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#369 How to make drippy pottery vases w/Ana Shioshita
80 Plays1 year ago
In this insightful episode, our guest is Ana Shioshita, a multifaceted artist who balances her job in the film industry with her passion for pottery. Ana discusses her journey in pottery, starting from childhood experiences to her current work, emphasizing her love for making 'drippy' vases. She shares how working across different mediums and skills, such as woodworking and graphics, has contributed significantly to her pottery, allowing her to create unique and functional studio spaces and experiment with ceramic and wood lights. Ana talks about her reluctance to confine herself to a single style, believing that exploring various interests and ideas helps evolve her artistic voice. The episode delves into how her connection with the ocean inspires her work, leading to creations that reflect the organic movement and biological aspects of marine life. Ana also touches on the challenges of managing time between her career and pottery, and the importance of experimentation and keeping a sketchbook to record and revisit ideas. Finally, Ana encourages listeners to remain open to exploring new directions in their creative pursuits without fear. You can learn more about Ana by checking out her instagram here https://www.instagram.com/shioshita.ceramics/
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
00:00 Introduction to Ana's Pottery Journey 00:48 Ana's Diverse Background and Its Impact on Her Pottery 02:14 The Early Beginnings of Ana's Pottery Passion 03:12 Rediscovering Pottery as an Adult and the Influence of Film 04:44 The Creative Process Behind Ana's Drippy Vases 07:06 Inspiration from the Ocean: Shaping Ana's Pottery 10:05 Exploring a Variety of Pottery Techniques 11:35 Finding and Managing Creative Ideas 13:35 Discovering Your Voice in Pottery 15:44 The Role of Diverse Materials in Ana's Artistic Growth 17:50 Overcoming Obstacles and Finding Your Unique Voice 20:06 Final Thoughts and Where to Learn More About Ana
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Transcript
Balancing Ideas and Execution
00:00:00
Speaker
More ideas than I have time to execute ideas, which is good and bad. I think some of the reason I like
00:00:18
Speaker
the sort of drippy and stretchy vases is because like there's a bunch of different sort of ways that that can go. You also learn about why Ana does want to box herself into a specific style and how this actually helps her with evolving her voice even further.
Exploring Pottery Styles
00:00:35
Speaker
right now i feel like i have this you know style that i'm working in that i'm super excited about but like i don't want to box myself into that and there's so much more in this episode i hope you guys enjoy it and i'll see you guys in there anna welcome to shape pottery and share with me what is something that has helped you the most along your pottery journey so far
00:00:54
Speaker
Honestly, I think the thing that's helped me the most in some ways is doing a bunch of things that aren't pottery. I tend to have a hard time focusing in on doing one thing, so pottery's been sort of what I circle back to over and over again, but I've been all over the place, like I work
00:01:09
Speaker
in graphics but I also used to do woodworking for a living and all of that and I think that especially just recently being like oh there's all these like little skills that I've collected that I can like that applies and I can do this. Right now that's what I'm feeling like has helped me the most.
Influence of Diverse Skills
00:01:27
Speaker
How do you use all these different skills that you've collected and apply it to your own pottery?
00:01:31
Speaker
I mean, one sort of super boring but really functional for me away is I've moved studios. Well, I got a studio for the first time in November and then moved. And just being able to build a studio that actually fits my needs and be like, oh, I need shelving or I need a table that's exactly this and this, that, and the other thing.
00:01:51
Speaker
It's not, you know, specifically pot related, but I think that that's just been a huge help in general and also just, you know, the general knowing how things fit together. And recently, very, very recently, I started sort of experimenting, experimenting with and building these lights that are ceramic and wood that are definitely still like.
00:02:09
Speaker
In their early phases, but I'm like it's nice that I can do these things absolutely love it So tell me a story how you got started making pottery started started I think I went to like a parent and child class with my aunt when I was about five and I
00:02:27
Speaker
I don't remember what I made. Well, maybe I helped. I don't remember. She made this little gargoyle thing. It's been in her yard for now, going on 30 years. Her house even partially burnt down and it was in a planter that caught on fire and the firefighters took it out, smashed the planter to put out the fire and saved the gargoyle.
