(gentle upbeat music) - A lot of potters are inspired by my work, which I'm happy about.

I'm the first potter and I'm the first Asian.

I'm the first Chinese to be nominated and awarded.

It's wonderful.

I went to graduate school at Cranbrook and I wanted to study with Maija Grotell.

She was a very dedicated artist.

And she was very influential and inspiring.

And she was my role model.

And she was a very knowledgeable as far as glaze is concerned.

- Glaze really is the combination of art and chemistry.

And really, if you simplify glaze, it's really a glass coating that goes on the surface of ceramics.

But to formulate it is fairly complex and it's something that Marie was able to do in her variety of glazes that still could be found in our studio today.

This is our Woo Blue Brown on the different clay bodies that we have here available at the studio.

And so, anywhere from a porcelain to a stone where you can kinda see that surface variation that students are really excited about.

- Now, there are so many young potters that I don't know them, but I'm very happy they like my glazes.

They use Woo Yellow and Woo Blue.

And I just, I hope it works for you.

(laughs) Oh, this was taken in Nepal, Kathmandu BC.

BC means before children.

We were very young in the '60s.

I traveled and noticed that folk pottery was just dying out.

So, I decided before they disappear, I should do some documenting and researching.

And so, it became a symposium and an exhibition.

Then it became a traveling show, about 40 pieces, and traveled from the Midwest to the East to museums.

2019, I said, "I can't do this anymore."

(laughs) So, I donated quite a few pieces.

Usually when you donate pieces to a museum, it goes in storage, and it's never seen again.

But I want the students to handle and study them.

(wind rustling) - In 1981, Pewabic became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and she joined the board at that time.

- In those days, nonprofits were very difficult.

They were always in the red.

And so, when they're in the red, they wanna eliminate education classes.

Some people and I fought for education.

- Historically, Marie really advocated for this program.

And at a time where maybe it didn't make a lot of sense, she had this kind of forward-facing vision of what this could be.

It's kind of nice to see today that we've become, I think, what she envisioned 30 years ago.

- This clay piece here is actually, I wanted it black all the way like this, but it came out of the kiln with all this texture.

Wonderful.

And then I took the hands and glued them on and made it as a wall piece.

I think that works pretty well.

- One really fun aspect that's come from the last few weeks of Marie popping around after winning this award is a lot of our students, we kind of encourage them to have goals of things that they should be working towards.

And now, there's this kind of similar goal that's been popping up since Marie came here, and that everyone wants to loosen up the way that they work with clay.

And so I think that's something that's really unique about Marie.

She has these incredible skill sets, but she has this kind of loose nature about working with clay that's very organic and kind of, you know, has been very like, magnetic for our students.

And so, I'm kind of finding now that the students kind of all have this shared goal of loosening up like Marie.

- I'm started with as a, this piece as a experiment.

So, I took these very individual pieces and fired them, and then I stacked them up and put some glue in between, and it became a piece of sculpture after it's fired.

I think it worked pretty well.

But by itself, each piece would not work.

But together, it's a whole.

- She's just so lovely.

And I think just simply loves what she does.

Her resume is pretty outstanding and she's someone that, you know, her impact isn't a secret.

And so, I expected her to almost carry that more than she does, but she's very open and infectious.

- I'm just trying to express how I feel and what I can do with the clay as a way to express myself.

I don't wanna fight it.

I just sort of go with it.

Hopefully my experiments will work.

Some do and some don't.

(engine rumbling)