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#200 Unearthing a Passion for Pottery: with Collin Lynch
41 Plays2 years ago
In this podcast episode, Collin Lynch shares his inspiring journey of turning his passion for pottery into a thriving business. He discusses the various hobbies that have impacted his pottery work, his fascination with nature-inspired ceramics, and the story behind his popular unicorn mugs. Colin also delves into the importance of understanding pricing and the power of social media for artists. He shares valuable tips on photography and white room techniques for creating captivating visuals for social media, as well as advice on staying inspired and developing relationships with online followers. You can learn more about Collin by checking out his instagram @essarai_ceramic
Top 3 Value Bombs:
1. Utilizing social media as a powerful tool for artists: Colin emphasizes the importance of engaging with your audience, sharing your work, and creating captivating visuals through good photography to increase engagement and sales.
2. Staying inspired and sharing your passion: Colin highlights the importance of continuously sharing your passion with the world, building connections with your audience, and remaining inspired even during times of doubt and discouragement.
3. Developing your unique voice and style: Colin's journey emphasizes the importance of finding your own voice in your craft, both in pottery and on social media. By staying true to your own vibe and exploring different techniques, you can create a unique and signature style that sets you apart in your field.
and so much more
Take this Free Quiz to see how close you are to finding your pottery voice click here to take the quiz shapingyourpottery.com/quiz
Follow me on Instagram @nictorres_pottery
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Transcript
Introduction and Quiz Invitation
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, real quick before we get started and get into the episode, if you want to figure out how close you are to discovering your own unique voice, I put together a free little quiz for you to see how close you are to finding your own unique voice. If you would like to take this quiz, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash quiz, or you can just go to shapingyourpottery.com and it'll be right there. I'll see you guys in there.
Podcast Introduction by Nick Torres
00:00:26
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. What is up, Shaping Nation? This is Nick Torres here.
Interview with Colin Lynch
00:00:40
Speaker
And on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, I got to interview Colin Lynch. Colin makes some really incredible crystal pottery that has evolved into making unicorn sculpture pottery.
From Starbucks to Pottery Business
00:00:53
Speaker
In this episode, you will learn how Colin went from working at Starbucks to owning his own business with his pottery. You'll also learn how each step leads to the next one with your pottery and can go into the next idea. You'll
Using Social Media for Artistic Growth
00:01:11
Speaker
also learn about Colin's best tips to use social media to help you grow as an artist and help you sell your work even more.
00:01:20
Speaker
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in there. Colin, welcome to Shaping Your Pottery and share with me what is something you love besides making pottery.
00:01:29
Speaker
Besides making pottery, I have quite a few other hobbies. I am a really avid painter. I do oil painting. I also enjoy making music. Before I was making pottery, I was really into producing music, learning music theory and all of that. And I also knit. So I do quite a few things with my hands and just creating things all the time. So yeah, those are some of my recent hobbies.
00:01:59
Speaker
So would you say that your hobbies outside of pottery helped you with your pottery when you first started? I think maybe with the painting in a way, but yeah, pottery really kind of, if I was a woodworker, maybe I would see more of that in pottery, but I don't feel like, aside from my painting, I have too many things that have incorporated into my pottery.
Colin's Journey into Ceramics
00:02:27
Speaker
So can you tell me the story how you got started in ceramics? Yeah, I was actually going I was finishing my master's in Chinese medicine and I just started waking up in the morning feeling like I really want to squeeze clay like I just had this strange
00:02:47
Speaker
desire to squeeze like real clay not polymer clay and I have a few friends that do pottery and I remembered so I reached out to them I was like hey I really just want to you know check this out I want to maybe go to a studio and one of my friends set it up and I got on the wheel and
00:03:10
Speaker
It was the hardest thing I've ever tried to do. I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh, this I may not be able to do this. You know, knitting is really difficult to learn and playing piano can be difficult as well. And when I got on the pottery wheel, I thought to myself, oh, this might be the one thing that I can't do.
00:03:28
Speaker
And once I said that, I was like, well, now I have to figure this out. So it really just kind of started very organically. I was just wanting to get my hands in some mud and make some pieces. I had been asking friends who did pottery. I was like, I really just want like a simple, like Japanese kind of wabi-sabi cup. And
00:03:52
Speaker
not everyone has your aesthetic. And so I kind of thought to myself, you know, I just need to go and make this myself. So that's really what got me in the studio. And from there, I was just going every single day that I could spending all day there and just throwing, throwing, throwing, throwing, just trying to get understand the wheel and, you know, get a grasp on it. When would you say was the moment your skills started to really start to develop?
