By Ben Blair

The Blairs visit Horseshoe Mountain Pottery, and get a pottery lesson from Master Potter, Joe Bennion. One of the questions we ask when we are brainstorming ideas for an Olive Us episode is: “What activities/processes are the most beautiful to watch?” The correct answer is, of course, pottery. So when we prepared for the shoot in Utah, we brainstormed what would be the ideal pottery episode.

Gabrielle brought up Joe Bennion—the documentary about him, The Potter’s Meal, was legendary in design school, and wouldn’t it be so amazing if the kids could interact with him? We nearly threw out the idea as too much of a long shot. But, thank the heavens above, we reached out, and to everyone’s thrill, Joe was up for it (well, the kids didn’t know what to expect, so you can watch their thrill literally unfold in the video).

Joe was so much more than an amazing potter. One of the pities of the video is that it doesn’t include all the great stories Joe told as he worked his pots, or guided the kids as they worked theirs. He posted pictures of the kids’ finished pots after he fired them. You can see them on his blog.

Here are some more behind the scenes photos from the shoot:

The walls of Joe’s handiwork welcomes you.

Joe gently guides as Oscar molds his pot.

Joe guides Olive as Matt from Tiger in a Jar gets an overhead shot of Olive working on a dog bowl for a mouse…

We hope you love Pottery Lesson!