Transcript
Speaker: 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. Do you ever feel like your pottery just will never sell and you keep on making these different things, new, unique things, but every single time they just flop and nothing ever sells?
Speaker: Well in this episode, I'm going to share with you the biggest reason why your pottery isn't selling and what you should do to make up for this. It is I, Nick Torres here, and welcome to Shaping Your Pottery. You are probably here because you aren't really able to sell your pottery. And what is the biggest reason for this?
Speaker: The biggest reason for not being really able to sell your pottery is because you're focusing too much on trying to sell your pottery. What do I mean by this? In order to get what I mean, we have to go back a little bit ways. When I was first starting out, maybe I was in my second year or so,
Speaker: The whole thing that I was trying to do, I was literally just trying to sell mugs, because I figured, oh, mugs, a lot of people drink mugs, so I can make a lot of mugs and I can sell them. So I started working on mugs every single day, and at first I wasn't very good at my mugs, so they didn't look that good. So I just kept on making mugs and mugs and mugs, and I learned how to make my mugs.
Speaker: And so eventually I thought, oh, this is going to a lot of people are going to like this because they drink mugs. So I'm going to keep on trying to sell them and make different unique mugs. I'm going to carve some mountains on my mugs. And the biggest problem with this is that when you keep on getting to that, that that state of I have to sell my pottery, this is what has to sell. And oh, is this going to sell well?
Speaker: you're going to start thinking not in terms of the quality of your work and you're not going to really enjoy it. And also what happens is when you have that mindset of just, is this going to sell? You are going to get hit a wall and you're going to literally just kind of have a not make as much progress as what you want. And when that happens, we tend to lose motivation and
Speaker: A lot of other things happen, we kind of want to just stop because nothing's happening. But the biggest thing that I learned and that I have learned from interviewing a bunch of different people is that they all say, make what you want to make. Make what you want to make and then the sales will come later. You'll be able to sell your pottery later. Because if you make what you want to make now,
Speaker: then you are going to be able to show people your passion for what you want to make. I don't know what that is for you. Maybe it's carving flowers onto your mug or maybe you are carving just anything. Maybe you're making designs, different designs, unique designs. Whatever that is, you have to find that for yourself. Otherwise, you're never going to be able to sell anything because people notice these things. They notice that
Speaker: you're making for yourself and you're just trying to show it to the world and you want people to actually see how good your pottery is rather than just trying to make a quick buck. So if you change your mindset from how can I sell my pottery to what do I want to make today, you're going to have a lot more fun and you're going to see a lot better results. People are going to see your passion for your work. And that's what this is all about. You have to show your passion for what you want to make. But
Speaker: What if you don't know what you want to make, what you are passionate about with your pottery? Well, I'll give you a few steps in order to take so that you can start making what you want to make immediately.
Speaker: So the first step that I would take in order to start making stuff that I want to make is I'll do a bunch of research and try a bunch of different things because when you try and do a bunch more research, you're going to eventually find something that you really like. Maybe it's raccoon like me. I love doing raccoons and I find it to be super enjoyable. So I continue trying to do that every so often because I enjoy it.
Speaker: And maybe you like bikes, maybe you like a sport or something. You can incorporate making that sport or that sport into making your pottery. So just keep on doing a bunch of research and keep on making a bunch of pottery. That is a big portion of it. And then just keep on testing different things. Look at other people's pottery and see what you like and what you don't like.
Speaker: because it goes deeper than just really a cool design or a cool whatever it is. It just goes deeper than that. Maybe you are a simplistic person and you just enjoy making pottery for the fun of it. And maybe you just wanna get better at your craft. So in that case, really try to find a shape that you like or a glaze that you like or a type of glazing style that you like.
Speaker: with that case and you're going to find something that you really like to do and when you find that thing that you really like to do keep on doing it just keep on doing it and then also don't be afraid to change things up it's all pottery is very flexible so we got to be flexible ourselves because
Speaker: is maybe eventually you're gonna start making these things and you might get bored of it. But if you keep on testing different things to make your pottery look even better than the last one, you're gonna have a lot more fun that way. And people are gonna see your passion for it, and your passion for your work, and how much care and love you take for your work.
Speaker: 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.
