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#176 How To Make Dope Ceramic Home Decor w/ Diana Adams
43 Plays3 years ago
What is up Shaping Nation on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery I got to interview Diana Adams. Diana makes some really amazing pottery that she calls Dope Ceramic Home Decor. You learn more about Diana By checking out her instagram @sample.haus
Top 3 Value Bombs:
- How to make Diana's Dope Ceramics Home Decor Pottery
- Why you should be connecting with other potters to grow your skills
- Why you should be teaching about your pottery to find and evolve your voice even further
and so much more
Take this Free Quiz to see how close you are to finding your pottery voice click here to take the quiz shapingyourpottery.com/quiz
Follow me on Instagram @nictorres_pottery
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Transcript
Introduction to the Episode
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, real quick before we get started and get into the episode, if you want to figure out how close you are to discovering your own unique voice, I put together a free little quiz for you to see how close you are to finding your own unique voice. If you would like to take this quiz, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash quiz, or you can just go to shapingyourpottery.com and it'll be right there. I'll see you guys in there.
00:00:25
Speaker
If you love pottery and want to take your skills to the next level, you're in the right place. Find your own pottery style right here on Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Let's get started.
Meet Diana Adams
00:00:39
Speaker
What is up, Shaping Nation? This is Nick Torres here. And on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, I got to interview Diana Adams. Diana makes some really incredible dope ceramic home decor. In this episode, you will learn how Diana makes her dope ceramic home decor. You'll also learn about
00:00:56
Speaker
why you need to be connecting with other potters to help you grow as an artist and to help just keep things more interesting. Finally, you'll learn about why you should be teaching, you know, workshops, teaching people how to make pottery to improve your own voice and to find your voice as well. I hope you guys enjoy this episode and I'll see you guys in there. Diana, welcome to Shaping Your Pottery and share with me what is something people might not know about you.
00:01:24
Speaker
Hello and thank you for having me. What is something people may not know about me? I do share a lot on Instagram and I keep sharing this over and over again because people don't believe it. So I guess I'll share it again. I am super introvert. It may not look like that on Instagram with all the singing and dancing, but like in public settings,
00:01:50
Speaker
It's just, I like to be, like I can be, I have like extroverted tendencies, like I can go and be crazy with people, but then I need to, I need time to recharge. I can't just go at it nonstop. Definitely, same, I'm the exact same way. So tell me the story how you got started in ceramics.
Diana's Ceramics Journey
00:02:14
Speaker
Let's see, it started back in, let's see, 20, I keep forgetting the year.
00:02:19
Speaker
Cause I was, I'm looking at the years of like my, when I dated my artwork, but in college, I was taking art studio. So painting and sculpting. So my background is painting and sculpting and pottery or woodshop was the need elective for that. So I saw ceramics and I'm just like, oh, ceramics, like the ghost story, like everyone did, like that's the only reference I had for pottery was freaking ghosts. I've seen no one, I don't know any potters. I didn't know any potters.
00:02:48
Speaker
We didn't learn about them in school, like in history. There was like no pottery section. So that's the only reference I had. So I thought that was cool. And I was like, yes, I'm going to be on the wheel. I'm going to do ceramics. And that was like 2004, I think? 2003, it's been like 20 years. Love it. Awesome. So can you describe to me the moment when you decided to pursue pottery full time?
00:03:15
Speaker
Yes, that was after 2020, all the craziness. I don't know if I should go back.
00:03:23
Speaker
to when I started my business, but I'll just answer the question. When I decided to do it full time was 2021. That was after the big boom in 2020, when everyone was like sharing black owned businesses amongst, you know, George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, everyone just started chipping in and getting more black owned businesses seen. And so business was good back then. It was great. So in 2021, I was like,
00:03:52
Speaker
Shit, like I'm making just as much as I'm making working my full-time job, I might as well just quit. I'm like, peace, thanks, I guess so. I left in 2021 in April was my debut. So can you tell me about the moment leading up to that? Like what, or actually let's step back. So tell me about the time when you decided to start your business for pottery.
