In a mini themed search I’ve been doing is finding actors & actresses who also created pottery. Rod Taylor is probably most famous for being in the movie “The Birds” (at least for me), but he also dabbled in pottery and painting. The website also showed some pottery plates he had displayed at his home that he created. He also mentions that he sold pottery in Australia to earn a living.

An exhibit of the works of Mata Ortiz entitled
Mata Ortiz Pottery: A Forty-Year Phenomenon is at the American Museum of Ceramic Arts from June 9 to August 25, 2007

Jim Rowe was the founder of Rowe Pottery Works in 1975 in Cambridge Wisconsin. He sold the firm in 2004. That firm did works for Museum of American Folk Art, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Collection, The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and Old Salem Village. In addition they did work for Lynn Hollyn, Bob Timberlake, Ethan Allen and Lane.

Recently he has started a new firm called Cambridge Stoneware Company. One of the products they are working on is a salt-glazed looking ware that doesn’t use the traditional process. An interesting thing for future collectors will be the wares marked StonewareStudios that he produced for a short period before settling on Cambridge Stoneware. More details are in a Capital Times article.

A nice article on Saturday Evening Girls with some great examples.

Van Briggle is making plans to sell their location where all of their pottery has been produced since 1968. The railroad roundhouse was purchased in 1953 as a showroom and as an auxiliary plant, but due to changes in the tourist market, the large building is not needed any more according to an article in the Colorado Springs Business Journal.

Looking over the Van Briggle I found a very detailed history of the firm. It also has some great pictures from the firms early days. I also see that they are branching out into tile production.

I wish I could have done something like this by the time I turned 43. Paul Diamond donated 620 examples of Roseville Pottery, 93 examples of S. A. Weller, and one piece of Peters and Reed to the Zanesville Art Center.

Turns out to be just a robin that loves waking me up early in the morning. I was home sick today and I heard the familiar barking out of the bird later in the morning. Since it was daylight, I looked out the window to see the robin. It was sitting on some metal sheppard hooks for some hanging baskets, that are just below my windows at the perfect angle to bounce into the awning transom windows.