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Crafting Connections: Nicole Curcio's Journey in Pottery and Art
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In this episode of 'Shaping Your Pottery,' host Nic Torres interviews Nicole Curcio a passionate potter and painter. Nicole challenges the notion of comparing one's work to others, emphasizing the importance of individual growth and mental well-being. She shares her journey from falling in love with pottery in high school to the steps she is taking to establish a community pottery studio in Portugal. Nicole also highlights the significance of taking workshops, collaborating with other artists, and the meditative power of repetition in art. The conversation delves into the balance of art and business, navigating the creative journey, and the importance of making time to play and experiment. Nicole encourages listeners to engage with the artistic community, find inspiration in their surroundings, and ultimately, pursue what excites them in their creative endeavors. You can learn more about Nicole by checking out her instagram https://www.instagram.com/well.traveled.wares/
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00:00 Challenging Pottery Beliefs 00:40 Falling in Love with Pottery 01:22 The Importance of Artistic Community 02:56 Building a Pottery Studio in Portugal 07:47 The Evolution of My Pottery Style 20:33 The Business Side of Pottery 29:31 Discovering Your Unique Voice 35:35 Final Thoughts and Advice
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Transcript
The Dangers of Social Media Comparisons
00:00:00
Speaker
Nicole, welcome to Shape Your Pottery and share with me what's a commonly held belief in the pottery world that you passionately disagree with. and Well, I thought about this one for a minute and I think I would just say I don't know that it's a belief so much, but something that I see people doing, especially with social media, don't compare your work to other people. but Don't get down on yourself or think that you're not doing your best when you're looking at something that somebody else is doing.
00:00:24
Speaker
And also don't put so much stock in social media as a like a follower count as a measure of success. I think everybody's kind of existing in their own little worlds and social media gives us a really narrow worldview. So at least in, if you're looking at things in terms of follower count. Definitely agree.
Discovering Pottery After an Injury
00:00:40
Speaker
So tell me the story, how you got started making pottery. I started in high school actually. I started my junior year in high school and it was love at first clay. And I've been sort of chasing after it on and off ever since then. So.
00:00:54
Speaker
I also started my junior year of high school. So that's very interesting. Although it wasn't love at first play for me. It took a while. Oh, yeah. Did you leave it for when you didn't like it at first and then you had to go back to it or? Well, it wasn't that I didn't like it. It was more like I was in love with it. But it wasn't until I injured my knee playing baseball like later on that year. i I couldn't do anything all summer. So all I did was just watch poverty videos. And like, that's when I started falling in love with it. OK, cool.
Fostering Creativity Through Collaboration
00:01:22
Speaker
So you contribute growth as an artist to working around other artists and taking workshops. Tell me more about this. Well, I think that and jet I can't speak for everybody, but I think we're generally inspired by being out in the world. And creatively, it's really easy to get obsessed with certain style or process, at least for me. um So I can get really like,
00:01:44
Speaker
laser focused on something and you know spend a lot of time alone in the studio I found that forcing myself out to take workshops and hang out with other artists he really encourages a dialogue and exchange of ideas and it forces you to try new things and not to be so niche down. I mean ceramics is one of those mediums where there are countless ways to do the same thing and so many different techniques like I've been doing it for 30 years and I'm still learning new things all of the time so I think that's taking workshops and spending time with other people can only help you. So you mentioned that dialogue happens when you take these workshops. Tell me more about this dialogue. I mean, I think just sharing of ideas, seeing how somebody is doing something that you wouldn't necessarily think to do yourself, asking them questions about how or why. And just, you know, human contact, I think is helpful just to have like basic, hey, how are you? Where are you from kind of conversation? You just learn about other people and
00:02:42
Speaker
I don't know, it's a good way to connect, keep us grounded. I absolutely love that. Shaped Nation, the more you get around other artists, other potters, the easier it becomes to get new ideas and to actually start expanding your work even more. I absolutely love that. For
Building a Community Studio in Portugal
00:02:56
Speaker
sure. So now, over the last 20 years, you have dreamed of making a community pottery studio, and now you're finally making one in Portugal. Tell me the story about this.
