Transcript
Speaker: Is Slipcasting cheating? What is up Shaped Nation? This is Nick Torres here, and for those that don't know me, it is my mission to help parties accept their own unique voice with your pottery. So, let's go back to the first question I asked you. Is Slipcasting cheating? You see, a couple years earlier, I probably would've said yes, or I probably wouldn't have said it was cheating, I probably would've said it was lazy.
Speaker: The reason why I would have thought that is because my view on pottery was very limited. I thought the best way to make pottery was to throw on the wheel. And that's not necessarily the case for everyone. And even now as I continue to grow along my pottery journey, I am actually getting further and further away from the pottery wheel and I'm actually starting to lean more focusing in on hand building stuff.
Speaker: Which is completely fine. But back to the question, is slipcasting cheating? Well, the answer is no. It's not cheating. Slipcasting is just another tool in order to get a desired result.
Speaker: And some people don't want to spend a whole lot of time on the actual making of a pot. They want to spend more time decorating a pot. They want to spend more time doing a graffiti. They want to do anything other than actual making the pot. And one of the best ways to do that is to slip cast. If you have a lot of things that you want to make consistently, but you want to focus on the decorating part, slip casting is a great way to do that.
Speaker: All slip casting is is another tool. There are tools and pottery. Maybe like it's the same thing as if you were using a pottery wheel to throw on the wheel. Slip casting is that same exact thing. And just because it may be a little bit faster to do, it still is just as hard as any other thing because you get to get the right consistency of slip. Correct. You have to get all these different tools, you have to get all these different stuff so that you can be able to make slipcast work.
Speaker: And there's also a lot of it can be fragile at times as well. There aren't two slip casting. And if you think that slip casting is lazy or it's cheating, I encourage you to try to change your view on this. Go out there and maybe try slip casting or go out there and try something different that isn't what you normally do. I'm betting that if you have learned how to throw on the wheel, you probably think that throwing on the wheel is the best way to go about it.
Speaker: But that's not the truth. It's just what's working for you right now. And that could change in the future. So don't think as slip casting as cheating. Think of it as a tool. And how can you use other resources along those lines in pottery to help you further your pottery goal? Maybe your goal in pottery is to make actual pots. That's what you want to do. That's what you want to make. You want to make the pots. You don't enjoy the decorating part. You don't enjoy the glazing part. You enjoy making pots. Great.
Speaker: Then get a wheel and then you can focus on that. Maybe your goal is to decorate. Then maybe you should try slip casting or hand building. Whatever it is, find out what your goal is and use the tools around you to better further what you want to focus on in your pottery journey.
Speaker: So no, slip casting is not cheating. It's just another tool in your in your tool belt. Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one. Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping a Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to master the art of pottery and dive deeper into techniques of the potters I interview, I created a newsletter that does just that. It dives deep into the techniques of the potters I interview. If you want to learn more,
Speaker: Go to shapingyourpodtery .com forward slash newsletter or click the link in the description to learn more.
