By Emma Danzo
Theo Hirschfield, an art major in the UC Santa Barbara College of Creative Studies, has reached viral success posting videos of his pottery process on Instagram and TikTok.
Theo Hirschfield, an art major at UC Santa Barbara’s College of Creative Studies, is redefining what it means to be a potter. In the past year, he has turned his passion for pottery into a career as an artist, thanks to his viral fame on social media.
Known as “Thclay,” Hirschfield has built his brand and amassed a following of 1.4 million on Tik Tok and nearly 270,000 on Instagram. He is known for his vases and bowls of imaginative shapes and sizes. He shows that pottery, an inherently physical practice, can be just as “hot, fun and exciting” as any artistic performance, such as dancing or acting. And his success continues to skyrocket as more and more fans from around the globe discover him each day.
Hirschfield, 22, was born with profound hearing loss. He has a hearing aid and cochlear implant that allow him to hear. Coming from San Diego, he is an avid surfer and has surfed competitively since he was young. As a viral Tik-Tokker, he has grown his page enough to earn money doing what he loves, via branded videos and selling his own merchandise.
In a recent interview Hirschfield discussed how his potter practice has evolved, the key aspects that have led to his social media success, and his greater mission as an artist.
This interview has been edited for length.
When and how did you get into pottery and when did you realize that you wanted to be an artist?
The real reason I got into pottery and ceramics in high school was when I took a ceramics class, and I knew that this was where I belonged. It’s like this weird thing in life where I just feel myself wanting to explore this art.
I use it as a way to express things I can’t say with words. And not in a way that is direct or literal. I just use art as a way to show feelings, emotion that translates to colors and forms.
When did you begin posting your art on Tik Tok? Why? How did you grow your page to where it is right now?
I fell in love with this process of video creation. So, it was very easy for me to spend a lot of time in quarantine producing a lot of content. And after some time, I started to actually care about growing the page because I knew that if I maybe were to be able to grow this page, I could make it my job.
Viral potter and UC Santa Barbara student Theo Hirschfield makes clay sculptures in his camper-turned-studio.
[Pottery] doesn’t have to be this thing that’s boring. I want to make it hot, fun, exciting, kind of like an art performance. You see all these dancers and ballerinas and actors. I think pottery can be cool that way too, because it’s such a physical thing.
How has the digital sphere shaped and impacted your career as an artist?
When COVID started there was sort of a surge in the use of technology, specifically Tik Tok, and my sister recommended it to me. At that point I was just making art and not really caring for anyone to see it because I had no intention of selling yet. I just considered my practice a hobby.
After I started posting these videos, they gained traction very quickly and I realized that not only was I developing a sort of fanbase of people who wanted to see me make pottery, I was also connecting with middle aged, men and women from across the world who do pottery and I was learning new ideas. I’m currently in a group chat of 20 to 30 potters from across the world on Instagram. And all we do is just share ideas – ask questions and joke around. It’s like a little community/friend group and I think that’s really helped me as a potter, because I don’t know anybody around me closely, who really pursues pottery.
Theo Hirschfield attributes his internet success to eye-catching features of his videos, such as the camper-turned-studio where he films himself creating art.
What about pottery captivates you the most?
I always see pottery as like surfing a wave. When you grab this hunk of clay that comes from the earth, just like this blast of energy that comes from the ocean, you’re sitting down at the wheel and you’re using your hands to transform this earth material into something greater than it was before.
When I make pots, there’s no specific direction I would say that I’m headed in. I’m a very free flowing potter. Just like I surf a wave, I make decisions as it comes, and for me this puts me in a very meditative flow state.
Has maintaining a brand in the social media sphere affected your identity or authenticity as an artist in any way?
When I first started, I was lost in the process of remaking different versions of a video even if I went into the studio that day thinking I wanted to make something else, and this actually caused me a lot of anxiety. When I was speaking with a therapist, I discovered this was why I was feeling anxiety when I was in my studio. So, one day I just walked in and I decided to make a video about being deaf. And this was something that my community and audience never knew about me. I posted that, and people really appreciated it and it was the first time that I think I realized it. I do think my content is an authentic version of what I want to be.
To what do you attribute the success of your social media? What is it that differentiates you and allows you to capture such a niche in the digital sphere?
Successful content has to be different and catching. I know that might sound cliché, but really, people don’t care unless they’re surprised. And I think what I was trying to do was to surprise people.
After I started to really take pride in making beautiful videos of pottery with cool shots showing off this [camper] trailer that I built into a studio, it really started to attract an audience that was super authentic to who I was, within the span of two or three months. I went [from 3000] to 250k… it was insane, it was something I didn’t know how to process.
What work of yours do you think has the most impact?
“Like surfing a wave—when you grab this hunk of clay that comes from the earth, just like a blast of energy that comes from the ocean, you’re using your hands to transform this earth material into something greater than it was before.”
For a while I was feeling these really intense emotions of emptiness, loneliness, closure from the world, sort of this underlying sadness, uncertainty, twistedness and ridiculousness.
These feelings are so empty for me that I wanted to somehow express them in pottery. Right now I’m working on a project where the main objective is to create these holes in my vessels, really playing with my feelings into the pottery.
I’m trying to make these vessels as big as myself…This project has really just given me a sense of clarity and calmness when I walk into my studio and I see all these vessels with holes in them. It doesn’t make me sad. It almost makes me realize that these emotions are kept safe through these different vessels almost like a tangible journal.
What is your greater mission as an artist?
To create a body of work over my lifetime that accurately reflects who I am as a person and impacts people around me in a way that inspires them to keep creating.
Theo Hirschfield’s viral pottery content can be found at @thclay on TikTok or @theo_hirschfield on Instagram.
Emma Danzo is a third year UC Santa Barbara student majoring in Communication. She conducted this interview for her Writing Program course Digital Journalism.