00:04:21
Speaker
I think that there are little steps because you start with just making cups. I asked for a lot of feedback from my teacher at the studio, so he would give me a lot of criticism and things to look for. I just noticed things happening in steps where I could make a cup and then I could make a larger cup.
00:04:43
Speaker
you know, it started to go to bowls in just different shapes. And so I don't think there was an exact moment. I think there are just kind of little steps along the way where I just kind of little successes that would happen.
00:04:59
Speaker
along the way. I absolutely love that. Shaping Nation, those little successes that you are building right now, they start stacking on one of another and then you eventually end up building the skills you need to make the pottery that you want to be able to make. It just takes a little bit of time. I love that so much.
Full-time Pottery Career Decision
00:05:15
Speaker
So tell me about the moment when you decided to go full time with your pottery. Yeah, I was, so, you know, I'm about to graduate with my master's in Chinese medicine. I'm working at Starbucks.
00:05:28
Speaker
And I basically was just kind of making things at the Pottery Studio and putting them up on my Facebook and just kind of using Etsy as my cash register. So I would put them up on Facebook and just tell people, you know, they can go buy it on Etsy. And it was just pretend fun. You know, I really wasn't planning on making a business out of this and I
00:05:54
Speaker
Eventually, I woke up one morning and someone that I didn't know had bought one of my pieces.
00:06:01
Speaker
And I was really perplexed. I was like, how did they even find me? I'm such a small, you know, unknown potter. And I thought to myself, oh my gosh, like someone would buy my work. That's crazy. Someone I didn't know. And eventually I started and I at the time had just gotten on Instagram and I just started to share a little bit more. I made my own pottery page, SRI ceramics and
00:06:28
Speaker
I started getting sales and I remember being at Starbucks and thinking to myself, I could be at home right now working on pieces, making more money than this and thinking about what am I doing here? I should be at home. Like I really believe that if I had more time to put into my pottery, I could really build something.
00:06:54
Speaker
And so that's really what happened is one day I was just like, I put in my two weeks and I was just like, all right, let's just jump in. Let's see how this works. And, you know, prior to jumping it, I had, you know, I'd been working at this, the pottery studio for a long time and eventually I got my own wheel and brought it home. You
Demand and Pricing Challenges
00:07:17
Speaker
know, I kind of rearranged my apartment.
00:07:20
Speaker
into a little studio, very, you know, literally a wheel in the living room. And I got a small kiln set up. My landlord didn't know I set up a small kiln in one of the other rooms. And, you know, just kind of, it was a hobby. But at the same time, I was like, I really think I got something going here.
00:07:43
Speaker
And so yeah, after getting sales and stuff, being at Starbucks, I was like, I think I need, I could leave Starbucks now and do my own thing. So that's kind of how it happened. So before you put your two weeks notice in at Starbucks, what were you feeling? Like, what were the emotions you were feeling? You know, I was really just kind of,
00:08:09
Speaker
going with the flow with everything you know i wasn't i didn't have a business plan i wasn't strategizing i just knew that i had an audience at the time on instagram and i had a lot of people knocking on my door like hey i want a piece i want a piece and i had
00:08:26
Speaker
just things were really happening and growing and so I was more just excited about that and Starbucks for me was just kind of more of a it was like I got to let this go I got to cut this branch off you know so that I can grow in this direction and so
00:08:45
Speaker
You know, I can't exactly remember what I was feeling seven years ago, but I know when I left Starbucks, I was scared, but also very excited. It was one of the most exhilarating moments of my life, you know, to take off on your own business. And I just kind of felt like I was free falling, but I just trusted that everything was going to be okay. So yeah, I felt very alive at that time. Very scared. What would you say was your biggest obstacle when you went full time?
