Rebecca Norris – turning ill health into inspiration

2023 Great Pottery Throw Down contestant Rebecca Norris tells me how she reignited her creative flame through pottery while navigating the demands of a teaching career.
Rebecca was brought up in Northern England, where working-class values often overshadowed her artistic ambitions. She recounts finding solace in art during her school years and the subsequent pressure to prioritize a pragmatic career over her creative interests. Yet, despite these challenges, Rebecca's story is a beacon of inspiration, showcasing her ability to weave creativity into her life, teaching pottery workshops, crafting her own pieces, and imparting her knowledge at a local art school.
Rebecca studied politics and English, although she didn’t get along with ‘traditional’ university, so changed to home study instead, and emigrated from the UK to Australia with her husband and son.
While working in teaching, and after a significant health struggle, Rebecca made the decision to try as many craft disciplines as she could, and began reconnecting with her artistic side.
And for those with a penchant for behind-the-scenes insights, Rebecca takes us through the labyrinth of emotions that came with her stint on the Great Pottery Throw Down. From the initial nerves of the application process to the empowering environment of the show, Rebecca's experience as a contestant reveals the deep connection between creativity and emotional well-being.
Finally, as we discuss the complexities of pursuing a creative path post-show, Rebecca candidly discusses her future aspirations and the community support that sustains her.
 
CreativityFound.co.uk
Instagram: @creativityfoundpodcast
Facebook: @creativityfoundpodcast and Creativity Found group
YouTube @creativityfoundpodcast
Pinterest: @creativityfound
Twitter: @creativityfoun

Researched, edited and produced by Claire Waite Brown
Music: Day Trips by Ketsa Undercover / Ketsa Creative Commons License Free Music Archive - Ketsa - Day Trips
Artworks: Emily Portnoi emilyportnoi.co.uk
Photo: Ella Pallet

Buy arts and crafts techniques books, plus books by some of my podcast guests, from the Creativity Found bookshop 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:34

After I'd come out of that, I thought do you know what? I need to do something for me. Teaching is super stressful and I needed to do something for me, and that's when I re-found my creativity. That connection with the earth and fire and water, and all those connections that we are as humans that we need, I think, just is met with clay. I remember the first episode being in that room and I've never felt like this before and I looked around the room and I thought why am I here? I shouldn't be here, I want to run away. You feel like the whole world has collapsed in on you and I didn't quite realise how scared of failing I was until I did that, you know, because it was really. I felt really vulnerable. Creativity is so special to me that it makes me whole.

Speaker 2: 1:28

Hi, I'm Claire, founder of Creativity Found, a community for creative learners and educators, connecting adults who want to find a creative outlet with the artists and crafters who can help them do so with workshops, courses, online events and kits. For this podcast, I chat with people who have found or re-found their creativity as adults. We'll explore their childhood experiences of the arts, discuss how they came to the artistic practices they now love and consider the barriers they may have experienced between the two. We'll also explore what it is that people value and gain from their new found artistic pursuits and how their creative lives, in which they're practical, necessary everyday lives. For this episode, I'm speaking with Rebecca Norris, whose health problems played a big part in steering her on a path of creative exploration which led to her finding her favourite discipline and even becoming a contestant on a very popular UK television show. Hi Rebecca, how are you? Hello, I'm good. Thank you, fabulous. Start by telling me, please, what your creative life is like currently.

Speaker 1: 2:44

So currently it's a bit of a mix of working full time as an education advisor, doing my pottery workshops monthly, having some time to try and make stuff myself, and then working at the local art school doing beginners courses for pottery. So it's all a big mix but it's nice and wholesome. I think it was. I spent a lot of time with my granddad and he was very creative. He was a builder and a woodturner so I spent a lot of time with him making things when I was younger tables and rabbit hutches and different things with wood and so seeing that creative side was lovely. But from a more of a natural job career point of view it wasn't encouraged in the north. You know working class family in the north of England it's the mentality that you go out and get a proper job, so it was always kind of shoved to the side so didn't really think of it as a career path at all until now really.

