We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Eva Bascompte Moragas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Eva below.
Eva , so many exciting things to discuss, we can’t wait. Thanks for joining us and we appreciate you sharing your wisdom with our readers. So, maybe we can start by discussing optimism and where your optimism comes from?
I’m usually a pessimist, heh. I take it from my mom. Although I’m a different type of pessimist. I tend to lower expectations, think about a possible failure, so it doesn’t hit as hard when it fails, but that comes with perks, it allows me to try anything and everything because I know failure is a possibility and this way I’m not as scared to try new things. In a way it’s half way of being optimistic if you think about it. I always tell myself that if I don’t try new things I’ll regret it late because, if you don’t, your mind will be always thinking about the what ifs and if you try and fail, just try again. You get with you the experience of that failure to create or do something better with it.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I create small ceramic animals. I have always loved animals since a young age (I would like to pet any sort of animal if given the chance, even spiders!) so when I started my pottery journey my goal was set on creating pieces that would bring joy to everyone that looked at them. There’s nothing better than a small cute animal to make you smile!
As I am an only person creating these cute animals, my releases take time, I want the animals to feel special and unique: add as many details as possible so you get lost looking at the intricacies. That is why I also tend to do not repeat designs because, as an artist, it gives me the opportunity to try new things and make the pieces more special to my customers.
Lately I am creating lots of possums. They are amazing animals and so cute! To open my horizons I’ve started creating some mugs here and there and I have 3 on the works for my next release (coming soon!). Lately dressing up possums in costumes has been something very fun and enjoyable to me and has given me many future ideas.
I hope people love and laugh when seeing them!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think there are 3 key elements to anyone starting any art journey: Perseverance, A Desire to Learn & Acceptance.
No one starts knowing everything so if you keep trying and persevering you’ll notice an improvement on any skill. Chances are that you won’t be successful over night. It takes time to build a niche and to reach out to people. Every little step counts so keep doing what you like and eventually you’ll look back and see how much you have grown.
Adding to that a desire to learn will give you new experiences and techniques that you can apply to your art. That can be related to the craft or not. Being knowledgeable of different areas comes in handy as there’s more to a business than just making art. Finances, marketing, social media, etc. learning about all the different areas will help you grow and improve.
And lastly, accept your art, the criticism, to let go and that you can’t make everyone happy. With the increase of social media as a means to promote your art, we tend to listen to too many opinions and, over time, that can be detrimental to your mental health. Taking a break and caring about yourself is important, learning to accept that you don’t need to be 100% replying, creating and being online is part of the journey.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
I am a new mom and it has been extremely challenging trying to manage everything while caring for a baby. The lack of sleep and stress has made me slower on everything, including my art. There are days that I don’t even feel like doing anything other than just lay down on the sofa.
Accepting that this is part of my life, of the process of raisin another human being, has allowed me to see that I don’t need to be making all the time and that, when I do, it should be because I want to and not because I have to.
I am currently trying to get better sleep and de-stress to feel more like myself to go back to enjoy creating, even if it’s just a small batch of pieces that take forever to make.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.unexpectedlullaby.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/unexpectedlullaby
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/unexpectedlullaby