00:04:15
Speaker
Yeah.
From Career to Pottery Business
00:04:16
Speaker
So I started my business in 2019. So I, my background is, so even though I took art studio in college, so that was my undergrad, I thought I was going to be like a painter, a sculptor. I've been drawing all my life after graduating. I'm like, okay, what am I going to do with this? I did nothing. And then I went to retail for like 15 or so years. And so.
00:04:39
Speaker
When I hit 30, I had like a early midlife crisis and I'm just like, what am I doing with my life? Like I'm a creative person. I know how to do things. Like I should do something creative. Like I don't want to work in retail for the rest of my life. So I went back to school and I got into interior design. So my other background is interior design. So I got my master's in that and.
00:05:00
Speaker
went through all the steps and I had my my full-time job was it's kind of like an intro entry-level position like a junior designer slash librarian a sample librarian so pretty much what that is is that I organize the room that houses all of the fabric samples and which is like fabrics that you would like select to be like your curtains or
00:05:29
Speaker
wall covering or, you know, pillows, whatever. So I would organize all of those samples. Hence the name sample house. So the samples kind of came from, I'm going to, this is like the long winded answer to your question. So sample house kind of came from me collecting all of these samples.
00:05:51
Speaker
The samples that are discontinued and the samples that they don't need anymore. So a lot of times, like the vendors, they will come in and they would clear out old samples that they can't make anymore. Like, oh, this fabric is old. We're not doing this anymore. And they toss it in the trash. I'm just like, this is pretty. Like this is silk. This is like hand-woven stuff. Like, let me keep all of these things. And I just became like a hoarder.
00:06:14
Speaker
And I was just hoarding all of these little fabric samples. And while I was there, I was able to speak to the vendors, like I say like air quote vendors, but really they were artists. And a lot of times they were artists and the actual owners of the business itself. They would come in and try and pitch their stuff. They're like, oh, I do fabric hand-woven stuff. I do hand-painted murals.
00:06:40
Speaker
I do, I make furniture. I'm just like, you guys are artists. You're a working artist and you have a full working business. And so me being in that position, I was able to see real life working artists, which you don't see a lot. The artists that you learn about in school, they're either dead or old. You don't meet young
00:07:09
Speaker
living working artist. So that just kind of sparked
Inspiration and Artistic Evolution
00:07:13
Speaker
something for me. I'm just like, look at you. Like you're out here pitching yourself. You're making phone calls and that really inspired me. I'm just like, you guys are really out here doing it. You know, and like I'm over here saying I can't be an artist because no one wants to buy my stuff. Like I'm not even trying to go out there and pitch my stuff.
00:07:34
Speaker
You know, I'm not even, I'm not trying to sell, I hate selling. I don't, none of the artists like to sell their stuff, you know, but they're out here like, you have to go out and do those things. And so that just really sparked me to even start my business. I love that. And I definitely agree with it. We have to put ourselves out there to actually make our pottery sell or even make our voice come to life. I love that so much. So let's talk about your pottery. In a short sentence, can you tell me what you make?
00:08:04
Speaker
A short sentence, I would say, I make dope ceramic home decor. Dope ceramic home, dope ceramic home decor. So can you tell me the story, how you started making your dope ceramic home decor? Well, it started off being like upcycled fabrics from my samples. I started off on Etsy, doing the whole thing.
00:08:32
Speaker
And people were, so what I sold before were like fabric collages. I would take the samples, chop it up, and I would collage it like on a wall so you can hang it on a wall. And then when I got inspired to do my pottery again,
00:08:49
Speaker
Hence, I was cleaning the garage with my mom one day and I ran to all my old pottery stuff and just like, oh yeah, I know how to do pottery. And so that kind of brought the pottery into my sample, my upcycling venture. And so I figured I could wrap, maybe I could adhere the fabrics to my ceramic work somehow or tie it in. So my lidded jars, the leather loop is leather that I've gotten from my old job.
