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#349 Pottery Instincts Unleashed: Trusting What You Feel
44 Plays2 years ago
Developing and Trusting Your Instincts in Pottery
In this episode, Nic Torres discusses the importance of trusting one's instincts, especially in pottery. He shares personal anecdotes and examples to illustrate his points, highlighting a particular instance where going against his instincts led to a piece breaking. He emphasizes that gut feelings are often right and should generally be followed in the creative process. Finally, he gives advice on how to develop instincts in pottery - making a lot of pots, slowing down to analyze work and following feelings. He offers a free 15 question booklet to help listeners discover their unique pottery voice. www.shapingyourpottery.com/questions
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Transcript
Trusting Instincts in Pottery and Life
00:00:00
Speaker
You need to learn to trust your instincts. What is up Shape Nation? This is Nick Torres here and on this episode I'm going to be talking about how you can develop your instincts so you can start trusting it better and why it's so important in pottery or in life in general. So my sister thinks that I am psychic.
00:00:19
Speaker
I don't know why she thinks this is probably because I've sent her a couple messages where I just said simply I love you Megan and you know I guess she would be having a bad day or something and I've done that a couple times with my mom and my sister and there's been other instances like I had a dream I was gonna get into a car accident and I got into a car accident but my sister thinks I'm psychic and
00:00:41
Speaker
I also try to apply that and trust my, but I think it's not, I don't think
Learning from Pottery Mistakes
00:00:45
Speaker
I'm psychic. I think it's more just kind of trusting my instincts and just kind of letting things happen naturally. And I try to do this with my pottery as well, but sometimes it doesn't always work out. Like for example, I make something that is kind of a little bit unique where I combine two cups together and I put a sculpture below the bottom cup.
00:01:09
Speaker
and I'm able to make mugs and stuff like that while having a sculpture beneath.
Developing Instincts through Practice
00:01:15
Speaker
And I had this thing that I was making on, cause this was like one of the first versions of it where I didn't just make one big cup, cut it in half and put a bottom on the top part. This is just two separate vessels, right? And I made the bottom vessel and I had both of them together. And normally what I would do, what I would cut out an entrance
00:01:37
Speaker
like both sides where you could see it kind of like a window going through but with two walls on the side normally I would cut two out and I had a feeling that I shouldn't cut out the second one I shouldn't cut out the second part I should just leave it how it is and only cut out one portion of the bottom cup but I went against my instincts and I cut it anyways I cut it anyways and when I cut it and I went to go attach the top part it
00:02:07
Speaker
broke, as you could probably imagine. And I contribute that to not trusting my instincts. If you have a gut feeling about something, you should probably either not do it or do it, right?
Techniques to Enhance Pottery Instincts
00:02:20
Speaker
You know, maybe that gut feeling is telling you that I should add a, I should change the way my handle looks on this piece. Go follow that instinct, follow that instinct because you don't know where it's gonna take you.
00:02:33
Speaker
but most of the time it will be a good instinct and your pottery will look that much better because of it. So you have to learn to trust your instincts, follow your instincts, take time, but how do you develop this instinct when you're making pottery? Well, the first thing that you could do
00:02:51
Speaker
is just to make more pots, right? The more we make, the more our instincts kind of develop naturally, because we see it all the time that we could see, oh, yep, that piece isn't gonna work right there, it's gonna crack, I should probably toss it, or that piece isn't, that piece is gonna look really good, I could tell, just kind of a gut feeling I have there. And the more you make, it just becomes a little bit easier to develop those instincts. But what if you don't have enough time in the day or throughout the week to
00:03:21
Speaker
make a bunch of pottery or you're still new to pottery. The first thing that you could do to develop your instincts is just to simply slow down a little bit. After you are, or while you're making things, take a step back and think through what you are trying to make.
00:03:36
Speaker
And if you have an idea, what are you feeling in that moment? What are you feeling in that in your stomach, in your gut, in your instincts? What are your instincts telling you in that moment? And listen to that. You have to slow down a little bit sometimes. Do follow these instincts. And that's kind of how you develop those instincts, just really two ways. Number one, just make a bunch of pots and your instincts will kind of kick in naturally. Number two is just to slow down a little bit and analyze the things that are happening around in your pottery.
Encouragement to Trust Instincts
00:04:06
Speaker
And that's how you develop those instincts and it's so important to trust them. So next time you think about something that is, that might go wrong, follow that instinct and try to see where it takes you. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one.
Resources for Pottery Enthusiasts
00:04:24
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to start discovering your own unique voice, you must first start with the right questions. That's why I put together a free 15 question booklet for you to start discovering your own unique pottery voice. All you have to do is go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash questions to get this free booklet.