How many customers does an artisan have?

I think scale is a paradox. It reduces costs but carries a price.

A production potter will use around 100lb of clay in a day, or maybe around 50 of the pots in the picture. That can be scaled to a degree in a pottery workshop, maintaining the craft skill amongst others we learn from whilst sharing overheads. Beyond that we make the leap to a factory, where all the relationships change. The equipment sets the drumbeat, not the hands and eye of a craftswoman.

When we buy from a potter, we buy relationships - between the potter and the clay, between us and the finished article, and between us and the potter. It is a complex purchase. When we buy a factory made item, we buy an article, devoid of relationship. A simple, functional transaction. somewhere between the two is something like Moorcroft, whose genius over the years was an ability to orchestrate craft potters, and whose products as a result retain their financial and craft value for generations after factory produced items have been…