Speaker 1: 3:53

I'm not having that creativity now but yeah, I think going through my education I did GCSE art, which I absolutely loved, and it was a real sanctuary for me to go on lunchtime to carry on my artwork and that was great and experimenting with different elements. Never had any pottery or any ceramics, but it was my sanctuary so I always knew it was there but it was just. It was never encouraged in a monetary value.

Speaker 2: 4:24

Yeah, never like it was something that you were going to do going forward after education when you get into your sensible life. So what did we do after secondary school?

Speaker 1: 4:35

So I went on to my A levels, being from working class family, my dad I remember having a huge argument with my dad because he wanted me to do an apprenticeship straight away and I wanted to go to college. At that time it was a real loggerheads and he wanted me to do you know, start earning money straight away, which I get, but I wanted to go to college because nobody in my family had ever been to college or university. So I decided to do fight the battle and I won and I went to college to do politics, english language and English literature, which is nothing creative really apart from the literature. But I was a very passionate teenager in terms of I had very, very strong views and I wanted to change the world. Yeah, so just finding your feet at that point, I think. And so, yeah, I lost that creativity really until I went to university, did child development, always knew that I was good with children and you know that creative side of me came out.

Speaker 1: 5:39

And then did my degree in child development through the open university, because I tried actual physical university and it was not for me at all. Didn't get the whole being around loads of people all of the time going out on a night so it just didn't, just didn't appeal to me at all. So open uni was great because I at that point had a baby. I was pregnant at 19 through choice and then had him when I was 20. So I carried on my degree and working and having a baby throughout all that time, and then we added renovating a house into that, so always been a hundred mile an hour in life.

Speaker 1: 6:22

So, yeah, completed that and then went on to do my PGCE, which gave me that creative spirit, because you can be creative with youngsters and small people and have that part of creating and planning the curriculum and making sure that the environment is creative for them. So it's a real passion of mine. But it was never the you know the path. I suppose I never thought of any other path. You don't when you're younger, do you? You just kind of get on with it, but always had little you know projects on the go at home and draw in and painting and just doing little knick-knacky things that weren't really of any value. So yeah, that was me kind of up to a career in teaching.

Speaker 2: 7:08

So you were working full-time, you had a young child, as you said, and you decided to move to Australia at some point. How did that?

Speaker 1: 7:18

come about. So I've done about four years of teaching. I think we were just ready for a challenge. You know we'd renovated the house and we were quite a busy family and that there's only three of us only me, my husband and my son but we are very much always on the go. We always want something new to do. So we just thought let's have a challenge. We wanted to move to Italy. We tried going for a recce, but that didn't go so well. The language barrier was so difficult. Yeah, I just thought it was one step too far. In hindsight it probably wouldn't have been. When you've got little ones, it's easier for them to learn the language.

Speaker 1: 7:57

We came back. I was very depressed. I thought what are we going to do? I don't want to live in Britain. And then someone said have you thought about Australia? So we thought, right, well, let's give it a go. So we booked a holiday literally the day after Someone had said that when all down the east coast of Australia. So we did Brisbane, sydney, kairns, and then we went to Melbourne and we absolutely fell in love with Brisbane. The city is just amazing. It's such a lovely country feel to it, but it's just so lovely. It's got lots of things to do there. So we thought, right, you know what, let's give it a go. So I put my visa in and got accepted about gosh, it was about a year. It's a very long process, very expensive process, but we managed to get the visa and we headed off to Australia, leaving everyone behind, and so just the three of us went and moved there and didn't really know what we were going into. A very good honeymoon period, I think. When you move to a new place it's very exciting, it's so fun, and then you start missing home a little bit more. And when we arrived we bought a house straight away, which is probably a silly decision, but you make these decisions in life and you kind of have to just deal with them. So we did that.

Speaker 1: 9:16

And then I started getting quite ill. I found out I had, after lots of investigations, endometriosis. So that was quite hard being on our own there, because there was no support. Obviously I had friends and I was teaching, so I had that network, but not the friends that you'd built up for years who understood everything you've been through. And I'd had these symptoms for quite a long time, since I was about 14 really. So pelvic pain and tummy troubles and things. So just kind of put it down to that. And then it got to the point where it was so bad that I had to go and get it investigated properly and had a wonderful team and the healthcare in Australia was just fantastic and basically I got diagnosed with endometriosis and went for my first surgery and then it came back after six months. So at this point I was at a real low ebb. Then I found out I had an assist on my pituitary, which is near your brain, so I had to have surgery on that to remove that because it had stopped my eye from working. My left eye had stopped. It was kind of blind spots in my left eye. So I had to have that quickly removed, which was when I see you. And it was all very.