00:03:06
Speaker
well It's a long story, but to to to do the Cliffs' Notes, I, in my early 20s, went to Sanibel Island with an ex-boyfriend's family and found this really cool artist collective that was all housed under one cute little craftsman bungalow house and all of the artists pitched in and helped keep the place running and took turns, you know,
00:03:26
Speaker
opening the doors or merchandising, everybody had their own dedicated display space and I just thought it was a really cool model of community coming together. um And as I had different experiences with the arts or just in life, i I worked for a decorative painter when I lived in Connecticut and she had a studio in this old, like,
00:03:46
Speaker
Kind of from the outside, dilapidated looking warehouse space, but inside there were just these amazing artist studios and art all over the walls and cool gatherings that the collective artists would put together. So just kind of seeing that and then working in what became a corporate job, I'm getting off topic anyway, I had a lot of experience just doing things that brought people together and arts adjacent um stuff. So I've been just thinking about it. And as I've had different jobs and different experiences over the years, the model of what I want has sort of evolved as well. And we wanted to do this here in Oregon on the Oregon coast. But you know, the United States is kind of cost prohibitive, especially with the cost of health care. So in 2016, we started looking outside of the US and we had like a fairly long short list of places and eventually over the years narrowed it down.
00:04:36
Speaker
um to portugal And in 2021, I actually was listening to a podcast about living in Portugal and this ceramic artist was interviewed. And I just thought to myself, God, she sounds really cool. Like I want to talk to her. I don't know this part of Portugal. and We hadn't narrowed in on like where specifically we wanted to be. And so I reached out to her.
00:04:55
Speaker
um just to say like hey would you be willing to talk to me and long story short three months later i was in portugal staying with her and her partner sharing her studio space exchanging ideas and knowledge and we realized that we both kind of had a really similar pathway and dream so for the past three years we've been talking about that and sort of landed on opening this place in portugal together that will have a space for local artists to have memberships because as we all know ceramics equipment is expensive and electricity is extra expensive there. And so it's really hard for people to have their own studio spaces. So we want to offer something for members. We want to offer classes and workshops for people that are just interested in learning more about ceramics, especially some of the traditional Portuguese techniques that are sort of. Well, my alica is really popular because they're known for their tiles, but there's some other cool techniques that are sort of getting lost as the elder artists are kind of.
00:05:51
Speaker
passing away and taking their secrets with them. So sharing that and then having a resident space for artists and a gallery for people to show their work that they make there and just a place for people to come together and have open studio and all the things that we're talking about, experience that community and learn from each other and grow together. So yeah, we're doing it in Portugal. We're moving actually almost a month from today. We're leaving Oregon on August 20th. We're driving cross country and we're flying to Portugal on August 31st.
00:06:18
Speaker
absolutely love it. Hopefully I could visit it one day. I hope so. What were you feeling when this opportunity finally came about? It's really exciting. It feels kind of surreal, honestly. I've been thinking I'm kind of a long game person. I think about things for a long time before I do things. I'm a real like neurotic planner. So the whole thing has been You know, we started this in 2016. We converted our garage to an Airbnb in 2019 just so that we could start saving some extra money to be able to go. It's been all of these little tiny baby steps. And then like last November, I feel like we hit on the but gas pedal with accelerating, accelerating the whole process. but Yeah. I mean, it's exciting. It still doesn't feel real, but we actually have been talking. It's going to be a nonprofit association.
00:07:02
Speaker
So we've been talking with two different cities in Portugal in the Silver Coast area about an hour north of Lisbon about having a partnership with the cities to do some kind of work trade where they would provide a building for us and in exchange we would offer art classes for kids or opportunities for local artists to show and sell their work learn about the business side of the the process kind of create an international play hub and we have two cities that are really interested in the project so it's kind of cool to see that after all this time when you start putting it out there that other people recognize that it's a it's a worthwhile endeavor and something that's worth investing in. So I'm really excited to see how the next six months to a year go. I feel like we're on the roller coaster now. you know Absolutely love it. So let's talk about your pottery. Can you tell me the story how you started making the pottery that you make today?
