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Throwback: The Secret To Making Slab Built Pottery With Sarah Pike
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In this episode of 'Shaping Your Pottery,' host Nic Torres revisits an enlightening interview with Sarah Pike, a renowned potter specializing in slab-built pottery with intricate textures. Sarah shares her journey from her early days in pottery to establishing herself as a full-time artist. Listeners will learn the importance of scheduling consistent studio time, embracing failures, and taking small steps daily to ignite creativity. Sarah also delves into the role of social media in her growth, the significance of finding community, and her personal path to discovering her unique pottery voice. She offers practical advice on using textures, making stamps, and navigating the business side of pottery. This episode is filled with valuable insights for aspiring potters looking to carve their own path and develop a distinctive artistic voice. You can learn more about Sarah by checking out her instagram https://www.instagram.com/sarahpikepottery/
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00:00 Introduction and Episode Overview 00:59 Sarah Pike's Pottery Journey 03:00 Challenges and Triumphs in Pottery 06:57 The Art of Slab Building 15:23 The Business Side of Pottery 23:54 Finding Your Unique Pottery Voice 31:48 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
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Transcript
The Role of Creativity in a Maker's Life
00:00:00
Speaker
people who are makers of some kind can relate to that feeling when you're not making what, when you're not being creative, you just feel like you're dying a little bit. What is up,
Introduction to Sarah Pike and Her Pottery Journey
00:00:10
Speaker
Shaper Nation? This is Nick Torres here. And on today's episode is a little throwback from my interview with Sarah Pike.
00:00:16
Speaker
If you don't know Sarah, Sarah makes some incredibly slab built pottery that she adds texture to, and she makes all the texture herself. In this episode, you'll learn Sarah's secrets to making slab built pottery.
00:00:27
Speaker
You'll also learn about Why you sometimes need to take a step off the path in order to help you find your own pottery voice. Finally, one last thing to learn about is the power of five minutes and how this can help you with getting over slumps in pottery.
00:00:42
Speaker
Hope you guys enjoy this episode and I'll see you guys in there. 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.
00:00:57
Speaker
Let's get started.
Prioritizing Studio Time for Potters
00:00:58
Speaker
Sarah, welcome Shaping Pottery and share with me what is something you believe potters should be doing to have success in pottery. Potters who want success, I think, really need to be diligent about scheduling time in the studio.
00:01:12
Speaker
It's ah hard for any self-employed person to be diligent about that. You are distracted by so many things in life, you know, friends asking us to do things, but housework, whatever else it is, but you really need to be diligent about taking the time to prioritize that studio time.
00:01:32
Speaker
think that's probably one of the hardest things to do. Absolutely agree. Shaping Nation, the most important thing is to get into the studio and prioritize that time to actually practice getting better. I love that.
00:01:43
Speaker
know So tell me a story how you started making pottery.
Early Interest in Pottery and Family Influence
00:01:47
Speaker
I started when I was little, my mom worked in an art center and basically enrolled me in every afterschool program they had because she was working there and that was free childcare for her, but also because loved, loved, loved any kind of art. So I started in clay then. And then when I was 13, I bought my first kiln, which Seems kind of crazy now because how could I possibly know that I wanted to be a potter then? But I got this used kiln, like a scut, the $150. I was working as a best girl at a restaurant and I bought it. My dad helped set it up in the basement.
00:02:25
Speaker
I made actually little sled built and coil built pots and It was just a part of our lives though. You know, my parents were makers. They were always making things. There were always projects on the go. And it was just like another tool in our house.
00:02:38
Speaker
So it wasn't like I knew I was gonna be a powder. It was more like, let's explore this avenue of making. And then I went to art school. I went there thinking it was gonna be a painter.
00:02:50
Speaker
And I took us around my collective and I kind of knew right away, this was what I wanted to do. So Clay has been with me since I was a little girl. I love
Transition to a Supportive Pottery Community
00:03:00
Speaker
that so much. So tell me the story when you and your family moved away from your husband's family ranch and how this impacted your own pottery journey.
