Ian Buchbinder doesn't take himself too seriously. He calls himself a potter, but you'd be remiss to assume that's all he does. Between teaching, running a business, and fixing kilns he finds the time to make teapots, mugs, and bowls. Ian takes a lot of pride in his work. There are no stamps or stencils to be found in his workshop, everything is drawn by hand, on every piece, every time. And while went to art school, there’s no pretension here: take one look at his work and you get it. It’s accessible. It’s affordable. It’s the mug you’ll always keep clean because you want to use it every day. As he says “The ultimate goal is to make objects that bring a little joy to your day.” Watch as Ian let’s us into his studio and shares his craft with us.
I’ve been looking forward to making another one of these for a very long while. I discovered Ian’s work at the RISD Craft 2021, and knew I had to reach out. We got together on a balmy November day (which featured a tornado warning), and spent about 8 hours walking through his process. The shoot yielded nearly 5 hours of footage. It was tough to cut it down to a concise and entertaining half an hour, but I got there after 13 drafts.
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Here’s the timeline for the final edit in Premiere Pro
