Category: Experimental Pottery

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New Studio Collection Opening & Experimental Pottery Event March 17

Studio Gallery – Lake Mills, WI
West Gallery – Cambria, CA

10 AM – 5 PM

Join us on St. Patrick’s Day for the release of our newest Studio Collection. The 2018  Studio Collection will include 12 new vase designs and 8 new tile designs. We have worked hard to bring these designs to you early in the new year and are excited to share the results of our creative musings.

In addition to a full showing of the new Studio Collection, each gallery will have an offering of Experimental Pottery designs available. Select pieces for each gallery are shown below and many more will be available in the galleries.

Studio Gallery Experimental Pottery – March 17, 2018
West Gallery Experimental Pottery – March 17, 2018.
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Experimental Pottery – Fall 2017

Online Experimental Pottery Event

October 18, 2017 – Beginning at 12 PM (CDT)
Shop from our website during this special offering of one-of-a-kind Experimental pieces. Each item will be unique and the exact item shown in the photos.

A sampling of the online Experimental pottery.

Tips for online buying during Experimental Sales:

1. Log in to your account (or create an account) so that your personal info is saved and ready for you to checkout as quickly as possible. For your security, we do not allow you to save your credit card number.

2. Refresh your browser frequently to see accurate availability. If you have the Experimental page loaded and just wait for the items to appear at 12 PM you will miss the sale. Be sure to refresh your browser window.

3. The first person to complete a transaction with an item will receive that item. It is possible to have items in your cart that become unavailable if another buyer completes their transaction before you. Just having an item in your cart does not guarantee that you will be able to buy the item.

4. We will offer free shipping on all orders, so you do not need to worry about multiple shipping charges if you make multiple purchases.

5. Our Wisconsin studio is in Central Daylight Time. The Experimentals will become available starting at 12 PM (CDT).

6. If items sell out and you are not able to purchase an item that you really want, please contact us in the studio to discuss the possibility of custom work. We can never make an exact duplicate, but we can create something similar that would bear the custom “C” stamp.

7. During online Experimental sales, we experience heavy web traffic that is mostly handled very well by our ever-improving website, but the rush of shoppers can cause occasional errors to happen in the checkout process. The typical error is for the system to sell 2 of a one-of-a-kind item. In this rare case, we contact the second buyer and remedy the situation with a mutually agreeable solution. We ask for your understanding should this unlikely event occur during your shopping experience.

Fall Experimental Pottery Gallery Events

October 14, 2017 – Studio Gallery in Lake Mills, WI + West Gallery in Cambria, CA.
10 am – 5 pm

Join our gallery events in California or Wisconsin to shop select groups of one-of-a-kind Experimental pieces. These unique designs will feature fall motifs but include a variety of designs. We will have coffee & bakery to share. Come and handpick your pottery!

A sampling of the Experimental pottery available Oct, 14 at the Studio Gallery in Lake Mills, WI.
A sampling of the Experimental pottery available Oct, 14 at the West Gallery in Cambria, CA.
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Experimental Pottery May 10, 2017

As a result of months of work developing and refining designs, the studio is full of Experimental pottery. A sizeable group of these one-of-a-kind designs will become available online starting Wednesday, May 10, 2017, @ 12 PM (CDT). Each Item is unique, the exact piece represented in the photo and ready to ship in 2 business days. The following pieces and many more will be included in the sale. Prices range between $148 and $950.


We created the above Red-tailed Hawk and Ginkgo vase in memory of Barbara Harvey, an educator from the Horicon Marsh area that dedicated her life to the conservation and rehabilitation of raptors and their habitats. 100% of the revenue from this piece will be donated to the Marsh Haven Nature Center and be used to plant 4 trees at the Horicon Marsh (WI) as a lasting tribute.

 

 

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Colossal Dragon Vase – Experimental

WebHave you heard of the phrase: “Art for art’s sake?” Once in a while we get the urge at the studio to push boundaries. We take these risks for the thrill of the ‘what-if’, to find the limits, to stretch ourselves, and frankly to see something new. Kevin came to work one quiet weekend in June and in a fit of inspiration threw this colossal form. No small task, the forming and sculpting of this piece took a couple days of work and a lot of careful handling through the modeling, drying, and firing processes. We expected to learn a lot along the way, but we never expected a first quality piece to result from this experiment in ‘art for art’s sake.’ Follow the blog to see the process of making our Colossal Dragon Vase and witness our jaw-dropping excitement at the beautiful end result.