Evolution of Artistic Themes
00:07:52
Speaker
Sure. So I i am a painter and a potter and I kind of over the last
00:08:00
Speaker
a couple decades have vacillated between the two. In 2020 I was doing both and I was on this like deep cityscape dive for like six years. I think it was, I don't know, I think I react to my surroundings and it finds its way into my art. So Portland was having like a big building boom. I had been traveling a lot for work. I had been to a lot of really different big cities and I was on this like crazy chaotic, very full cityscape sort of thing. And at the end of 2019, I was pretty burnt out on it. I was doing a lot of art festivals all over the Pacific Northwest, traveling just like several shows a month, you know. And people love the cityscape work, both in the paintings and on the clay, but it was really hard to sell it. And I was really frustrated and I was really burnt out. And when 2020 happens and kind of forced us all to kind of hit the pause button,
00:08:50
Speaker
It was great because I could actually like take a break from making the things that I had been making and that I had been juried into shows for. And I decided that I was just going to make new planters for all of my house plants. but but And I started doing that and I started posting them online and people really liked them. So it was, that was kind of the the thing that.
00:09:09
Speaker
set the trajectory for the leafy planty things. I've always been into plants and gardening and houseplants and if I go back through sketchbooks all the way to college you can kind of see this theme. It kind of goes back and forth between like botanical and like rigid architecture. My brain seems to shift between the two and I guess right now I'm deep back into the botanical. We love it. So you are inspired by travel and people watching. Tell me more about this and how this impacts the way you make your own pottery.
Finding Inspiration in Travel and Observation
00:09:38
Speaker
Sure. I realized that you found this on my about me page and I need to update it. So that was really when I wrote that. I think I was doing a lot more with the cityscape stuff, but I will say, so I still carry a sketchbook and a journal with me everywhere. I think that travel, if we can put our phones down for a second and like not get sucked into the free TV on the airplane, I think it can be really meditative. And it's just a great way to, you know, think.
00:10:05
Speaker
be alone, interact with people. I feel like travel me is so much cooler than regular me. I'm so, I'm so much more outgoing and can just start conversations with people. And like, I love to sit at an airport bar and just like figure out where people are coming from and going to and like what their story is. And I find that, you know, it works its way into my journals and my sketchbooks. And ultimately I work out my ideas and those quiet traveling times. So sometimes I revisit those moments and they find their way into my artwork in one way or another.
00:10:32
Speaker
I definitely agree with having like time for just being quiet away from like technology and stuff. I feel like it helps so much, especially creatively as well. Definitely. And my idea is I feel like I incubate on things for a long time. Like I can think about something sometimes for years before I actually do anything with it, you know? And then all of a sudden you have that aha moment when you're in the studio, like, Oh, I finally figured out how to like take this thing that's been in my head and get it out. So those.
00:10:58
Speaker
There's travel moments and talking to strangers sometimes helps me with that. So you mentioned that you carry a sketchbook in a journal. Tell me more about that. um Yeah, I love moleskin. I'm like a weirdo. I have a very specific pen. I like the micron pens and the moleskin journals, and I have one for sketching and one for journaling. And yeah, sometimes I love to, like, I love to sketch people who are sleeping on mass transit. It's very safe. I've been caught by people who I've been sketching before and they're either like really interested or they're completely offended and weirded out by it. So it's just, I don't know. It's just kind of a fun way to capture a moment.
00:11:34
Speaker
both in words and visually. You know, sometimes I can look back through sketchbooks that, like and when I went to Thailand, how long ago was that? Like 14 years ago I went to Thailand, but I have all of these sketches of people that I saw and met there and just places, and I can look at that and it's almost more memorable than the words that I wrote while I was traveling there. You know, it kind of takes you back, so it's kind of a nice way to connect and be present in your surroundings.
00:12:01
Speaker
and Capture a little moment. Do you think everyone should start using a ah sketchbook? I mean, I don't know. Everybody is so different, right? All of our brains work differently. I think it helps. I mean, I think it's just nice to be able to doodle. I, a long time ago, committed to using a sketchbook and pen instead of pencil because I didn't want to have to think about being able to erase things, you know, like just committing to the fact that it's permanent and it doesn't have to be perfect. and I mean, I guess that's a good thing. Depending on what rules you set for yourself and what your purpose is for sketchbooking, I think if you're a control freak,
00:12:36
Speaker
or somebody who really strives for perfection doing something that's really loose and casual and doesn't have to have an end result and isn't meant for a specific audience can be really helpful just to like make work just for you just to play. I absolutely love that. Shape Nation sometimes the best solution is just to play around whether you make playing around with clay or playing around which is art in general just go out there and play because you're going to learn something from it.
00:13:01
Speaker
So true. So something I love that you do is that you do a lot of collaboration with other artists.