00:03:08
Speaker
When we were living on the ranch, it pretty full on. We were homeschooling our two young children. We were running the ranch, as you said. it was It was a lot of work looking after all of those living creatures, making sure they were healthy and well-fed and that the farm was well looked after. So there wasn't a lot of time and in that period of my life for pottery.
00:03:32
Speaker
ah tried for a while when we had one kid to still make pots, but it was yeah it's really difficult. Like I said, super busy. Now, when the kids got a little older, I started teaching some classes. I built a little studio onto the barn that we lived in, and I started teaching some classes. But I was just filling the kiln with other people's work.
00:03:50
Speaker
I think a lot of potters can... relate to that when you're starting out you're just firing other people's work all the time and then we decided it was time for a change for a lot of reasons we moved to a small community so finally we were living in town in a community and it turned out to be such a beautiful and supportive community because everyone sort of came out and really appreciated the arts and It blows me away all the time, actually, how much this little town can be supportive of everybody's creative ventures. So...
Challenges in Finding Studio Space and Overcoming Failures
00:04:25
Speaker
It was hard at first, though like ah you know In retrospect, you can kind of breeze over all of the obstacles. I didn't have a studio, of course, when we first moved here. I worked in a community studio for a while. And I hadn't made pots in a really focused way for a long time. And the stuff I was making when I first started again was really awkward and weird. And there was a lot of failures. And I was wondering if it was even when I was...
00:04:53
Speaker
supposed to be doing or could I do this? Could I even do this? And just for some reason I first endured and yeah, started, yeah just kind of dove in, made ah made a studio in the basement and started making pots more full time and going to art sales and just trying to find my little niche in the world.
00:05:15
Speaker
Yeah, it was exciting, but like any sort of, it was scary, you know? I love that. That was a great story. So what were you feeling when you were finally able to get more time in the studio?
00:05:32
Speaker
I was feeling overwhelmed a little bit. Like I was like, okay, the kids are now, we we when we moved here, we put the kids in school. So now i had whole time where I wasn't looking after kids. I was looking after cows and I i could focus on making work.
00:05:47
Speaker
And I started trying to make the work I'd made before. I had quit grad school because I got pregnant with our son. I had gone to school in Minneapolis and and basically left that world. And I was ah sort of devastating. was...
00:06:02
Speaker
Felt like i my career as a potter was over and was going to be a ah ranch wife for some some other thing that that didn't really sort of resonate with me, you know?
00:06:14
Speaker
And now here I was in this space where I could be what I wanted to be. and a And I was just like, i don't I don't even know who I am. I don't know what kind of pots I make. And was trying to make pots that look like the salt-fired work I was making before. and There just a lot of weird stuff for a while.
00:06:31
Speaker
But, you know, back to your first question about what potters should do. some for some reason, I was diligent and persevered through lot of failures and just kept making work.
00:06:44
Speaker
And whether that was stupid or just committed, I don't know. But ah eventually it started making work that I was proud of. Love that. Let's talk about your pottery.
Focusing on Slab-Built Pottery and Creative Freedom
00:06:57
Speaker
Can you tell me the story how you started making your slab built pots that you make today? i let's see, when I was school, was mostly making throne work and was really interested in cutting pots apart and altering them putting them back together.
00:07:14
Speaker
so or to kind of like playing with the idea of working with clay when it wasn't necessarily round, you know? And then i went to school in Boulder for a while, Boulder, Colorado, and I was continuing to explore that thrown and altered work.
00:07:29
Speaker
And I feel like I was cutting it more and more and altering it more and more to the point where you couldn't really tell at the end that it had once been thrown. Then I went to grad school in Minnesota and Mark Ferris was one of my teachers and He's an incredible potter and does a lot of slab building. And it sort of gave me the freedom, um I feel like, or the, what's the word? Like it just gave me the confidence maybe to step away from the wheel completely and really focus on the freedom that making pots out of slab can give you because there's just so many different shapes and so many different ways you can texture the clay because the slab has such a different quality.
