With eyes sparkling like sun on water, Lillian Pitt will tell you, “It was love at first touch.” That’s how she describes the moment she first put her hands in clay, “touching it, feeling it, smelling it, in all its stages, from moisture to dryness to fire.” She had never felt any connection as powerful, and hasn’t since. Because of her bad back, Lillian couldn’t throw pots on a wheel, and she giggles when she says she couldn’t make mug handles. But much like a river, she carved a way around this obstacle. She hand-built her clay pieces, and started with masks: a Coastal, a Southwest, and an Alaskan mask.