to if you're trying to sell your pottery.
00:02:50
Speaker
But you could do both at the same time, right? You can have moments where you are focusing on trying to sell your pottery and you get moments where you're just focusing on trying to make art. Both are fine, but whatever your goal is, determine that because that's going to determine how your art is going to come out, go determine me how your voice is going to come out as well. And remember, the most important thing is to make for yourself first.
00:03:14
Speaker
We all get into our own heads a little bit, especially when we're trying to sell our pottery. And if we're not making for ourselves first and we're not enjoying it, then there's no point in trying to sell it. Obviously, money is great, but we want to enjoy the
Creative and Commercial Balance for Full-time Potters
00:03:29
Speaker
art first. We want to enjoy making pottery first. And there are going to be times when we're not going to enjoy it. And there are going to be times when you're just going to have to dig down deep and you're going to have to put in the work and you're going to have to do all these other things to maybe help you sell your pottery. And that's fine.
00:03:44
Speaker
And you could choose your moments between if you want to just make art or you want to sell something, right? It's finding that balance, doing maybe if you work if you are trying to become a full-time potter. Let's say you make 10 pots and then on the 11th pot, that pot can be something art related. That can be something that is going to push your yourself. It's going to be something that's going to help you explore your art itch and the rest of the 10 bots that you made earlier. That's the stuff that maybe you're going to try to sell. Maybe that's the stuff that you think people are going to buy from you.
Defining Your Pottery Journey
00:04:17
Speaker
And so it's important to determine what you want out of your pottery journey. Do you want to sell your pottery or do you want to make it just for the art? Because there are two different goals and you're going to determine your voice by those two different goals. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next one.
00:04:34
Speaker
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 techniques of the potters I interview, I created a newsletter that does just that.
Deeper Pottery Techniques Newsletter
00:04:45
Speaker
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.