00:02:49
Speaker
think that that was well actually in preschool we we used to go we used to dig up the like wild clay once per preschool session I don't know if that's what a year or what I think I did it at least twice and then we would pit fire in the back of the preschool so that was actually probably the very first pottery thing and I was like this is so cool I get to like dig and light fire this is awesome
00:03:11
Speaker
And so how did you get back into pottery as an adult?
Returning to Pottery
00:03:15
Speaker
I think I attempted to take pottery classes when I was in college, but they kind of wouldn't let me because they were like, no, you choose your major and only do that.
00:03:24
Speaker
In and out, like, I honestly, I don't think I did it from when I was, you know, maybe in high school through moved to New York in like 2015 and where it was working in film and just like needed an outlet that wasn't filmed. So I was in and out of studios a bunch there. Cause they were just so expensive that I was like, no, I'm going to do pottery. I'm going to make my time worth it. I'm like, gonna go in. Then it was also my, I was like, I can't make it worth it. So I'd be like, you know, really do a lot for like a month and then be out again and then back in.
00:03:51
Speaker
And only really recently, like since moving out of New York and having more space and having a little bit more time because there was a film strike. I mean, the honest answer is right now, the reason I've been into it recently is because film was on strike last summer. So you've mentioned that you were in film. How has working in film helped you with your own pottery? I think probably the biggest thing is I work in graphics for film. And basically my job is like,
00:04:20
Speaker
95% like glorified forgery, but it makes you really pay attention to like how things look and why they look a certain way. And I think that that's just sort of, you know, builds up to me being like, Oh, if I want this to feel this way, like this is sort of, I have a better sort of idea, even if it's subconsciously, you know, what makes something feel a certain way. Let's talk about your pottery. Can you tell me the story? You started making your drippy pottery that you make today.
Creative Process and Inspiration
00:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, so originally I was, not originally, but a year or so ago I was throwing a lot of sodium silicate bases, so you know.
00:04:57
Speaker
writing cylinder, putting studies to look it on, stretching it so it crackles on the outside, so it's really textural. And then I was like, oh, I want to sort of carve out smooth sections. Oh, wouldn't it be fun to carve out cartoonish, exaggerated drips? And I did, and I was like, oh, this is OK. I sort of wish the rest of the pot wasn't there, and it was just these drips. So then I was like, OK, well, how do I make that happen? I wanted it to look as though I was like, yeah, this looks cool. It's cartoony. It's fun. I want to make it look like somebody poured something.
00:05:25
Speaker
over the top of something and like the thing is just not there anymore. Why did you want to start making, why do you like making the drippy vases? I don't even know. I normally, I get, I'm all over the place. I change interests all the time. I get bored of things very quickly and move on. I think sort of the reason I like the sort of drippy and stretchy vases is because like there's a bunch of different sort of ways that that can go. I mean, partially I think it's just
00:05:55
Speaker
I physically enjoy making them. Like I like the throwing. I like the carving. I like pretty much every process of it. There's no part that I'm like, I don't like doing this one thing. But I also think it's just, you know, the more I think about it, the more I'm like, oh, and then it could be this and like, wouldn't it be interesting?
00:06:10
Speaker
I'm a big trial and error and material driven person, so I'm like, what if I could make it do this different thing? Would it still support itself? Would it fall down? Would it not work? And I think part of it is every time I do something new with the drippies or the stretchies, I'm like, this is going to break in the kiln. I feel like 50% sure that this is going to break in the kiln. And you know what? It's going to be fine, this experiment. So I feel like it's really rewarding to be like, oh my god, it didn't break.
00:06:38
Speaker
Pretty good percentage success rate. I had a whole glaze experiment last week, but I was like, okay, lesson learned. This did not work. But by and large, I think it is just being like, this is so precarious. Is it going to work? I haven't tried this before. Let's see. And then it working is really rewarding. I absolutely love that. Shaping Nation, the most important thing is to be enjoying what you're making and also make time to experiment so you can keep growing what you're making. I love that. Yeah.
00:07:06
Speaker
So you are inspired by the ocean. Can you tell me more about this? I think I always have been, you know, when I was a kid and people would be like, what are you going to do? I was like, oh, I'm an oceanographer. And then I learned that that was like not what I thought it was. And I actually met marine biologists, which is like what every little kid wants to be. And then I was like, well, but I like maybe I'll like paint.
