We need pottery for much the same reason we need acoustic and folk music.

Historically, pottery represented the highest of technological advancement -- potters were a necessity -- they were the tupperware/melamac/glassware of their day.

But now, obviously that's not the case. Functionally speaking, there are superior vessels for food storage - more uniform, self-sealing, less fragile.

Modern functional pottery still does something better than the modern commercial vessel -- it speaks of our humanity better. It expresses our variety, our creative souls, and the whim of immediacy shows through in a way that only something made by hand can.

I constantly struggle with leaving the hand expression in my pots. I'm a bit of a perfectionist in my work -- and I don't think that purposeful "mistakes" or sloppiness is the goal. But finding a way to not erase the hand-madeness is a constant challenge.

Potters can also lead the way in innovative ideas. Because we individual potters are less committed to a commercial process that requires a great deal of time committment to mold-making or the financial committment of personel, we can make very short-run items -- and they don't have to be exactly alike. (Potters say that china "stacks", while stoneware "piles").

Pottery is also "needed" in an uncertain world because it very well expresses a "timelessness" -- an assurance that because this Noah White crock has survived the last century and a half, maybe life will still go on. Crockery/pottery is enduring. It shares man's story of struggle for survival and meaning better than any other craft, and certainly better than any other art.