00:09:15
Speaker
It was the demand. Looking back, I wish that I had understood pricing a little bit more. I was practically giving my work away and just working myself to the bone. I didn't have anyone to guide me, so I was just taking orders and just kind of like
00:09:43
Speaker
things were just building. I was getting so many orders and kind of realizing, oh gosh, this is gonna, you know, I'm trying to set people's expectations for how long something is gonna take. And I just kind of, I remember just being really overwhelmed in the beginning. And I know if I had adjusted my pricing a little bit more, I probably would have been able to throttle that and catch up in the beginning. So that was kind of,
00:10:12
Speaker
to answer your question, yeah. So let's talk about your pottery.
Evolution of Pottery Style
00:10:17
Speaker
In one sentence, can you tell me what you make? I make handmade, hand-sculpted pieces inspired by nature. So tell me the story of how you started making the pottery that you make today.
00:10:30
Speaker
So I've had a lot of iterations with my pottery from, I'm most well known for my crystals, but I've done everything from flowers to skulls and cacti and horse, everything. But I was, I started with my crystals and it really just
00:10:53
Speaker
I, when I started getting diving deeper into the pottery, you know, I was wanting, I got into it to make this like kind of Japanese wasabi aesthetic. But I also started to realize, oh, I could put crystals on my work.
00:11:08
Speaker
And I originally wanted to use real crystals and I thought, you know, I could fire them into the clay. But when I realized that you really can't fire crystals into clay, I thought, well, you know, maybe I can make the crystals out of clay. And so I got some of my favorite crystals and I've always loved rocks and minerals. Ever since I was a kid, I thought I was going to be a geologist and
00:11:32
Speaker
I just have a fascination with kind of everything magical and special. So I just kind of sat down with my crystals and tried to figure out, you know, how I could achieve that shape and started to get, you know, in a direction. Originally, a lot of my work looked kind of like dragon scales and it didn't look, you know, the way it does now. And just over time having made
00:12:00
Speaker
probably thousands of crystal mugs. I know which direction every single crystal goes, and I just have developed kind of a signature style. But yeah, it all just started with loving crystals and wanting... I've seen other ceramic artists who have crystals on their work, but for me,
00:12:26
Speaker
I thought, if I'm going to make a crystal mug, I want in your face, I want huge crystals, like just very maximalism at the time. And so that's really kind of how it started where you just have this mug that has, it's just flushed with crystals. So yeah. So as you mentioned earlier, you are inspired by nature. How does this impact your pottery?
00:12:49
Speaker
Well, I mean, I'm just constantly looking around my surroundings and taking things in, anything I find beautiful. Like probably a month ago, we had some primrose that were blooming and I thought, God, that would be just so beautiful on a cup. I'm always just wanting to kind of capture nature and share it with people. And, you know, I think that's really what every artist is doing in a way, just trying to
00:13:16
Speaker
You know mimic nature and and in that we're just appreciating it so much.
Creative Process of Unicorn Sculptures
00:13:21
Speaker
So yeah, it's kind of You know how that inspires me So very recently you started making unicorn mugs. Can you tell me the story about this? Yeah, god, how did it even okay, so I do know how it started so and that's the other thing is everything kind of has like a one step leads to another because
00:13:45
Speaker
Getting to unicorn mugs really started with my desert collection where I was making these peony mugs. And the peony mugs eventually moved me to being interested in sculpting cow skull mugs. And I'd never really done that sort of sculpture before. And I was really intimidated by it. And I was like, this is going to be so difficult. And I eventually got really into making these cow skulls.
00:14:15
Speaker
And I thought to myself, you know, I started wanting to go in another direction after the cow schools and I was like thinking horses. And I thought, oh my God, unicorns, because I've been obsessed with unicorns since I was a kid. And I just kind of, I was like, let's just try to make a unicorn mug. And I, you know, I still have the very first one and, you know, to me now it looks awful, but,
00:14:43
Speaker
It didn't start with just me seeing a unicorn. I had some skills that had been building up and I felt like I was then in a place where I could explore unicorns. Probably back when I was doing crystals, I never would have thought to myself to explore doing that sort of sculpture with unicorns.
00:15:05
Speaker
So can you give me a simplified explanation on how you are creating your sculptures onto your pottery? So I do hand sculpt every single unicorn. I don't use molds for anything that I make. And I basically just kind of take the general shape like kind of a triangle and I
00:15:28
Speaker
put it on the mug with slip and just start to chip away at it and get the general shape. It's really everything is done on the mug versus it being made and then put on the mug. So yeah, the entire piece is just made entirely on the mug. So why do you do it on the mug rather than doing it outside of the mug and attaching it later?
