July 1996 R/V Oceanus was collecting box cores off the coast of Virginia and Christoper Griner intercepted a bucket of seafloor sediment that was about to go overboard. He knew my whereabouts as a potter and thought I could use it as a forming clay but it arrived when my kiln was on so I got some into a spyhole and realized it could be a glaze on my land-based clays. I felt, Earth is alive, like us.