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The Importance of Fundamental Shapes
71 Plays1 year ago
In this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, host Nic Torres shares invaluable advice from sculptor Oscar, emphasizing the importance of mastering the basic form before experimenting with pottery. Nic recounts his own experience learning to throw a cylinder and highlights how this foundational skill is crucial for any pottery technique, whether sculpting, hand building, or graffito. Ensuring a solid basic shape can prevent future issues and make experimentation more manageable. Tune in to learn why starting with the basics is key to achieving your creative vision in pottery. Don't forget to check out Nic's free quiz to help you discover your unique pottery voice.
Take this Free Quiz to see how close you are to finding your pottery voice click here to take the quiz shapingyourpottery.com/quiz
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Transcript
Introduction and Mission
00:00:00
Speaker
Do this one thing before you start experimenting with your own pottery. What is up Shaped Nation? This is Nick Torres here, and for you that don't know me, it's my mission at Potters Like Yourself to cover your own unique voice with your pottery.
Interview with Oscar: Monster-themed Pottery Insights
00:00:13
Speaker
So you see, very recently I got an interview, Oscar your Queen. And Oscar is a sculptor and he combines many different techniques to make monster-themed pottery.
00:00:25
Speaker
And when Oscar is sculpting, he gave some excellent advice when I was interviewing him. He said that you have to get the basic form first before you start adding all the detail, before you start experimenting. And this is such great advice. I absolutely love this advice. Too often do we just want to start experimenting. We want to start experimenting with what we are. We have this idea in our head. We want to start experimenting with it. And we want to start making already.
00:00:55
Speaker
But if you don't get the basic shape first, then you're gonna run into some problems later.
The Importance of Basic Shapes in Pottery
00:01:00
Speaker
You're gonna run into some problems, whether you're sculpting, whether you're a graffito, or whether you're just trying to alter the pot. If you don't get a basic shape first, you're gonna run into a downhill battle. This is why it's so important so that when I was in learning how to throw on the wheel, like in my first year of pottery,
00:01:20
Speaker
And the very first thing my teacher taught us was how to throw a cylinder. And the reason why she taught us how to throw a cylinder is because the cylinder is the basic shape that every product should learn if you're throwing on the wheel. And that is true for outside of throwing on the wheel as well, whether you're hand-building, whether you are sculpting as well, or scroffito.
Mastery and Experimentation in Pottery Techniques
00:01:40
Speaker
If you get a basic shape first, then it becomes that much easier to experiment with. It becomes that much easier to do the things you have in your head.
00:01:50
Speaker
And because now you can start playing around with different things, because even if you mess up a little bit, if you have that basic shape, it doesn't hurt you all that much. So getting that basic shape is so important.
00:02:03
Speaker
You have to get that basic shape down. So let's say you are a sculptor right now, and you want to start making this big sculptured piece. You have to get that basic shape first before you can start adding on all that detail. Because if that basic shape isn't what you want, maybe you're making a weird creature design. And if that creature design isn't the shape that you want, then the whole piece can pretty much end up ruined.
00:02:29
Speaker
and it can be that much harder to fix it if it's like that. So you have to slow down for a second and get that basic shape first.
00:02:40
Speaker
Get that basic shape down, whether you're a wheel throwing, it's throwing on a cylinder, maybe you're sculpting and it's getting a basic shape of the thing that you're trying to sculpt, or maybe you're hand building and it's getting the clay nice and smooth or getting out all the coils and seeing what type of design you want. Getting that basic shape first is gonna help you later on when you are starting to experiment and you're starting to add all the details.
Conclusion and Quiz Promotion
00:03:04
Speaker
Hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys in the next one.
00:03:08
Speaker
Hey, thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to discover how close you are to actually discovering your own unique voice with your pottery, I put together a free four question quiz. It's very short. It takes 30 seconds for you to take. If you want to know how close you are to finding your own unique voice, go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash quiz or you could simply go to shapingyourpottery.com and it'll be right there at the top.
00:03:37
Speaker
I hope you guys enjoyed this episode and I'll see you guys next time.