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#136 How to Create Magical Plant Kingdom Pottery w/ Madalynn Massey
39 Plays3 years ago
What is up Shaping Nation on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery I got to interview Madalynn Massey. Madalynn makes really cool plant kingdom pottery. You can learn more about Madalynn by checking out her Instagram @mad_ceramics
Top 3 Value Bombs:
- How to create a magical plant kingdom pottery
- Using traveling to gain new ideas and come back feeling refreshed
- Taking 2 things that you love and combining them the best part is it doesn't even have to be about pottery
and so much more
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
Introduction to Podcast
00:00:01
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.
Meet Madeline Massey
00:00:13
Speaker
What is up, Shaping Nation? This is Nick Torres here. And on this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, I got to interview Madeline Massey. Madeline makes some really incredible magical plant kingdom pottery.
00:00:26
Speaker
And in this episode of Shaping Your Pottery, you're going to learn about how Madeline makes her magical plant kingdom pottery.
Travel and Artistic Growth
00:00:34
Speaker
You'll learn about broadening your horizons through travel so that you can be more inspired and come back refreshed. You'll also learn about combining two things that you love. It could be things outside of pottery, like maybe painting. And you combine that with pottery to make something truly unique.
00:00:53
Speaker
And finally, the last thing you'll learn is just simply having fun. That is it. Just simply have fun with your work and continue doing things that you love to make. Madeline, welcome to Shaping Your Pottery and share with me, how did you get started with ceramics?
00:01:09
Speaker
Hello, it's nice to be here. Thanks for having me on the podcast. I got started with ceramics when I took my first wheel throwing class in college back in 2017. I was originally going to school to pursue oil painting, a fine arts degree, and I took a ceramics class as one of my credits. And it just kinda was history from there. After that first class, I was hooked
Ceramics as a Career
00:01:37
Speaker
And I ended up dropping out of college to do some traveling. And when I came back to the States, I just decided that ceramics was the way I wanted to go. I found myself a wheel online and eventually got a kiln instead of a little studio and just kind of went for it. Love it. That's awesome. Yeah. So what would you say was the biggest impact for you to keep on pursuing ceramics?
00:02:04
Speaker
the way that it made me feel to do it. I loved the meditative process that I would gain from working with clay and throwing especially. I always just felt so calm and most myself when I was working with clay and throwing on the wheel. And over time, I started to sell a couple pieces here and there and realized that
00:02:33
Speaker
I could potentially be a lucrative way to make art. And so that was kind of my biggest inspiration to keep going with it, was that it seemed like an actual way to make an income and do what I love at the same time. I absolutely love it. I do think that once we start being able to sell our pottery, we gain confidence with our pottery and we can continue doing it further. I like that a lot. Yeah.
00:03:01
Speaker
So tell me the story about why you decided to drop out of college and how did traveling for a couple years help you with developing your style?
Inspiration from Travel and Nature
00:03:11
Speaker
That's a good question. So I dropped out of college.
00:03:16
Speaker
Because I knew I wanted to pursue a career in the arts. I wasn't sure exactly which route I wanted to go at the time. And I just didn't feel like being in that school setting was what I needed at the time. I felt like I needed to broader my horizons and
00:03:35
Speaker
experience new cultures and figure out what I wanted to do. Right before I left, I did take that ceramics class and so I kind of had that in the back of my head the whole time as something I wanted to continue doing. And so I went and backpacked in Europe for three months and went to like 12 different countries, experienced many cultures, many languages,
00:03:59
Speaker
And yeah, when I came back, I settled in Oregon and kind of immediately started to pursue pottery at that point. So how did this experience help you with like inspiration for your pottery?
00:04:19
Speaker
Well, there was a lot of pottery in a lot of museums. So that definitely kept it in my mind, seeing all the different ways that people have been creating ceramics over thousands of years. It's one of the oldest art forms, as I'm sure you know. And also just experiencing my pottery is very inspired by the plant world, the plant kingdom.
00:04:44
Speaker
botanical type things. And so I spent a lot of time in nature, all in all of these different places. And then moving to Oregon where the plants are so abundant, so beautiful. It really inspired a lot of my work of plants. That's amazing. So let's talk about your pottery now.
00:05:11
Speaker
Can you describe to me in one sentence what you make? Yeah.
Pottery Techniques and Themes
00:05:16
Speaker
So I make functional art, ceramic art. I fired a cone 10. I use a porcelain body clay. I do the technique of painting with underglaze, usually botanical images. And then I use the scroffito technique to carve into those paintings. And then I fired a cone 10.
00:05:41
Speaker
There you go. In one sentence. Love it. So can you tell me the story how you started making your magical kingdom pottery? Magical plant kingdom pottery, sorry.
