February 2003
Vol. 5 No. 1

Get shooting! Its time for the 2003 EFP photo contest!
Carolina on my mind
Collectors Corner: More beautiful pottery to be retired
Introducing Jana Mirs
Introducing Ken Nekola
Chamomile Vase a huge success
"All Around the Place" by Len Schlobohm, guest columnist
"Down on the Farm" by Kristin Zanetti

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 #8), 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 #8.

The  rules….

• 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.

• All photos entered in the contest must be free of any copyright.

• All photos entered in the contest must represent your own private residence.

• Digital photos must be in .jpg format, with very low compression, and should be at least 600 pixels wide (wider, if possible). Please  send them on CD (preferred) or floppy (IBM format).  Please do not email photos.

• You may enter as many photos as you like.

• 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.

• EFP employees and members of their households may not enter the contest.

• By entering the contest, you agree to abide by these rules.

Please put your name, address, and telephone number on the back of each photo or on each 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 14, 2003. All entries must be postmarked by that date. A postcard will be sent confirming receipt of your entry. EFP is not responsible for lost, damaged, or misdirected mail.

Good luck, and happy shooting!

If you'd like to see last year's winners and runners-up, click here.

We’ve got Carolina on our minds these days—Asheville, North Carolina, to be specific. It’s almost time again for the Grove Park Arts and Crafts Conference. This is the granddaddy of Arts and Crafts shows. Everyone who’s into Arts and Crafts should attend this conference at least once in their lifetime.

This will be your first chance to preview some of the new pieces that will be in Catalog #8. Why not make this the year you make the trip to Asheville? Get Carolina on your mind—join us at the Grove Park Inn!

The Grove Park Inn is a marvel of Arts & Crafts architecture.

Grove Park Arts & Crafts Conference

February 21-23
Grove Park Inn
Asheville, NC

Information:
828-628-1915
bj1912@aol.com
http://www.arts-craftsconference.com

We are retiring several pieces of pottery in order to make room in our line for new pieces. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to add these beautiful vases to your collection. The deadline to order these pieces will be 5:00 p.m. CT on March 14th, 2003. You will not be able to order these pieces from us after the deadline, so please call 888-704-POTS now to place your order.

Click here to view the pieces being retired.

The tentative release date for the on-line version of Catalog #8 is April 15th. The print version of Catalog #8 should be available on or about May 15th. If you've ordered pottery directly from us, you will automatically receive a print catalog in the mail.

Raised in a small town in northern Illinois, Jana Mirs grew up surrounded by animals, farm fields and a long-abandoned gravel quarry. She developed her respect for nature by spending long hours observing wildlife and  working with her horses. While studying drafting and design, Jana nurtured her creativity by making jewelry, pottery, and wearable art.

After a career as a civil engineering drafter, and raising a son and a daughter, Jana returned to college to study psychology and art, focusing on the therapeutic value of art-making. In August of 2000, Jana received a Master of Fine Arts degree in Fiber from Northern Illinois University and relocated to the Madison area. She engaged in a series of office and studio assignments before coming to EFP.

When not working in her own studio, reading, visiting friends, traveling, or exploring the back roads and trails of Wisconsin, Jana may be found camping in the North Woods.

You can reach Jana by calling 888-704-POTS, or by emailing sales@ephraimpottery.com.

Ken Nekola just started working with us a few months ago, but he is not new to ceramics. Ken took his first ceramics course back in 1970.  While he was earning a degree in Psychology at Southern Illinois University, he worked at brickyard, learning the complete brick-making process. He then took a variety of art classes to learn how throw pots, draw, and blow glass. He learned about Native American pottery while working on an archeology project near Cahokia, Illinois.

Ken perfected his throwing skills over the course of the next two decades while working at a production pottery.  He is also an active member of a potters’ guild which sponsors workshops and contributes pottery books and magazines to the local library.

Ken enjoys throwing and decorating pots at EFP because it allows him to emphasize quality over quantity, as he strives to make each pot better than the last.  It also allows him to expand his skills and to learn different ways of working.

Ken enjoys spending time with his teenage daughters, playing guitar, and baking bread. He’s also considering a number  of house projects – including building a backyard kiln.

John Mathews of Dovetail Antiques and Kristin Zanetti and Laura Klein of EFP with the Chamomile Vase for CERF.

The Chamomile Vase that we created for the September is a Month for CERF fundraiser was a huge success. Through our company store, Dovetail Antiques, we sold 46 of these vases, which we designed exclusively for this event. In all, we raised $2254 for the Craft Emergency Relief Fund -  more than any other single gallery in the country!

EFP and Dovetail Antiques would like to thank everyone who purchased a vase or made a contribution to CERF. Your support helps crafts people facing possible career-ending illnesses and disasters.

We will be participating in A Month for CERF again this September. Look for details the summer issue of the newsletter.

Click here if you'd like to learn more about CERF.

