Throwing Pottery and Drawing Dogs with Ian Buchbinder

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.

I first discovered Ian’s work at the RISD Craft 2021, and knew I had to reach out. The balance between whimsy, attention to detail and a touch of kitsch are apparent from across the room. One doesn’t need to even see the work in person to appreciate the objects he creates.

We got together on a balmy November day, an unseasonably warm day (which seems to be happening more and more lately) that ended with a state wide tornado warning. Ian greeted me outside of an old mill in eastern Rhode Island. His workshop is on the second floor, a quick trip up a narrow flight of stairs, that I will later find out floods when it rains too heavily. Like many renovated mill building in the northeast, this one is partitioned out for leasing. At the end of a long, liminal-feeling hallway we arrive at Ian’s workshop. Shaped like a baseball home plate, the space is filled with natural light from 4 floor-to-ceiling windows, and nearly every square inch covered in dust. “I need to invest in a wet vac,” he tells me.

We then spent about 8 hours walking through his process, discussing the less glamorous parts of being a potter, and craft show experiences.

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.