Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Patrick Gibson | Episode 218
Patrick Gibson focus is on creating ceramics to enhance people’s everyday rituals. Eating meals together, drinking a cup of tea, or even grabbing that morning cup of coffee, can be transformed from something ordinary into a meaningful experience through the use of beautiful and thoughtfully designed vessels. Patrick enjoys clean lines and utilizes surface design that favors spontaneity over more laborious techniques. Patrick glazes impart an ethereal buoyancy and calming serenity to the pots.
SPONSORS
Number 1 brand in America for a reason. Skutt.com
For all your ceramic needs go to Georgies.com
How do you go about testing and keeping track of your glazing experiments so you can use them in the future?
Oh man, this is so hard for me. It’s a mind blowing number of combinations. I wish I had more of a system to keep combinations that I like. Sometimes I just stand there for 20 minutes and then I just have to start acting. I will decide these will all have this based glaze and I will combine it with another glaze. So it’s really more of kind of free form process for me. I like experimenting. Doing big runs of one glaze combination.
How do you balance your life? You have a lot of things going on, and you want to be a maker, and a teacher, and a father, and a yogi. How do you balance it all?
Well there’s not enough hours in the day absolutely. It’s a work in progress. We are expecting our third child soon, at the end of October and life’s going to change yet again. I try to say yes in my life to things I’m really interested in and let the others go. I actually worked as a brewer for awhile. That’s one of my other passions is home brewing. I had the opportunity to do brewing professionally and I discovered it wasn’t what I was passionate about. I am glad that I am here now and making pots. It is something I feel like I am drawn to just like I am drawn to yoga and to teach yoga. And drawn to raise incredible children and drawn to love my wife and those are the things that I love. So finding balance comes naturally.
So how do you set priorities?
Well if I made pots yesterday they have to get trimmed or they are going to go in the scrap bin so that’s gotta get done. But outside of that I am kind of living in the moment and going with the flow. My studio practice is limited now to a few hours in the morning when my son naps and maybe an hour in the afternoon. That’s going to change with time.
What is your favorite tool?
A Mudtools yellow kidney rib. That is just a classic. I love that particular firmness.
What is your perfect pizza?
Humble Pie here in Charlottesville, they make a great pizza. One of my favorites is a spicy Hawaiian. Some nice local ham from a local pig, pineapple, jalapenos, and some good cheddar.
Book
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
Contact
Instagram: @GibsonPottery