The Impact of Artistic Collaboration
00:13:07
Speaker
How does collaboration help with elevating your own pottery and style? So I, I reached out to people that I really admire and respect their work. And sometimes, you know, we compare something that I said not to do. I'm like, Oh my gosh, these people are so much better than me. And I need to, if I'm sending them something, I didn't want them looking at what I said and being like,
00:13:25
Speaker
Oh, why did you build it this way? Or why did you leave those little finger marks there? So I really find I get extra meticulous on the things that I know I'm collaborating on people with. And I would say that I think it's a really great way to release creative control and to help you see your own work with a different sort of possibility. I mean.
00:13:43
Speaker
As an example, I've done collaborations with people long distance. Like I said, and one of the collaborations that's up right now is with Diana Adams, whose sample house also in California. And she asked me to send her work leather hard. And she, I had my little bookends in mind and she wanted one of my Monstera planters. And in my head, I was like, why would you want that?
00:14:02
Speaker
like I couldn't imagine what she was going to do with it because I have it in my head as such a very specific outcome how I make this pot and how I glaze it even though I do different glazes and different techniques like it was very anchored in my head as a very certain look and what Diana did with it was so completely like nothing I could have possibly imagined and I love it and I think it's amazing and it's so cool so now it's kind of got me rethinking how to proceed with some of these forms that I'm working on. And the the other option is, you know, actually collaborating with somebody in the studio, like my business partner, Mariana and Hearst Graffito and, or, or working with my friend Corey who lives in Mexico or Alexis who has bookends up right now, who's not even a ceramic artist, just having them in the studio and being able to have conversations and talk through ideas and just kind of, ah you know,
00:14:50
Speaker
I just think it's really helpful to to push us out of our own comfort zones. Corey was really apprehensive. She is a painter and a ceramic artist, but she doesn't doesn't throw pots or make the pots herself. She buys pre-made bisque ware, and then she does all the decorative work with underglazes. And so when she was here, she had the opportunity to work with a leather hard piece that I had made. And she was really like nervous and excited, and it kind of pushed her into this difference. She's like, I think I'm just going to paint eyeballs on it because that's what I've been doing.
00:15:16
Speaker
And I was like, oh. And I wasn't into the idea, but I'm like, all right, well, I don't want to put any pressure on this. Like, do whatever you want to do. That's totally cool. Like, why don't you play on this lab? And she kind of went down this completely different pathway and came up with these really cool abstract blooms and like ended up carving into it, which was something that she didn't get to do. And we were both so excited about how it came out. So I just think it's it's ah it's a fun way to collaborate and push ourselves out of our comfort zones.
00:15:41
Speaker
Debri, so you mentioned that you shipped the piece in the leather hard form. How the heck did you ship it in leather hard? There's actually a really funny story about this. So I shipped a couple pieces leather hard. I actually saw, I think it was Kate Schroeder ceramics did this thing where she collaborated with somebody and she blew a balloon up inside of the form.
00:16:00
Speaker
To give you a little extra strength, which I thought was brilliant. So for me with the bookends, I did exactly that. I blew up a little balloon inside of it just so that they wouldn't be as squishable. And then I have a friend who is a furniture upholsterer. So she gives me all of her leftover foam cuts. So I basically built the box and like built this very insulated foam structure around it. I wrapped it in tons of plastic before I put it in.
00:16:22
Speaker
And then just gently insulated it with like furniture foam and packing peanuts and I sent it. But the funny thing is with Diana, she's just in Long Beach. I sent her three pieces. I sent them each in separate boxes. And the week before I had sent hers out, I sent out three other packages. Two were collaborations and one was to a customer.
00:16:41
Speaker
And somehow I accidentally double printed the labels for the three I had shipped the previous week. So when I went to go ship Diana's, I didn't realize that her labels had fallen onto the floor and I just grabbed the three that were on the printer and cut them and put them on the boxes without even looking at them. And then, you know, paid for expedited shipping to get them to her. And then when they weren't there, like they're in the system and I'm like upset with the post office and I went back and forth like a bunch of different times. And then I found her labels on the floor like five or six days later.
