3 ideas
Leach proposes the Chinese Sung pots, together with early Korean and medieval English wares, as a high standard for judging a studio pot, where worth lies in the unity of form, glaze, and decoration and in unforced vitality rather than technical polish. He does not ask for strict adherence to it and treats the standard itself as open to change, a reference that helps a maker judge their work rather than a fixed rule to copy.
Leach criticises industrial production for separating design from execution, which cuts the link between the maker's hand, judgment, and material and leaves wares without personal vitality. He accepts irregularities in the handmade pot, such as throwing marks or slight asymmetry, when they keep the pot beautiful and structurally sound, not as marks that are valuable in themselves.
Leach urges the studio potter to know the whole process directly: preparing local clays, making glazes from natural materials such as wood ash and ground rock, throwing, and firing their own kiln. Each stage shapes the pot's character, and he finds that bought, standardised materials reproduce natural effects less successfully than materials the potter knows at first hand.