00:15:56
Speaker
Sorry, there's a truck going by, so it's gonna be loud. It's all good. So the reason why I make the piece on the mug is because my mugs, they have a roundness to them. And because the unicorn itself takes me probably about an hour and a half to make. And if you were to make something flat,
00:16:24
Speaker
It's gonna be hard, it's gonna just warp things, you know, when you try to place it on the mug. So I like to start as early as I can on the mug so that I can adhere to the shape of the mug and really just work with the shape of the mug. And it also helps me because, you know, my mugs, you know, might have kind of a, you know, one might be slightly taller than the next. And it helps me to just fully work on that piece and really see that piece as the canvas.
00:16:52
Speaker
and just be able to work from there. I feel like if I worked separately and then attached it, I would also be worried about it staying on the mug versus with these, because I put the slip on them, they really just stay on there. I don't have to worry about it coming off due to drawing in a weird way or something like that.
00:17:19
Speaker
What advice would you give to someone trying to add sculptures onto their own pottery? Well, I think to start, you want to make sure that the clay body that you're attaching to and the clay that you're using for the sculpture are around the same dryness or wetness. You don't want your mug to be really dry and the clay you're working with really wet because then
00:17:47
Speaker
that clay that's really dry is already at a certain contraction and also just absorbency with the water and it'll just create problems down the road. So that's one of the first things I make sure is that my clay is around the same wetness. And I think that's a really important part and I don't know.
00:18:10
Speaker
There are just so many things to sculpt and it just kind of really depends on What the person is doing I guess So I think that's that would be my one piece of advice is understanding like how how wet things are I think another thing is knowing how much something is protruding from
00:18:32
Speaker
the piece itself. In the beginning with my pieces, I had things that were sticking out sometimes two inches. I look back on, I'm like, why would I do that? So I try to keep things now closer to the, as close as I can. It's sticking out so far. So those are probably two things I consider that are important.
00:18:58
Speaker
So let's talk about discovering your voice.
Finding Unique Artistic Voice
00:19:01
Speaker
Can you tell me about the moment when you knew you were heading in the right direction with your pottery? Yeah, you know, I really wasn't when I started, I wasn't trying to make a business. I wasn't trying to. I was really just kind of flowing with things and.
00:19:20
Speaker
It wasn't until I looked back that I see, oh, that is my voice. It's very signature to me. I can tell that I made that, or I can tell when I made that. Let me think about this, the best way to phrase it. Hmm.
00:19:41
Speaker
I think it just was so natural. And I think it's almost like you're handwriting. Everyone just has a different handwriting. And so I think it's kind of maybe in the beginning when people are starting off, they like to, or it's a good exercise to look at other artists and kind of see what they're doing. And then eventually
00:20:02
Speaker
once you kind of under because it's a good skill it's a good exercise to do to gain a skill is to kind of you know copy other artists for a little bit and see like how did they do that or what did they do and then eventually you start to put your own voice into it so but i don't i don't think i ever had a moment where
00:20:26
Speaker
you know, I felt like I was, that I didn't have my own voice. I think I was always just in this very creative space and I still am in a creative space where I'm just kind of, you know, so there's no intention of, okay, how do I make this my voice? You know, I just kind of, if I'm going to make a flower, you know, I just kind of know, you know,
00:20:49
Speaker
how I'm going to make it. And I don't really look at, nature is always my reference. So I don't really look at other artists. I mean, when I was starting the horses, I did look at how other people sculpted their horses just to kind of understand things. But eventually I always go to the main source and that's where I get my, you know, buy
00:21:14
Speaker
imitating nature, you know, eventually your own voice comes into it.
00:21:20
Speaker
Absolutely agree. Shaping Nation, you already have a voice just like you have your own handwriting style. You just have to start doing things that are more interesting to you so that voice actually starts coming to life more. I love that so much. Right. So you contribute your growth as an artist to social media.
Importance of Social Media
00:21:40
Speaker
How have you used social media to help you grow as an artist?
00:21:44
Speaker
I mean, social media is just a really, an amazing tool to reach a worldwide audience. You know, in the beginning, back in 2015, Instagram was so different. You know, you could just do nice photography and some good hashtags and people just found you and shared you. It was very different. These days, social media is a little bit more, you have to put in a lot more work.
