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#53: The 4 mistakes that prevent you from developing your voice!
33 Plays3 years ago
On this episode of Shaping Your Pottery we talk about the 4 mistakes that keep you from discovering your own unique pottery voice.
You will learn why these mistakes keep from developing your voice and how to prevent them.
The faster you can stop making these mistakes the faster your voice will start to come out
If you have question about pottery send them to Nic on Instagram @nictorres_pottery we would love to here from you
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Check out other episodes of Shaping Your Pottery here https://www.shapingyourpottery.com/
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Transcript
Introduction to Common Potter Mistakes
00:00:00
Speaker
What is up everybody and welcome to Shaping Your Pottery. This is Nick Torres here. On this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, you're going to learn about the four mistakes that people make when they're trying to develop their voice with their pottery. If you love pottery and want to take your skills to the next level, you're in the right place. Find your own pottery style right here on Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Let's get started.
Early Mistakes & Lessons on Enjoyment
00:00:28
Speaker
When I was in about my second going to third year of pottery, I had this idea in my head that if I can make a lot of mugs, then I can sell them and I can make money. And at the time, I didn't realize that this was a really big mistake. But anyway, as I was making these mugs, I wasn't trying to make what was fun for me.
00:00:59
Speaker
I didn't really understand that concept yet. I was just making to try to make a quick buck. And that really halted everything because I was keeping all of my mugs because I didn't understand that I needed to be making for myself and I didn't have a standard for my potter yet.
00:01:21
Speaker
eventually as I was going on my mugs were looking really really kind of bland and they looked like almost like everybody else's and I felt like an imposter and I didn't understand why I couldn't really develop my voice with my mugs I couldn't I couldn't find anything that was really working for me so I kept on making I kept on doing a lot of things and you know one day I was like fuck it
00:01:50
Speaker
I don't want any of these mugs anymore. They just don't look good to me. So I recycled almost probably all of them. It was about, I think there was about maybe 30 or so mugs and they just didn't look good to me anymore. And I just recycled them all. And I was like, you know what? I'm done making mugs for a while. I don't want to make mugs for a while.
Discovering Joy in Pottery
00:02:12
Speaker
So after I got through that mug phase, I started to get into larger vases, larger pots, because I really wanted to learn how to make larger vases and larger pots because I couldn't really do it before. So I focused in on making larger vases. And during this time, I found that I really like making larger vases, and that's what was fun to me.
00:02:37
Speaker
and it was really really helpful because this is where my voice started coming out a little bit because I was making what was fun for me and I didn't really feel like an imposter anymore and that was really driving my pottery to get better and better
00:02:52
Speaker
because I wasn't, one, I wasn't focusing on selling my work as much. I wasn't just trying to make a quick buck. The second thing, I wasn't keeping every single base I was making. I was destroying a lot of bases and recycling them because I wanted it to be better and better each time. And then three, I didn't feel like an imposter anymore because I was making what I really wanted. And four, I was really having fun making what I was
Identifying Key Mistakes in Pottery
00:03:18
Speaker
making. I was making big bases and I enjoyed it.
00:03:21
Speaker
And that brings me to the four mistakes that potters tend to make when they're trying to develop their voice. The first mistake is they try to sell their try to focus on selling the work too much to try to make a quick buck. The second mistake is they keep every single piece of pottery and that's not good because they stalls your progress. The third thing is you got to get out of your head and can't feel like an imposter. The fourth mistake is
00:03:52
Speaker
They're not making what is fun to them. Now, let's go back to the first mistake for a second. The first mistake is focusing too much on trying to sell your work and trying to make a quick buck. You see, I made this mistake as well. Too many people try to focus on just making money with their pottery.
00:04:14
Speaker
but they're not trying to develop their pottery to make it look good for themselves. People can see when you're just trying to make a quick buck off your pottery, off your art or whatever. So you have to get out of that mindset of trying to make a quick buck because it will come eventually. I promise you, it will come eventually. So you just have to make for yourself and not for other people to try to make a quick buck. Make what you want to make. Now the second mistake is in how to improve it is
00:04:44
Speaker
keeping every single piece of your pottery what this does is that it doesn't allow you to get better because you're just keeping everything you're just saying you're making it oh that looks good enough
00:04:59
Speaker
But that's wrong. If you don't like what your mugs or your pottery is looking like, then recycle it. That is it. We have to put a standard on our pottery because otherwise our pottery is never going to get better. And if you keep every single piece, then you're never going to see what you want to improve, what can be improved.
Overcoming Imposter Syndrome
00:05:22
Speaker
Now the third mistake is this one is probably the hardest to get over because imposter syndrome is real. We all feel like an imposter sometimes and we all feel like we're just kind of copying other people's work. But I promise you the faster you can get out of this mindset of oh I'm just copying people's work and my work doesn't look original.
00:05:43
Speaker
That's when your progress is going to stall a lot and you're not going to develop your own voice because you're worrying too much on, oh, my pottery looks too much like theirs. You have to start out somewhere. You have to model what other people are making somewhere, some way. Otherwise, you're never going to find your voice and you're never going to find anything because
00:06:06
Speaker
Success leaves clues. So if you think that someone else's pottery looks good, why not try to model it? And then after a while, just try to do something different. Maybe you do something different with your handles or your trimming. Whatever it is, you try to do something different in order to stand out for them. But you have to model those people first in order to really see that progress of developing your voice.
The Importance of Fun in Pottery
00:06:30
Speaker
And now the fourth mistake is they aren't making what is fun to them.
00:06:34
Speaker
This is probably the most crucial mistake that anybody can make. And that is because if you're not making what is fun to you, then how are you going to make what is what you're going to make eventually? How are you going to develop your voice if you're not making what's fun for you? Because if you're just making for other people, then what is the point? We're in this we're making pottery because we want it to be fun for ourselves. And if you're not making what is fun for you, then what is the point?
Conclusion & Listener Engagement
00:07:06
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.