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The form was thrown by Kevin Hicks using the method of throwing a base, adding coils, pulling the layers together and adding an inverted form at the opening.
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Kevin used a torch to accelerate the drying process on this challenging form.
Kevin greatly enjoys creating dragons which can take so many shapes and really allow the imagination to run wild. The body, wings and horns were all wheel-thrown elements.
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The Colossal Dragon Vase dried for over a month in our humidity controlled tent. Shown here beside a Walden Pond.
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Loading into the kiln for the bisque firing required the kiln to be disassembled and rebuilt around the form once it was in place. The greenware is very fragile.
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The Colossal Dragon was bisque fired with another experimental dragon vase.
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The large size of this vase combined with the fragile sculpture created a challenge in glazing the interior. After much experimentation a “sploosher” was built to spray a quick, even coat of glaze up into the vase.

 

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Kevin Hicks and Jennifer Grelk inspect the interior glaze application.
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Jennifer Grelk applied the base layer of sprayed glaze.
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Jennifer spray glazing the base layer of glaze.
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Allison Jelenchick applying a speckle coating of glaze to create a dramatic finish.
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Allison glazing a “Petite Violet Bowl” while Jennifer applies the brushed glaze to the sculpture.
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Jennifer Grelk applying the many intricate glaze elements to the dragon.
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Jennifer glazed the dragon in pumpkin, grey, black & sun.
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Loading into the glaze firing was less challenging since the form was stronger from the earlier bisque firing.
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The Colossal Dragon Vase (shown here hidden under a cloth) was revealed to our staff during a party at Leah’s. We gathered to share home-cooked Indian food, including naan baked on our kiln shelves over the fire, and to celebrate the surprising success of this experiment. It was an unforgettable evening filled with camaraderie, amazing food and shared delight in our achievement!

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At 23 inches tall, 15 inches wide and 39.6 pounds this form is more massive than any previous ceramic work from Ephraim Pottery. We are thrilled and amazed by the first quality results of this ambitious form and excited to offer you the chance to own this historic piece.

Kevin began this form to explore creative boundaries, not thinking at all of the potential profit. We feel tremendously lucky to have received a first quality result from our kiln and wish to share our good fortune. 50% of the sale of this vase will go to charity. To carry on the spirit of Kevin’s original artistic freedom expressed in this dragon we will donate 25% of the proceeds to local youth arts programming (in Lake Mills, WI & Cambria, CA).  In addition to supporting the arts, we feel a strong need to support the hungry in our community. A further 25% will be donated to our local food banks. The remaining 50% will cover shipping costs and the expenses accrued in creating the piece.

The Colossal Dragon Vase Experimental will go to auction on eBay beginning this Friday evening with the auction closing Nov 2.

Update: Thank you everyone for your interest in the Colossal Dragon Vase. The vase fetched $5,487.88 at auction, which means we raised $2,743.94 for charity! We had a lot of fun creating this unique piece and greatly appreciate your positive response to it.

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Experimental Pottery in our galleries Oct 8 & online Oct 12

We invite you to join us Oct 8th for a celebration of fall designs, including the 20th Anniversary Fall Collection Limited Edition pieces. The galleries will each offer at least 20 one-of-a-kind Experimental pottery pieces. Look to our California gallery, Ephraim Pottery West, for pieces with pine, poppy and favorite Ephraim motifs. Web

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Preview of Experimental pottery available at the West Gallery (Cambria, CA) Oct 8. Prices within this group range from $148 – $398 with ~20 one-of-a-kind pieces available. Contact the gallery with any questions 805-924-1275.

If bats are your thing, join us in Wisconsin at the Studio Gallery where we will offer a variety of seasonal designs and also invite you to paint your own tile in our new “Bloom” workshop space! The cost (including tile shipping) of the workshop is $49 for a 5×5 tile and $35 for a 3×3 tile.

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Preview of Experimental pottery available at the Studio (Lake Mills, WI) Gallery Oct 8. Prices within this group range from $138 – $1,313 with ~35 one-of-a-kind pieces available. Contact the gallery with any questions 920-648-3534.

We also invite you to shop online Oct 12th.

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Preview of Experimental pottery available online Oct 12 @10AM (CDT). Prices within this group range from $188 – $798 with at least 20 one-of-a-kind pieces available. Contact the studio with any questions 888-704-7687.

 

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Experimental Unity Designs – September 28, @7PM (CDT)

Last summer Ephraim artists collaborated with our email, Pinterest and Facebook audiences to create a “unity” themed design. Together we explored many concepts that represented various ideas about unity. With the creative ideas and constructive feedback from our fans, we ultimately added the “Unity Tree” to our collection. In the process of exploring all of these ideas, the studio produced many experimental pieces. This small grouping represents five beautiful directions that we feel are strong, but were not pursued in the final piece. Each of these pieces is one-of-a-kind and will be available for purchase beginning September 28, @7PM (CDT). See them in bisque or greenware on our blog and read about how they came to be.Retiring_CraftsmanGinkgoBowl

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