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News From
Ephraim
Volume 4,
Issue No. 1
February 2002 |
| In
this issue:
Got a great collection of EFP? Enter our photo contest!
“Meet me in Asheville in February…”
Springing ahead
Retired as of 1/15/02
Holiday Pottery Fest draws a crowd
Kevin says
EFP donates to Liberty Fund
Glimpsing the inner sanctum
Shedding light on candlesticks
Down on the Farm |
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Got a great collection of EFP? Enter our photo contest!
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Are
you an EFP junkie? Is your home Craftsman to the maximum? Enter our
photo contest! We’re looking for photos of EFP pottery and tiles in
home settings. If your EFP collection holds a special place in your
home, or if you have a particularly creative or attractive way of
displaying your collection, send us a photo. If we use it in our
upcoming catalog (Catalog #7), you’ll win a $50 EFP gift certificate
plus 5 free copies of the new catalog. If your photo is chosen for the
cover shot, you’ll win a $100 EFP gift certificate plus 10 free copies
of the new catalog. Everyone who enters will get a free copy of Catalog
#7.
Just
a few rules….
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All
the pottery and/or tile appearing in the photo must be Ephraim
Faience. Photos that include other types of pottery or tile are
not acceptable. |
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All
photos entered in the contest must be free of any copyright.
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All
photos entered in the contest must represent your own private
residence.
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You
may enter as many photos as you like.
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Digital
photos must be in .jpg format and may be sent on CD, Zip, or
floppy (IBM format).
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By
entering the contest, you agree to give EFP permission to use your
photo in our catalog and on our web site, as well as for other
promotional purposes.
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EFP
employees and their immediate families may not enter the contest.
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By
entering the contest, you agree to abide by these rules.
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Please
put your name, address, and telephone number on the back of each photo
or disk. Your photo(s) will not be returned unless you include a
self-addressed stamped envelope with enough postage to cover return
mailing. Winning photos will not be returned. Mail your entry to:
Photo
Contest
Ephraim Faience Pottery
PO Box 168
Deerfield, WI 53531-0168
The
deadline for entry is March 15, 2002. All
entries must arrive in our office by that date. Please allow enough time
for mailing. EFP is not responsible for lost, damaged, or misdirected
mail. |
“Meet
me in Asheville in February…”
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| For the Grove Park
Inn Arts and Crafts Conference, of course!
This
year’s dates for the annual celebration of all things Craftsman are
February 22-24. We will be in our usual spot, in the Hoover Room on
Level 8 of the Vanderbilt wing of the Inn, taking part in the Modern
Craftsfirms Show. We will have new designs as well as old favorites on
display and available for sale.
Looking
for another reason to justify the trek to Asheville? Why not check out
the Biltmore Estate, the largest private residence in the U.S.? You can
tour the mansion, gardens, and winery, and have lunch at the estate’s
restaurant. Asheville is also a great place to shop for antiques and
fine crafts.
Grove
Park Inn Arts & Crafts Conference
www.arts-craftsconference.com
bj1912@aol.com
828-628-1915
The
Biltmore Estate
www.biltmore.com
828-225-1333
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Springing ahead
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Catalog
#7 is due out in late May. This year’s crop of experimental
pieces has been especially fruitful. We’ve got so many great choices,
we’re going to have a hard time narrowing the field of contenders.
Just to get your juices flowing, here are a couple of shoe-ins for
Catalog #7:
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The
Deep-Sea Octopus Vase
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Vase
design and sculpting by Laura Klein |
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Glaze
design and application by Jesse Wolf |
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The
Copper Maple Seed Vase
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Vase
design and sculpting by Kevin Hicks |
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Glaze
design by Kristin Zanetti |
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Glaze
application by Jesse Wolf
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Again
this year, our new catalog will be available both in print and on line.
Our next newsletter will give a release date and cost, so keep your eye
on your mailbox in May for more information.
We
are planning an auction of one-of-a-kind and extremely limited edition
art pottery this spring. These pieces will be designed and executed by
our artists, and will not appear in any catalog, on line, or at any
show. The Potters’
Edition Auction will be held on May 18th
at Dovetail Antiques in Deerfield,
Wisconsin. Serious collectors will not want to miss this unprecedented
event. Details will be mailed in April, and will also be posted on this
web site. Mark your calendar, and look for our upcoming mailing or check
our web site in April for all the details.
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Retired
as of 1/15/02
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#715
Sage Vase
#717 Greek Vase
#805 Budding Lotus Vase
#811 Daylily Vase
#814 Prairie Cottage Vase
#824 Craftsman Candlestick
#963 Harvest Centerpiece
For a complete list of
retired and discontinued pieces, click here.
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Holiday Pottery Fest draws a crowd
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| The
air was cold, but hot cider warmed the 50+ die-hard collectors who
waited in line for the doors to open for our 2nd
annual Holiday Pottery Fest at Dovetail Antiques. EFP’s first holiday
piece, the Yuletide Mistletoe Bowl, sold out in less than 10 minutes.
Serious collectors made their purchases early in order to receive the
free EFP logo tile that was available exclusively at the Fest.
Collectors also had the opportunity to purchase experimental pieces,
some of which may be the forerunners of new designs that will appear in
our next catalog. |
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Collectors
braved the cold to get the best selection at our Holiday Pottery Fest.
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| While
munching on delicious cookies made by Kathy Hicks, wife of potter Kevin
Hicks, customers checked out one-of-a-kind pieces reserved for EFP’s Potters’
Edition Auction to be held at Dovetail this spring (see Springing
ahead,
above).
