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#154 How To Create Functional Sculpture Pottery w/ Crystal Nykoluk
37 Plays3 years ago
What is up Shaping Nation on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery I got to interview Crystal Nykoluk. Crystal makes some really amazing Functional Sculptural Pottery. You can learn more about Crystak by checking out her Instagram @cnykoluk_earthshaper
Top 3 Value bombs:
- How to create Funtional Sculpture Pottery
- Using Your Feelings to impact your own voice
- Learning about the 2 phases of work and play and how this will help with boredom
and so much more
Get your 53 themes by clicking this link shapingyourpottery.com/53themes
The Questions we ask will determine how our pottery will look like that's why I created a Free 15 questions to help you discover your voice template go grab it here www.shapingyourpottery.com/questions
Follow me on Instagram @nictorres_pottery
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Transcript
Free Themes for Potters
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, I 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. I'll see you guys in there.
Podcast Introduction
00:00:32
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.
Understanding Motivations in Pottery
00:00:44
Speaker
Crystal, welcome to Shaping Your Pottery and share with me what is something you believe potters should be doing to make the best pottery that they could possibly make.
00:00:53
Speaker
Thanks for having me Nick. Something that I think potters should be doing to make the best possible pottery that they can is asking themselves why they're doing it. I know what after I left university, my why was very clear when I was in university. And after I left, I found that once I had written down why I was doing it, it really helped me consistently show up in the studio.
00:01:20
Speaker
So what is your why now? That is a great question. My why changes. My why has changed over the years and I'm sure it will, it will change again, but it's, it's my way of connecting with other people in a way that I feel is fulfilling. Absolutely. I think we'll touch on that a little bit later, but for now, can you tell me the story, how you got started in syrinx?
Crystal's Journey into Ceramics
00:01:49
Speaker
how I got started. I had graduated from high school and my parents were very insistent that I go to university and I wasn't sure what it was I wanted to take. So I said, you know, I'm going to apply for Fine Arts. I'm not too sure what else it is I'm interested quite yet. And so after applying into Fine Arts, you need to complete a 3D course.
00:02:13
Speaker
and it was either sculpture or ceramics. So I took ceramics. And I know from listening to other people you've interviewed, it was the same for me. I feel as it's been for other people where I just picked up clay and it just was fascinating. I respond so well to things I can build versus more two-dimensional ways of expressing myself. So it was just, I touched it and I couldn't believe I could build objects.
00:02:43
Speaker
Absolutely love it. What experiences helped you with growing as an
Winnipeg Ceramics Community
00:02:48
Speaker
artist?
00:02:48
Speaker
So this one was fairly easy for me to think about when I was deciding what really helped. And hands down, it was convenient. I don't know, the Winnipeg ceramics community is very supportive and we're all pals and we all talk to each other. And whenever we end up getting together or talking on social media, it's always, how did that kill mode go? Or what's that glaze?
00:03:18
Speaker
you always want to do justice to the medium. So it's almost like this little mini competition, but not quite competition, where we push each other and we ask questions about each other's work because we want everyone to be successful and make really good pieces.
00:03:40
Speaker
I absolutely agree with that. I have a friend that he would make pottery with me as well. And like, when we were doing it together, that's when like, I feel like growth was really happening because we were doing it together. We were bouncing ideas off each other. I love that a lot.
Creating Functional Sculptures
00:03:54
Speaker
So let's talk about your pottery. In one sentence, can you tell me what you make? I love this question. I make functional sculptures which seek to harmonize opposite ideas.
00:04:06
Speaker
Ah, very interesting. So can you tell me the story, how you started making these functional sculptures? It's been an evolution. When I discovered Clay in university, you learned to throw on the wheel. And of course, I was very interested in that. And I remember there was another student who, her name was Nova, and she was hand building. And I remember seeing some of her work
00:04:31
Speaker
come out of the kiln and I just was fascinated by these objects that were not real thrown and trimmed. I just responded to the shape. And so I started Slab. And from there, it turned into my interest in texture. I feel a lot of people as well who work with clay get very excited about how clay can receive any imprint you put into it.
