October 30, 2025

Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude. Gratitude.

October 6, 2025

Last week I had been spending a lot of time at the wheel thinking about the sharing of knowledge. My advancement in pottery has been in great part due to the guidance of those around me. I have been very lucky to have a lot of people in my pottery life that are willing to share with me the knowledge and wisdom they have gained over the course of their time practicing.

I was recently watching a documentary about traditional pottery in Santo Domingo Tonaltepec, Oaxaca, Mexico and a big focus of the documentary is how pottery techniques have been passed down generation after generation in this community.

This is contrasted with personal stories of how the use of Mixtec, the indigenous language of the area, was systematically eliminated by the government through a series of decrees and the weaponization of shame.

The documentary made me think more deeply about the preservation of cultural/personal identity through crafts, and how when someone teaches you a technique they have learned they are not only inviting you to engage with their skill but their personal and oftentimes cultural identity. It then becomes part of the patchwork of your personal identity and so on.

I recognize that what I am saying is in no way a novel thought, but I was fascinated that pottery could be the catalyst to deeper critical thinking around this idea on my part.

Anyway, I say all this to say that I am eternally grateful to anyone in my pottery life that has taken time to invite me into their world and teach me a technique that they have learned. I don’t often ask where or how they learned the technique, but it is something I would like to begin doing in order to intentionally connect myself to the greater web of shared humanity that connects us all.