Outside industrial settings, most of the ceramic objects made today are probably fired in electric kilns, yet the effect of this type of firing on the objects made, the ideas behind them, or the people making them is rarely discussed.

Thinking about this symposium and its focus, I kept thinking about place: both the actual places in which we do our work, and the way our minds, like our studios, are furnished with images, quotations, and other presences that provide a backdrop for our making and our aspirations.

I will stop for one pot and ... have a smile on my face because I saw something I didn’t see before. That’s exactly what we have pots for. It’s that glimpse of inspiration when you are passing by. That’s what beauty does.

Others will praise and remember Harriet for her teaching or her studio work, but the extraordinary person she was loomed largest, for me, in her role on the Studio Potter board.