Speaker 1: 10:29

It was just a lot in the two year period of time and after I'd come out of that I thought do you know what? I need to do something for me, teaching is super stressful it's not as stressful as England, but it's got its own stresses and I needed to do something for me. And that's when I re-found my creativity and I set myself a challenge of a year of trying all the different crafts that I could possibly try and see which one took my fancy, and it was so fun and that's when my love of workshops came. I just absolutely loved learning new things, being with a bunch of like minded people and just enjoying, and time just flew by like it had never flown by before and it was really just a really good thing to do for my mental health. So I knew I was on the right track at that point, which was amazing. So I tried stained glass, I tried pottery, I tried painting, I tried acrylic I can't remember what it's called now you pour it and it stinks.

Speaker 2: 11:38

Well, I don't know about the stinking, but isn't it just called paint pouring, or do you mean resin? Resin, that's the one you knew it was the one it's really smelly.

Speaker 1: 11:50

So I tried that, tried some needle craft, tried sewing and things like that that I'd done with my you know, my grandparents when I was little and the first time I touched clay I knew and I know it sounds so cliche, but I knew. I just knew that it was going to be in my life forever. And I carried on with the painting, more as a discipline really, because I find painting really difficult and the concentration that you need to paint is just unbelievable. So I like to keep that in my life for a discipline, and I do stain glass as well. Carried that on because I loved that quick result of seeing something evolve and just look beautiful straight away. But yeah, clay was the one.

Speaker 2: 13:12

So if you say painting is a discipline and painting you have to think about, whereas clay is the one that you, like, instantly knew was the right one, what is it about clay, do you think, or working in that way that has grabbed you and isn't a discipline for you?

Speaker 1: 13:31

I think it's just endless. Clay is just. You know, paint is like no disrespect to, because I think painters are a different breed of people. They're amazing, but for me it's quite restrictive in that you've got a paintbrush, you've got some form of canvas and you paint that and that's it, whereas clay it can be functional, it can be, you know, it can be a piece of art, it can be mindful, it can be anything that you need it to be and that connection with the earth and fire and water and all those connections that we are as humans that we need, I think just is met with clay totally. I just feel whole and that sounds silly but it is.

Speaker 1: 14:17

It's a jigsaw piece that just kind of fitted in and I thought when I haven't done clay for a few days, I noticed that I'm not right, there's something not right and then I realised, oh, I haven't done clay for a few days as well with the hand. Building is a lot different to the wheel for me, because I do both. The wheel is a bit of a discipline because it is a science almost. You have to do it and the glazing is a science and you have to do it the right way or else it won't work, and for me, hand building is just an absolute release of ideas and just freedom. And hours can go by, so I like to keep the two going, because I want to learn everything there is to learn about clay, so I want to be a whole person when it comes to pottery.

Speaker 2: 15:05

I completely understand going back to where you are now, and it all comes back down to how the creativity has benefited you generally as you go along. But you've talked about your illnesses and you did actually mention the very good health system in Australia, but you are back in the UK now. Was that anything to do with the illnesses? Was there other circumstances that brought you back?

Speaker 1: 15:30

Yeah. So the endometriosis came back and I had to. Then when I went under investigation again in Australia, they found some high risk cervical cancer cells. So that was another thing. So I had to go in for another operation and then after that they said let's just do a hysterectomy, we need to just get rid, we just need to get rid. So basically had a hysterectomy, so within a very short period of time it had been a lot and I don't think I processed that and then the pandemic hit.