Our special guest columnist, Len Schlobohm, owns the barn that houses the EFP studio. He’s lived on the farm for quite a few years, and knows these parts like the back of his hand. After retiring from his excavating business about a year ago, he’s had more time to spend visiting with us in the studio. Recently, he’s been inspired to start writing, and is working on a semi-autobiographical novel set in Minnesota in the 1940’s. This is Len’s first published essay.

Today I decided to go for my walk. I trudged over a little knoll and the snow crunched under my big overshoes as it does when our outside temperature gets to five degrees below zero. Walking past the pottery shop, I watched the hot air blowing out of an exhaust fan. Kevin must have had a load of pots coming out of a kiln.

Walking along my usual path, I noticed how many rabbit tracks there were. Only a few years back, the coyotes and raccoons had decimated the rabbit population. Between the raccoons, coyotes, and the cats that people dump off in the country, the pheasant population had just about been cleaned out, too. Two winters ago the local hunters had gone after the coyotes. They took 29 of them from our little valley. Last year, a hunter who hunts only a small cornfield near us was rewarded with five nice pheasant roosters.

I was approaching what we call “the brush.” It is no longer just brush; it has grown into a thick clump of small red cedar trees. I suppose you could call it a thicket. Deer tracks were everywhere. Some of the cedars had the bark skinned off them from the rubbing of the bucks’ antlers. The silence was beautiful. Sometimes on my walks I could hear man-made sounds coming from both ends of our little valley -  farm tractors in spring, combines during the harvest season – but today being a really cold, sunshiny day, it was quiet. Getting a little tired, I sat on a log and inhaled the beauty of it all with my eyes, ears, and all my senses. I saw a red-tailed hawk soaring in hundred-foot circles. At first I thought he was just checking me out. I was watching him intently. Glancing up, I saw another hawk that was circling, too, but in bigger, wider loops, just like a fighter pilot protecting a bomber. Suddenly, he dove straight down, his legs extended, his talons clearly open. When he was only a couple of feet from the ground, he flapped his huge wings several times. The snow billowed up like a fluffy white cloud. A few more flaps and he was airborne again, his partner still circling above, perhaps waiting for a call for help. The hawk flew towards where I was resting on the log. I was sure I could see a nice fat mouse clutched in his talons. It would be a good day for the hawks.

I began trudging back and was wishing I had not gone so far. Cutting through the neighbor’s oat field, I remembered what a beautiful crop of oats he had last summer: high, golden oats, long heads and long straw waving in the fields. I had talked with this neighbor up at the coffee shop about his crop. “Yah,” he said. “It looked good but I didn’t get enough out of it to pay my costs. Too hot, too dry. The kernels just dried up. Made nice straw, though. The best oats come from Canada nowadays,” he lamented.

I was huffing and puffing when I opened the door to the pottery shop kitchen. I could smell the deep aroma of coffee. Laura was the official coffee maker; some said you had to scoop it out of the pot. Kevin said, “Have some of these pastries. My wife made them.” Being a diabetic, I had to decline, but they surely did look good. I went into the shop. Everyone was at their work station. Some were at the wheels throwing, some were making the ornate decorations, and some were painting on the glaze. Things were humming. I watched as each potter took another ball of clay and weighed it, right down to the half ounce, kneaded it (not too firm, not too wet), put it on their wheel and presto! In a very short time a vase sprang up. After it dried for a time, the decorator took over and to me, this is when the artist comes out in a person. All freehand, some from pictures, but mostly a figment of the imagination, almost like a fiction author who can write whatever courses through his mind and soul.

I watched for awhile, said my goodbyes, went home and did my chores around the place. My wife made steaming hot chili for supper, and I love chili.

Ah, it was a good day for humans, too.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us…”

These opening lines from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities recently took up residence in my mind and refused to vacate the premises. First published in 1859, this sentence establishes the tone for Dickens’ novel, set during the period of the French Revolution.   This novel has endured because Dickens presents a universal truth: both the best and the worst qualities of humanity coexist in society. Sometimes, when the bad gets worse and the best gets better, it’s just that this truth becomes more noticeable.

Dickens’ famous sentence seems to perfectly capture the current Zeitgeist. The outside world seems so scary right now. The news media reports daily on terrorist acts, the sinking economy, and the threat of war. Articles on coping with anxiety fill magazines and newspapers. Every time I turn on the news, I’m confronted with frightening images and previously unimaginable possibilities.

On the other hand, my normal daily life seems pretty rosy in comparison. I love my job and my co-workers, and the pottery is doing well despite the faltering economy. My family and I are healthy.  My home is safe and warm, and I can afford to put food on the table.  These are no small things, but they can go unnoticed during the “best of times.”

When the “worst of times” catches up with me, I find great comfort in observing and reflecting on the rhythms of Nature. No matter how many bad things happen in our world, there are still some things humans can’t control. The sun rises and sets, tides ebb and flow, winter turns to spring and then to summer.  The wind blows, rivers flow, animals are born and die. All is as it was meant to be.