00:08:13
Speaker
I love that. So, Why do you like slab building instead of something like throwing on the wheel? I tell a story about when I was in in grad school and before I realized I was pregnant, I was still throwing a fair amount and the spinning wheel made me feel really sick to my stomach.
00:08:34
Speaker
So at that point, I was like, I'm either not making pots or I'm making pots in different way. And that really sort of forced my hand to start slab building. But Like I said before, there's such a different quality about slabs. And as I got more interested in texture and making stamps to press into clay, the slab is just such a beautiful canvas for that because you have the counterpressure of the table behind it.
00:09:01
Speaker
Instead of trying to get your fingers inside of a pot to counterpressure the stamp, it just receives the texture so well. So it just it just felt like this really incredible avenue to take if I wanted to focus more on texture.
00:09:14
Speaker
But there's something about the slab too. There's a softness that I really love in a slab built pot. Yeah, I love the wheel too, but it's hard on the body, hard on my body.
00:09:25
Speaker
So stick with the slab. So you mentioned that making or incorporating stamps to your pottery. Do you make your own stamps?
Creating Clay Stamps and Embracing Textures
00:09:34
Speaker
I do. Yeah. could Can you walk me through how you make your stamps? Yeah.
00:09:39
Speaker
They're 90% of them, 95% of them are made out of clay and carved at that moisture content where the clay is just starting to turn color.
00:09:52
Speaker
It's not bone dry. It's not leather hard. It's sort of in between. And I'm really focused on the, when I push the but stamp into the clay, what squeezes up into the stamp.
00:10:08
Speaker
So whatever I carve out of the stamp becomes raised on the pot. And really interested in how glaze breaks over that texture. So I've come over the years to be more and more interested in more of a fine line.
00:10:22
Speaker
so that the glaze really breaks over it. So a lot of the textures that I'm making these days are actually repeated stamps that fit together. But within those stamps, there are a lot of carved lines that then become raised on the pot.
00:10:40
Speaker
Excellent explanation for that. So something from your website that I found interesting that you said was, I enjoy pottery that conveys personality, a slight air of attitude that step off the path.
00:10:51
Speaker
Can you tell me more about this? ah I like it that you brought that up, actually, because I sometimes think about pulling that sentence out of the artist statement, but it still really resonates with me.
00:11:05
Speaker
So already we've we've taken that step off that path. But I also love that feeling. like I live in the mountains and I do spend a lot of time on trails and in the woods, but in the winter I've been doing quite a bit of touring lately and backcountry skiing so that feeling of where you don't need ah path anymore where you turn your skis off the path and you have that freedom to go wherever you want and into that stillness into that wild I love that feeling so much. It just, it's, it's both scary and freeing at the same time. And I feel like I want to have that feeling in the studio.
00:11:46
Speaker
ah want to feel like I have the freedom step off any sort of path of this is how you should do things and explore this sort of other outside of that.
00:12:00
Speaker
You know what i mean? Yeah.
Experimentation and Learning from Failures
00:12:02
Speaker
how do you How do you take that part of a, I wanted to step off the path and how do you apply that to your own pottery? It's a good question. It's it's tricky.
00:12:12
Speaker
it's so There's a lot of what ifs. And I think that's another thing that I would recommend to starting potters is encourage the what ifs. What if I do this? What if I do that?
00:12:25
Speaker
And You know, so often when we when we take the step towards exploring the research, we encounter some kind of failure or maybe the material or the tools are not allowing us to really investigate what could happen.
00:12:44
Speaker
And sometimes we see a failure as the end of a road. I really feel like... Maybe just need a different clay or a different tool and just keep asking those what ifs and until you find some answers that can lead you on the next step along that path or non-path.