00:22:12
Speaker
But, you know, in the beginning when I was starting off, it was me putting my work out there on social media and being shared by other people that were passionate about my work and just growing from there, continuing to share. And it was very organic in the beginning. There was, you know,
00:22:35
Speaker
I didn't really have to do a lot of work on social media. Now, you know, making reels and engaging and doing lives and just everything, it's a lot more work on social media and there are different platforms as well. And I think it's just kind of all about, you know, I'm definitely like an older generation. I see a lot of the newer generation potters on TikTok doing really well, you know, and they're kind of, they have their own vibe.
00:23:04
Speaker
I think it just kind of, you got to just find what vibe works for you and share the way you want to share. But definitely use social media as a tool. When I see artists that don't use social media as a tool, you're kind of selling yourself short. You're not getting all the benefits of a huge audience that you could be getting.
00:23:29
Speaker
What can people start doing to get better at social media to help them sell and expand their own work? Well, there are a lot of there are a lot of things. I mean, right now, social media is very much about, you know, videos and reels and TikToks and.
00:23:47
Speaker
It's, I think you kind of have to do your own research because one person will tell you on TikTok that videos need to be three minutes and another person will tell you they need to be seven seconds, you know, and I think you have to find what works for you. I think the most important thing is engagement though, you know, you've got to
00:24:08
Speaker
It's just like if your art was in a gallery, you know, you would eventually build up a clientele that you would have a relationship with and social media is really no different. Think of it as like your online gallery treated as that. And that's really...
00:24:24
Speaker
That's that's an important thing is to, if you have a page that's dedicated to your work, treat it as a gallery, you know, take good photos. I had to learn photography, you know, I had to.
00:24:39
Speaker
spend thousands on a really good camp. You don't have to spend thousands. But for me, after using my iPhone for probably two years for my product photography and just kind of getting to a ceiling, I realized I need to step up, you know, what I'm offering or what I'm sharing so that I can get more engagement and more sales. And so I ended up getting a really nice camera with a macro lens and
00:25:10
Speaker
teaching myself photography teaching myself white room and there are a lot of things that you know
00:25:16
Speaker
you do have to learn to be successful with social media. And I think however much work you put into it, you will see that work pay you back. So when I started doing my nicer photography, it really made a difference. People could really understand my work more, they could see the beauty of it. And now with the Reels and the TikToks, you're allowing people to come into your studio, see more of how you work,
00:25:45
Speaker
They get to know your personality a lot more and that's really important for engagement because people want to buy from someone who they can relate with and who they like and who makes them laugh or who interests them. So social media is really a powerful tool that a person should learn to harness for sure.
00:26:09
Speaker
Definitely agree shaping nation. You have to find your own vibe much like with your own pottery for social media So you start doing things to start being able to sell your work start being able to expand your own voice and to just have an More enjoyable time with it. I love that so much. So as we are coming to a close here What is one thing you want to hammer home with my audience today? Hmm
Pottery as a Medium of Expression
00:26:34
Speaker
I think the most important thing with pottery, you know, as an artist is that you're getting to share a part of your mind, a part of your soul with the world. And especially with pottery, there's sort of a permanence to it. You know, people dig up pots from hundreds or thousands of years ago. And who knows, you know, where your work could end up.
00:26:58
Speaker
And it's very exciting and I think it's important to share what you're passionate about and just build your audience and build the people that support you around that.
00:27:15
Speaker
always use that as your North Star and just kind of guiding you and staying inspired and it's normal to have times where you're not inspired and when you're crazy inspired and not sleeping at night because you have so many ideas and to just flow with that always just flow with things and
00:27:34
Speaker
You know, I've had months where, you know, I thought to myself, is this it? Is this the end? Are people no longer interested in my work? And, you know, you find there are so many extenuating circumstances that you have no control over. And it's important to just, if you're passionate about it, just keep going, just keep doing it and, you know, make it work. So that's what I would say.
00:27:59
Speaker
Definitely, definitely agree. That was some excellent parting words. Colin, it was so great chatting with you today. Where can my audience go and learn more about you? So I'm on TikTok and Instagram and Etsy, S-R-I ceramics. That's E-S-S-A-R-A-I underscore ceramics. And yeah, I'm pretty active on everything. So you can check me out on that.
00:28:26
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.