{"id":8722,"date":"2023-12-01T10:40:00","date_gmt":"2023-12-01T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/?p=8722"},"modified":"2023-12-06T11:23:36","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T10:23:36","slug":"engineer-and-artist-in-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/2023\/12\/engineer-and-artist-in-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineer and Artist in One"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

How does an artist with a passion for pottery end up with a committed career in engineering? In the words of Hugo Martinez, Maintenance and HSE engineer at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST) and part-time ceramicist, that is quite an organic development. It turns out that the factors shared by pottery and CAD design are more than meets the eye, even if both involve a form of sculpting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPottery teaches me a lot in expressing my thoughts through the physical world,\u201d Martinez says. \u201cSince I\u2019ve already expressed my 3D sculpting ability in this other field, that of pottery, I can transfer that into CAD. I enjoy making things visually with a 3D aspect, so I let my hands do the talking \u2013 in CAD design or pottery in general.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Martinez has been working at the \u00adSanta Ana, Calif., O-rings facility for nearly two years, but this has not stopped him from pursuing his other love \u2013 ceramics \u2013 on the weekends. He was still in high school when he discovered that he enjoyed working with clay and how much there was to learn about the sculpting craft through trial and error. After taking a ceramics class for a year, he considered a career as a potter, but realized it lacked the financial stability he was looking for. \u201cI also wanted to become a math professor,\u201d he says. \u201cSo, then I thought the best course of action was to combine the two, use my brain and my hands on something. I thought mechanical engineering was the best in-between.\u201d He pursued this career track at the University of California, Irvine, and then joined FST as an intern. He accepted an engineering position to work with production machines on the shop floor in 2022. \u201cIt was a pretty great decision,\u201d he reflects. \u201cAs a mechanical engineer, you design a lot of things on the computer, so instead of using your skills physically in your hand, you apply the mental skills on a computer with computer-aided design. There\u2019s a big combination of math and pottery when it comes to being an engineer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Hugo Martinez making pottery in his studio.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While he spends his workdays on such tasks as improving the efficiency of product manufacturing and machine repair with CAD, he is also taking his ceramics to another level by opening a web shop to sell his creations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has set up a home studio with his own kiln and pottery wheel and is experimenting with the effects of different glazes on various types of clay. His work includes bowls, pots, and large vases in classic earth-tones with clean, glossy finishes. But more than focusing on the commercial aspect, he wants to share his artistic pieces. \u201cIf something happens to sell, that\u2019s great and if it doesn\u2019t, that\u2019s also fine,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s really just for fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

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How does an artist with a passion for pottery end up with a committed career in engineering? In the words of Hugo Martinez, Maintenance and HSE engineer at Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST)…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8762,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,615,544],"tags":[587],"powerkit_post_featured":[],"class_list":["post-8722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-people","category-santa-ana-en","category-usa-en","tag-edition-01_2024-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8974,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8722\/revisions\/8974"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8762"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8722"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sw.fst.com\/magazine\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=8722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}