I build systems that help ideas travel farther.

 

01

A Penny For Your Pottery

Every piece gets a number, a price one cent higher than the last, and a page of its own.

See the system
Piece 2253. Rounded white crackle cup, incised number. $22.53.
02

Wild Clay Archive

Tap any point in the country and see the soil beneath it, and whether it is worth digging.

See the system
Mount Holly Springs, PA. Murrill channery loam, 0 to 3 percent slopes. Wild-clay potential, possible.
03

The Wild Clay Hunt

Turns a hunt through century-old survey reports into a letter that sends itself.

See the system
Drive south out of Carlisle on Route 34 and the Cumberland Valley starts to pinch. The farmland is that familiar mid-Atlantic red-brown, the color of every plowed field from Maryland to the Lehigh. Then South Mountain rises on your left, the first knuckle of the Blue Ridge, and just past the borough of Mount Holly Springs the road slips into a narrow valley following Mountain Creek. A hundred years ago, if you had stopped here and looked at the spoil piles along the creek, you would have seen something wrong. The dirt coming out of the ground was white. Not pale, not gray. White like chalk, white like paper.
Hunt Log 001, The White Vein. Sent September 1, 2026.
04

Porch Light

Finds the few things worth leaving the house for, and sends them every Thursday.

See the system
OUTDOORS AND ROCKHOUNDING Sept 5: Monongahela Rockhounds meeting, Munhall (Pittsburgh area). Mineral, fossil and lapidary club program plus social, first Saturday. Sept 10: Central Pennsylvania Rock and Mineral Club meeting, Harrisburg. Regular club program, second Thursday, 7 PM. Sept 13: Second Sunday Nature Hike, Ridley Creek State Park, near Philadelphia. Free guided hike covering birds, trees and park history.
From the digest sent Thursday, September 3, 2026, at 6:06pm. The whole thing is below.
05

GlazeSnap

Photograph a fired surface and get three to five commercial glazes worth testing.

See the system
glazesnap.com
running now

I build small systems that run without me.

The lines that follow are kept current by the systems themselves.

what I'm doingas of Aug 31 10:04
Made some ceramic figures
Going to yoga
Helped a friend with car-related issues; Had a nice home cooked meal with some friendsAug 30
Making ceramic work in the studio; Meditating; Going swimming at a local state park with friends; Going out to eat afterwards at a local Mexican spotAug 28
finished in the last seven days: 48
what the systems are doing
Small Notes, Big ChangesWhat can be madeSep 4
Porch LightPorch LightSep 3 18:06
The Wild Clay HuntHunt Log 001: The White VeinSep 1 10:38
Night Shift0 finished, 5 next steps setSep 1 05:46
Night Shift0 finished, 5 next steps setAug 31 05:41
KitsVault Night Shift shippedAug 28

Anything that can run on its own should, so what is left is the part only I can do: the clay, the ground, the words, the people. The point of this is the right column getting shorter.

9 run without me·16 still need my hands

Runs without me

  • Searches the web and emails a weekly digest of real local events, near Appomattox and across PennsylvaniaThursday evening · since Aug 20
  • The same digest, tuned for a ceramics residency and its resident artistsThursday evening · since Aug 27
  • Reads the mail for anything the radar business needs answering, checks the digest actually went out, and prepares the repliesMonday and Friday · since Aug 28
  • Posts one note to Substack for The Wild Clay Hunt, word for word from the written bank, never composingTuesday and Friday · since Sep 1
  • Checks every publication's schedule and starts whatever is dueEvery 30 minutes · since Sep 2
  • Writes the Monday issue of Small Notes, Big Changes straight into Substack as a draftMonday morning · since Sep 4
  • Writes the weekly Wild Clay Hunt issue into Substack as a draft, never publishingWednesday morning · since Sep 2
  • Reads the publication dashboards and records the numbersMonday morning · since Sep 2
  • Asks the month-one questions about the residency pilot: retention, quote, billing, one introductionOnce, September 24 · since Aug 27

Still my hands

  • Working with clayFive days a week
  • RunningThree days a week
  • Hunting wild clay and rocksSaturday
  • HikingSunday
  • Listing new pieces to the shopThursday
  • Packing and shipping what soldMonday
  • Commenting on other people's SubstacksTuesday and Friday
  • Instagram, finding who to talk to and what to postThursday and Saturday
  • Building something with Claude CodeTwice a week
  • Working on the Wild Clay ArchiveFriday
  • Looking for something digital worth selling, out of work already happeningWednesday
  • Going to an event from the radarWeekly, whenever it falls
  • Seeing a friendSunday
  • Cooking something interestingTwice a week
  • Preparing a month of writing for every publicationTwice a month
  • Looking at what worked, what did not, and what to hand over nextSunday

How the line has moved

  • Sep 6, 2026Nothing yetNine run without me, sixteen still need my hands. Written down so the number has somewhere to move.
  • Sep 2, 2026Drafting the weekly issues, posting the notes, reading the numbersWriting still mine. Everything around the writing, not.
  • Aug 27, 2026The same digest for a residency, and the watch on the mail it generatesThe first one somebody else depends on.
  • Aug 20, 2026A weekly search for local events, and the email that carries itThe first thing that kept happening without me.

Ideas travel farther when something carries them.

Have an ideaWork with meWant something that already existsUse something I've built