00:05:04
Speaker
Because I was working with soft slabs after I would stamp the clay and build shapes, cylinders, which I would turn into mugs and bowls. I make functional sculptures. I would push and pull the clay and it would further change and distort all of that texture. And I was really interested in watching how the clay moved and responded and changed this imprinted surface as I would touch it.
00:05:25
Speaker
So I went through phases where I would stab different things into the...
00:05:31
Speaker
So that's always been a part of my process that I really love and has gotten me to the pieces I'm making now with the texture on the bottom that I'll distort and the smoother part on the top, which I can push and pull out. Absolutely love it. That's super fascinating. I can't wait to learn about it some more later.
Emotional Expression Through Pottery
00:05:50
Speaker
You are inspired by lots of things, but one that I want to touch on is you are inspired by your feelings. How does this come back into your work?
00:05:59
Speaker
So I love this question. You're so good at finding questions for people. No one has ever asked a question about my feelings and my work. But after I read this, I was like, yes, all of my feelings are in my work.
00:06:17
Speaker
So how does this affect or come into my work? I like feeling extremes or recognizing when I have feelings what they are and not trying to hurry through them. For instance, you know, if you're sad or you're not feeling so great, just that's okay and you're not your feelings, but it's also a part of life. And on the opposite side, when you're having a really good day or you're doing something and it's a lot of fun,
00:06:46
Speaker
I always think I really need to enjoy this because it'll be over. So it's these two opposites that I think coexist in everyone and bringing that into my work is really the two different surfaces up against each other.
00:07:01
Speaker
You know, and that's one representation of what the surfaces mean, but just that idea that you are not one thing all the time and you can be and feel two different things and just to really enjoy, enjoy whatever those feelings are. Now you mentioned so like the opposite side of where you maybe one day you're feeling bad and one day you're feeling happy. What does that look like with your pottery?
00:07:28
Speaker
So this actually ties into another question about what advice would you give someone trying to add feelings into their pottery? So how I bring that into my work is straight lines make me feel sad. And I, for instance, and I know that. So
00:07:50
Speaker
if there's a part of my work, and I'll use a straight line in it, that's what it's communicating. So if you have shapes or colors that you associate with different feelings, I'll usually jot down some things and that will come out in my work. So exuberance and joy and happiness, it's
00:08:14
Speaker
curvy lines and bright colors and a surface that is layered and it's thick and it's loud. So all of those formal parts of drawing or of art give me these feelings. Sometimes if you're feeling quiet or shy or you know you're tired, those surfaces can be muted or a little bit drier or a little bit more rough. So
00:08:44
Speaker
these things come out in my work in that way. Absolutely love it. Shaping Nation, how can you add your own feelings, whether if you're feeling sad, mad, happy, over ecstatic, whatever it is, how can you add your feelings into your pottery in a way that makes it truly unique for you? I love that so much.
Imprinting Personal Touch in Pottery
00:09:05
Speaker
Something I found interesting is you like to leave small reminders of yourself through irregularities in your shapes. Can you explain this to me how you do this?
00:09:18
Speaker
So with slab building, there's different ways you can work with slabs and templates. And there's different stages of the clay that you can use to your advantage. So if you want shapes that are more static or straight or
00:09:37
Speaker
I kind of like hold their shape. You'd wait for the slab to be a bit drier so it doesn't move around when you try to stand it up into what you're making. I like to work with slabs when they're wet, wet, wet. So when I stand them up into different shapes, I can take my hand and push and pull out the walls. And this leaves me with perfectly imperfect roundness where you'll look at it and you can tell it's round and I make an effort to keep the shape
00:10:07
Speaker
pleasing 360 in a 360 view so I'll turn it as I'm making it to make sure each side looks nice but it's not perfectly round so you can see spots where I've pinched it or the rim is a little bit taller.