00:07:28
Speaker
pictures of fish, I'll go and I'll like see the fish and I'll take pictures of them and I'm not a big painter. So I don't know why I've always been really drawn to fish and fish shaped things, but many art things start as fish shaped things and then sometimes become not fish shaped things, sometimes stay fish shaped things. I think it's especially, like I said, I've only really been making a large amount of time for pottery this past year.
00:07:52
Speaker
And we moved to Vancouver, Canada about a year and a half ago. So this is actually the first, well, I guess we lived in New York, but that doesn't really count as being by the ocean. It is, but it isn't. This is the first time I've been, you know, the ocean has been actually accessible. I grew up in Colorado, so I grew up in the middle of the country. And I was just like, yeah, the ocean. And it, you know, it's not there. But now we're in Canada and like, I spent a huge chunk of last summer, like kayaking and kayak camping. And I was just like,
00:08:20
Speaker
Right. I sort of forgot about like this part of me that was a kid that was like, oh my God, the ocean. I didn't totally forget, but I got really into kelp and like how kelp moves and just like all of the movement of various things underwater. I also, as a side note, I love that most fish are just like not afraid of you. So like they just hang out and you can go up to them and it's like this really surreal thing.
00:08:40
Speaker
definitely like I made a bait ball. I've spent definitely the longest I've ever spent on a pot so far is I made this pot that's like I want to make a pot that's a bait ball with fish because it's so but one of my favorite things is going down and there's fish and then you go inside the fish and the fish are on every side of you and it's so cool. And I was like I like want to build it so I spent a very very long time carbonating like thousands of fish into a base.
00:09:07
Speaker
which pales in comparison to how majestic the fish actually are. But I was like, yeah, no, I feel like I like got the gist at least there. So outside of that vase you were just talking about, how else does this impact the way you make your own pottery? I think a lot of it is just like that sort of organic movement. And also, you know, in some cases, like really liking the
00:09:28
Speaker
I can make many people do like the softness, the hard, like the, I made a series of like barnacle mugs cause we were camping and then it was, there was all these barnacles on all these rocks. And I love like, you know, the glassy ocean up against the rough rocks, just that sort of thing. I feel like I'm not, you know, I feel like if you say, Oh, like I'm inspired by the ocean, people sort of picture like beachy and whatever I'm like, you know, and that that's not so much the side that I'm like more inspired by like the, like,
00:09:57
Speaker
sticky stretchy like more biologic side of the ocean like what's deeper down there absolutely love it so something i love you do is you don't just stick with your drippy bases you also do a wide variety of techniques can you tell me more about this oh yeah for better for worse i am not great at focusing and i have a lot i've
00:10:21
Speaker
more ideas than I have time to execute ideas, which is good and bad. But yeah, it's pure and simple. It's just, I
00:10:30
Speaker
get bored of something or not even get bored of something, but I get really excited about something new. It's not even a getting bored of stuff. Like there's tons of times where I'm like, Oh yeah, that thing was so cool. I should go make another one. But I'm like, but I have this other idea and like, I want to try that direction. And that's a thing that I've been really excited. Like I was mentioning earlier with the drippy vases, I'm like, Oh, I have another idea, but like it still involves this. So it's just like an evolution of this. So that's been honestly sort of.
