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Avoid this mistake to find Your Pottery Voice
65 Plays1 year ago
The Episode discusses the common mistake of potters trying to conform with others instead of finding their own unique voice in pottery. It emphasizes the importance of staying true to oneself, making what one enjoys, and stepping out of the comfort zone to create authentic pottery art.
On May 31st I am doing an workshop with Guest Artist Mike Cerv and Mike is talking about How to Make Slab Built Goblet Cups! To register click this link to save your spot https://shapingyourpottery.ck.page/products/how-to-make-a-slab-built-goblet-cup-w
Take this Free Quiz to see how close you are to finding your pottery voice click here to take the quiz shapingyourpottery.com/quiz
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Transcript
The Pitfall of Popular Styles
00:00:00
Speaker
One of the biggest mistakes I see potters doing when they're trying to find their unique pottery voice is trying to conform with everybody else and trying to make what's popular. What is up, shaping nation? This is Nick Torres here, and for that don't know me, it's my mission to have potters like yourself to have an only unique voice with your pottery. So you see, in this episode, I'm going to talk about the biggest mistake people tend to make when trying to find their own pottery voice, and that is typically trying to conform with what everybody else is doing.
00:00:28
Speaker
And why is this a big mistake? Well, this is a big mistake because if you're not if when you're trying to conform with what everybody else is trying to do, you're not truly making for yourself. Now, it's fine to model other potters when you are especially in the beginning phases of your pottery journey. But if you continue modeling forever,
00:00:50
Speaker
And you're only trying to make what you think will sell or what you think will get a lot of views, get a lot of people eyes onto your work just by simply making what you think will make well and what other what seems to work well for other potters. It's not going to work out very well.
00:01:07
Speaker
And that's a big mistake is conforming to what other people are doing. And they tend to focus on the wrong things instead of trying to focus on growing your work and trying to find what works for you. They focus on trying to make what sells.
Nick's Personal Journey in Pottery
00:01:22
Speaker
I know I have gone through this and actually hindered my progress a lot. When I was in the early stages of my pottery journey, I thought that if I can make a bunch of mugs, I could sell the mugs and I would start making money.
00:01:35
Speaker
But that hindered my progress so much because I saw all these amazing different potters making these super cool mugs and these super cool glazes. And I thought if I could do the same, then it would work out. But that was farthest from the truth. One, I didn't make anything, any money selling my pottery, trying to sell my pottery. And two, I just didn't enjoy what I was making. I didn't enjoy what I was making, and it felt like I was just going through the motions.
00:02:02
Speaker
And I didn't like that. So I made a decision to change up my pottery. I changed up my pottery by focusing on what I want to make first. And when I did that, a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. You know, we see all these potters having success selling their work and having success getting a lot of views or having success having a big following on their pottery.
The Importance of Authenticity
00:02:25
Speaker
But what makes them successful, it's not that they're not able to sell their pottery, it's that they're not conforming to what other people are making. You know, it may look like some other people are doing what some other parts are doing, but what they're making is what's true to them. They're not conforming to everybody else. Some people really like making mugs. I myself like making mugs.
00:02:47
Speaker
And some people don't like baking mugs and they say true to that. And when you're able to say true to yourself and you focus on making for yourself first, then you're not going to be conforming to everybody else.
Tips for Finding Your Unique Voice
00:02:58
Speaker
But now, how exactly do you not conform with the crowd? So here are three ways. So number one is making things you enjoy first. Like I mentioned earlier is the easiest thing you can do to not conform with the crowd is make what you enjoy first.
00:03:14
Speaker
The second thing that you could do is not focusing on what you think will sell. And that goes back to making things that you enjoy first, because let the market decide what you're going to sell, but continue making things that you're going to that you're going to enjoy making and not focusing what you're going to sell. Because I made that big mistake and it hindered me a lot.
00:03:37
Speaker
Now the third thing that you could do to not conform to everybody else is get out of your comfort zone a little bit. You know maybe try doing sculpture work or try doing hand building or doing something completely different that you're maybe not used to doing. And get out of your comfort zone because people might like that and you might like that as well. So those are my three tips to help you not conform with the crowd and start being your true self with your pottery. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one.
Resources for Potters
00:04:07
Speaker
Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to discover how close you are to actually discovering your own unique voice with your pottery, I put together a free four question quiz. It's very short. It takes 30 seconds for you to take. If you want to know how close you are to finding your own unique voice, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash quiz, or you could simply go to shapingyourpottery.com and it'll be right there at the top.
00:04:37
Speaker
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next time.