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#289 Drawing Inspiration Beyond the Clay
36 Plays2 years ago
Follow on Instagram @nictorres_pottery
Are you ready to break free from the same-old pottery patterns? How about infusing wonder, magic, and your personal flair into your pottery art? That's right! I'm Nic Torres, and I'm here to take you on an awe-inspiring journey of pottery making, one that stretches beyond the usual confines.
This episode is all about breaking the mould (pun intended!) and innovating in your pottery creations. We’ll discuss my personal voyage of self-discovery in pottery, how my attempts to emulate successful potters almost stifled my creative spirit and how I eventually embraced my inner nerd to create pottery that genuinely reflects my personality. If you love Star Wars, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and Dungeons & Dragons just like me, or have a unique interest of your own, this episode is for you! We're not just reshaping clay here; we're reshaping the concept of pottery itself. So, brace yourselves as we navigate through the exciting, and uncharted territories of pottery-making.
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Transcript
Finding Inspiration Beyond Pottery
00:00:00
Speaker
you should be looking outside of pottery for inspiration.
00:00:05
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What is up, shaping nation? This is Nick Torres here. And for those that don't know me, it is my mission to help potters like yourself discover your own unique voice and so you can stand out from the crowd and make potty that you truly enjoy. So on this episode, I'm going to be talking about why you need to look outside of pottery for inspiration, because this is the biggest thing that can either prevent us from finding our unique voice or it can actually help us from finding our unique voice.
00:00:35
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So when I was first starting out with making pottery, the only places I was looking for inspiration was other potters. It was other potters that I found enjoyable, like John the Potter and some other people that I noticed on Instagram. And these potters, I would just look at them all day long, all day long. And I wanted my pottery to look like theirs. But
00:01:03
Speaker
Because I was trying to pretty much copy what they were making, I wasn't necessarily making the type of pottery that I was gonna be making today. I was only thinking about trying to sell my pottery because I noticed that they were having really good success with their pottery and I thought I could emulate that. But I later learned that in order to find your own unique voice, in order to find my own unique voice,
00:01:28
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I had to look outside of pottery. I had to look at the things that I'm interested in to find my own unique pottery voice.
Pop Culture Influence on Pottery
00:01:35
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And the things that I'm interested are very, very unique, right? So I'm a huge nerd. I like Star Wars, Marvel, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, all that stuff. I like playing Dungeons and Dragons. So I started looking towards those things for inspiration. Because I am a huge nerd, I figured out a way to put those things that I like into my own pottery.
00:01:56
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And because I found out those inspirations that I like outside of pottery, that's where my voice truly started to show up.
00:02:05
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And you could do the exact same thing too. You know, you don't have to do the exact same things I do. If you are a nerd, you could put those things into your own pottery if you want to.
Incorporating Personal Interests
00:02:15
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But if you're more into like drawing or riding a bike, you could take those inspirations that you have from those things outside of pottery and you could apply it to your own pottery as well.
00:02:28
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It doesn't matter what you like but don't get too stagnant where you are only taking inspiration from other potters or from just pottery in general because pottery is a big space in itself but it's also very limiting in itself if you are only taking inspiration from pottery.
00:02:48
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You know, if you're only taking inspiration from other potters, from other things that you like in pottery, your potter is going to end up looking exactly like everybody else's. And that's not what you want. I don't know about you, but that's definitely not what I want. So our goal is to make something that is truly unique to ourselves, that not to somebody else, but to ourselves.
00:03:09
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And we do that by taking inspiration from outside forces from pottery. Whatever you like, maybe you like classic cars. Great. How can you put classic cars onto pottery? Do I want to sculpt the classic cars? Do I want to draw the classic cars? Do I want to add slip for the classic cars? Figure out how you can ply what you like into your own pottery.
00:03:37
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Because taking these inspirations outside of pottery, that's where your voice is truly going to start showing up. We all have our interests, whatever it is.
Inspiration from Personal Environment
00:03:45
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You know, and some of you are probably asking yourself or telling yourself that I don't have any inspiration besides for pottery. What do I do then? And to that, I say you do have inspirations outside of pottery because look at the things that you in just around your house.
00:04:02
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Look at your closet inside your room for your clothes. Look at the clothes you wear. Are they bright colored? Do they have a lot of logos on them? Do they have a lot of different designs on them? Are they unique? Do they look like abstract? Look at your clothes. That is such an easy thing to do. Are they more simple? And find out from your clothes. You could just do that very, very simply. Next, look at the way you set up your desk.
00:04:32
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Does your desk have a lot of figurines? Does your desk have a lot of books? Does your desk have a lot of whatever, flowers? Look at those things because those are things that catch your eye and you put them in your own house. And if you put them in your own house and more likely that's where your inspiration is coming from. From those things around your house that you see because that's where a lot of inspiration is going to come from is if you can notice it around your own house.
Identifying External Inspiration
00:04:56
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So again, I ask you, I tell you, take inspiration from things outside of pottery. And I ask you, what is one thing that inspires you outside of pottery? I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one.
Conclusion and Contact Information
00:05:19
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.