News From Ephraim
Vol. 8 No. 2
May 2006 |
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Whooping Crane Vase Marks Return of Bird Series |
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Ephraim Pottery introduced the Bird Series in 2003. The
Snowy Owl Vase was the first piece in the series, followed shortly
thereafter by the Falcon Vase. Since then we’ve been experimenting with
ideas for that elusive next piece. It is with great pleasure, therefore,
that we bring you the third piece in the Bird Series: the Whooping Crane
Vase.
The Whooping Crane Vase will be sold by mail-in postcard
drawing only. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of each vase will be
donated to the International Crane Foundation.
Click here to go to our Bird Series page and
get all the details |
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Another photo contest is a wrap
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Each year we receive many wonderful entries for our photo
contest, and this year was no exception. It’s so much fun to look at the
photos as they arrive at the post office and in our email inbox. Seeing
the creative ways people display their collections and reading the
personal notes that come with them is the fun part. Picking winners and
runners-up, now, that’s the challenging part! We truly appreciate the time
spent and the care taken by all of the entrants with their photos. Thank
you for sharing your collections and your thoughts.
Photos were judged on overall beauty (quality, clarity and
composition), as well as how well they conveyed an appealing mood, a
sense of home, and/or a connection with nature. I think you’ll agree that
the photos we chose do a great job of meeting these criteria.
Click here to view the photos.
Each of the 4 winners receives a $100 EFP gift certificate.
Each of the 4 runners-up receives a $50 EFP gift certificate. We hope you
will join us in congratulating these talented photographer/collectors.
There
were many other wonderful photos submitted. We will be sharing them with
you on this site in the coming months. Hopefully they will provide you
with inspiration for new ways to display your own collection. |
Featured Collector:
Janet Akcakal
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"How
do you explain a passion or even taste for that matter? You know it speaks
to your soul when it remains unaltered and undiminished over years if not
decades. For me personally, it began as an appreciation of antiques,
inherited certainly from my grandmother but refined over time to encompass
primarily a love for the elements, design, colors and philosophy of the
Arts and Crafts movement."
Read Janet's
complete essay on our Featured Collector page |
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An American Potter in Japan
by Kevin Hicks |
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"When
I first found out I would have the opportunity to travel to Japan, I
couldn’t wait to have the chance to explore a pottery on the other side of
the world. I wanted to learn more about the traditional Japanese approach
to pottery making. It wasn’t long before I was throwing pots side by side
with Mr. Muraki, a master potter whose studio is nestled alongside
beautiful Mt. Kakuda."
Read more about Kevin’s visit, see
photos and read another account of their visit on our Japan page |
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Join our new email list!
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We’re
excited to announce that we now have an email mailing list! We hope you
will go to our web site and sign up. We promise not to flood your in-box,
but we will send you announcements about special pieces, news and events.
We’ll also notify you when the newsletter is posted on line, and remind
you when a retirement deadline is approaching. You can also select
interest groups in order to receive special messages targeted to your
particular interests.
Subscribing to our email list will allow you to be among the first to
receive any important news and announcements. Our tenth anniversary is
coming up this July and we’ve got some exciting things planned that you
won’t want to miss!
And
don’t worry—you will still get a paper catalog mailed to you if you got
this newsletter in the mail or if you indicate that you want one on the
email list signup form.
Subscribe to the email list |
Collectors’ Corner: Now being retired
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In order to get ready for the launch of our new line in
July, we are retiring several pieces from the current and past catalogs.
The deadline for ordering these pieces is
Friday, June 16th, 2006,
at 5:00 p.m. CDT. Don't miss out on your last chance to get these great
pieces - give us a call today at 888-704-POTS.
View all the pieces being retired on our Now
Being Retired page |
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Important Dates
May 13th-14th
Chicago Arts & Crafts Show
May 31st
Postmark deadline for entering bird vase drawing
June 16th, 5:00 p.m. CDT
Retirement deadline
July 3rd
Catalog #11 on ephraimpottery.com
July 7th
Catalog #11 mailed
August 1st
Check ephraimpottery.com for a special announcement!
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Down on the Farm
by
Kristin Zanetti |
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I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be
responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is, after all, to
matter: to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference
that you lived at all. –Leo Rosten |
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I’m approaching one of those dreadful “milestone” birthdays
that cause you to put your entire life under a microscope and dissect it
mercilessly. As a result, I’m becoming more concerned about the impact of
my personal choices on the world and on society at large.
I’m discovering that the older I get, the easier it’s
getting to make choices that are in line with my values. I don’t care so
much anymore about what other people think. Who has time for that? What’s
more important to me now is choosing to spend my time and money in ways
that give me a feeling of personal satisfaction and that reflect my
values.
When you decide to bring our work into your home, you too
are making a choice that reflects your values, whether you are conscious
of it or not. Perhaps you want to create a more beautiful living space.
Maybe you want to surround yourself with objects that reflect who you are.
Perhaps you enjoy knowing that an artist put their heart and soul into
creating that piece for you. You might feel strongly about giving your
dollars to artists instead of to a big corporation. You may just think
that our pottery’s really cool, or you may have other reasons altogether.
The point is, you made a choice that reflects your values. And that’s the
reason why we say,
“It’s more than pottery. It’s a lifestyle.”
It gives us a feeling of satisfaction that you’ve chosen to make our
pottery a part of your life. |