00:10:58
Speaker
new for me to not be like, okay, I made those I succeed, like I was saying, you know, there's, there's a whole experimentation and materials thing. And frequently, if I'm like, all right, this is an experiment, I'll experiment till I get it. And then once I get it, I'm like, excellent, done moving on to the next thing. So that's, you know, this is the combination of me actually having a longer attention span and more interested in certain like subject and shape and also sort of, you know, that
00:11:23
Speaker
that's just part of how I am, which is always kind of being like, okay, I have another idea. Let's try the new idea. I love that. Shaping Nation, you don't have to be stuck doing just one idea. You can do many ideas if you really want to. Yeah. So now, how do you manage all these ideas that come into your head? And how do you choose which one to actually focus on at the moment? I've started recently being actually better about keeping a sketchbook. I think in the past, I've been really good at
00:11:49
Speaker
Buying a sketchbook and then being like yeah, I'm gonna like John my sketchbook every day. It's gonna be great blah blah blah and More recently it will have been keeping your system
00:11:59
Speaker
series of sketchbooks so they're always sort of like the places where I typically am and you know they're all kind of just full of like thumbnail sketches like not good sketches but then I can sort of flip back and be like oh right I totally forgot I had this idea at three o'clock in the morning and was like squiggle squiggle and I was like no no I want to I forgot about that but like that was great idea now I want to do that so the answer is like actually recording them and writing them down somewhere which again sounds so simple but
00:12:27
Speaker
That has not always been how I've been. I've been like, oh, didn't I think about, didn't I have to do something that I wanted to do? Well, nevermind. But so yeah, writing stuff down helps. Absolutely love it. Shaping Nation, sometimes a simple act of recording something will help you stay on track with your ideas and come up with new ideas as well. I love that. So now, can you walk me through the steps you take when creating one of your drippy bases? Yeah. So I throw them as one piece, trim them.
00:12:56
Speaker
just the way you normally would, whatever shape I'm making. And then I normally on the wheel, I mark sort of a little line where I want like the rim of like the lower part to be. And then just go along with a little ballpoint pen once it's, you know, slightly more dry than trimming and draw out the shapes. I want the drippies to be anywhere where the shapes, those drippies intersect that bottom form. I add like a little extra blob of clay. So it looks like it's actually going over it versus just, you know,
00:13:24
Speaker
butting up against it and then just carve out the edges and then lots and lots of smoothing. 80% of the time is smoothing. Great explanation of that. I love it. So let's talk about discovering your voice. Can you tell me about the moment when you knew you're heading in the right direction
Artistic Direction and Freedom
00:13:41
Speaker
with your potter? I don't know if I... I don't know if I've...
00:13:45
Speaker
felt like there wasn't this specific like, oh my god, this is the direction. There's, for me, and I don't know if there ever will be a point where I'm like, oh my god, this is the right direction. I think for me, it's more of a series of points of, oh, I'm feeling really excited about this direction I'm going right now. And I think it's that feeling of wanting to, being like, oh, I have all these ideas, I have to write them down, that sort of reaffirms that I'm like, oh, I'm really excited about this direction where I'm going right now.
00:14:13
Speaker
And I think it's hard, the whole like finding your voice. I remember when I...
00:14:18
Speaker
originally applied to art school, I got in there like, oh, so you have more of a breadth portfolio than a depth portfolio. And I was 18 at the time. I was like, am I insulted by this? Am I not? And I've decided, I'm not. I think that that's just how I am. And I will take it, but at face value. But I think, I don't know if I'm ever going to be the person who does the one thing and is really, really great at that one thing.
00:14:47
Speaker
for better or for worse, for better and for worse. So yeah, right now I feel like I have this, you know, style that I'm working in that I'm super excited about, but like, as I don't want to box myself into that because, you know, a year for now, from now I might be like, oh, turns out like this whole other thing is more exciting to me right now. And the more I do it, the more like sort of themes sort of are like appearing throughout. And even when something isn't the same as things before, like themes are circling back.
00:15:14
Speaker
But yeah, I don't know if I've had that like, oh, this is my voice. This is what I want to do. I love I love the idea of theme shaping nation. If you choose a theme like every month or every other month, this allows you to go deeper and try new different things while still almost having the same kind of look at the same time. I love that. So what were you feeling?
00:15:39
Speaker
scratch that. You contribute your growth as an artist to exposure to a wide variety of materials outside of pottery. Can you tell me more about this? I mean I think a big part of fit is just weirdly like just knowing how things fit together in a really basic way which is something that I think I've taken for granted but then occasionally like when we talk to somebody I'm like well like of course that didn't work because they
00:16:09
Speaker
gravity exists. But I think, you know, woodworking especially and like just, you know, pottery intermittently and even like fabric, it's just like, I've gotten a really good idea of, you know, how does this shape fit with this shape? How do those two things affect each other? And like, how can I expect that to, you know, evolve once it's stressed, basically. And I like, I
00:16:36
Speaker
I think, like I said, when I put something new in the kiln, I'm always like, oh my God, it's going to crack, whatever. But I think maybe my construction is better than I give myself credit for, because I rarely actually have firing issues. I'm going to knock on wood. But I think just like, yeah, that general idea of like, how, what is the shape? How does it go together? And I guess more relevantly, like, what is this finished thing? How can I sort of explode that into my mind?
