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Jérémy Bellina | Episode 695
Jérémy Bellina is a Berlin base ceramic artist who aims at creating contemporary, playful & practical ceramics. Jérémy’s approach to the craft is fairly intuitive, he enjoys experimenting with shapes and colors, crossing his fingers that along the way something special and functional will emerge.
EPISODE 700 SMALL VICTORIES
Tell me about your small victories you learned from The Potters Cast. Tell us your name, Instagram Handle, and website. (I may steal a photo off one of your feeds for the show notes page)
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When you are making decisions is it really important to draw line between thinking and overthinking your decision?
Well, for instance when I took the decision to in a way, stop showing up to work that was not an easy decision to make. So I talked a lot about it to my partner, we had a lot of talk before I made the decision and at first he was just like…we have this welfare system that is like unemployment basically, so I knew that if I would stop my job I would get unemployment money for a year so that was kind of the limit. So I thought at least I can have this year where I can give it a shot and then I see where it takes me. Then after a year I already felt that I had improved good enough and I had significant recognition where people were encouraging me and there was also this audience, you know. So when you start to work with an audience on social media I felt like this could take me somewhere. The decision was not easy to make 2 years ago but in a way I got lucky enough that it caught up and I am not going to lie, it is a little bit of a trendy craft right now and so I felt like all of the stars were aligned and in a way I got lucky. I think, I mean I gave it a lot of work and I dedicated a lot of my free time but I am not forgetting the notion of good luck and good timing.
Is it really critical to get the feedback from others in your life, whether it’s the world or close friends or family, that your work is improving? How important is that feedback?
Yeah, it’s reassuring. I am not going to lie, you know, and I think it is one of the down sides of Instagram and the social media platforms, when you don’t get that feedback you feel kind of lower. You don’t have the confidence you need. But for me, I work in my studio, I am there by myself all day, sometimes the whole week. I don’t really interact with many people and so this platform is a little window to the world. To some extent I wouldn’t say I listen to the opinion of everybody but there are people that I know physically or that I know and I haven’t ever met whose opinions matter to me because I like their visions, I like their ideas, you know.
How much are you relying on your gut instinct coupled with that feedback? So how much does that gut instinct come into play?
I think it’s hard for me to tell because I am really asking myself a lot of questions and a lot of the decisions I make in life, my partner could tell you about it, but she has to go through a lot of discussion with me because I am not always certain, but when it comes to ceramics I do what appeals to me and I do really follow my instincts to some extent. So I have a visions basically, a shape, the first version of it might not be the final form but at the beginning there is always something that I feel like-Okay we are on to something here. It might not be perfect yet but I will fine tune it until I get the shape I want. So this is kind of my approach to the work. I keep exploring it until I get something I am happy with.
How much does personal happiness come into play when making a decision?
More and more to an extent where I am a bit scared. We talked about in the beginning, losing track of realities, as time goes and as I get older it’s harder to do something that I just don’t want to do. Yeah, I don’t think it is a positive thing and actually it scares me sometimes to where this could go, you know, because I could really just end up in the middle of nowhere just doing strictly what I am into. And I don’t think that’s all society should do because if everybody does that it will all collapse. But yeah, I would say more and more as time goes I focus on what I want to do and what makes me happy and try to keep that in balance with reality still and think this may not make me 100 percent happy but it will pay some bills.
Who have you surrounded yourself with that supports you through this process?
My girlfriend basically. My partner has been a tremendous help. I mean she has really helped me see things clearly, you know, when my head was extremely blurry. Especially when I did the transition and ever since she is highly supportive. Most of my friends as well are really supportive, they were kind of making jokes at the beginning but it has been two years so they know this is what I am about now. So they are more and more supportive. But my number one support is my partner.
Book
Amazing Glaze by Gabriel Kline
The Complete Guide to Midrange Glazes by John Britt
Contact
Instagram: @jeremy.bellina