00:09:18
Speaker
And I tie that in or I'll like chop up fabric, not, I'll adhere it. And when people saw it, they're just like, oh, this is different. This is cute. But can you make me a planter without the fabric? Because I'm going to get a dirty hair. Or can you, can you do a mug without the fabric? Like.
00:09:34
Speaker
And I'm just like, well, that was like my whole thing was going to be like upcycling fabric. And so I kept making these things for people that didn't have fabric. And a lot of it was planters since everyone was at home. It was 2020. Everyone was at home buying plants. So planters just became a thing that I did. And it just, I just went with the market. So whatever the market wanted, that's what I did.
00:10:00
Speaker
So what was the question? Just tell me the story how you started making your dope ceramic home decor pottery. Yeah, that's pretty much how it started. Yeah, that's how it started. So you are inspired by color patterns. But the one that I think is the most interesting is that you are inspired by culture. How does this impact your own work?
Pottery Style and Influence
00:10:25
Speaker
I love going back and looking at
00:10:29
Speaker
I don't know, it's just something about like, my whole, like everyone has their own style of whatever it may be, like style of dress, what they like, what colors they like, whatever, music, taste. I love like tribal things. It doesn't matter if it's African or native American, Latin, like I just love old tribal like patterns. I like
00:10:54
Speaker
the shapes of their vessels, whether it's like, what was the shape? It just seemed like things were more meaningful back then, because you had to make this vessel to be useful, or you made this vessel to be just something beautiful to have in your home. It has no function. So I was just really interested in like looking at shapes of things, like what caught my eye, what I liked, and patterns, what caught my eye and
00:11:22
Speaker
I fell in love with these African Zulu patterns. They were used on like these shields and I'm just like, I love it. I love it. And a lot of the patterns, like I didn't change too much. Like it's, it's on a shield.
00:11:39
Speaker
And the only thing that I had similar to a shield was the top of my lidded jars. And that's where I started to play with the patterns. And so I just put the pattern on the top of my lidded jars and just took the pattern down around the sides. And I was just like, I love that. I'm just, okay, let me look online. Let me see if anyone else is doing that. Okay, I don't see too much. Okay, I'm gonna do it. And then I just start a whole line just like popping in different colors in different patterns and just kind of playing with that. And that took off.
00:12:08
Speaker
I love that. So Shaping Nation, you can take inspiration from literally anywhere and you can apply that into your own pottery. You just have to kind of actively look for it. I love that you explain that.
Community Engagement and Social Media
00:12:21
Speaker
So something that I love that you do is the Throwing Shit series. Tell me the story, how this came to be and how this experience helps you as a potter.
00:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, so Throwing Shit's really fun. Yeah, Throwing Shit is a show that I do with average Brown at pottery 32. It started off, what was it? It's 2023, it started at the end of 2021. I started when I was doing my full-time thing and starting to get used to just being in the studio by myself. I had no coworkers and so I was bored. And so I'm just like, this working for yourself is not as fun as people make it seem.
00:13:00
Speaker
And so I started to miss my coworkers. Like I have no one to talk to. I can't, there's no gossiping. I have to just talk to myself. So I started doing an IG live called, I miss my coworkers. And so I would just like randomly go on live while I was working. And I'm just like, if anybody wants to pop on, they can pop on.
00:13:19
Speaker
and we can throw together. And then Rich was like always there. And so Rich just started to be like a usual in Greta and Steven. So I started having like usuals and we're just always there. We would just be alive for three hours throwing and.