00:05:55
Speaker
Yeah, around the same time that I started to really pursue pottery, and I was trying to figure out my style, was around the same time that I was studying to be an herbalist. And so they were very much on my mind, the herbs, the flowers, the plants, as well as just constantly being outside foraging and really paying attention to plants.
00:06:21
Speaker
and herbs and identification, IDing the plants. And I have just always felt such a deep connection to plants, especially medicinal plants, herbs. And so they kind of to manifest in my pottery.
00:06:39
Speaker
And like I said, I used to be a painter, and so I kind of used my painting skills onto the pottery, kind of fused both of my passions of painting and then now throwing and making pottery, and also my passion of medicinal herbs and herbalism. And that's when I really started to find my style, my personal style.
00:07:06
Speaker
having a background in painting. How did that help you with finding your style?
00:07:11
Speaker
Um, well it helped because when it came to the decoration process of pottery, I kind of just naturally had an urge to do surface painting and I later figured out that sgraffito worked really well with the painting as well, whereas when I learned sgraffito technique in college it was more carving into like
00:07:38
Speaker
But I do like a painting and I kind of carve the outline of it. So it's like it's technically Scrapito, but it's a little bit different than the normal way people do Scrapito. So can you tell me or can you walk me through how you create your magical plant kingdom pottery designs?
00:07:56
Speaker
Yeah, so I throw the pot and then once the pot is bone dry before I biscuit, I use underglazes and I paint botanical scenes. Sometimes I'll paint like moths and butterflies and insects as well.
00:08:13
Speaker
And so I paint them all directly onto the pot, and then I take a Scrapito tool and I carve an outline, and I also add a lot of depth with the carving, Scrapito technique. After that, I bisque fire it, then I do a clear glaze over the design so that it shows through.
00:08:33
Speaker
And then I usually do like a over glaze around the rim and it will kind of drips down in between the design. And I fire the sticks and sometimes I'll add luster, gold luster as well. And that's kind of the gist of it. So now you are very inspired by plants and like just everything with plants. What is it about the plant kingdom that inspires you?
00:09:02
Speaker
Just the beauty of them and how magical they are. I don't know. I just have always thought that they were so magical and they're also so intertwined in your life. Whether you realize it or not, the
00:09:21
Speaker
All the medicines that are made, even pharmaceutical medicines, are made of plant derivatives. And they also, one thing that I focus on a lot in my plants that I use is plants that would typically be considered as weeds.
00:09:40
Speaker
They're often the most medicinal plants and they're often the plants that grow around you. They're called the people's plants because they kind of follow the people. They grow in the cracks and on the sides of the roads and in your backyard and people are always trying to get rid of them, but they're the most beneficial medicinal plants out there. And so I do tend to focus on those plants a lot because I think that they're just so wonderful that they show up for people exactly where they need them and when they need them and they're right under our noses.
00:10:10
Speaker
and we're trying to get rid of them a lot of times. That's a really great way to think about making your pottery. Shaping Nation, if you're listening right now, how can you take something that maybe people don't normally like or they kind of tend to brush over and how can you add that into your pottery to kind of make it have more meaning to it?
00:10:32
Speaker
Now something I found a little bit interesting is that on your website you said that your pottery has evolved but you were able to stick to the theme of having the plant kingdom. How did having stick into the theme of plant kingdom help you evolve your pottery further?
00:10:52
Speaker
My pottery has mostly evolved, I think, just with my skill level. The more I do it, the better I get at it, especially my throwing skills have improved quite a bit. And so my pots become lighter and lighter and more consistent.
00:11:12
Speaker
The designs that I do have shifted in their quality as well. The painting I've gotten better at painting as I go on and the consistency has been the plant kingdom painting plants. And what's great about the plant kingdom is that there's so many varieties, there's so many different plants that I never run out of inspiration.
00:11:35
Speaker
and so I'm constantly just coming up with new designs of different plants and I think that I've gained quite a following of other people who are in love with plants and especially medicinal plants and those plants are special to people just like they are to me and so having a mug with that plant on them that you can use in your daily rituals I think is really special for a lot of people.
00:12:03
Speaker
And so I think I've been able to gain kind of this following of people who are also really intrigued by plants. Absolutely love it. Shaping Nation, how can you add things that are special to you? Maybe it's plants, maybe it's cars or sports. How can you add those things that are special to you? And how can you add them to your pottery so that you are making something that is truly unique to yourself?
Influence of Upbringing and Creative Freedom
00:12:31
Speaker
So, another thing that I found interesting is that you grew up around artists and musicians. What impact did this have on you becoming an artist?
00:12:39
Speaker
Yeah, a really big impact. Both of my parents are musicians and artists. My parents, my whole life, they had a band together when I was growing up and they actually taught me how to play the bass and I was the bass player in their band when I was like 13 and we would tour around the country playing shows. And I also spent my childhood growing up at art festivals. My mom would often vend her art. She's jewelry and fiber art artists.
