A Love Story

This is not a Valentines story.

Making pottery for us is more than a living. It's a living doing something we love. Sharing that love with others. I actually tear up sometimes when I think about the thousands of people who eat and drink from the pottery I have put out into the world. It's like helping to feed all of them and providing useful service and something beautiful.

Sometimes opportunities arise to make something really special, something that will touch lives in a deep and significant way. Like Wedding Goblets. What could be better than making something to mark that special day?

So last year we accepted an order to make a Goblet and a Tankard with the wedding date inscribed around the base.

Now, here's the part non-potters may not know. There is always a chance the one special piece will not work out. It's a sick infiltration of Murphy, so we usually make 2. Especially if there is a deadline..like a wedding.

Let me repeat, we make 2 pieces for the quoted price. So really it's about love. Instantly we're not making money. Not only is it not like our normal stuff. It's customized in a way we can't sell the extra..if there is an extra.

So the goblet and tankard came out well. We were all pleased. Both of them came out well. We sent it off to the happy couple they were pleased. The wedding went as planned and there was bliss.


We went about our business and during one of our many studio cleanout sessions, we came across the extra set and threw them out because they are meaningless to anyone but the special couple.

2 weeks later.. we got this message:

So we did it.. we made more..one set at a time because the first two turned out well.
but the next set did not, nor the next or the next.

finally we resorted to 2 sets at a time. This picture is of the survivors of our various attempts. Several were chipped off the shelves because of glaze simply falling off the pieces.

Sometimes these were the only messed up pieces in the whole kiln.

And so despite getting paid twice... we ultimately lost money. Hours. Glaze. Electricity.

So if you come to us and say I want this special personalized piece and we accept, know it's either because we love you, or believe strongly in your cause. Every personalization on a single piece means we probably will spend more than we will make, but we keep accepting them. Silly us. Isn't it amazing what people do for love?