Speaker 1: 16:03

So within that time there was a lot that happened that probably wasn't related to Australia but made me just so homesick. I just needed to come home and we booked a holiday but obviously that got cancelled because of COVID and, as you'll know, australia was so strict on their border controls there was no end in sight. So maybe it was an e-jerk reaction, but we sold the house and we were just like, right, we're going home for two years, we're just going to go home, see how weather land lies, whether we want to be in the UK, whether we want to be in Australia, and that kind of worms, unfortunately, is never, is never, ever going to be closed. I think once you emigrate, it creates a whole lot of emotional turmoil. It's a super hard thing to do leaving and coming back. But so, yeah, we made the decision to come back and yeah, it's been an amazing journey coming back. It's just reignited me, I think, as a person it's. I feel a lot better in myself.

Speaker 1: 17:03

I feel like the cultural differences were a lot and you don't think that that will have an impact. But when you feel I didn't feel that sense of belonging or I just didn't feel like I fit in and that's no fault of the Australian people, the country, that's something within me. But it was hard, it was really hard to fit in. All those cultural references that you have are gone completely. So it's kind of finding yourself again.

Speaker 1: 17:34

So coming home was a real find yourself again moment and just I'll never forget that moment, coming back because we hadn't been back for five years and just smelling the air and seeing the grass and the dew on the grass, because in Queensland it's the same, you know it's the same every day because we don't have seasons, so it's so, yeah, coming back and seeing that it was. You know it was cold and crisp and the birds are different birds and it was just you saw life through a different lens and it's been amazing, and then straight into the throwdown, which was I applied when I was in Australia and then carried on the process when I got back and that it's just been absolutely insane really to think come back from a different country and then you're on national.

Speaker 1: 18:22

TV within a few months Just crazy.

Speaker 2: 18:26

Yeah, I think that's really interesting because certainly I tend to think that another country, if it's English speaking, it's therefore the same as England, absolutely, and you know what.

Speaker 1: 18:36

I think that is the pitfall that we all fell into, because you expect that everybody speaks the same language, that everything's going to be the same, and it really isn't. You know, they do have different ways of doing things, you know, and different words for things, different vocabulary, so you'll you know. Just for example, you want some crisps. Nobody knows what crisps are. You know the chips over there and you ask for chips and they ask you if you want hot chips or or chip, and you're like I don't know, I just want a chip.

Speaker 1: 19:11

It's just the cultural differences, that minor. But when you add them all together on a daily basis, you can feel quite isolated. And I'm not complaining about the country at all, it is an incredible country and I've got citizenship there, we all have and I do feel I'm just starting now, after like a year and a half, to feel those pangs of homesickness for Australia which, like I said, it's that kind of worms that you can never. You can never put away. You'll never be fully full because your heart is in two places all the time. But I think that makes great artistic inspiration.

Speaker 2: 19:54

Yes, definitely You've got. You've got your experience to draw on. So when you got back and I'm going to come back and you're going to tell me what the throw down is I know what the throw down is, obviously, but not all of our listeners will do. But when you came back, did you, did you have work to go to and were you able to keep up your craft crusades? Did you concentrate solely on the pottery at that point? How did you then re-assimilate that into life back in the UK?

Speaker 1: 20:21

Yeah. So when I came back from Australia I had I was just doing relief teaching. I got a lot of offers of teaching jobs because there's a shortage, but I was very strong in my mind that I wasn't going to walk into another full-time teaching role because I knew that that would just take up every bit of energy I had. And obviously, because Australia is so far away, our little cube that we took of belongings was on its way back and would take three months to get back. So I didn't have anything all my pottery stuff. I had nothing. So that was really quite difficult.

Speaker 1: 20:56

Actually it was a difficult position to be in because we didn't have anywhere to live. It was really difficult to find somewhere to live. So we're in an Airbnb. So I didn't have anything that I could really draw upon for creativity, which was difficult. But I had obviously the teaching. So I did the teaching full-time. And then the throw-down came along and I thought, oh, my goodness, I'm gonna have to quickly buy a wheel and get some clay in my life quickly when I found out that I was going to be on. So my real first reintroduction to clay was the audition process.