00:13:04
Speaker
I love that. Shaping Nation, sometimes you just have to embrace the failures and take a step off that path, but you have to continue making that pottery so you continue growing and find your own unique voice. I love that.
00:13:15
Speaker
So now, can you walk me through how you able to create a slab built mug?
Creating Slab-Built Pottery and Importance of Texture
00:13:21
Speaker
And yes, because you already told me about the texture part. Okay, like just the steps to make a slab built mug?
00:13:28
Speaker
Yes. Okay. First I roll out soft clay. I really like the clay to be quite soft. The softer, the better actually. If it's sticky, not so great. But if it's just before sticky, I'm going to take the impression of the stamp a lot better.
00:13:42
Speaker
So I roll out a big slab of soft clay and then I cut out the parts, usually a long rectangle for the walls of the mug and then a circle for the base. And then I move that slab onto ah cement board because it absorbs a little bit of moisture out of one side of the ah the wall of the mug or the future mug.
00:14:02
Speaker
And then that's where I will add the stamps. Then I will refine the shape. Like I might need to trim it a little bit just because of the stamping might distort it. And then I lift that slab up and form it into the shape of the mug. And then once that's set up a little bit, add the bottom.
00:14:19
Speaker
And then a handle once that's set up. So something from your all your pottery is that while you add texture, at the same time, it still looks kind of smooth. can you how do How do you get that smoothness on your pots?
00:14:33
Speaker
The clay, for one, is is a very finely thipped clay that really snows. But I guess before I texture the slab, I'm really compressing any particles or aggregate back into the clay. So I've just got the fine on the surface.
00:14:49
Speaker
And I'm careful to not take any of that fines away in any way. Like I'm never scraping the surface. I'm never cutting away at the surface. I'm being careful to not even touch the surface very much with my shingers, just touching at the joints, you know? So I'm leaving that compressed clay, that really fine.
00:15:10
Speaker
It's almost like a have to be, it's almost fragile in a sense because it's so soft and fine. I'm leaving it alone as much as possible. So that the softness stays there. Excellent
Committing to Pottery Full-Time and Building a Studio
00:15:22
Speaker
explanation of that. I love that.
00:15:23
Speaker
So let's talk about the business side of pottery. Can you tell me about the moment when you decided to full time with your pottery? It was around the time that we moved here. Part of the reason that we moved to this small town was because I really was dying a little inside not making work. I think that most people who are makers of some kind can relate to that feeling when you're not making what When you're not being creative, you just feel like you're dying a little bit. So a part of the reason we moved here was so that I could spend more time making.
00:15:58
Speaker
And then i I just told you how hard it was at first. But once I started to find... fine I guess like by my voice, i started selling in markets and whatnot and realized that the work was resonating with people.
00:16:14
Speaker
I looked for every avenue that I could to make found sales, like whether it was selling online in early stages or going to to a gallery or selling on consignment in a store or wholesale. or I had pots here and there all over the place just trying to try to make it work. And then suddenly it did seem to resonate enough to make some sales so I decided yeah this is this is it when I made that decision I also decided to build a studio we have an acre on the edge town here and decided to get a loan out and build a studio space and that felt like ah commitment to myself a commitment to this career that I had chosen was also super scary to take out that much money and build a studio but
00:17:04
Speaker
In the end, it was almost like a daily affirmation to myself because i had decided that I was worthy of of this career, of this lifestyle and building a space to hold that that I can walk into daily. And and and I love it. It's beautiful.
00:17:21
Speaker
It's a daily affirmation that, yes, this is this is the life I've chosen and i'm going to make it work. I love that so much. So what were you feeling when you finally decided to go all in and go full time?
00:17:35
Speaker
Was I, Tealy? ah was feeling scared. ah yas feeling scared. Like, could I could i do this? yeah Am I really a potter, you know?
00:17:46
Speaker
It was, know, it's hard now because it's been number of years since I made that decision. It's hard to put myself in that place because I'm at this point now where I i know that I can do it.