00:17:09
Speaker
Realize that instead of shipping them to Long Beach. They went to Ohio upstate New York and Arizona and those people Two of them didn't open and they just went ahead and sent them back to her and the other one had opened them and was like Did I agree to do a second set of bookends with you for Tony young I sent them and he was like I got your bookings last week, but now I just got this extra pair of leather hard ones. Was there like a conversation that I missed that we had? And it was like, oh my God, that's where they are. So he was nice enough to pack them back up and send them to Diana. But they basically like went all over the country and then back to the West Coast and they were still leather hard and able to carve. So I'm feeling really, really positive about my pottery packing abilities. I absolutely love that. know how can How can someone start collaborating with other artists, especially when they aren't really well known?
00:17:54
Speaker
I didn't think being well-known has anything to do with collaboration, honestly. I mean, when I started collaborating with people, I started with friends and coworkers. um i I had a totally different corporate job, but a couple of my coworkers were also artists and it was just a cool way to get together and hang out outside of work and not think about work stuff, but just, you know, get together and make some stuff and realize we had some similar ideas and see like, how do we fuse your illustration and my ceramics or and My friend Cory and I used to collaborate when she was here visiting from Mexico, so I think you can start collaborating with anybody, and if you, um, yeah, I mean, if you really want to collaborate with a bigger artist or big name artist, I guess I'm using air quotes here, all you have to do is ask, you know? You don't know until you do, and I think surely some people will say no, but you will be surprised by how many people say yes.
00:18:45
Speaker
ah So I think you just have to ask and hope for the best. Like most things in life, right? Like you have to you have to put yourself out there to move forward. I absolutely love that. Shaping Nation, the simplest thing that you can do is just to simply ask. And once you get that first one out of the way, all the other ones become a lot easier to ask. I love that. So now, can you briefly walk me through the steps you take when creating one of your pots?
The Pottery Creation Process
00:19:12
Speaker
Sure. I mean, I think it depends on what and Excuse me, what I'm trying to make, which part you're talking about, but most things come with like an idea that I think about probably for way too long. A lot of times I will sketch it out while I'm thinking about it and and keep thinking about it while I'm making other things, but most of my work starts as wheel thrown.
00:19:31
Speaker
And then there's generally either some carving that happens or some slab build attachments, depending on which direction I'm going. I really love to carve things. So even when I make a slab of something and I attach it to the pot, I find I let it sit until it's a little more leather hard and go back and really carve into it. and And then I didn't used to do this, but I would say in the last four or five years, I've actually started doing glaze tests. ah Now that I'm making these sort of botanical forms that have a sense of movement and wrap around the pot, I'm really interested in the kinds of glaze, like the way that the glaze flows over those surfaces and how different glazes will interact ah to make something really drippy, but not so drippy that it's going to you know stick to the kiln shelf and break your pot. So yeah, I do a lot of glaze testing and then
00:20:16
Speaker
When I'm glazing, it's a lot of layers. I'm using a lot of different glazes in different places and trying to overlap so that they interact in a way that does something cool and different. yeah it's not I don't think I'm doing anything totally outrageous with my with my process. I absolutely love that. Great explanation of that. so Let's talk about the business side of pottery. Can you tell me about the moment when you knew you were... Sorry. Wow.
00:20:41
Speaker
That okay, that was way off. So okay let's talk about the business side of pottery.
Transitioning to Full-Time Pottery
00:20:46
Speaker
Can you tell me about the moment when you decided to become a full time potter? But I quit in 2012. And at that point, I was doing the art, but I was doing it as like a really small side hustle kind of thing. And I was freelancing. So from 2012 to 2020.
00:21:02
Speaker
twenty to the beginning of 2022, I think it was. I had freelance clients and I was doing my art on the side and over time, you know, the art became more prevalent until they were like both half and half. And then at one point the art in 2020, 2021, I was beginning to get to a place where I wasn't able to keep up with the demand, where people were wanting me to produce things more frequently. They were asking for commissions and special requests and when's your next shop update. And because I had this like 30 hour a week freelance gig, you know, I was splitting my time 30 hours and 30 hours. And I just thought to myself, well, I have one freelance client left. If I walk away from that job,
00:21:41
Speaker
Will I be able to replace that income with, you know, taking that 30 hours and putting it into the ceramics and putting it into the marketing. I'm very blessed to have a marketing and events planning background, public relations background. So I've been really able to apply that to my business and my business planning. So I kind of just thought about, could I do this? but Could I actually promote myself and sell enough that I'm not going to.