Speaker 1: 21:32

I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to get my head into gear here. So that made me get all the gear back and start again, which was good, because I think it could have taken a few more months before I'd actually get sorted and get clay, because a clay setup is not an easy setup. You've got to have somewhere that's, you know, quite big enough and quite able to fit everything in. It takes so much room up it, it does stay it's. You've got to make sure all the safety precautions are put in place. So for a long time the kiln was in the dining room, because I bought a kiln, so that was in the dining room, with my wheel in the spare room and a bucket that split and then dripped through the kitchen ceiling. Oh no, yeah, so it was. It was, um, it was just a process of moving me from one room to another whilst we got sorted. Yeah, I've got a shed and it's all good.

Speaker 2: 22:31

Yay, everybody needs a shed with their wonderful artistic creative things in yeah, so do tell us then. Tell us what you mean by the throwdown one of my favorite tv shows. But you can explain and tell me about your application and your time on the show.

Speaker 1: 22:46

So beam in from here to here because this is my favorite topic of conversation, not because it's about me, just because I have a complete love of this tv program. So the Great Pottery Throwdown is tv program um on channel four and it's been going for six series now and basically it collects amateur potters 12 amateur potters and it puts them through challenges and judges them to find a winner of the Great Pottery Throwdown Contestant of the Year. And yeah, it's just my favorite program to watch without me being on it. It's just a fabulous feel good program where there's no bitchiness or it's not dog eat dog, it's literally a heartwarming, wholesome, fulfilling watch. So if you haven't watched it, I'm gonna just absolutely recommend that you do because it is. It's a fantastic feel good and people who don't even like pottery and think I have no interest in it watch it and they get hooked. And then obviously we've got the judge, keith Brimer Jones, who loves to shed a tear over any, any clay make um, which is just fabulous.

Speaker 1: 23:57

His passion is is crazy and yeah interestingly, before I got on I knew I was on the show and, um, he was doing a book signing in Scarborough so I'd booked to go on this before I knew I was on the show. So I was sat in the audience listening to him talk about his book and how things are going and people were asking about the throwdown, and the lady next to me was like you're asking my question you love him. You're asking a question. I'm like no, no, I'm all right, I'm okay I don't need to ask him a question.

Speaker 1: 24:25

And then, really embarrassingly, when I'd finished, when it had finished, he would, he could sign new books. So I went openly, signed my book and I didn't mention anything because I thought I don't want to break any rules and get kicked off before I even started. And I just was really embarrassing and and said to him you're just an inspiration, oh gosh, please don't remember me, please don't remember me. And did he?

Speaker 2: 24:51

no, who's my husband asked him when we, when he met, he was like do you remember? She came to that book saying he's like no, I don't.

Speaker 1: 24:59

I'm like thank goodness for that because it was so embarrassing. But I have got a picture of me with Keith looking very embarrassed and red-faced next to him with my book. So yeah, so that was lovely to to be able to meet him before the show, and he cried so much about the contestants and things when, when we were there. So that was lovely, a real confidence boost, because it was a scary prospect you were quite an emotional contestant as well, weren't you?

Speaker 1: 25:25

Yeah, absolutely, and I don't normally cry at anything. So yeah, it was actually quite. I think it's the atmosphere and I think going through the application process at the beginning was quite cathartic and looking at and I would suggest that if there is anything that comes up for anyone listening, even if you just apply, even if you don't want to go on to the show or you know, not even pottery, if there's anything isn't there now. There's woodwork, there's make-off, there's everything. But the actual process of that application was so cathartic and thinking about why you're doing your craft, what you want to get out of it, where you are in your kind of journey. That was really interesting for me to do. And then going through to the stages and then getting to the audition Actually it was just like an absolute crazy dream you know, just going and I after that I thought, if I don't get on, that's great, because in my head I've done.

Speaker 1: 26:24

I've done the show without being on the show, so absolutely great, I've had a day out in London, I've had my Morrison's meal deal, I'm happy. So I thought, right, I'm going to come home and that's it. But think about it again. And then they rang and said I got on and oh my goodness, it was just beyond crazy. I actually said to them you're having a laugh, this is some kind of sick joke. You're having a laugh. Stop it, this is not nice. And they were and they were like, no, we loved you, we want you on the show.