00:17:58
Speaker
I still have doubts, of course, we all do. But back then, it felt like I needed a plan B, you know, as my studio can maybe turn into a rental space and I could teach or I could do something else. I definitely didn't feel a hundred percent like I was going to be able to do it.
00:18:16
Speaker
I love that. So what would you say was your biggest obstacle when go in full time? Biggest obstacle, probably my own brain, my own confidence, you know, just always having that little voice in the back of your head telling you that you're not good enough to do it.
00:18:37
Speaker
Maybe that was my biggest obstacle. Time also, you know, the kids were still young and they're I wanted to spend a lot of time with them and life is demanding at that point in your life.
00:18:49
Speaker
So I'd say it was probably time and that little voice, evil little voice. So what did you do to help you get over this evil little voice in your head? I ignored it.
00:19:00
Speaker
but I don't know. i i think a huge part of it for me it was community, actually. Just finding community that is... don't know. The Ceramics community, as you know, is just such a beautiful community. I...
00:19:16
Speaker
I know i have friends who are in other fields of making and they're jealous of the ceramics community because we are a group of people that like to hold each other up. You know, we like to help each other out. We're so quick to offer any words of advice or wisdom and space in our kilns and And I think that having a community like that was so helpful in those early stages, because whenever you heard, whenever that voice knocked me down, there was somebody out there that lifted me back up.
00:19:50
Speaker
I love that. And definitely agree. Pottery community is definitely a lot stronger compared to a lot of other communities. I love that.
Leveraging Social Media for Community Connection
00:19:58
Speaker
So now you contribute your growth as an artist to social media.
00:20:02
Speaker
Would you mind telling me more about this? Yeah, when I first got on Instagram, I don't know what year it was. i could probably lock it my first post, but it was... You know, i saw some people posting on Facebook these cool photos with cool filters. And was like, how did we do that? Oh, it's Instagram. I'm going to try that. And I thought it was just an app to put cool filters on photos.
00:20:23
Speaker
And I went to Instagram and I put a cool filter on a teapot, I think. And then I went back to do it again, like a month later. And it said, you have ah you know, however many followers. And i was like, what? i am fault I didn't even know it was a social media platform. or yeah.
00:20:41
Speaker
Then I kind of forgot about it for a while. And then a friend of mine, Robin DuPont, was here and hes he he's good friends with Adam Field. And they they were both like early, i guess, in the ceramics community, early years.
00:20:58
Speaker
appreciators maybe of the the platform as ah a place for community and a place for getting your work out there and robin suggested that i spend more time putting work on on instagram and in those early days amy horie was doing the pots in action do you remember that pots in action It was just such an incredible incredible community builder where every week there was a new challenge where it was like, I can't even think of one now, but like put a pot in front of a bright color field.
00:21:35
Speaker
And it was just like all these people in the community would take photos of their pots in front of like a, you know, a vibrant blue wall or a yellow wall. And then hashtag pots in action and then at the end of the week she'd pick one and then she started inviting other potters to be the you know guest artist that week and choose the theme and it was such a great community builder too I felt like we were all in this thing together, even though we were in our little studios all over the world.
00:22:05
Speaker
I think i lost track of what the question was there. I loved it. You technically answered it pretty, pretty perfectly. I said, you contribute growth as an artist to social media. Can you tell me more about this? And I think you answered it pretty well.
00:22:17
Speaker
Yeah, I guess what it comes down to is that even though I'm in this small town and I had felt really isolated leaving grad school and starting a family and running ranch, it gave me access to a community, you know?
00:22:29
Speaker
So now what advice would you give to someone that wants to start using social media to help them sell their own pottery? It's tricky. think it's such a huge platform now. Like when I started, i don't know how many potters were even on there, you know, as early days.
