Transcript
Speaker: Real quick before we get started, did you know that the questions that we asked are going to determine what our pottery is going to look like and it's going to determine what our voice is going to look like? That's why I created 15 questions that you can use right now to start discovering your own unique voice. Go to pottery .com forward slash questions to get this free booklet.
Speaker: 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.
Speaker: Here's why every artist should have a theme for their pottery. You see, a while back, I interviewed my good friend Sarah Connor on this podcast. And one of the things that Sarah does that I found really interesting was that every single month she is doing a new theme for her pottery. She's doing something different with her pottery, but at the same time,
Speaker: everything still looks her own. It still looks like her own style looks like her style is born from that, right? She has a new theme every month, but she still gets to keep her own style. And after talking to Sarah for a little bit longer, like one on one chats after that, I started to realize that it's so important that every Potter should have a theme, every artist should have a theme for their own work. And here's why. But first, before I get into that,
Speaker: What is a theme exactly? A theme is simply just a concept or a a work of art that you are going to be focusing on. You know, it could be literally anything. A theme could literally just be as simple as going old western or going to the beach or space theme. A theme can literally be anything. Why is it important to have a theme? A theme prevent boredom.
Speaker: And boredom is a thing that kills anything. If you were bored, you were going to not have a fun time doing it. You're going to be bored. You're going to be just sitting there. You're going to go into the motions. And that's not what we want. We got into pottery because we want to because it excited us. It excited us. And pottery was an art for me. We got to work with our hands. We got to do all these different things. And pottery allowed us to do that.
Speaker: But if you are bored with what you are making and you feel like you have to keep making the same thing over and over again because it's working, other people are resonating with it, then you become bored because of that. Right? Repetition or doing the same thing over and over again is a definition of crazy. And when you start doing that, you start going crazy because you are bored and you you don't know what to do. You don't know how to get out of and make something new. Well, people so people will still buy it.
Speaker: So this is why it's so important to have a theme.
Speaker: Here's what I encourage you to do. So every single month, change up a new theme. And whatever that theme is, go and focus on that one theme for that month. Where I was mentioning earlier with Sarah, she chooses different themes every single month. And in January, she has mugs and suns to start the new year off. And then throughout the rest of the year, she chooses different themes. Her recent theme that she's doing is like a mushroom house.
Speaker: And she draws that onto her pottery. And because she has these themes, it allows her to have much more freedom with her work. She's not restricted into one design, one thing, over and over and over again. And because of that, she can now, she has the ability to explore more because of that.
Speaker: And here, if you are struggling to come up with a theme, I have 53 other themes that you could steal. Just go to shapeyourpottery .com for that themes. And there's, I wrote down 53 themes that you could steal.
Speaker: So go out there and choose a new theme every single month. You know, maybe you are doing space creatures or you are doing cars, whatever it is, choose a theme, stick with that theme for the month. And then by the time that month is over, you have a new theme that you can do. And this allows you to keep the same style, but doing different things as well to spice it up. That's exactly why every artist, every potter should have a theme. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one.