Speaker 1: 26:54

And I think then it started setting in the doubt, started setting in thinking why have they picked me? It must not because I'm good at it, it must be because I do. You know I made them laugh or something. Do you know? All these doubts start creeping in your head and you do start questioning yourself. But then when you get onto the show, you just want to have fun. The people there are amazing and I was very emotional because I remember the first episode being in that room and I've never felt like this before and I looked around the room and I thought why am I here?

Speaker 1: 27:27

I shouldn't be here, I want to run away. Creativity is so special to me that it makes me whole. Putting yourself out there on the line. I thought, what am I doing? Do you know, what am I doing? Putting myself in this vulnerable position and you don't really get the gravity of being on the TV because the cameras are there, but you can't really see it being on a screen, if that makes sense, because you're just doing what you're doing. So that bit was a bit removed really. But yeah, those moments where you think, gosh, like they've picked me and I can't do this, what am I doing? But that was why I did it to overcome those obstacles and to push myself and to challenge myself that little bit further in my process, and I knew it would. So, yeah, it was emotional and when Keith cried I had to cry. You can't not cry when Keith cried. I mean, I cried at home when Keith cried.

Speaker 1: 28:19

So when he was there in front of him, I was like saying to myself don't you dare cry, Don't you dare cry.

Speaker 1: 28:25

Don't you dare cry in there. And that failure you know I did on my challenges. I did fail quite a lot and because of that pressure, you feel like the whole world has collapsed in on you and I didn't quite realise how scared of failing I was until I did that, you know, because it was really. I felt really vulnerable. It felt like the only way I can describe it is that you were in the school hall hall when you were little and everybody else had got an A and you'd got an E and you were stood at the front of the hall and everybody was watching it. I've never felt quite as vulnerable I don't think emotionally than that because and they were lovely, the judges were amazing, you know, and the crew were amazing and they'd come and give me a hug and I'd be in the canteen like the makeup lady and after coming, like you didn't get a makeup. But I think she just felt so sorry for me that I slapped a bit on because it had just been really emotional and you're tired and it's the very long days and it's emotionally taxing and it's physically taxing and mentally taxing. So you're already in a place of vulnerability and then something just tips you off the edge and but it was the.

Speaker 1: 29:44

I can look back on it and I would. If someone said you want to go back to Stoke on Trent right now and do it all again, I would be the first one to run to the car because it was just incredible. I never went to win, I wanted to just have an experience and and I'm so grateful to my family for letting me do that because I wasn't working, because I was doing relief it was just one of those things that was great, that I didn't take on that full-time role. It was like it was meant to be and my husband I had to take on extra hours and you know friends and family help with the dog and my son and everybody pulled together so I could go on and I'm so grateful for that. It's moved me along in my creative journey.

Speaker 2: 30:23

Speaking of which, it sounds like you are still totally buoyed by the experience, and it's given you some confidence, a lot of confidence and a lot of joy. So how, after the excitement, all of that, how do you manage to mix working and creating, now including teaching, as you mentioned at the beginning?

Speaker 1: 30:44

After the throw down, it had aired, it had calmed down. It was one of those experiences where there's a lot to go through emotionally. You've got to kind of process it and put it in your mind somewhere that you've got this elevated position of kind of confidence because you've been on a show, you've been chosen for something like that, but also that kind of doubt that's always been there, that's still there, that comes and says but you're not good enough, are you? And I'm really struggling with that at the moment. I'm not going to lie, it's really hard to think of the two things. You've been up there and now you're kind of back to reality and that's quite hard. And what do you want from that? Do you want to be an artist? Do you want to just do it for your own mental well-being? Do you want to just teach it as a career? Or what do you want to do with this experience that you've been given and I'm sure everybody goes through it without going on a national TV program? But it is that question that you've got to ask yourself. Isn't it that you have to say what do you want from this? There's no point doing it if you're not getting anything from it or if you're going to burn yourself out from doing it and you're not gaining anything.

Speaker 1: 32:00

So what I've tried to do is keep everything open, so still doing my full-time work, which is a passion of mine Education Advisor for an early years program, which I absolutely love, and then doing my teaching, which is my place of comfort because I've done it for so long, I've taught for so long. I find it. I find it quite easy, and that's something that I'm good at. I know I'm good at, so I can do that. It fulfills my bucket because I'm like yeah, I'm good at this.

