Is it useful? Is it beautiful? I think about William Morris often when I make something out of clay. “Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” My intention is to make something, that to someone out there, is both. Beauty is more subjective than function, although possibilities for the latter are endless with a little imagination. I’m always so happy to see a bowl I’ve made making its way into someone’s daily life. Apples, seashells, spools of thread, my pieces are made to be filled with whatever makes you happy. My friend, Tara keeps old issues of the New Yorker in one of my large finned bowls, and my friend, Maryam fills her oval winged platter with Iranian pistachio nuts. In my hands it was one thing, in theirs it became another. When someone asks me what something’s for, I say, “anything you want; a lemon, a parsnip, a handful of golf balls.” Or as my friend and fellow potter, Katherine says, “For your happiness.”