How To Know You Have Arrived

One of the surest ways I have ever found to know for certain, "when you have arrived" is when your pots wind up in the local Salvation Army or antique store. When I lived in Logan, UT, I was shocked to find student pots in the local Deseret Industries (LDS version of Salv.Army). After a while, it made sense. Lots of student turn-over, lots of brown crunchy pots laying around for the next tenants to deal with: Off to the thrift store they go!

Yesterday Nancy and I were hitting the rounds of antique stores in Bloomfield, NY. There used to be quite an array of antique stores all along Routes 5+20 through central NY. Bloomfield was our favorite destination for years!

Yesterday we found one of my oval vases in one of the antique stores. It was a really nice oval vase, undulating rim, sweet little handles/ears, and glazed in Cranberry. Selling for $9.50. Talk about "having arrived!" I was right there next to the Fire King dishes and the other random collectibles that someone thought would be worth something someday. $9.50.

Wicked Little Vase

When I picked up this little vase back in November, I knew it was coming home with me. Renata Wadsworth's pots are like that. You love them instantaneously. They fit right into your hands... and the last thing you want to do is put them down.

We went to her holiday sale with the intention of picking up a few small pots for family members. By the time we left, we owned 4 more new Renata mugs and quite a few other pots. Enough to need a box and then some. Here's the funny part: the only gifts we gave were two small ornaments. We kept all the pots for ourselves. Is that bad?

Renata is getting ready to explore some new directions in her work this winter. Hopefully I can convince her to write about it on her blog and on Facebook. I think it is going to be amazing! Of course, after the firing, I'll be showing off the pots I come home with, right here.

Made it to Monday

Here are Monday's images of what remains in the gallery. Today is our last installment of functional pottery from the gallery. I will do a few posts this week of the BIG platters from the Glaze Tectonics series which are also available.


Top Row left to right- Blue small serving bowl $48, Forest teabowl $40, Turq dessert plate $24, Matte purple salad plate $30, Blue oval footed vase $70, Large glaze experiment platter $100
BOTTOM row-- pear teabowl $40, Forest teabowl $40, robins egg diner mug $30 ea., dessert plates $24 ea., matte purple sorbet bowl $24



TOP ROW --- Teabowls in matte purple, blue, pear, forest $40 ea., Canisters in blue and matte purple $50 ea., turq footed mug $36

BOTTOM ROW--- Pear small serving bowl $48, HG Butter dish blue (ish) $30, blue tumblers $24 ea., matte purple canister $50, footed mugs in turq and forest $36 ea., small blue teabowl $36




Top row--- small blue serving bowl $48, Pear small serving bowl $48, matte purple small serving bowl $48, forest canister $50, blue dessert plate $24, blue small mixing bowl $60, robins egg dessert plate $24.

Bottom Row--- Turq footed mug $36, blackberry oval footed vase $65, forest sorbet bowls $24 ea., blue canister$50, forest canister $50, forest footed mug $36, turq footed mug $36




Large blue serving bowl $100, med blue serving bowl $70, matte purple sorbet bowl $24, blue sorbet bowl $24, Blackberry tall teabowl $40, matte purple sorbet bowl $24, blue teabowl $40, turquoise sorbet bowl $24, Blue dessert plate $24, med blue serving bowl $70, small serving bowl Pear $48, med turquoise serving bowl $70, small lime serving bowl $48, various plates $24-36 ea., lime soup mug $36, butter sorbet bowl $24, Tangerine small serving bowl $48

New Pots just keep on coming

©2010 Cold Springs Studio Pottery - Alex Solla

©2010 Cold Springs Studio Pottery - Alex Solla

I haven't blogged much about making pots lately. By and large, it's because it has been very difficult to make work since the surgery. Each firing brings with it though, a sense of what is to come. No matter how great a firing turns out, the next BEST pot is always in the next firing. This week the firing was nearly all Cranberry. Unfortunately, Cranberry never photographs well. I have some ideas I would like to try the next time we set up to shoot... but for now you'll have to settle for everything except Cranberry.

©2010 Cold Springs Studio Pottery - Alex Solla

©2010 Cold Springs Studio Pottery - Alex Solla

©2010 Cold Springs Studio Pottery - Alex Solla

Weekly Update

This week has seen a lot of pots fly through the studio... and yet I feel like I haven't had time to do much of anything. Here's a quick look through the studio and the gallery. More when I feel "more caught up"

One of the projects I started this week was adding feet to our oval vase forms. I wish the feet were visible in this image... suffice to say they look like the feet on our footed mugs. I think though, that they need something more. Not sure yet how to integrate it, but we'll see what the next batch offers.


I always enjoy waxing. I love the rhythm of re-centering. I love seeing them lined up, covered in bubblegum colored wax. Some potters ask why I bother adding dye to our wax... I guess I like knowing exactly where I have goofed with the wax, rather than being surprised after the firing. We also add alumina hydrate to our wax to help avoid plucking of our claybody on our kiln shelves.


Hannah finally has her own display of her multi-colored mugs. And they are FLYING off the shelves. Of our last four customers, three of them went home with at least one of Hannah's mugs.

New Pots on Etsy today

Finally had a few minutes this week to get new images shot of some of our recent work. Lots of pitchers in these last few firings, so it was time to get some new images made. Also tried some experiments with our cranberry glaze. Took it a bit hotter and it is a MUCH better glaze now. Really like it. Unfortunately, since we dont normally have time or need to fire much hotter, and it makes all of our other glazes look weird, we need to reformulate the Cranberry. Should be ready in a few weeks I hope!

The Butter Yellow is a glaze we semi-retired last year. It just wasn't moving off the shelves nearly as fast as all of our other glazes. Sure enough, we tell folks we aren't gonna make it anymore and suddenly there's a furor! Go figure. So we brought it back for this year. When this batch is out, we're done with it.