00:13:33
Speaker
and talking shit and just having a good time. And I'm just like, this is really fun. Like now I'm starting to see like, but yeah. So once I started seeing that there was usual people like watching and usual people coming on to like my fake show, I was like, Rich, like we need to do this like a real thing. Like we can go on like at a certain time and maybe not have it limited because random people started showing up and I'm just like,
00:14:00
Speaker
this guy's weird, like they're talking too much, like how do we get people off? So like, we have to have like more structure. And so we started to come up with like a structural type of plant, it's still not structured, but a time limited thing, like where we have a guest, we'll talk to them, ask them some questions and then have that be the show. And then we'll do it again next week or in the next couple of weeks. So that's pretty much how it started. I love that. And how has this helped you with your own pottery as well?
00:14:30
Speaker
Oh, just listening to everyone's tips and tricks. Like everyone just has, I just love listening to everyone's studio practice, like how they recycle play, how they make their things. Like Sherrod from Deep Black, he has a freaking jig on his wheel and he's like,
00:14:52
Speaker
making freaking moles or making plates and bowls super fast. He's doing some casting too, but just having that, it's making me think how I could start producing work quicker versus, because I do have my staple stuff that I want to do quicker, and then I have some stuff that I would want to be more creative and spend more time in doing. So it's just kind of nice just to hear how people
00:15:21
Speaker
are using clay, it's just limitless, you know? I definitely agree with that. Shaping Nation, it's important, and I say this all the time, but it's important to go out and connect with other potters, go just be around other potters, because you can learn from them, and they can learn from you. Those two minds coming together, that's how your pottery is going to get better. I love that so much. Now, can you give me a simplified explanation on how you think about creating your pottery?
00:15:48
Speaker
I mean, it's, it's very simple. I just like to make cute stuff. Cuteness is number one. It's got to look good on a shelf, on a planter rack, on an ottoman or whatever, or mantle. The, I like, so my whole thing is I like, what do you call it? The silhouette. It needs to have like a nice clean, like contemporary or modern type shape. And then I'll,
00:16:17
Speaker
color it in and fill it in with the pattern on the inside. So my shapes are very simple. They're not like classical or organic. They're very simple and clean. So I can have a clean surface to, to decorate on. Yeah. And cuteness. What do you, what do you, what do you do to, to decorate the actual pot? I, I do scroffito. So my whole thing is carving away. So I paint on.
00:16:46
Speaker
with underglazes on greenware and then I'll carve away my patterns. I have been using underglazes for pretty much this whole time. I use both Amaco and
00:17:02
Speaker
speedball and I've recently been playing with doing like an actual glaze on greenware and just firing it once straight to Tim. So cause if it's a planter, I was spending a lot of time on a planter and a lot of times like my white clay is porcelain. I'm like, why am I putting all this work in a planter? I'm painting it, carving it, firing it, take out, glaze it.
00:17:27
Speaker
put it back in, like why am I putting all this work? So for our planter, I'm trying to think of how to simplify that. And I think just using an actual glaze where there's like stroke and coat, something that's already has gloss in it. I don't have to glaze it. And when I carve away, it's just the raw clay. It doesn't matter because it's a planter and I can just fire it once. And so that's what I'm kind of moving my planters to.
00:17:52
Speaker
I love that. Shaping Nation, sometimes if you are overcomplicating things, it's good to just kind of like eliminate things and just simplify it down. And that can be your voice and that can be your style, which is by simply simplifying it down.
Teaching and Skill Development
00:18:06
Speaker
Now, let's talk about discovering your own voice. You contribute your growth as an artist to teaching. How has teaching helped you with growing as an artist? I mean, I just started teaching like last year.
00:18:21
Speaker
And it's so bizarre to me because I don't consider myself a teacher, but since doing
00:18:30
Speaker
just going on this whole venture and learning more about myself and about the process. I'm seeing that, you know, you have people who like look up to you and they want to know how you're doing this and what you're doing. And so I just love, I love sharing that with people. And I think me repeating, constantly repeating what I'm doing and how I'm doing it helps me learn more about my process too. I'm just like, okay,
00:19:00
Speaker
Maybe I should change that up, you know, or it just perfects, it perfects my practice too. I don't know. I don't know, but the teaching is something very new to me that, that I'm starting to, to love more and more just to connect with more people.