00:22:44
Speaker
We're so many now. It still definitely has community feels, but it's changed a lot too. I think that taking nice pictures it's a good idea look it seems like taking videos good videos being authentic i think to yourself and to your audience i don't know someone suggested using chat gpt to create content and i just felt like puking i was like that's not what it is for me like if this is about community and and being honest with my
00:23:19
Speaker
with my followers like I'm not going to get a computer to write like it doesn't it just feels like the antithesis of why I'm making pots you know But maybe, maybe if you can't write something, use ChatGPT.
00:23:33
Speaker
I can't be judgy. I haven't tried it, but should but I don't know. i like to make pods and I like to use them and it seems very analog and that seems the opposite of analog, but maybe social media is the opposite of analog.
00:23:44
Speaker
I think finding some some spread through it that feels authentic to you, it's probably going to resonate more with people. I love that advice, some extra advice right there. So let's talk about discovering your voice. Can you tell me about the moment when you knew you were heading the right direction with your pottery?
00:24:01
Speaker
I
Finding a Unique Pottery Voice Through Persistence
00:24:02
Speaker
love it that you do this, Nick. I just want to say that like the whole idea of finding your voice for one, so hard, but also so important. And when you're starting out, it feels incredibly hard, right? It's like, how can you find your voice when it's not like you're born and started screaming? You had a voice. You were trying to find this thing that defines you or else.
00:24:25
Speaker
I think I stumbled on it personally. Like it was through, like I said before, a lot of failures, a lot of trials, a lot of what the fuck am I doing here? You know, and also like just trying things, being, being able to step out of my comfort zone and try things.
00:24:45
Speaker
That was important for me. The other aspect that I think really pushed, pushed my work was, and it was all true, actually some unrelated event. It was, I had a major loss in my life and was going to, to a therapist and couldn't, I just couldn't bring myself to get in the studio. And And she suggested, why not do one thing a day, like five minutes?
00:25:08
Speaker
It takes five minutes. Just do five minutes a day and see if that will bring you back into the studio. And was like, what can you do in ceramics that takes five minutes? like There's nothing. then I was like, well, maybe I can stamp a day. And I started carving up these stamps and I i committed to a month of it.
00:25:29
Speaker
And it worked. like She was so smart. i I started to think about something other than that loss. And I started to think about what could i make next and how could I step off of that that first idea. And it it really helped propel my work, but also helped me commit to my work.
00:25:51
Speaker
It's so hard to find your voice. I think that doing things like that, like being really intense, like, you know, grad school or going to a a residency or some devoted length of time, like it's going to take time, you know?
00:26:05
Speaker
trying all the things until you find it love that yeah i love that so but
Mentorships, Community Support, and Career Expansion
00:26:10
Speaker
shapey nation sometimes all it takes is to simply get in the studio for five minutes and just start working and something great will happen from those five minutes if you just keep being consistent with it i love that and so outside of social media you also contribute your growth as an artist to to art to school and doing mentorships can you tell me more about this My mentorships were really quite abstract. It was more like i i you know found someone who I liked and whose work I liked, and I just followed them around. her
00:26:41
Speaker
They had no choice in the matter. so But i yeah, school for sure, because it puts you in that place where you're around all these people who are making and all the tools and all the equipment.
00:26:53
Speaker
um you're forced to think about what you're doing and forced to do things you don't want to do, like those projects that, you know, I don't resonate with, but I'm going to try it and Maybe it could lead to something. But the the mentorship is...
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, finding people in that community who are not necessarily making work that you want to make, because that's clearly not finding your voice, but who are making work in a way that you want to make work in.
00:27:20
Speaker
So it's like, is that lifestyle how I want to live? Are there the way they think about it? Is that how I want to live? I feel like for me, that was huge. You know, sometimes the mentors you don't even live with near or with or see on a regular basis. You just Maybe are inspired by them, some aspect of them and and embracing that and acknowledging that think is huge.
00:27:44
Speaker
I love that. What would you say are some of the opportunities that started coming your way once you're able to find your own voice? Hmm. and I guess, yeah, yeah yeah yani you don't even know what's out there sometimes, you know, like being asked to go and teach workshops and film workshops and um travel the world.
