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#249 Why you need to deconstruct your pottery
36 Plays2 years ago
On this episode I will be explaining the benefits to deconstructing your pottery and how this can help you make your ideas come to life. Listen to this episode to learn more
Get your 53 themes by clicking this link shapingyourpottery.com/53themes
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Transcript
Introduction to Pottery Themes by Nick Torres
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey, real quick before we get started, if you would like to find your own theme for your pottery so your voice really stands out and you're not getting bored with making the same thing over and over again, put together 53 themes for you guys and it's completely free. All you have to do to get it is just go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash 53 themes. That's shapingyourpottery.com forward slash 53 themes.
Overview of Shaping Your Pottery Podcast
00:00:30
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.
Concept of Deconstructing Pottery
00:00:42
Speaker
If you want your pottery idea to come to life, try this one thing out. What is up, shaping nation? This is Nick Torres here, and on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, I'm going to be talking about deconstructing your pottery. And for those that don't know me, it is my mission to help potters like yourself to discover their own unique voice and to create some amazing looking pottery. Have you ever had a moment
00:01:07
Speaker
Where you're just maybe sitting still, just maybe watching TV, taking a shower, or maybe you're just lying in bed and suddenly you get an idea. You get an idea and you are so excited to try this idea out with your pottery. Only to find that you don't know how to make this idea come to life. You don't know how to make this vision in your mind come to life.
00:01:28
Speaker
And then you you eventually just kind of sit on it, you sit on it, and then it just kind of floats off into the distance because you never took action on it. You never you never knew how what you could do to make it come to life.
John Hamilton's Influence on Deconstruction
00:01:39
Speaker
Well, I'm going to be telling you that the thing to make your ideas come to life, it is all about deconstructing your pottery, your idea, your pottery, everything.
00:01:50
Speaker
So I got this idea from my interview with John Hamilton. You can listen to this episode by going to ShapingYourPotter.com forward slash John Hamilton. But one of the things that stood out for me during this interview was how John deconstructs his pottery and how he deconstructs it to come up with new ideas to make his pottery look even better.
00:02:13
Speaker
And I think this is so, so crucial for everyone, not whether if you're a beginner or whether you are an advanced potter person, deconstructing your pottery can be so, so crucial for you, especially if you have new ideas coming in. So here's an example of the steps that John would take to create one of his rocket ship pottery.
Creating Rocket Ship Pottery by John Hamilton
00:02:40
Speaker
So the first step that he would deconstruct is he would make a cylinder and then he would add the wings to the rocket ship once the clay had settled a little bit and was in that little hard shape phase. The next thing that he would do was that he would slip cast all the small bolts and anything other small to give it that detail.
00:03:05
Speaker
And then finally, he would color it. He would add the color and he would add anything to make it finally hit that final touches. So I want you to think of deconstruction like a recipe book, a recipe book for your pottery, right? In a recipe book, you have all the steps, you have all the things that you need, everything that you need to be able to make that come to life.
00:03:29
Speaker
and you can do the same thing with your own pottery. If you have an idea, construct it, make a recipe book out of what the things that you think you need to do in order to make that pottery vision come to life so that you can make it actually come
Adding Sculptures to Mugs
00:03:43
Speaker
to life. So let's say, for example, you have an idea to start adding some sculpture onto your mugs. Okay, what are the steps that you need to take? So first step that you should be taking is to one,
00:03:58
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make make the basic shape the cylinder whatever make the basic shape however you want to do that it could be either hand building wheel throwing whatever the next thing that you should probably do is maybe trim it down to make it look all smooth the third thing is you do is start sculpting whatever you want to sculpt onto the the mug the vase whatever you're making and then finally it's just about painting it
00:04:25
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and so important to deconstruct this because now you have a step-by-step thing that you know is going to guide your pottery to make your idea come to life.
00:04:35
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I'll give you another example.
Nick Torres' Character Pottery Process
00:04:37
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So this is a pottery. This is for my own pottery, my character sentiment. So the first thing I do with my characters is I always start with the torso. I always start with the torso because now I can work out outward and see what type of pose I would like to make. So torso is always what I start with. The next thing I always do after making the torso is I'll typically go for the thighs and waist.
00:05:02
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Because I'm making a person, I need to be able to see a pose and the thighs and waist are going to give me some stability, but also at the same time, see where my pose can end up going. So from the thighs and waist, now I can add some detail like clothing, some maybe like some wrinkles in your clothing.
00:05:24
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or like a belt, whatever it is. And that's when I start adding details for the clothing. The next thing I do is I will finish off the leg by adding, you know, the knees and the calves and the feet.
00:05:37
Speaker
From there, I continue making the clothes, and now it is time to get to the arms. The arms, I always try to save for last because if I'm making fingers, it is more likely that my fingers will break off because they're so, so, so fragile. So I always try to save that for one of the last few steps. And after my arms are done, I finally move on to the head, and I'll make all the details for the head, and I'll add a hood and a mask to finish it off.
00:06:05
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So that's how I deconstruct my pottery. Those are the steps I take and it just makes everything so much easier now because I know those steps that you should be taking.
Executing Deconstructed Ideas
00:06:16
Speaker
So one other thing to help you make you come up with your idea is you have to actually do the idea. You actually have to start doing it. It's fine to deconstruct things and it's a must to deconstruct things, but if you don't start doing it,
00:06:34
Speaker
then all that work you put into deconstructing it is pointless. Nothing is going to come alive if you don't actually start doing it. So with that in mind, the next time you have an idea, deconstruct it down into steps and then actually do the steps to make those ideas come to life. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one.