The Potter and the Patron

   Why buy handmade tableware and pottery in the age of industrial ceramics?  
   Perhaps simply because they are desirable and people want to connect with the craftsman who made them.  
 
   Because in almost every community lives a Studio Potter driven by hunger and a desire to get his hands in the mud.  
   Working with one's hands to produce something tangible is becoming a rarity  
in our technological world.  
   It is pretty amazing what hands can do with a lump of clay and some basic tools.  
   My first year of college I fell into a ceramics class and chose pottery as  
a way of life, knowing that I would  
be in the good company of artists and craftspeople, writers and musicians.  
   In forty years on the potter’s wheel  
I have made thousands of pots, many  
still being used and cared for today.  
   So when you have a well turned pot in your hands, what you are holding may well represent thousands of years of history, art and culture, humanity and perhaps the essence of the potter.  
   Notice when you are washing dishes that water magnifies the colors in the glaze. And if you are perceptive you may feel the balance and love of life that went into the making of each piece.  
 
   Long live the Potter and the Patron.