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Sherród Faulks | Episode 921
Sherród Faulks creates beautiful things that help you cultivate moments of joy, connection, and love. DEEP BLACK is a modern minimal home décor brand where functionality and intention are at the heart of every handmade piece. Here, beauty reigns supreme. Catch Sherród in The NY Times, Great Jones, Business of Home, and more.
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When you say you are selling a fantasy, what about the push back that someone would say, But that’s not authentic?
I would push back and say, What is not authentic about that? Do you not have a fantasy? Do you not a have a way that you want your home to look? Do you not have a way that you want your lifestyle to be presented to the world? We all do. There’s not way to be inauthentic in your fantasy. As long as it’s coming from yourself, not something you are seeing other people do or making, you know, it’s you. How can that be inauthentic?
So when you say you are selling the fantasy I get the idea that you are helping them trigger the dream. Is that accurate?
Yeah, absolutely. For a lot of people, especially people who like to style their homes, there’s often that sort of one thing, that one thing that starts the whole design process. You get this one mug and you are like, Oh, it’s sapphire blue. That’s it. Now everything else in the room is blue. It’s that one thing that kicks things off so yeah, I am often excited when my work has an opportunity to do that.
And the truth is it sounds woo woo, but woo woo works, right?
Woo woo works. And woo woo is me, that’s just who I am. (laughter) It sounds woo woo but you know what? You know what I say to people who are like tarot and astrology, who cares. Fine you don’t have to believe in it. You also don’t have to believe in the fossil record. That doesn’t mean that there’s not a whole other system of knowledge and imagining that you are simply not aware of. Just because it doesn’t work for you doesn’t mean it doesn’t work. So yeah, I am kind of woo woo. But woo woo works. Woo woo gets some things done.
Do you have to put on a show?
Do I have to put on a show? Do you mean as a maker?
Yes, that’s what I am saying.
Yeah, I don’t think you do. If you look at my Instagram I very specifically don’t the kinds of videos that are very popular now. That are kind of amusing or whimsical or jokey with funny sounds. To me that feel inauthentic. It feels like a show. When we are using the same content and the same style that everyone else is using, that to me is inauthentic. That to me is a show. but for me what I offer, what I put on display, what my students and my classes get, what you see on Instagram, what you get in my reels, it’s just a reflection of who I am. It’s just how I live your life.
You talked earlier about getting in the flow where time is slippery. How do you make time slippery for you?
(Laughter) When I am on the wheel is when time is most slippery for me. Usually that comes from a combination of things. It is that meditative focus required to throw. Everything has to align. Your hands, your body, your mind, your foot, your eyes, teh wheel, the clay, the air, the water, it all has to sync up in order for you to do your best work. Combine that with wonderful incense. I burn a particular sandalwood incense in my studio. I have a big speaker system. I blow the roof off of my studio, every damn day and my neighbors hate me! I blast music all day long in the studio. I turn my phone on do not disturb. You can’t reach me while I am in that state. You are not going to break me out of it. That’s how I get into the flow and stay there for long periods of time.
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