Getting Over Imposter Syndrome | Raphaela Seck | Episode 710

Raphaela Seck | Episode 710

Raphaela Seck is a potter living in the south west of Devon in the UK. Raphaela first started pottery at an evening class and has been hooked ever since. After completing 2 apprenticeships Raphaela went on to manage a community studio and teach weekly classes. Raphaela now makes pottery full time from her home studio. Raphaela’s work is calm, elegant, and tactile.

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You expressed that the joy of being asked to sell your things in a brick and mortar store was sort of tarnished by imposter syndrome. Do you vocalize that feeling, of feeling like your an imposter to anybody else?

Yes, I am sure I did to my friends and my family and my boyfriend. You know the usual, I don’t think I am good enough to be selling my work, all that kind of stuff. Especially at the beginning because you know, like we said with pottery it takes a lot of practice before you become good. Nobody jumps on and can make a perfect pot the first time. And then it gets kind of almost difficult to judge after awhile whether you are getting good or not, because you have just been doing it for awhile and you are like, Maybe I am, maybe I am not. Then you make a bowl and you’re like, I think that is actually really good. And then you look at it for too long and you think, Well, actually I don’t think that’s very good.  (Laughter)  So yeah, I definitely did vocalize it.

Is it okay to sell you work before it’s “time”.  Is it okay to do it earlier than you should?

I don’t know, I kind of have mixed feelings about it to be honest. I think it needs to be able to function properly. Like a mug for instance, the handle needs to be well enough made that it is not going to break and little things like that. But then at the same time I feel like you can wait too long as well because if you are trying to get your work too perfect then…(technical noise)…I have earlier work  I really hate because they are really old and reminders of what I sold back then, but they cherish them and they love them. So it is a bit of a tricky one really. I think as long as functionally they work and they are not going to break, I kind of don’t really see the problem.

Ben Carter said, when I asked him about this said, If someone can sit down and repeat the same pot and they all look essentially the same, then they are ready to start selling.  Do you think that is a good gauge for someone to use or do you have a different gauge that ought to be used?

I think that probably is quite a good gauge to be honest, because even if you don’t want all of your pots to necessarily  look the same, if you don’t want to be like a production thrower and have all of your work, you want to make each cup individual, it’s a really good basis to have that you can make pots look all the same because it means you have the control over the clay rather than the clay just being like, I am going to be this shape and you don’t know what you are doing to actually control it. So I do think it is probably quite a good basis, but then I don’t know…(laughter).

Well I am really asking about, even though those are questions about when to sell, I really want to ask about how to counter the idea of imposter syndrome. So the question is: How do you go about separating feelings from fact? Where do you know the line is where you can say, That’s a good bowl. Period. 

It’s a tricky question , you know, because I think, you know, there’s what I might think is a good bowl as a potter and there’s what a friend of mine who isn’t a potter thinks is a good bowl. And that’s going to be probably a very different bowl, quite likely. Because as potters you know, you have more knowledge of the craft and even wall thickness and things like that that maybe we can get a bit stuck on. I know I definitely do. Whereas the people who aren’t potters I feel like you are much freer to enjoy whatever kind of pottery you like. I mean, I know I have quite a harsh judgement in my brain, that little judgmental voice. I’m very harsh on myself all the time with my work and whether it is perfect and it’s something that I am really working on moving away from because I don’t think it is actually beneficial to the work at all.

There’s a saying I have heard plenty of times, Fake it ’til you make it. I think there is some validity to that but also that can actually be a cover up for actually being a fraud. 

Yeah, definitely. That is very true.

So when do you implement that rule and when do you just have hard core honesty, I’m not good enough yet? or that’s not good enough yet.

I guess it’s also about self believe isn’t it? Because if you think it’s good enough than why shouldn’t you sell it? And I guess maybe it comes down to the kind of person you are. I have a loud inner critic and it didn’t actually stop me from selling when I think I probably shouldn’t have. But, you know, for some people it would. I know people who haven’t started selling and they have been potting for five years and to me, that’s crazy. But some people might have been potting for 6 months and be like, I love this! And I’m going to sell it. I think it is really hard and I don’t know, it’s a tricky one to talk about, I think.

When someone does start to sell, how open ought they be to critiques or criticism?

I think you should always be open to critique and criticism. Doesn’t mean you have to take it all on board but I really believe it can make you a better potter because you can’t always see everything about your own work and having an outside view from someone who has different taste or who works in a different way. And also who’s hands are different, so when they use your pots it is going to feel different, the handles and things like that. I think it is really important to have other people’s opinions about your work.

Is it important to visualize yourself being successful at what you want to be doing?

I would say, yes. I mean, it’s not that I think I made it as a success or anything at all but I’ve always trusted that I would ne able to make a living out of pottery. And I have been able to do it and I think you have to trust in yourself that you can do it if you want to because otherwise it is going to make your life a lot harder if you are telling yourself that it is not going to happen, or that it is silly idea or it is an unrealistic thing to do. Of course it’s going to be harder. It’s just positive thinking isn’t it?

Book

Clay and Glazes for the Pottery By Daniel Rhodes

Contact

raphaelaceramics.co.uk

Instagram: @raphaelaceramics

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