00:22:05
Speaker
be in a deficit financially. And so yeah, I quit my last freelance client in 2022. And I've been full time since then. What were you feeling when you quit your last client? A relief and Holy crap, what did I just do? Because it was an easy gig. It was a really, really easy gig and it paid me so well, but I was so bored with it. I had been doing it for five years and I was, I was doing social media for a tortilla company actually. And it was such a fun job, but it was also just like, there's only so much you can talk about tortillas and like not, and not be bored. you know There's only so many like taco and nacho how to videos you can make. So.
00:22:43
Speaker
It was fun, but it was, yeah, it was, it was a little nerve wracking to walk away from it. Especially when we knew we were moving and my husband's like, what are you thinking? You could have kept that job while we were in Portugal and like getting on our feet. You've just lost like a couple thousand dollars away every month on this thing that was so easy. But yeah, I just, I had to do it. I had to know if I could do it on my own, if I could make it go. What did you learn from your old job that you applied to your current business?
00:23:08
Speaker
Oh gosh, well, I mean, I feel like every job I've had has helped prepare me to be a business owner, especially in this this case. Like I, I've been a retail store manager for decor businesses. I've done merchandising, I've done public relations, events planning, social media, content development. All of the things have really just helped me figure out that, you know, you need to have a strategy. You need to think about a sales plan and looking at numbers and How do you find your audience? I mean, I think there was a question, I don't know if it got lost or if it was one of the ones that got struck, but we, you had asked about connecting and selling your work. And maybe we just haven't gotten there yet. We might not have gotten there yet, but like having all of this background in marketing and sales has really helped me realize that like my art is not going to be for everybody. And if I want to sell it.
00:23:56
Speaker
figuring out who my audience is and trying to find those people and connect with those people is the best way to sell it. So I think I got a little off topic there, sorry. How does one find their own audience for their own pottery?
00:24:09
Speaker
That's a good question. I mean, I think for me, it was a mix of doing shows and just like seeing what kind of people respond to your work when you put it out there. Early on, I spent a lot of time, like if somebody was to start following my account or comment on something or send me a message, like I, I'm kind of like a snooper. I go and I look at their profile. or If they have a link, I go and look at their website and I just see like, what are these people into? Like what?
00:24:35
Speaker
what is the appeal and then just kind of doing a little, I do a lot of surveys now with MailChimp or I do surveys in my stories just to kind of get feedback from people. But yeah, I think for me, it was kind of easy because I was making planters and plants were having a boom. I mean, I've been making planters forever, but it just kind of worked out that people got really into plants right about the same time that I was trying to make a full time push for this thing. So yeah, I think you just kind of have to pay attention to the people that respond to your work. So now what do you think works well for you with being able to sell your own pottery?
00:25:05
Speaker
Well, like I said, finding finding your niche, finding your audience and realizing that, you know, not everything you make is going to agree with everybody, but um also not getting complacent, you know, continuing to innovate and try new ideas just because something is working now doesn't mean that either it's not.
00:25:24
Speaker
gonna keep working forever or you know a lot of times the the blessing and the curse of social media as you put something out there and people see it and they think it's cool and then they start making it too maybe not exactly the same thing or or that ideas evolve at the same time in a parallel way and they pop up at the same time you know so I think just to and get too comfortable making the same thing forever or like being comfortable enough to take a thing that's doing well and set it aside for a little while and work on something else and then you have like a body of different things that you can pull from and go back to and bring back when when enough time has passed not to oversaturate.
00:25:57
Speaker
But yeah, I mean, I think just you know finding your audience, continuing to innovate, being nimble, I think taking good photographs and knowing how to promote yourself in your work, I think is really hard for a lot of artists. I mean, it's hard for me too, and I'm just like, I try to like separate my personal from my business, you know? It's not about me, it's about the work that I'm making. um But I know so many potters who are so talented and so amazing, and they struggle because they are not comfortable promoting themselves, and they're not comfortable, or they don't wanna take good photos, you know, they just take a photo and there's like,
00:26:26
Speaker
it's not aesthetically pleasing and it could be the most beautiful piece of work, but people might scroll right past it because it hasn't, it's not popping off the page at them, you know, and trying to connect with people. I mean, I think anytime you have an opportunity to talk to somebody who's interested in your work and get feedback and hear their interpretation of it and and be a little thick skinned about it, not take things personally, you know, just like listen to it. I mean, some people just make comments that are callous and dumb, but I mean, there is a lot of people, more people are interested in,
00:26:54
Speaker
you know, having a dialogue and and making a connection. I feel like especially I don't know. Showing the human behind the art and being a little vulnerable and transparent, I think that really helps people connect, especially when we're in a place where you can go and buy a mug for five bucks at IKEA. Like somebody, oh, I guess I can't remember who it was, but I've seen a few different people post recently about these conversations that they're having in markets. Like, why would I ever spend $80 in a mug or $150 on a mug? And like making people understand that it's like, hey, I'm one human, right? And this whole thing from start to finish is all made by my hands.
