By potteryboy / TikTok
After lumberjacks, cooks and painters, it's now ceramicists' turn to get the TikTok community hot under the collar. Videos featuring shirtless men shaping clay with their bare hands are going viral on the platform, under the #PotteryBoy hashtag. As such, the art form is getting an image overhaul as a defining characteristic of TikTok's latest sex symbol.
After lumberjacks, cooks and painters, it's now ceramicists' turn to get the TikTok community hot under the collar. Videos featuring shirtless men shaping clay with their bare hands are going viral on the platform, under the #PotteryBoy hashtag. As such, the art form is getting an image overhaul as a defining characteristic of TikTok's latest sex symbol.
If you've been on TikTok lately, you've probably noticed young men dressed in nothing more than an apron modeling clay on a spinning wheel. This kind of video has been multiplying at pace on the platform with the #PotteryBoy hashtag, which counts some 260 million views. It's enough to delight fans of the famous love scene from the "Ghost" movie, in which the actors Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore work clay in the steamiest of ways. On TikTok, many accounts have become popular for posting videos of sensual pottery sessions. Once an outdated hobby, the art of throwing clay seems to have found a new lease on life with the 'pottery boy' trend.
A trend getting millions of views
It's usually young, good-looking, scantily-clad men who get to work showing TikTok users how to make ramen bowls and vases "for their mom." Among them is 22-year-old Theo Hirschfield, who gets stuck into the clay shirtless, clearly embracing the sexier side of his creative activity. And the strategy seems to be paying off, since the comments on his videos are full of all kinds of messages like: "I want to live with this guy," or "Oh to give it all up and become clay." As a result, the young artist now has over a million followers on TikTok. Then there's "Pottery Boy," who has amassed 49.3 million views with a video in which he works a piece of clay into a flower pot. The artist, originally from Melbourne, Australia, opened his first pottery studio in April 2018. He told The New York Post, that he doesn't mind getting half naked and creating online, if it helps people get interested in the pottery world.
Similarly, 23-year-old American Billy Keogh took up ceramics in the wake of the 2020 pandemic. Since late 2022, Keogh has been sharing sensual videos of himself molding cups, bowls and plates to jazz music. He too tells The New York Post that while he appreciates the fan base he has built up, he can't help but be shocked by some of the rather risqué comments he receives.
A new business model for ceramicists
This trend appears to owe its origins to Dax Newman, who brought the 'pottery boy' concept to the masses in 2020. Originally a model and influencer, this American pottery fan gradually met with success on Instagram, then on TikTok. He later created his pottery brand, The Pot Shed, allowing his fans to buy his work. In 2021, he even featured in the columns of New York Times after making $30,000 on Snapchat thanks to his content.
Meanwhile, Australian TikToker “Pottery Boy,” who has been throwing clay since 2018, regularly does paid partnerships with brands, such as with the energy drink RockStar Energy. He also sells his designs online. A well-honed strategy to monetize his passion thanks to his physique. Celebrities have also started to make pottery look like a cool hobby. The actor Seth Rogen, for example, now sells his creations through Instagram.
The proliferation of such accounts -- and their success -- has made pottery a trendy artistic activity. In 2022, the specialist website Hobbycraft recorded a three-month increase of 150% and 223% respectively in searches for "air-drying clay" and "clay tools" in the UK, according to You Magazine.
Sexualization of manual activities
This is not the first time that manual jobs have been sexualized on the TikTok platform. Back in 2021, Bradley Thoren, a lumberjack wearing only overalls, filmed himself cutting wood and met with similar success. The video scored more than 700,000 views, very quickly going viral. Many internet users then used the videos in their own content, to show their reactions, including the singer Doja Cat. Since then, cooks have had a similar treatment. On TikTok, the #HotManCook hashtag is also a sensation, showing scantily clad muscular men cooking an omelette, for example. Could a new definition of sex appeal be emerging?