00:19:19
Speaker
You know, it's very, it's very, it's tough being in here like solo. Like I'm, I do everything by myself. I have no assistance at the moment. So just doing like throwing shit and doing the workshops and just getting out in front of like people, it just makes it more real. You know, when you have like a community of people that you're making the stuff for or giving this stuff, giving your info to, you know,
00:19:47
Speaker
Definitely great shaping nation if you want to improve your skills I guess rather quickly go out and teach it because you're gonna learn a lot more by teaching it and You're also doing it at the same time and learn more about your own pottery by simply teaching it. I love that so much What would you say was your biggest obstacle when it came to finding your own voice?
00:20:09
Speaker
Just getting out of my own head of like, what are you doing? Like no one wants to listen to you. Who do you think you are making these videos? No one cares. Just getting out of my own way and just doing it. Like I make the stuff that I make because I like it. I make the reels that I make because I like it. And I sometimes I get bored. I make what I want to see. And that's like in, in anything, like you have to be the change that you want.
00:20:39
Speaker
to see and that's what I believe in in all realms, whether it's making or doing reels, social media, selling, I just do whatever I want. And I think that's really powerful. Definitely agree. Shaping Nation, the most important thing is for you to make what you want. It all starts with you because if you don't like what you're making, then it's not going to really relate to other people as well. So I love that so much.
00:21:05
Speaker
So what is something you are currently doing to evolve your voice even further? Well, recently I just did in SICA in Ohio. We did a Throwing Shit Live. It was with Rich, Steven, Phillips, and April Adewale. And that was like huge. That was like a huge, like with me being an introvert,
00:21:27
Speaker
me just stepping out of like behind the screen behind everything and just being in front of everyone not just people but like the whole like pottery community that was huge so doing more stuff like that i want to do more workshops i want to teach more
00:21:45
Speaker
physically here in my studio, like on the rooftop. Yeah, I'm just trying to do, I'm doing more markets as well. Cause I stopped doing the markets during 2020 and sales were doing great online, but I'm noticing that I don't have the market like locally. A lot of people know me everywhere else. So if I ever did a workshop, I get all these messages saying like, oh, it's going to be virtual. It's going to be virtual. Can I see it from over here? I'm just like, no, like it's in LA.
00:22:12
Speaker
So I'm like, I need, I need to, I'm trying to build my community locally. So I'm just showing up, do more pop-ups and just trying to just be, just be out there in my neighborhood. Definitely love that. So as we're coming to a close here, what advice would you give to someone trying to discover their own unique voice with their pottery?
Finding Your Pottery Voice
00:22:36
Speaker
I would say, cause for some reason people think that that's, is really difficult.
00:22:42
Speaker
and I understand why you feel that way, but I think that everyone has a style. Like I like to use analogy, like if you look in your closet, you look at your clothing, like your clothing selection is gonna look different from your friends, from your moms, from everyone has their own style already. So like you already know what you like. So maybe look at some artists, not copy, but like look at other artists and see
00:23:10
Speaker
what you like about them, like what is it that you like and figure out why it is that you like that thing and try and put it into your work. Is it the color? Is it the texture? Is it the shape? And really just amplify that and just build off of that and just try and find your voice that way.
00:23:30
Speaker
Definitely. I'm glad you gave the example of looking into your own closet, because that's probably the easiest thing you can do to actually find your voice, to look in your own closet, look in your own home. Love that so much.
Connect with Diana Adams
00:23:41
Speaker
Diana, it was great chatting with you today. Where can my audience go and learn more about you? You can learn a lot more about me on my Instagram. It's sample.house and house is spelled H-A-U-S. And then on there, there's links to my website and other podcasts that I'm on to.
00:24:03
Speaker
We hope you enjoyed this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. Do you have questions about pottery that you'd like Nick to answer? Send them to us on Instagram at Nick Torres underscore pottery. We'll see you next time.