00:28:07
Speaker
By doing that, that's been really exciting. and Presenting in some conferences and whatnot, just like getting out of my studio in this little town, which I love being in this little studio in this little town. I'm an introvert, so Spending time on my own is great, but I also am a social introvert. I want to get out there and and see the world and meet people and meet other potters. And I'm curious about their lives. And yeah, I think that that's been a huge win that I wasn't expecting.
00:28:40
Speaker
That once I found my voice, I was invited to share it. I love that. And I definitely agree. Being able to talk to other potters is so great. i love that. and So what does it mean to you to find your own unique pottery voice?
00:28:57
Speaker
I don't think like, or you know, there've been times when I'm learning where may be making pots that look like someone else's pots. You know, I'm learning the process by making pots like someone else ah makes them and It doesn't feel like yours, you know, doesn't, it feels, it's like if you were a band and you only played covers, you know, like somebody already did the work. They already figured it out all the little intricacies and they practice forever until they just figured out how to make that song.
00:29:32
Speaker
You're playing a cover. They've already, you know, the ah original band already did all of the work. So it's like easier, you know? easier it to lay it out. You can look up the tablisher online and boom, you you can play the song, but it's not yours. It never feels like yours. It's always going to be a Neil Young song or whatever, right?
00:29:49
Speaker
It's never going to be yours. So finding your own voice feels, I was talking about authenticity earlier, it feels closer to your heart and maybe there's a lot of little inspirations from a lot of other potters and maybe the history of ceramics or whatever it is that's in there but it still feels like it's coming from a true place and it feels when you're making that work it feels don't even know what the word is it feels right I guess you feel right about it and you so I think the what ifs and all that are more ready to come to you because you're already in a place of stepping off the path
00:30:28
Speaker
because you're stepping on your own path. I love that. That was some excellent advice right there. So now, what advice would you give to someone that is looking to discover their own unique voice with their Potteries?
Advice for Beginners: Embracing Failures and Learning from Others
00:30:42
Speaker
I think that when you're starting out, you know, even when I was in art school, it was often recommended to, you know, make a pot in the style of blah, blah, blah, right. To learn the techniques, take all the workshops, you know, see as many potters in action as possible. Like I loved watching, you know, at conferences or or, workshops, just watching potters who have been making their work for a long time. And it might not be that you're going to make the pot just like they do, but there's like one aspect of how they do it that, that,
00:31:12
Speaker
when you're trying to figure something out in your own studio, when you're asking that what if question, you're like, oh yeah, so-and-so did that. That might work in a completely different way with a completely different tool, but that might work for this situation. And suddenly you are blossoming in this other way, you know?
00:31:28
Speaker
So what ifs and really not being afraid to do the research and make the make the, you know, failures because they're not really failures. They're just little little obstacles that you have to work your way around. And eventually you will find a way around them if you keep at it.
00:31:46
Speaker
Some excellent advice right there. Sarah, has been great chatting today. And as we're coming to a close here, what is one thing you really want to hammer home with my audience today? I think that already your audience is is listening to you because they are wanting to find their own voice. And like I think that's just such a beautiful thing. And I just want to say, keep at it. Like, if I could if i could find my voice, you're to find your voice and it's out there. It's just goingnna it's just going to take a little digging.
00:32:16
Speaker
I love that. It was great chatting with you today. And where can my audience go and learn more about you? Yeah, Instagram and my website probably are the best places. I have a little newsletter that comes out very rarely that you could sign up for, but mostly it's Instagram.
00:32:32
Speaker
And what is your Instagram handle? It's Sarah Pike Pottery. Hey, thanks for listening this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to master the art of pottery and dive deeper into the techniques of the potters I interview, I created a newsletter that does just that. It dives deep into the techniques of the potters I interview.
00:32:50
Speaker
If you want to learn more, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash newsletter or click the link in the description to learn more.