Tales of a Red Clay Rambler: A pottery and ceramic art podcast · Ben Carter

More than a Maker: Mike Griffin

·50 min·4 clips

Mike Griffin admits he can't make 10 of the same thing due to ADHD, using multiple projects to stay engaged.

The conversation begins with the stuff of the studio. He talks through liner glaze, cone five, a ten minute hold, and the little adjustments that make black clay less stubborn. Mako stroking coats, sour apple color, and a green mug are not treated like stray details. They are how the guest thinks out loud, through material and touch. The host is patient with that. He does not turn the glaze talk into a quick technique aside. He waits until it starts to reveal the person behind it. Golf changes the conversation without really leaving the first subject. The host points out that ceramics and golf often get filed away as hobbies, while the guest has made both of them into work. That opens the door to childhood, to being five years old, playing golf with his grandmother while his father was largely absent. The family story has some shine and some ache. His father, described as an agent for Joe Namath, Regis Philbin, and NFL players, belonged to a successful world that still left a gap at home. The episode does not force that into a tidy lesson. A pot, a career, and a life all ask for timing, discipline, adjustment, and a tolerance for things not quite going to plan. The glaze talk stays under the golf story, which is part of why the episode works. The same person testing a firing schedule is also trying to manage work, memory, ambition, and practical limits. There is no grand breakthrough here. He sounds like someone still figuring out how clay, golf, family, and money can fit inside one life. The host gives him enough room for the subject to keep widening.

As heard by us

Pottery detail and a golf career meet in a conversation that values specificity over speed.

The conversation with Carter works best when it stays with clay and the plain logic of making a living from craft. The pottery details carry the piece: firing at five with a 10 minute hold, the liner glaze, and the Mako stroking coat on black clay are all clear, and the move…

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Why you'd press play

For when you want pottery talk that opens into a second working life.

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