00:10:22
Speaker
or the texture on part of a mug would go up a bit higher, so I didn't push out the top as much, so the rim dips down. And I feel when after they are finished and they come into the kiln, I'll test picking them up or holding them, envisioning when someone else uses them, they'll be able to touch and pick up and hold where I actually touched during the making process. And that's another
00:10:50
Speaker
That's another way to connect with whoever's gonna end up using my work. I absolutely love that. Shaping Nation, you don't always have to make the most perfect pottery. You can leave those little mistakes that you guess you could say. You can leave them in there and that's gonna show your feelings in your pottery. It's gonna show your own personality in that. I love that so much. Now, can you give me a simplified explanation of how you create your functional sculptures?
Functional Sculpture Techniques
00:11:19
Speaker
Yes, so I roll out all of my slab by hand. I eyeball it for thickness, which I'm fairly good at at this point. And then I'll measure out whatever size of shape I'm making, whether it's a bowl or a cylinder to be a mug or a cup. I'll cut it out and I'll have a cylinder. And then to add all the texture part, I take a piece of wood and I hit the clay when the clay is pretty thick.
00:11:48
Speaker
And then I'll heat gun it to seal in that surface. And then I'll take that textured slab and throw it out and throw it out. So you start to get these cracks. So it looks like tree bark and soil is what a lot of people see whenever they see my work.
00:12:05
Speaker
And so by hitting the surface with the heat gun, you'll have some really dry areas. And then as you pull out the slab and stretch it out, the underneath softer areas kind of come through. So you get this abstract texture. And I'll cut out part of that and attach it to the bottom of a mug. And I will push out the top using my trusty red rubber rib by Mud Tools. That's hard to say.
00:12:35
Speaker
Absolutely love it. That was a great explanation of that. So let's talk about finding your voice with your pottery.
Overcoming Pottery Challenges
00:12:43
Speaker
Can you describe to me the moment when you knew you found your voice?
00:12:48
Speaker
Eureka, I don't know if there was an exact moment. Well, no, you know what? This is interesting. Maybe there was. I had been making work in school and using, there was a wood kiln that we were able to use. And so all of my work was made in the wood kiln. And I have a little catch where the texture meets the smooth part and it's a ledge.
00:13:17
Speaker
And so this ledge would catch all of the ash that would come through the wood kiln and make the top lays drip down further. So it would have this luscious top surface. And then the bottom would be the texture part, which I wouldn't put any glaze on. After I left school, I just had an electric kiln, a cone six electric kiln. And I struggled for a really long time, five years or so before
00:13:44
Speaker
I ended up figuring out how to use cone six glazes in a way that would compliment my work. And I remember pulling out a mug, and this was the first time I had layered, I think there was seven or eight glazes, all in a thickness of three to four glazes on top. And I pulled out this mug and thought, okay, we're getting somewhere, fine. I absolutely love it. That is really amazing. I love hearing those stories.
00:14:13
Speaker
What were some of your struggles outside of trying to master that technique that you faced when you're trying to discover your voice? Struggles. And I don't know even now if that was a struggle, but I always felt like I needed more time or I would discover something that I had made from a batch of pots and I would really like this one.
00:14:40
Speaker
And I would also really like a different one for different reasons. And I would want to experiment with these two different ways to see where they would go. So I always felt like I was moving forward and taking the best part of a previous pot and trying to repeat it or dig a little bit further into that detail. But even now looking back, I'm just like, oh, there's so many different paths that I would have liked and maybe still will explore.
00:15:09
Speaker
Sometimes I wish there was 10 of me. Absolutely love it. Definitely. There's definitely a lot of steps and sometimes it's like you got to focus in on a little bit so that you can actually make your voice come to life. Yes. What would you say has helped you the most with discovering your voice?
