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How to find your pottery identity even if you are a beginner
241 Plays2 months ago
In this episode of 'Shaping Your Pottery', Nic Torres explores how to find and cultivate your unique pottery identity, regardless of your experience level. He highlights the importance of identifying personal likes and dislikes, both in and out of pottery, by advocating for self-reflection exercises like listing interests and nostalgia from childhood. He provides practical advice, such as taking mindful walks and drawing inspiration from personal history, to help integrate individual interests into pottery work. This approach aims to establish a distinct artistic voice and encourages creativity in any stage of a potter's journey.
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Transcript
Introduction to Pottery and Personal Voice
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey real quick before we get started, if you want to learn more about pottery and to develop your own pottery voice, come join the Shaping Your Pottery newsletter where every Saturday I send out a quick 5 minute email to help you grow your own pottery voice. Go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash newsletter or click the link in the description. Hope to see you there. Now let's get started. Can you find your pottery identity if you've been making pottery for 5 years?
00:00:25
Speaker
What about if you've only been making pottery for a month? Can you still find your pottery identity? Well, in this episode, I'm going to be giving you exactly the way you can start finding your own pottery identity, even if you've only been making pottery for a month.
Finding Your Unique Pottery Voice
00:00:38
Speaker
What is up, Shape Nation? This is Nick Torres here, and as I've heard in the intro, I'm going to be talking about how anybody can start finding their pottery voice, their pottery identity, no matter what stage you're at in your pottery journey.
00:00:51
Speaker
Some of you may be a beginner, some of you may even make it part of you for 5, 10, 20 plus years. And sometimes you still don't even have your voice, even after 20 plus years. But in this episode, I'm gonna show you how you can do that, even if you're a beginner. It doesn't matter what stage you're at, it doesn't matter how long you can make your pottery, anybody can find their pottery voice. You see, I have interviewed plenty of people who've only been making pottery for maybe a year, six months, two years, and each one of them have found something that is unique to them, that it is unique to them that they like to make, and they make over and over and over again because it brings them excitement.
00:01:28
Speaker
and they're seeing success with it as well. They're they able to sell their pottery. They're able to to make a brand around their own pottery simply by making things that they want to do.
Focusing Creative Efforts: Likes and Dislikes
00:01:38
Speaker
But how exactly do you find your own pottery voice, especially if you were in the beginning stages of your pottery journey? Well, it's actually not as hard as it may seem. So here's a little exercise for you.
00:01:50
Speaker
So grab a piece of paper, grab a pen, and write down two columns, maybe three columns as well. So the first column is your likes. Things that you like just in pottery, like things that you like to do outside of pottery, just your likes, your interests.
00:02:08
Speaker
And second column is your non-interest, your dislikes, your things that you just don't like to do in pottery and outside pottery as well. And what you're gonna do is you're gonna start writing out things that you like. Like for example, I like a lot of anime, I like comics, I like watching movies, I like Hot Wheels, and I like a bunch of different other things. And I like playing sports as well. And on my dislikes, I don't like you know i don't like running i don't like running all that much i mean i run for sports but i don't like running i don't like doing chores i don't like doing a bunch of other things as well and then for my pottery i don't like i don't like i don't like to use like fancy glazes all that much i like to use underglaze more and right by writing these things down you start to get clear on what you like
00:02:59
Speaker
And when you get clear on what you like, that's where you can focus
Incorporating Personal Interests into Pottery
00:03:03
Speaker
your pottery. Even if you're a beginner, even if you've been making pottery for 20 years, if you know what you like, you can start focusing on those things much better. Even if you have no technical skill about pottery, if you know what you like, you can start applying those things that you like into your pottery. Like if you like flowers, you start adding flowers into your pottery.
00:03:23
Speaker
But what happens if you don't know what you like? You don't know. Maybe the thing that you like right now is simply just pottery. That's fine as well. You could do that. You could you could spice up your pottery a lot simply by just being in enthusiastic about pottery. Maybe you are doing something like altering your pots or maybe you are you are adding in some different amounts of clay, or you're adding scruffy, whatever it is. If pottery is your jam, and that's a thing that you absolutely love, and like so many of us do, that's okay. But if you want to start adding in something a little bit more to your pottery, something that is gonna be true, more true to you, and not look more like somebody else made it. And you're still finding it hard to come up with things that you like. So here are two things that you could do.
Drawing Inspiration from Surroundings
00:04:09
Speaker
So the first one is,
00:04:11
Speaker
Take a walk, take a walk and bring a a notepad with you or just write on your phone as well. And as you're going on this walk, Write down the things that you are paying attention to. Like for example, normally when I go for a walk, I look at the horses that I'm walking by. I'm looking at the sky that is a little bit dark, wheres a little the sun is is rising. or Or maybe it's the way a certain crack looks on the ground to you.
00:04:42
Speaker
It literally could be anything. Write down those things that you are your eye is drawn to for more than a couple seconds. right there Your eye is going to be drawn to a bunch of things because you're obviously looking where you're going, ah otherwise you would be blind. So the things that you're looking at for more than a couple of seconds or more than just like that you you tend to stare at a lot, especially when you walk, write down those things.
Reflecting on Childhood for Inspiration
00:05:07
Speaker
And then the second way to find something that you like is think back to your childhood. What did you like to do when you were a child? You see, when I was a child, I like to make, I like to play with Hot Wheels a lot. I like to play with my action figures, especially Power Rangers action figures. And I like to, I liked watching Dragon Ball Z with my brothers on the couch. And I enjoy doing those things.
00:05:31
Speaker
Think back to your childhood and see what are the things you like. Maybe you like picking flowers, maybe you like playing in the mud, maybe you like playing with the animals at your at your house, maybe you like playing with the dogs, maybe you like climbing trees, maybe you like building a tree house, maybe you mean like crafting things, cars as well.
00:05:50
Speaker
write down those things that from your childhood that you used to enjoy because normally things from our childhood that we liked when we were a child can come back into our pottery later and just because we were a child and liked him then doesn't mean we can't like him now as well. So think about the things that you used to like as a child because that's a very good way to start finding your own pottery voice especially in the beginning of your journey. You don't need to be making pottery for years to find your pottery voice.
00:06:19
Speaker
Write down the things that interest you, write down the things that don't interest you, and focus on the things that only interest you. You can find interesting things from all walks of life. Maybe it's the way a certain design looks on a wheel, or the smell of something somebody's cooking, or maybe you just like the way the color red. It could be literally anything.
00:06:43
Speaker
and apply those things into your pottery to make it start finding your own unique voice, finding your own unique identity by simply adding your interest outside of pottery or even in pottery and continuing to do those things. That's how we
Embracing Enjoyment in Pottery Creation
00:06:57
Speaker
all find our voice. It doesn't matter what stage you're at, it doesn't matter how long you've been making pottery. You can be making pottery for a month, you can be making pottery for a week, you can be making pottery for 20 years and you can still apply these same things and it doesn't matter.
00:07:09
Speaker
just find what you enjoy and put those things into your pottery. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one. Hey thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping a Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to master the art of pottery and dive deeper into the techniques of the potters I interview, I created a newsletter that does just that. It dives deep into the techniques of the potters I interview. If you want to learn more,
00:07:34
Speaker
go to shapingyourpowdery.com forward slash newsletter or click the link in the description to learn more.