Let’s welcome this edition of Studio Potter with an exercise in gratitude. We are grateful for the willingness of our community to share their stories through the journal. 

We are grateful for the opportunities the pandemic is providing us to re-examine and reinvent our processes. 

We are grateful for the opportunity to see how the field of ceramics reaches outside of its boundaries, making a poetic impact as told by Lara Nguyen in “Un-broken: An Homage to Kintsugi.” 

We are grateful for the stability ceramics provides in unsure times, perfectly narrated by Bonnie Kemske as she shares the complicated journey to publishing The Teabowl: East and West. 

We are grateful for the ingenuity and flexibility we are all demonstrating, even when it would be easier to just hit the pause button while we wait for the chance to resume our traditional pathways. Linda Christianson shares some of that "can-do" spirit in “Get the Pots to the People,” where we learn about the new virtual trail the St. Croix Valley potters are carving. 

We are grateful Richard Nickel returns, this time with Molly Anne Bishop, to entertain us with an illustration that's also a reminder – we’ve been here before. 

We are grateful the programs and systems some have worked so hard to build, like the Cup Library at Berea College, while dormant, will not die as we ride out the storm together. Philip Wiggs recalls the journey and the impact of building bridges to craft.

We are grateful for the opportunity to see ceramics nonchalantly dismantle the hierarchies of fine art, public art, and fine craft in Renee Piechocki’s “A Public Art Excursion in a Fluctuating Time.” We have known all along that clay, as a material, can hold its own in any arena, but it’s always nice to see it proven out in examples like the ones shared by Piechocki.

Most of all, we are grateful for our readers. You are the reason we keep moving forward and continue to gather stories. We are grateful for our members. You are the reason we can continue moving forward. If you know someone you think would enjoy Studio Potter, please encourage them to BECOME A MEMBER today. If you know an institution, any type of educational institution, that would benefit from our offer of three month’s free access during this time please direct them to our OFFER.

As is echoed in most of our stories this month, we wish you well, we wish you peace of mind, and we wish you all stay safe until we can meet again.