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Lucy Be | Episode 1228
Lucy Be is a full-time potter based in the Northern Rivers of Australia, creating ceramic tableware rooted in tradition and layered with intricate patterning. Informed by a BA (Hons) in Ceramic Design from Central Saint Martins, Lucy’s work evokes whimsical nostalgia and has been shown in Australia and the United States.
Clay Call
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I’m just blown away and so impressed on how you were able to overcome your fears. I think that most people when they’re going through the selling process, I don’t think it’s the fear of selling as much as it’s the fear of being judged or rejected or feeling exposed. And I’m wondering, if you think that that is the underlying root?
Yes, completely, completely. Because we’re putting a part of ourselves out on the table and people will either sort of buy it or not.
Do you think that a critical thing to actually name the fear so that we can overcome it?
Yes, although for me, I wasn’t as conscious of it. I knew I was scared of selling, but I didn’t realize that it was, you know, sat a bit deeper than that. Sat about, it was sort of a general anxiety of feeling exposed.
When you started to get good positive feedback, did that help you to get past the terror and the fear?
Yes, positive feedback, but also just doing it more and more and more. You know, if it’s a tiny market, on the beach, or if it’s a massive market in Sydney, it’s just practice, just showing up the best we can. And if we have to take a break in the middle, do some deep breathing, that’s fine. We do it. I did it.
When you were selling, you said that because you were so engaged with your pottery that you felt like it was actually you. Was there at any point that you could detach yourself from the work and say, that’s not me?
Not exactly, but I have had to look at it with a bit more distance now in order to make it a business. So when I get to a big market now, this is my product. And yes, it comes from my heart, but it’s my product. And if somebody doesn’t buy it, doesn’t mean I’m not good enough. So thinking like that has helped.
Do you think if someone is struggling with fear that starting small and starting small on purpose is the key?
Yeah, start small. Start with what you can handle. So I did, I did a tiny market in a park. I just took a table to a park and put some pots on it one day. Things like that can help. And before, and you, you never, I never wanted to overwhelm myself. So as I felt more confident, I could take on bigger events.
How important is it to normalize talking about your work to other people?
Very important. And I think outside of apprenticeships and university, We don’t do it a lot because I was thinking about this today. I don’t talk about my work often. I talk about it to my pottery friends, but I don’t see them that often. So it is good practice to talk about it because it helps us to understand it, I think.
Do you think that underpricing is often fear in disguise? Therefore, we need to price with respect, not with guilt or not with fear?
That is such a good question. Yes. Fear, it was fear of being seen. It took me a long time to price my work according to what it is worth and how long it took to make. And that came with building confidence. So in the beginning, my pots were so low, the prices were so low, but as I did more and more markets and stood in the community. The prices would level out a bit, I never wanted to undercut the market. And as I’ve become more confident in my work and I feel a bit more established, my prices have gone up. And they sit now at where I think they should be. But it took a lot.
Book
The Complete Guide to High Fire Glazes by John Britt
Contact
Instagram: @lucy_be.ceramics