Speaker 1: 32:30

So, and then obviously, my making, which that is the bit where I'm struggling with at the minute. It's the making for fun, but then people expect things of you because you've been on a TV program. But do they really? I don't know whether it's all in my head. So it's that the making bit for me is quite difficult at the minute and I went through a period of block, but my throw down friends are helping me through it.

Speaker 1: 32:54

Got a shout out to Lois. She's incredible. She's my cheerleader, the one when I feel like I'm rubbish she'll come along and tell me I'm not and stop being silly and get on with it, and that's so good. So, still finding my style, still want to learn. I've got so much to learn and I think the best thing that someone said to me was you were never going on that program to be a professional. You were an amateur potter. You still are an amateur potter and that's fine. You're still learning and that's really helped me to think yeah, I don't have to be something, I'm just learning and getting on with it. Yeah, brilliant.

Speaker 1: 33:31

Sorry, I hope that makes sense.

Speaker 2: 33:33

Absolutely, no, absolutely doesn't, and the way it makes sense is that it's a bit nonsensical in that you don't really know how it's all going to pan out, and now I'm going to ask you a question that completely contradicts that idea. Do you then have, even though you're not sure of how it's all working out now, do you have any thoughts or aspirations for further on in the future?

Speaker 1: 33:56

Yeah, I think in my head I've had this idea for a long time that I want to have a retreat, a potter's retreat that's in my head I want in Italy or France or somewhere warm, and to have that retreat where people come and they have a week and they just pot away and they just chill, and that, for me, would be my ideal. Just to have it. Having people come, enjoy themselves, love clay and then have a do you know? Break. So that is my long, long term goal. But I am like you say, it's one of those things that twists and turns and sometimes I think, yeah, I do, I've got so many ideas in my head. I do want to grow as an artist, but also I've got my teaching. So it's hard, isn't it to know? But, like you say, it should be organic. I shouldn't really be thinking too much into it, I should just be getting on with it and doing that. But our brains don't work like I do.

Speaker 2: 34:53

Then there's always a sense of well, I should be thinking organically about this, or what did you all? Something I get asked a lot is what are you expecting to get out of it? I don't know, I just want to do it.

Speaker 1: 35:07

That's creativity, isn't it? That's the contradiction, you know, what do you want from it? Well, actually, I think I'm getting all I need from it actually right at this point, but I'm overthinking everything because I think the Instagram world and society thinks that we should do more like what's the end goal. But is there an end goal, you know, or is it just that I'm enjoying my creativity?

Speaker 2: 35:30

But if you go back to you mentioned the northern upbringing and they're doing the A levels. It's a kind of right you do your basic education and then you go out and earn money and that's where the value comes from going and getting a proper job and being an upstanding member of society Absolutely yeah and no yeah, that's it and that?

Speaker 1: 35:47

I suppose that's what it is, isn't it in your brain? You've got that always there that you have to. It has to have some kind of value, monetary value or some kind of change to your everyday life. That's for the better. So you've got them societal values. But actually creativity isn't a societal value. It's because it's so far down on that on that list, isn't it? Yeah, yeah. I just try to shut the dog up, Henry. Just take her out that front room. Sorry, if she's in the front room, she barks.

Speaker 2: 36:22

It's been so lovely to speak with you, Rebecca. How can people connect with you?

Speaker 1: 36:27

So I'm on Instagram talking about the beast. It's at rebeccanarisdesigns and that's Norris with two Rs, and my website is wwwrebeccanarisdesignscom. So yeah, lots of information about workshops and teaching and some things that I've made and think are worthy of selling.

Speaker 2: 36:52

Brilliant. Thank you so much, Rebecca. I've had a lovely chat, oh thank you, claire.

Speaker 1: 36:58

I love the podcast, thank you.

Speaker 2: 37:03

Thanks so much for listening to Creativity Found. If your podcast app has the facility, please leave a rating and review to help other people find us. On Instagram and Facebook, follow Act Creativity Found podcast and on Pinterest, look for Act Creativity Found. And finally, don't forget to check out creativityfoundcouk, the website connecting adults who want to find a creative outlet with the artists and crafters who can help them tap into their creativity.