00:27:27
Speaker
And there's so many things as part of the process that people don't even realize like reclaiming the clay, wedging clay, all the pieces that are part of the process that don't make it to completion, you know, all of the all of the years of education and practice and trying and things that go into that price point. So I think when you can connect with somebody in a real way and and connect with them to say, like, hey, I'm a human and I'm doing this thing. They get personally invested in you and the experience of purchasing something from a maker. I mean, I jokingly say sometimes when you sell it, when I sell my art, I'm selling like a little tiny piece of my soul with every piece.
00:27:59
Speaker
but I mean, I think that's true. You sell a little bit of yourself with your art in a good way. I mean, not like in a sellout kind of way, but like people are buying a piece of you. They're buying a piece of the artist. They're and investing in what you're doing. So just thinking about ways to make those real connections with people are really helpful. So you mentioned showing the human behind the work. How do you show the human behind your work? Oh, gosh.
00:28:22
Speaker
Well, I guess on social media I try to, it's much easier to put pictures of my art up there, but I try, I've been trying more and more to force myself to be in front of the camera and show the process and show my goofy side and and when I talk about things to not just show all of the good stuff you know to show the errors and to show the struggles and even with this whole thing I don't post a lot about it in my feed but in my stories I will talk about the trials and tribulations of moving to a different country and planning a whole other business and
00:28:54
Speaker
I have an email newsletter, I blog, I try to write ah at least one blog a month if not two and kind of blog about the things that are happening behind the scenes so I will link to that in my newsletters and just to try to really like if somebody takes the time to to send me a message or to comment on something that I've posted I or really try to be diligent about maybe those exceptions where people are just saying dumb shit that you know like trolls you know you don't want to make time for those people but the people that are legit interested in what you're doing it's nice to connect. I mean, yeah. I absolutely love that advice. That was some excellent advice right there. So let's talk about discovering your
Finding Fulfillment in Pottery
00:29:31
Speaker
voice. Can you tell me about the moment when you knew you were heading in the right direction with your pottery? Ah, that's a good question. I, you know, I don't, I don't know that I, I guess when you say right direction,
00:29:45
Speaker
What context are you talking about? Like as a personally fulfilling, I feel personally fulfilled by my artwork right direction or like financially lucrative right direction. What's for you personally fulfilled with your work. Okay. I can speak to that.
00:29:59
Speaker
When I'm making things that excite me, I think early on, um, I was so focused on the art I was making being able to fill the gap for the finances that I was not making like really great stuff. I was making stuff that I was, I was trying to make stuff that I thought would sell instead of making stuff that I was excited about. And as I've gone on in the process, I would say that, yeah, more and more, I just want to make things that make me excited. Taking an idea.
00:30:25
Speaker
and exploring it through a bunch of different processes, you know. I think when I realized that I wanted to fuse functional and sculptural, that was kind of a big aha moment for me because I I liked the art of sculpture. I was in college. I spent a lot of time doing really large scale sculptures. And I think I got away from it because in my head I was like, well, if I'm going to do this professionally, it's a lot easier to sell functional wares, right? Than it is to sell a giant, weird, elongated abstract human form sculpture. you know but But I think realizing that I can do both of those things together and spend a lot of time on them and just really geek out on the process.
00:31:03
Speaker
I mean, yeah, I would say falling in love with the process was a huge aha moment in terms of knowing I was on the right track. When you love what you're doing and it's all you can think about, well, maybe that's a little unhealthy, but it's kind of worrying about. We call it the clay madness in my house. I'm having a clay madness moment. ah So. I absolutely love that. So now, outside of being around other artists and taking workshops, you also contribute your growth as an artist to repetition. Can you tell me more about this?
