Transcript
Speaker: Real quick before we get started, did you know that the questions that we asked are going to determine what our pottery is going to look like and it's going to determine what our voice is going to look like? That's why I created 15 questions that you can use right now to start discovering your own unique voice. Go to shapingyourpottery .com forward slash questions to get this free booklet.
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. Most of you listening to this podcast are most likely throwing on the wheel. And that is a thing that you like to do with your pottery. But I bet you at some point or at some level, you might have hit a wall
Speaker: where your wheel throwing pottery just kind of is hitting that wall and you don't know what to do to make it look a little bit better. So in this episode, I'm gonna be talking about five ways that you can spice up your wheel throwing pottery. So number one is to alter your pots. Why do I say number one is to alter your pots? Because this is the easiest thing that you can do to start spicing up your pottery.
Speaker: your wheel thrown pottery. So altering your pots doesn't have to be hard because you could literally do anything you want to alter your pots. You could headbutt your pots. I've seen people headbutt their pots. I've seen people punch their pot and just alter it in a different way. You can make dimples. You can make little bumps. It doesn't matter what you do to alter it. But this is probably the easiest thing that you can do to start spicing up your wheel thrown pottery.
Speaker: The simplest thing that you can do, it's the easiest thing you do. Just one tip, if you are gonna go down this route, is to don't alter your pottery when it's super, like right after you just throw the pot. Wait a little bit until it stiffens up and then you can start altering it because then the clay starts sticking to the tools or whatever you're doing. It makes it a little bit more difficult to
Speaker: to alter the pot so like wait a little bit maybe like an hour like 30 minutes and just then you could hop in and then alter it later. Number two is carving or scroffito. So I feel like carving or scroffito is also another easy thing to do but it's also something that
Speaker: most potters at least try to experiment with. I feel like I know I experimented with it myself, but I feel like this is something that most potters try to end up doing anyways to their pottery, but I think it's a very easy thing to get into.
Speaker: you know you can be scruffy doing and carving literally anything you want you can carve just straight lines and have patterns of just straight lines you can have scruffy do designs where you maybe you're making mountains or maybe you're making a dog whatever it is this is a very simple and easy thing that you can do to start spicing up your wheel thrown pottery
Speaker: It's very easy to do. You can literally just take some slip or some underglazes, apply it to the pot. Then you can start carving away, like whatever you want to do. It's very easy to do. It doesn't take that many resources. You can literally have a plastic knife and you can start doing it today, tomorrow, whenever you want. If you are gonna go down this route, make sure the pot is leather hard because anything less than leather hard
Speaker: not going to work. The clay is going to smudge too much and then if it's too hard, you're not going to be able to carve it through. So make sure the clay is leather hard and that is tip number two. So the first thing I said was to alter your pots. Second thing is just graffiti. And finally, the third thing that you can do is add sculptures to your pots. So what do I mean by adding sculptures to your pots?
Speaker: Sculpture building is a little bit different, it's a little bit harder to do compared to the first two things that I said. But if you can do it, your pottery, your wheelchair pottery can look really, really cool with it. So here is an easy thing that you can start doing. So I've seen a lot of people, they make flower mugs, you know, they maybe do scurfido, carving flowers.
Speaker: And that is a very simple thing, simple design. But I've also seen people where they add flowers, like sculptured flowers, onto their mugs. And it looks really, really amazing. You can do that with pretty much anything you want out of sculpture. So if you are, if you're interested in cars, you can start sculpturing cars onto your pottery.
Speaker: And it's a very fun exercise to make your wheel thrown pottery stand out just that much more and make it have that much more personality by adding some sculpture pieces into the vase, the mug, whatever you are making. It's a very fun thing to do if you wanna go down that route.
Speaker: Again, you probably want to make sure that this is your clay is at least leather hard when you are attaching these things, these sculpture pieces onto there. So here is number four. So number four, learn to throw better. Learn to throw better. This is
Speaker: This can be the hardest thing that you can do, or it can be the easiest thing you can do. Whatever it is, it just depends on what you're trying to learn to throw better. Are you trying to learn to alter your pots better? Are you trying to learn to throw thinner? Are you trying to learn to throw taller? Whatever it is, you can learn to throw better. And in doing so, you're gonna have a little bit more fun. You're gonna have, your potter's gonna look a little bit more better. Your wheel thrown pots are gonna look better.
Speaker: simply by just by learning to throw better, you're going to push your skills a little bit further out than compared to where they were. You know, maybe right now you're making, let's say you take a two pound ball of clay and all you can make is about four or five inches, which is fine. We all have that that cap where we can only throw so much, especially in the beginning stages. So what if instead you learn how to throw one and a half pounds and try to get that to four inches or five inches?
Speaker: or take that two pound ball and you get that to six inches. You may be just a one inch, right? The improvement doesn't have to be like so dramatic. Just make it, just improve your pottery and how you're throwing it however way you want. If you wanna start learning how to throw taller, that's improving your wheel throwing skills as well. I went through that myself. I used to throw nothing but mugs, so little small mugs all the time. And then one day I was like, I think I wanna start learning how to throw
Speaker: taller. And then when I hopped on the wheel, I had no idea what the heck I was doing. Like I knew how to throw, but I didn't know how to throw tall. And so I studied that and I, because I learned how to throw tall, my skills, my pottery skills grew exponentially because of that. And I started making these really cool vases, these tall vases. And if you want to go down that route
Speaker: It can be either the hardest thing or the easiest thing that you can do, but just try to improve something with the rhythm pots. So here is a little recap before I get into the last thing. So the number one is to alter your pots. Number two is to add carvings slash graffiti designs. Number three is to add sculptures to your pots. Four is to learn to throw better. Finally, the last and final thing
Speaker: is combine all these things I talked about together. You can do everything that I just talked about and combine it into one cohesive unit. You don't have to stick to just wheel throwing. You don't have to stick to just doing scroffitos on your wheel throwing pots. You can combine everything together if you want to. And not only that, your potter will probably stand out so much more because you are combining all these different techniques together
Speaker: and now it pushes your pottery really far. So those were five things that you could do to improve your wheel throwing. Number one was alter your pots. Number two was add carving slash graffito. Number three was add sculptures to your pots. Number four was learn to throw better. Finally, five is just to combine everything together. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next time.
