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#297 Why I'm so passionate about finding your own voice?
42 Plays2 years ago
Get your 53 themes by clicking this link shapingyourpottery.com/53themes
There was a time when my pottery looked like everyone else’s, with the primary goal being to sell as many pots as possible. However, I soon realized that my work was losing its individuality, and that's what inspired me to break the mold and find my unique voice in pottery. Join me, Nic Torres, as I share my journey from a typical glaze potter to finding my distinct style. Hear about the struggles, the joys, and the life-changing realization that pottery is more than just a means to make money—it's a passion, a form of self-expression, and a pathway to happiness.
In this heart-to-heart conversation, I take you through my early years in pottery, my decision to move away from the mainstream, and how interviewing other potters helped me appreciate the significance of finding one's unique voice. I'll share how the pursuit of individuality not only brought me a sense of fulfillment but also drew more people towards my work. Listen in to learn why, as potters, we should strive for distinction and not just mimic what's already out there. Let's celebrate the joy of pottery, and remember, it's not just about the sales—it's about the happiness that crafting each unique piece brings!
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Transcript
Introduction to Nick Torres' Passion
00:00:00
Speaker
Why am I so passionate about trying to help potters like yourselves to discover your own unique voice with your potter? 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 Pottery Journey and Challenges
00:00:19
Speaker
What is up, Shaping Nation? This is Nick Torres here. And on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, I'm going to be talking about why I am so passionate about helping potters like yourself discover your own unique voice and why I continue to keep on pushing for this. You see, when I was like maybe my second year, third year, I want to say, going into my third year of my pottery journey, I had a lot of things that I wanted to kind of prove to myself. I wanted to be able to sell my pottery. I wanted to be able to make pottery that looked
00:00:49
Speaker
good. But more importantly, I want to sell my pottery. I wanted to have fun and being able to make this thing come to life just around pottery because I truly enjoyed it.
Finding a Unique Voice in Pottery
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Speaker
I truly love making pottery with my friend and I love interacting and talking with everybody here and interviewing people. I love doing that and I love being able to do that. And along the way of my journey, I
00:01:19
Speaker
I went through the motions a lot through my journey. For a long time, I was only focused on trying to sell my pottery, which I was making a lot of mugs at the time. I was only trying to sell that pottery, but that wasn't working out. I was just going through the motions, going through the motions, and my pottery was looking like everybody else's. Along that way, I kept noticing that my pottery was looking like everybody else's, and I wanted to start branching off from everybody else's. I didn't want to be the typical
00:01:49
Speaker
glaze potter that has bright glaze drippy glazes right I didn't want to be that because I noticed a lot of people were doing that but I could also see that a lot of people were probably doing that because it probably made them a lot of good decent amount of money because they were able to sell that because they noticed that other people like that I did the same thing myself but I didn't want to be like every other potter so I set on this journey to try to figure out how to make pottery how to make pottery good how to
00:02:17
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throw on the wheel, how to incorporate other techniques. And I went on this long journey of specifically throwing on the wheel. And I really wanted to figure it out. I wanted to kind of find my voice with throwing on the
Distinguishing and Enjoying Pottery
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wheel. I didn't know where I was heading, but I kept going and I kept going, but I was still at the same time kind of going through the motions. And then once I started this podcast, I got to interview other potters, other potters like yourselves who have been through this journey for longer than I have. And I have been able to interview them.
00:02:46
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And I gotta pick their brain on what it meant to actually find your voice.
00:02:52
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And along the way, I noticed that a lot of people actually get a lot of confidence because they start finding their own voice with their party or they, they, their new opportunities come for them because they have found their voice and things just seem a lot better. And so that's why I want to push this so hard onto you guys that we all should be trying to find our voice. We all should be trying to distinguish ourselves as potters and not try to be like every other potter out there.
00:03:20
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Because if you could start distinguishing yourself right now, what begins to happen is that more people are going to look at your pottery. You are going to be different than anybody else, and you're going to just be overall happier about your pottery journey.
00:03:35
Speaker
Because when I was just going through the motions only making mugs and only making things that I thought would sell well, pottery wasn't fun. Pottery wasn't fun at all. And that's what I want to bring back to you is that pottery is supposed to be fun first and foremost. That's why we got into this. Maybe we got into it as a little hobby. Maybe we got into it to distract ourselves from outside influences along in our life.
Importance of Unique Style for Satisfaction
00:03:59
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maybe it was somebody else that got us into it but we kept going because we just wanted to be happy we wanted to it made us happy so we kept doing it but i see a lot of potters and i've done this myself that they tend to focus more on trying to sell their pottery when in reality we should be trying to find our own unique style our own style that makes us feel happy and that is what the most important thing that is why i push
00:04:23
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trying to help you find your own unique voice so hard because i want you to be happy with the potter you you are making i want you to be happy with whatever you are making be proud of what you're making stand out from everybody else and be your own unique person instead of just following the crowd being a sheep
00:04:41
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like how I was for a long time. I want you to be different. I want you to embrace your
Embracing Individuality in Pottery
00:04:46
Speaker
weirdness. I want you to embrace your interest and I want you to go out and put that onto your pottery and express it yourself because that's how you find your voice. I don't want you to be like everybody else. I know I don't know about you but I definitely don't like being with the norm. I'll tell you a quick story when I was in when I used to play water polo in high school
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One of the drills we had to do was we had to egg beat, which is just simply moving our legs really in a circle so we stay afloat above the water. And we had to do that all across about a 25 meter pool. That's a really far distance. And I've noticed that while we were holding a ball in our hand, I noticed that other people were just holding the ball. One, I didn't really like that because I didn't like being the same as everybody else. But two, I was also getting bored, so I started throwing away
00:05:35
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throwing the ball back and forth, back and forth, as I was eggbeating across the pool. And once we stopped, I remember the coach, he literally stopped everyone. He told everybody, he was like, why did I only see one person throwing the ball back and forth? Why? And he got, he actually kind of got mad at everybody else, but he praised me and I loved that. But I did that because I wanted to
Resources for Finding Your Style
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be
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Different and I want I didn't want to stay in that sheet mold I want to continue doing things my own way not the way other people wanted me to do it So that's why I want you to help you find your voice and I do that by helping you with this podcast So go out there be different dare to be different be weird embrace your weird embrace your interest and go out and find your voice I hope you guys enjoy this episode and I see you guys in the next one
00:06:29
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Thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery. If you are struggling with finding your own theme for your pottery so that you are known for something,
00:06:41
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I put together 53 themes that you can use and you can take. All you have to do is go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash 53 themes, that's five, three themes to get these 53 themes. It's really important for you to find a theme for your pottery so that you're not going to get burnt out. You can have multiple styles with your pottery and it can be known for something. So again, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash
00:07:10
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53 themes, that's five, three themes to get these 53 themes. Thanks guys, I'll see you guys next time.