EFP
and John Mathews of Dovetail Antiques would like to thank everyone who
came to the Fest for making it our most successful event ever. We hope
to see you back at Dovetail again soon! |
Kristin Zanetti waits on
collector Jane Tormey
at the Fest. |
The crew. From left: Todd Butzin, John
Raymond, Kevin Hicks, Kathy Hicks, John
Mathews, Laura Klein, Jesse Wolf, Wendy
Krueger, Kristin Zanetti. |
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Kevin
says:
“One
of the most satisfying aspects of making pottery is when someone tells
me that they buy our pottery not only because they love it, but also
because it’s part of the legacy that they will leave for their kids.
It’s remarkable to think about our pottery being passed on to future
generations. As one of our customers pointed out, ‘It’s an
investment in beauty.’”
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EFP
donates to Liberty Fund
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| EFP
donated 10% of its net retail profits from 2 fall shows to the Red Cross
Liberty Disaster Relief Fund. We were pleased to be able to donate $840
to assist those affected by the September 11 tragedy. Advanta Bank
matched our donation, so a total of $1680 was donated. |
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The
EFP studio is located in a leased barn in a rural area outside
Deerfield, Wisconsin. Because we are a working studio and also because
our landlord frowns on it, we are not normally able to accommodate
visitors. This made Saturday, January 12 all the more special. On that
day, the lucky winners of a drawing held at our Holiday Pottery Fest
received a rare tour of the EFP studio. The winners were:
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John
& Beth Finlayson of Minneapolis, Minnesota |
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Carmen
Wagner of Cottage Grove, Wisconsin |
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Nancy
& Dennis Cawley of Madison, Wisconsin
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After
being greeted by Kristin and Wendy, our attentive guests were treated to
demonstrations of throwing, sculpting, tile-making, glazing, and firing
by the EFP artists. It was a pleasure to have collectors visit, and we
hope to be able to offer the opportunity to win more studio tours at
next year’s Holiday Pottery Fest.
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| Shedding
light on candlesticks
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| Due
to unprecedented sales this fall, the Budding Candlestick (#971) maxed
out its limited edition of 500 pieces. We weren’t expecting to reach
500 on this piece until summer 2002. We apologize for not being able to
give our customers advance notice of the Budding Candlestick’s
retirement.
We
have designed two new candlesticks that we plan to include in our next
catalog, due out in May. One design features a frog and lily pad on a
chamber stick form, and the other is a taller candlestick with a
climbing bear motif. Experimental versions of these pieces will be on
display at the Grove Park Inn Arts and Crafts Conference in Asheville
(see above). |
Experimental Climbing
Bear Candlestick |
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Down
on the Farm
by
Kristin Zanetti |
I
once read that winter is a season for the rich. And aren’t we, truly,
most of us? We have the luxury of enjoying winter because we know that
we can come in out
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of
the cold. Cold is no longer a six-month state of being, a curse
from which Nature alone permits our escape. Dressed in my
ankle-length down coat lined with polar fleece, my polar fleece
gloves and hat, and my LL Bean®
boots, I
can comfortably take my dog out to play in the snow. He, of
course, takes for granted that I will take him inside to lie in
front of the fireplace when his paws freeze up. And I, of
course, do. |
Kristin's puppy, Milo,
the first
time he saw snow. |
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| As
I drive past abandoned barns and old farmhouses, I try to
imagine what winter must have been like 50, 100, 150 years ago.
When my 60-year-old father was a boy, houses were heated by
wood-burning stoves in the kitchen
and dining room.
When he went out, he dressed in wool from head to toe. To warm
up, he sat next to the kitchen stove. And to keep that stove
going, he had to go outside to carry in wood that his father
spent most of his “free” time in the warmer months chopping.
(In northern Wisconsin, “making wood” is still a serious
activity, as even today many homes are heated by wood-burning
stoves.) |
Kristin’s dad, Jim Cramer (right), and his friend
playing in the snow
in the 1940’s. |
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Kristin’s
grandma, Mary Cramer (left), with some friends on a typical winter day
in the Snow Belt.
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When
my grandmother was a girl, she and her brothers and sisters wore hats to
bed and woke up to frost on their blankets and windowpanes. With no
indoor plumbing, a trip to the bathroom meant a run through the snow to
the outhouse. And in the southern Lake Superior “Snow Belt,” where
my grandma has lived all of her 99 years, the snow is deep and the cold
weather lasts from early October to Memorial Day. As my grandma now
laughingly remembers, “You hoped you didn’t have to go during the
night. That was really bad.” I’ll bet.
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One
of my favorite places to visit is Old World Wisconsin, an open-air
historical museum dedicated to our state’s early settlers. One of the
homesteads, a tiny, circa 1845 log cabin built by a Norwegian pioneer
family, is smaller than the master bathroom in many modern homes. As I
stood reverently in the old frame doorway on a hot July afternoon, I
marveled at how anyone could have survived a winter in that home.
Indeed, many early settlers succumbed to disease during the cruelest
months. But how unutterably sweet the arrival of spring must have been! |
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And here I am
now, at the dawn of the 21st century, in my thermal pajamas,
snuggled under a blanket in my recliner. My programmable
thermostat has lowered the heat to 64°F, the temperature of a
beautiful spring day. A luxury, truly, to be savored. |
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Kristin’s
grandpa, Pix Cramer, driving
a snowplow in the Snow Belt. |
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