00:13:09
Speaker
And so I grew up around a lot of artists. I grew up around art being sold, being made. And it had a huge impact on me and my love for art and artists. I love being around other creatives. And one of the big things that helped me pursue this was that my parents were very supportive.
00:13:36
Speaker
of me pursuing an art career because they understood the drive and I never felt like I was being told to like pursue something more stable although my parents were definitely the quintessential struggling artists so I did see that aspect of it and it was kind of scary because I saw how hard it can be to be an artist for a living
00:14:02
Speaker
And it could have easily deterred me, but I had the support of my family and I learned a lot just watching them go through it and what worked for them and what didn't. So you mentioned you like being around other creatives. How does being around other creatives just help you with your pottery? It's often inspiring talking about ideas, talking about techniques.
00:14:32
Speaker
being around people who understand the need to create and use their hands. It's just really great to kind of feed off of each other. I definitely agree. I always say that when I was like first starting out in like pottery and I had my friend with me making pottery at the same time, I feel like during that time I was able to grow because we were doing it together and I always think that is so crucial. Exactly.
00:14:58
Speaker
So let's talk about finding your voice. Tell me the story about when you moved to Oregon and eventually created your own pottery studio and how this time helped you with discovering your voice. Yeah, I started my own studio mostly because I wanted to have the freedom to
00:15:21
Speaker
Be in my own space, be in my own creative space, be able to work on my pottery anytime I wanted because previously I was working in public studios and oftentimes my work would get uncovered and it would get too dry and I wouldn't be able to finish it and so just all the frustrations of that.
00:15:41
Speaker
kind of pushed me to make the jump to create my own studio. And at that same time, like I mentioned before, I was taking an herbalism course, which kind of fueled my inspiration for my designs of doing herbal stuff. And previously I was doing lots of different designs, mostly just playing around and figuring out
00:16:04
Speaker
what I liked and what techniques I like to do and that's when I started to paint with underglaze and those first few mugs I painted with herbs on them ended up doing super well like I got tons of feedback on those and I was kind of like okay this must be like
00:16:23
Speaker
a direction that I should go in because I'm getting lots of great feedback. And I loved being able to paint and kind of fuse those two passions. And that's kind of the beginning of my style. What would you say was the moment when you knew that this was going to be your style? It was the first few photos of those lugs that I posted on Instagram. And I was blown away at the feedback.
00:16:51
Speaker
and how much people wanted to see more. And I got lots of feedback of like, could you do this plant or this herb? And I just started to like go run through so many ideas and I had just had so much inspiration and drive to follow in that direction that I knew that this was probably going to be my main style.
00:17:17
Speaker
I love that. That is really amazing. I love how you went with your gut and you kept on pursuing that style because you liked it. What would you say was the one thing that really helped you discover your voice?
Finding Your Style and Continuous Creativity
00:17:29
Speaker
Hmm. You know, I think that it's ever evolving, my voice and my style. And I think just taking the time to really focus on
00:17:47
Speaker
the techniques that are fun and in that moment and they're ever changing and being able to have the platform of Instagram and the internet, TikTok, all of that to share with people what I'm doing and my different inspirations and having the feedback is great, but there's also being, having fun is really,
00:18:16
Speaker
when it comes down to. Definitely agree. If you're not having fun, then there's really no point. Right. So what advice would you give to someone trying to discover their own unique voice?
00:18:29
Speaker
Have fun. Exactly that is just keep doing what inspires you the most and don't worry about what everyone else is doing because there's so many different techniques. There's so many different styles. There's so many people trying to do the same thing and it's easy to kind of get caught up in that because you're like, oh, well, this is working for them. Maybe it'll work for me.
00:18:51
Speaker
But oftentimes it's working for them because they're having fun doing it and it's uniquely them. And the more that you just focus on doing the techniques and doing the designs that inspire you, the more people will start to appreciate your work because it is so uniquely you. Definitely agree. So as we're coming to a close here, what is one thing you want to hammer home with my audience today?
00:19:22
Speaker
You gotta just keep going and keep the inspiration going and keep the fun going as I was just saying. And the more you do it and the more inspiration that you gather from the world around you, the more your pottery will evolve and the more your style will become uniquely you and the more people will want to follow along to see your journey and to support your beautiful art.
00:19:51
Speaker
Definitely agree. Madeline, it was really great chatting with you today. Where can my audience go and
Connect with Madeline and Nick's Offer
00:19:56
Speaker
learn more about you? Yeah, it was so great to be on the podcast. Thanks for having me. I am on Instagram, mad underscore ceramics. I also have a website, which is mad ceramics.art. And you can find me in those two places.
00:20:11
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.