00:17:02
Speaker
and think about what the parts are that need to go together to get this thing that I'm chasing. Because typically for me, if I'm just sort of like, oh, I'm going to organically go and see what shape happens, nothing really much happens. So for me, it's typically much more idea driven where I'm like, okay, this is what I want to make. How do I do that? What do I need to get in there? How do these things need to fit together? Like right now I'm working on a piece that I'm like,
00:17:31
Speaker
I think the only way I can actually get this to work is building it as two separate pieces, then 3D printing a custom bracket and putting it together after the fact.
00:17:41
Speaker
having the awareness of sort of like the materials and options that are open to me and just the idea of how things go together and how they come apart has been the most helpful. I absolutely love that. Now what would you say was your biggest obstacle when it came to finding your own voice? Can I say work? Time constraints, time and attention constraints. I mean in some ways like
00:18:01
Speaker
I work in a creative field, so that's always going to be part of it. That's going to influence what I do in good and bad ways. I really appreciate working in the arts. I think it's great.
00:18:13
Speaker
you know, just tied. One thing about film is it's, you know, it's a very all or nothing time commitment. There's, I mean, the people can sort of work part-time because I would love to work part-time and do part-time pottery, but it's sort of, you know, I'm not working, it's great because I could spend all this time, but when I am working, it's so hard to get to the studio.
Time Management Challenges
00:18:32
Speaker
Like today I was like, oh, I'm going to do this interview at the studio and then I'm going to be there for the rest of the day. And then work happened and now I'm still in my office and may or may not make it to the studio today. So,
00:18:42
Speaker
I mean, time constraints are definitely a thing that I'm trying to manage better. Time constraints and then, you know, managing time constraint or not is not my strength. So yeah, just physically getting there. What has helped you being able to manage these time constraints? I don't know. I have buying more clocks and putting them more places. I don't feel like I'm especially good at managing the time constraints. So like, honestly, I've just recently started buying a lot of clocks because
00:19:12
Speaker
at least that I know what time it is. I absolutely love that. Now what advice would you give to someone who can discover the only unique voice with their part? I would say just, you know, do like, like I said, I, I don't feel like I've even quite discovered my voice and, you know, and I'm not too stressed about it. So that's what I would say. I'd say just try the things that you think are interesting and like, don't try to get them to fit all into one category and be like, Oh, this is like, you know,
00:19:39
Speaker
this is a collection, this is a show, this is whatever, this is my voice. You may find something like next week that you're like, oh my God, this is the thing. So just not closing off to any ideas in favor of being like, no, I have to chase this idea down the rabbit hole.
00:19:57
Speaker
So I guess it has to make things balanced, trying to commit to an idea, but also not be so stuck. You can't see the forest for the trees. I absolutely love that. Ana, it has been a great time today, and as we're coming to a close here, what is one thing you want to hammer home with my listeners
Embracing New Experiences
00:20:11
Speaker
today? Oh, I don't know. But one thing that I want to hammer home is maybe just the
00:20:18
Speaker
you don't have to like know what you're doing or just just try I don't know trying new things trying new things with direction is great or trying new things and just you know being all over the place can sort of work out but requires management I don't know that was a very weird final hammer home absolutely love it Anna it was great champs today where can my listeners go and learn more about you
00:20:42
Speaker
So recently I set up a website, which is just shioshitaseramics.com. I also post on Instagram. I'll give anybody who finds errors in the website a sticker. That is my new thing. You find a spelling mistake, I will send you a sticker. Yeah, the website or Instagram are the two places right now.
00:21:03
Speaker
Thanks for listening to this episode of Shaping Your Pottery with Nick Torres. If you want to start discovering your own unique voice, you must first start with the right questions. That's why I put together a free 15 question booklet for you to start discovering your own unique pottery voice. All you have to do is go to shapingyourpottery.com forward slash questions to get this free booklet.