Book excerpt: The Work of Craft is a profound meditation on the relationship between craft and craftsman. Focusing in turn on pottery, weaving, and woodcarving, and grounding her insights in her own experiences as a potter, Carla Needleman shows that the basic material every craftsman works with is himself or herself. The stuff between one's hands-the clay, the wood, the wool-responds to the quality of one's inner state. The product of one's work is not just an object but a way of being. Thus, the exploration of a craft is--like this book--an exploration of the processes of life itself.