Transcript
Speaker: What is up, shaping nation? This is Nick Torres here. And on this episode of shaping apart, we're doing something a little bit different here. So I recently got a voice message from one of my listeners. Her name is Pat Martin, and she has a good question. So let's hear what she has to say real quick.
Speaker: Hi Nick, I'm Pat Martin and I find that there are so many things, new things that I want to try that it's hard for me to find my voice, but others say
Speaker: They know my work and they recognize it right away. So it's interesting. I love to explore and try new things and I do a lot of that. I love, love, love ceramics. Came to it late in life. I'm 74 right now.
Speaker: And just finishing up our Christmas show at the Arvada Center. So that's been exciting. I hope you have a wonderful holiday and I'm looking forward to listening to your podcast. Thank you. So Pat was basically saying in this message that it's hard for her to find her voice because she wants to try so many things out and experiment with so many different things.
Speaker: And how do you exactly do you find your voice when you want to try so many things out and do so many different things at once? Well, here's my advice to you, Pat. So when you are looking to find your voice, the thing that matters most is that are you enjoying what you are making? Because sometimes we go through the motions of just making to make or not making to actually enjoy the pottery.
Speaker: And when we do that, that's when our party voice doesn't start showing up. But if you are enjoying the party that you're making, even if you are doing a bunch of different things, then that is the most important thing. If you are enjoying the part that you're making, that starts becoming your voice slowly and slowly and slowly. And I definitely get it that.
Speaker: you might want to have like a signature style, but it's okay to have your voice where it be multiple different styles. It doesn't have to be the same thing over and over and over and over again. But if you would like to have your pottery look a little bit more cohesive, here are two things that might help you a little bit. So the first thing that I think will help you out
Speaker: is simply choosing a theme for that month, for that week, whatever you're trying to do, choose a theme for that month. What do I mean by a theme? So what I've been doing with my own pottery is with my own little character sculpture,
Speaker: is what I do is I have my first design that I ever created. I created that design. And then what I did was I started adding a theme, like, for example, because I make like these like action hero character things.
Speaker: My first theme was just kind of getting the idea out and my second theme became like a samurai or like a ninja or like a different time theme. I wanted it to be in the 1920s rather than just looking like a traditional ninja.
Speaker: But that's what I mean by a theme. You can do with this theme yourself. So if you like flowers, you can the theme can be flowers this this month and you can try doing servito flowers or adding some carving flowers or sculpture flowers, what it is, whatever it is you want on there or like.
Speaker: Maybe if you you don't like that type of pottery, you could do alteration, like different type of alterations to your pottery. And that could be the theme that month. Or maybe your theme is bowls or maybe it is just straight mugs. And then maybe whatever it is, choosing a theme will allow you to have more variety in your pottery and at the same time still be known for something. So that is tip number one is choose a theme. The second tip here
Speaker: is the second tip here is to do one or two things that are the same thing every single time. Like for example, let's say you make a mug and you have the handle on the mug and let's say you do one thing to that handle of the mug
Speaker: each time to let people know that this is your work. Like, for example, what I do with my mugs is after I make my handle and I attach it, I will indent my finger at the top of it. It's kind of like a thumb rest, but that's what I do. I indent my finger at the top of each handle. And that's what I like to do to my hand. And that's kind of like how I let people know that this is my mug. This is what I like to do. This is my own vision with my potter.
Speaker: And so that's something else that you can do. Like you could take this and like maybe if you like altering your pots, maybe you could add some certain swirl to your pottery or maybe it's carving, some sort of like carving to your pottery or signature to your pottery. Maybe it's the way you make your footprint. It's simply just doing those one or two things that you do all the time that let people know that this is your pot.
Speaker: But at the same time, you are having people notice your potter a lot. So you're probably already doing something like that. So those are my two advice for you, Pat. So number one was pick a theme each month and six that theme each month. And the number two is do one or two things that you do the same with each and every single pot or each and every single thing you're experimenting with. Hope this helps you out.
Speaker: And I'll see you guys in the next one. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you would like to send me your own voicemail and have questions about pottery or finding your voice, don't be afraid to send me that. You can go to shapingyourpottery .com forward slash voicemail to send me your own voice message. And I'll do my best to answer the question. You can also look in the show notes and we'll be there. I hope you guys enjoy this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one.
