Okay. So I’m a Matt Metz fan.
And I’ve got quite a collection growing of his work. I love his crisp sgraffito style, the geometric patterns, the natural themes of leaves, trees & birds, as well as the subtle colors and flashing from his firings. And for those who don’t know, sgraffito is a great technique where you paint a solid coat of colored slip on top of the lighter clay body (in this case porcelain). Then you painstakingly carve away portions of the colored slip to “reveal” the patterns. So in this case, the white sections have all been carved away… and if you look close enough, you can even see the little tool marks that made them!

Springtime in Minnesota. It’s been a long time coming. A very long & cold Winter and a delayed Spring. So it was a a wonderful Spring day on the tour. Lots of pots with lots of flowers! And lots of vases fulfilling their destiny!!! So here’s a quick trip around the tour, studio by studio, with a wonderful assortment of potters with an assortment of flowers in vases!

Bob Briscoe’s studio… always the first stop of our Tour!
I think Bob Briscoe is wonderful host who has done so much for the Minnesota pottery community. He’s also gathered a great collection of some of my favorite potters like Matt Metz & Suze Lindsay!

Richard Vincent’s studio…

At Will Swanson’s studio…

Linda Christianson’s studio…

Jeff Oestreich’s studio… and with the huge plate glass windows in his studio, the vases & flowers turned into silhouettes!

Connie Mayeron’s studio… which let me just say, first off.. I love the barn!
And the rusty metal pieces that hold the ceramic vases and beautiful forsythia branches!

Guillermo Cuellar’s studio… our last stop of the day…

Here’s a parting question… So when you buy the vase, do you get to keep the flowers???

Let The Games Begin!
My parents and I got up early this morning to head out for the big pottery tour. Our first stop is always my favorite stop! It’s the furthest north and my favorite collection of pots & potters! So we always start at Bob Briscoe’s place, do a little shopping, a little chatting and a have a lot of fun before moving on to the other locations.

Picture thousands & thousands of wonderful pots made by some of the best potters all in one place. There are seven studio locations on the tour. Each of the host artists then invites other potters to share their space and their wares. In the end, there are fifty potters, quite a few white tents, and thousands & thousands of pots!!! All in one glorious pottery weekend!!!

For more information about the tour, click on St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour.

It’s always great to see a sign like this on the road… a sign that great things are in store!
This great mailbox is on Pottery Trail… seriously, i’m not making that up... as you’re driving down the road to Jeff Oestreich’s studio!

Just saw this on the Internet and had to share…
It’s a pretty cool, time-lapse video of potter Charan Sachar doing some fun slip trailing. Each on their own is not too intricate. Not too difficult. It’s a technique that I’ve done before, and showed my students how to do as well. But it’s the ease, clarity and consistency that he shows off in the video… again… and again… and again… it’s almost dizzying!

Click here to see the time-lapse video of Charan Sacher.

And then, it looks like they’re glazed & fired to finish them off… like most pots! But it’s the geometric patterns and slightly raised slip decorations that give them a pop of fun! And now I somehow feel like I need to go get a henna tattoo?!

As if fifty potters on a large weekend Pottery Tour weren’t enough…
As if there weren’t enough pots for sale during the Minnesota Pottery Tour?
As if we won’t be overwhelmed by incredible pottery next weekend?!

A week from today, on Saturday 5/11 & Sunday 5/12… there’s a few more pots not quite “on the Tour.” But instead just off the beaten path & well worth the drive. Add them to your own Tour! They’re the Rogue Potters… a rag-tag group of potters who are making some great pots, selling them at incredibly affordable prices and having a wonderful time being passionate about their art & playing in the mud!

Their “humble, little kiln shack” is located just off of Highway 95 at 32280 Vista Road, Taylors Falls, Minnesota. If you’re doing the “official” Pottery Tour next weekend, be sure to watch for their signs along the side of the road. Take a quick detour and follow the signs. It’s worth the trip. They’re in a cool, slightly run-down, old farmhouse with pots in every room of the place! And most likely, you’ll even be greeted by their friendly golden retreiver!

When you do stop by to see them, be sure to say hi for me… and then ask them how they came up with the “brilliant” name for their pottery. You may just be surprised… and then buy some great pots!!!

To see more work & information about the Rogue Potters,
click on the LINK on the right side column of this blog page.

Just one week from today… THE FUN BEGINS!!!

And by all means, you need to go up to Minnesota for the big Pottery Tour!!!
It’s all of the “big names”you’ve loved for years. Fifty incredible potters all within an easy driving distance. I will be going up for the Pottery Tour this year with my “best art fair assistants ever!!!”… yes, my parents are coming with me for a weekend full of incredible pottery! We’ll be doing a little shopping, a little driving, a little gathering of inspiration and a lot of chatting with the artists.

For more information, maps & details about the potters, click here for MinnesotaPotters.com.

Sure, I’ve been there many times.
I’ve stopped to take pictures at this exact spot many times!
I’ve sat on these rocks. Enjoyed a sunrise. Looked at the lighthouse.
For years.

But today for the first time ever…
I saw this great little running man graffiti along the lakefront.
Kinda like a flip-book of graffiti… with the little jogger painted every 10-feet or so.

Just two weeks from today…
We’ll be headed up to see some of my favorite potters in St. Croix River Valley Pottery Tour. Bob Briscoe, Matt Metz, Suze Lindsay, Steven Hill, Delores Fortuna, Sylvie Granatelli… and many more! There are seven studio locations open to the public, with talented potters everywhere… from everywhere. Three days of fun – and SO many great pots to see!!! Friday, Saturday & Sunday… yep, Mother’s Day Weekend! And yes, I’m headed north with my Mom & Dad for the weekend. Some added quality time with my parents!

As an added bonus, this year there will be seven new potters added to the Pottery Tour.
It’s always fun to see some new people, new pots & new ideas on the tour.

Ani Lasten – from Takoma Park, Maryland

Dan Finnegan – from Fredericksburg, Virginia

Ernest Miller – from Minneapolis, Minnesota

George Rector – from Cullowhee, North Carolina

Hannah McAndrew – all the way from Scotland!!!

Mike Helke – from River Falls, Wisconsin

Sarah Jaeger – from Helena, Montana

Wouldn’t it be great to some day break into the cool crowd and make it on to this “New Potters” list for big Pottery Tour? Dare to dream… dare to dream…

You know I loves me a good sunrise… and a beautiful sunset ain’t too shabby either.
So I was kind of excited when I saw these “manipulated” photographs online today.
Apparently, there’s some sort of time-lapse, exposure, layering & stacking going on?!

As seen on Colossal.com…
Living on the shore of Lake Ontario, just east of Toronto, photographer Matt Molloy has daily encounters with brilliant sunsets and cloudscapes that he’s been photographing for over three years. One day he began experimenting with time-lapse sequences by taking hundreds of images as the sun set and the clouds moved through the sky. Molloy then digitally stacked the numerous photos to reveal shifts in color and shape reminiscent of painterly brush strokes that smeared the sky. You can learn more about his “timestack” technique over at Digital Photo Magazine.

As quoted from Matt Molloy himself: “Made from 500 photos, this is the first sunset time-lapse I tried the stacking method with. I was surprised with the outcome, but even more so with the feedback. It wasn’t long before it went viral. I was getting lots of emails, some asking questions about the technique and others hoping to share it on their website or blog. Milky Way Scientists shared it on their Facebook page, and it got 12,000 likes and 4,000 shares on the first day it was up. I was blown away!”

Click here for more images by Matt Molloy.
Click here for a “tutorial” on the process from Digital Photo Magazine.