“Perfection just does not exist,” John Dietrich of Ellison Bay Pottery explained to me when I visited his studio-gallery, where he had been producing lovely pottery works since the late 1960s. “I produce about 3,000 pieces of pottery every year. If I come up with three or four pieces that I really like, that come close to what I imagine is the best I can do, I’m happy. That is what keeps me wanting to do it again and again.”