Transcript
Speaker: This acronym will help you discover your own unique pottery voice. What is up, shaping nation? This is Nick Torres here, and in this episode of shaping pottery, I'm going to be talking about the acronym that I use, which is called LEE, that I named LEE, to help me find my own unique voice, and it also helps me expand my voice as well. So I discovered this acronym kind of by accident. I was, after interviewing a lot of different people,
Speaker: And I noticed a pattern that people kind of tend to gravitate to. And everyone pretty much does this no matter what stage you are at. But it also works in stages as well. So I named this acronym LEE. So LEE stands for Learn, Experiment, and Expand.
Speaker: How are these three things going to help you discover your own unique pottery place? So in order to understand that, we have to go back to the very beginning of your pottery journey. So when you're at your very beginning of your pottery journey,
Speaker: What is happening in that powdery journey? Are you making a lot of stuff? Are you doing certain things to maybe try to figure out certain things? So that sentence that you said that they're figuring out a lot of things is what you are doing. So the L in Lee stands for learn.
Speaker: You are learning how to do certain things in pottery. You are learning different techniques. You are learning all these different things in pottery, especially at the beginning stage of your pottery journey, and that is learning. Learning is so important to helping you find your own unique voice because the more you learn, the better your pottery voice will be, the more it will become, and it just makes everything that much more easier. At the beginning of your pottery journey, you are doing nothing but learning.
Speaker: You're learning how to throw on the wheel if that's what you're doing. You're learning how to score, how to wedge, how to do all sorts of different things. And you are learning all these different things along the way. But eventually what begins to happen is you stop trying to learn. And when you stop trying to learn, that's when you stop doing the other two things in this acronym. So the second, the first E of Lee is called experiment.
Speaker: And experimenting is the crutch to everything that you are doing in pottery. It first starts with learning. You have to learn how to do certain things. Maybe you learn how to do carving, how to wheel throw, whatever it is. It first starts with learning.
Speaker: And then it starts with experimenting. Maybe you start experimenting with different things on how to make pottery easier for yourself. Maybe you're experimenting with different glaze combinations, different glaze recipes, different whatever. You are experimenting. After learning, you are experimenting. You are doing different things to make pottery easier for yourself and to just figure out your own little voice along the way.
Speaker: And that is why it's so important. These things all go together. So the first two acronyms so far of Lee are first is you have to learn to, the first E is you have to experiment. And now for the second and last E is you have to expand. You have to expand on what you are experimenting. But what do I mean by expand? Because that can mean a lot of different things.
Speaker: So after you have done experimenting and you maybe have started figuring things out, you might have found a rhythm. You found that rhythm of your pottery and it's starting to feel a little bit better. This is where you have to start expanding a little bit along the way as well. So let's say right now, one of the things that you are currently in the flow of dooming is that you're able to make a five inch mug pretty much all the time.
Speaker: Now what if you try to expand that a little bit further and try to make a six inch mug almost every single time. Now your pottery skills are going to start growing because you're pushing yourself out of that comfort zone and you're expanding your skills a little bit more.
Speaker: Expanding can also be as simple as, you know, attaching a handle to make it look a little bit of a different way or learning a different technique. And that's why it all comes back together. It literally comes back full circle because after you start expanding on a few things and you start trying to figure out new ways to work with you and looking at other new techniques.
Speaker: You're going to start learning again as well. And then you're going to start experimenting again. And then you're still expanding again. And then literally it just becomes a full circle. And this is why this acronym LEE will actually help you so much. So again, here is the final. Here is what the acronym stands for. It stands for Learn, Experiment, and Expand. So take that as you will. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. And I'll see you guys in the next one.
Speaker: 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 want to know how close you are to finding your own unique voice, go to shapingyourpottery .com forward slash quiz, or you could simply go to shapingyourpottery .com and it'll be right there at the top.
Speaker: I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next time.
