Clearing up Cubism

My first introduction to Cubism came in a ceramics class. Half the class worked on the wheel (including me) the others did hand building. Their assignments were all to be created through the lens of Cubism. Most of the students seemed very uncertain how to translate Cubism into clay, after all, clay is worked in three dimensions rather than the flat surfaces usually associated with the movement. There was a great amount of confusion and frustration, and some rather unattractive pieces were made. Later, in a drawing class, I was to do a drawing in Cubist style. My own research fell flat and I still did not really get what it was all about. Our text, P.O.L. finally gave some clarification when it stated that Picasso and Braque "became interested in depicting objects from several different points of view simultaneously." That was very helpful in my understanding; why my previous research had not phrased it that way is a mystery. Still, I'm not sure how I would transfer Cubism into hand built clay pieces and I remain thankful that I got to work on the wheel.