00:15:26
Speaker
What has helped me the most with discovering my voice? I spend a lot of time alone by choice. I find I do my best thinking when there's no other energy in the room. So I have a really good intuition and sometimes it's hard for me to hear that intuition if I'm around other people or
00:15:53
Speaker
or influenced by other people. So I walk a lot and I'll do some of my best thinking there or even just spending time like in the studio before I start making alone, just thinking about a couple of things. Because I know when I've trust my intuition, when I have trusted my gut reaction in the past, it's led me to something that I am very excited about.
00:16:20
Speaker
Absolutely reshaping nation. Sometimes you just have to trust that little feeling in your gut. You have to trust and go after it with your pottery because that's where more exploration, more how your pottery is going to evolve further
Balancing Routine and Creativity
00:16:33
Speaker
with this. I love that. Now, I think one of the hardest things with finding your voice is boredom. What is something you do to kind of hear boredom a little bit?
00:16:44
Speaker
Oh, something to keep things spicy. Well, I have anyone who makes functional work usually makes more of it because then someone who would work on one large sculpture for a really long time. So I tend to have two different phases. There's the, you don't have to think just do phase. And then there's the, okay, you really have to think this is new, this is experimenting, this isn't working.
00:17:10
Speaker
Kind of phase and so usually, you know, if I have something coming up where I need a bunch of work.
00:17:18
Speaker
I'll like trusty like podcasts or some music, something that I can just enjoy and kind of find a flow state and just make. Because when I'm making a batch of mugs, I'm not really thinking of anything new. I just need to physically show up and go through this to get these pieces done. So I think distraction. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, but when I'm in that phase, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna listen to a podcast. I'm gonna listen to some music.
00:17:48
Speaker
do I'm not making something or discovering something new versus the exciting part sometimes is like okay today there's no expectation in the studio I've really wanted to make this flower vase form and I thought about it in my head but I don't know if it's going to work out so today it's just like
00:18:06
Speaker
permission to do whatever. And if it doesn't work out and you leave with nothing at the end of the day, then that's okay. So I think spicing it up with those sessions of just allowing yourself to play and try these new ideas really helps. Absolutely agree. Shaping Nation, it's really important to just give yourself time to play and have times where you're strictly working. Play and work are definitely two things that help you find your voice.
00:18:35
Speaker
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?
Defining Success in Pottery
00:18:53
Speaker
I think it's good and it fosters a healthy kind of like you're like a healthy sense of discovering something new or trying to push yourself. But I think you need to decide what success means for you.
00:19:10
Speaker
and focus and focus on, on that. And success can mean different things for different people. And I know for me, sometimes when I get carried away and I see all of this stuff happening and all of these amazing opportunities that I just want to say, yes, I go back to like what success looks like for me, which is different for everyone. So if you, if you kind of go back to what does success mean for you, then
00:19:34
Speaker
you'll be able to stay on your path and really make the best work because you're not being distracted by all these opportunities that you might not need to help you grow. Absolutely. Shaping nation, sometimes we have to say no to certain things and just really focus in on what we believe success should be. I love that last piece of advice. Crystal, it was really great sharing with you today. Where can my audience go and learn more about you?
Connect with Crystal
00:20:00
Speaker
Yeah, thanks, Nick. It was great. I was nervous, but I think that went okay. My website, which is crystalnicolic.com, and as a lot of people are, I'm more active on Instagram, so cnicolic underscore earthshaper. I post, well, more on there. Thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Potter.
00:20:24
Speaker
If you are struggling with finding your own theme for your pottery so that, you know, you are known for something, I put together 53 themes that you can use and you can take. All you have to do is go to shapingyourpottery.com or slash 53 themes. That's five, three themes to get these 53 themes.
00:20:47
Speaker
It's really important for you to find a theme for your pottery so that you're not going to get burnt out. You can have multiple styles with your pottery and you can be known for something. So again, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash 53 themes. That's five, three themes to get these 53 themes. Thanks guys. I'll see you guys next time.