00:31:31
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty simple. If you want to get better at anything, and they say practice, right? So if you're having trouble on the wheel or you want to create the same form that's consistent and efficient, the best way to do it is to sit down and throw 50 or 100 of the same form or to make like I don't know, I've been making these Monstera pots since 2020. And if you go back and you look at the early photos of them to how they are now, they've just gotten better and more elaborate. And it's the same idea. You can see where it starts, but you can kind of follow the transition of like how much more, I don't know, three dimensional andcurvy and curvy and organic the forms become. So I think
00:32:12
Speaker
Yeah, the more you do something, the the more consistent you're going to be, the more you're going to find shortcuts to do it better and faster and and not have problems when you fire it. So, and since we've been talking about meditation, I would say repetition is also kind of meditative, meditative, right? Like your muscle memory can take over after a while and you can actually really think about things. Like I said, I spent a long time thinking about other projects. There's a.
00:32:36
Speaker
There's one piece that was one of my collaborations that my friend Ryan came here from the DC area and threw for me last summer and I carved it. I think I was done carving it in September of last year and then I bisked it and it's just been sitting on a shelf since like last September, or October bisque and I've been staring at it. Every time I'm in the studio, I'm staring at this thing because I'm like, how do I glaze it?
00:32:55
Speaker
You know, especially when you've spent so much time like carving a really detailed intricate form. And then it's like, you know, like the glaze can either make or break the whole piece and there's no, it's not like paint. It's not like you can go back and fix it. Right. So I, I finally finished it last week. Finally finished it and fired it. And I'm so happy with how it came out. But yeah, repetition and just thinking about things and testing, testing, testing, testing, testing. So. Absolutely love that shaping nation. The simplest thing you could do to grow your voice, to grow your pottery, to grow your art.
00:33:25
Speaker
is repetition. The more repetition you do, the simplest thing that you can do to grow your work. I absolutely love that.
Advice for Aspiring Potters
00:33:32
Speaker
So now, what advice would you give to someone looking to discover their own unique voice with their pottery? I would say make work you love and feel excited about.
00:33:41
Speaker
get out into the world, go to museums, go to gallery shows, go to artist talks, go to critique nights. There's a ah really great community studio here in Portland that offers like a monthly artist critique and not it's a ceramic studio but they have it open to all kinds of artists and I went to a few and it was actually really interesting just to hear again it's that way to connect and get a different perspective on your work and get like really meaningful feedback from people but just to experiment a lot and maybe don't think too hard about selling your work at first try to try to experiment with things until you find something that you love and and then if you feel like you really need to sell your work then try to get it out there that way but yeah
00:34:22
Speaker
And falling in love with the process, I would say, I think a lot of times newer potters, myself included when I was new to it, it's really easy to get frustrated if you spend a ton of time on something and it explodes in the kiln or, you know, any, any multitude, I could think of any multitude of like things that happen over the course of learning and pottery. There's so many ways that you can fail over the fail, you know, I mean, but don't be discouraged by it and don't give up on it and, and, and use it as an opportunity to like troubleshoot and figure out why it happened and use that as a learning experience because you'll always be able to take that onto a piece in the future. Like, oh yeah, the last time I did this, it blew up into a million pieces. So when I make this other thing.
00:35:00
Speaker
What can I do differently? You know, just, yeah, fall in love with the process because you're going to spend so much more time making. And I would also say be inspired by other artists while you're out in the world and talking to people and seeing things. If you see an idea you like, like it's cool to be inspired by it. If you can do it and make it your own and not copy it exactly. I mean, I think there's not that much that's new in the world. So looking at what's out there and how to, how to be inspired by it and make it your own and incorporate it into your own work is is a really good way to start.
00:35:31
Speaker
Some excellent pieces of advice, absolutely loved that. Nicole, it's been a great challenge today. And as we come to a close here, what is one thing you want to hammer home with my listeners today? I would just say remember to make time to play. Get out of the studio and have experiences, experiments, and maybe come to Portugal and stay in our art residency center next year.
00:35:49
Speaker
Absolutely love that. I have to say it. Nicole, it's been great chatting today. Where can my listeners go and learn more about you? Well Traveled Wears is my business name. So that's my website is welltraveledwears.com. My Instagram handle is well.traveled.wears. And yeah, those are the two best places to find me. 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 will want to know how close you are to finding your own unique voice, go to shapingyourpodtery.com forward slash quiz, or you could simply go to shapingyourpodtery.com and it'll be right there at the top. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next time.