About Blanket Creek Pottery
Blanket Creek Pottery was established in 2001 after a
two-year apprenticeship at Parsley Pottery in Cincinnati. Over the course of the
apprenticeship, I had the opportunity to participate in all aspects of running a busy production pottery studio, gaining experience in
wheel-throwing, glazing, firing kilns, maintenance, product development and sales, which included both retail and wholesale. During that time i worked with several excellent
potters, each with very different styles. One of them only came a few times a year and threw nearly three thousand pots per week, mostly mugs and various crocks, and i was assigned to the formidable project of adapting the production system to accomodate such high volume.
I developed a series of dynamic, flowing glazes that could be effeciently applied by combinations of dipping and spraying and fired in a newly constructed gas kin to 2350 F in a reduction atomosphere. Eventually a new product line emerged that was a stark contrast to the tediously hand-painted pottery
that had been the signature of the studio for over a decade.
We were doing a lot of craft fairs, including some very lucrative ones where pots were moving off the shelf as fast as i could wrap them up. The new pottery was selling well from the start, especially when the sunlight would illuminate the multi colored hues that seemed to flow down the forms. Although a difficult way to do business, the shows proved to be a valuable form of marketing research and i made careful note of which glazes seemed to sell the most.
When the opportunity arose to start a new studio on a community farm near Falmouth, KY i relocated to the area and began the process of setting up an effecient workspace. I had already concluded that it was more practical to focus on wholesaling because it allowed for more productive time and less travelling, so i designed a product line specifically for that market.
Developing this production studio necessitated a wide range of skills, most of which were learned along the way and eventually applied to other aspects of life. As a result, a pioneering lifestyle has emerged with a considerable degree of self sufficiency that thrives in the wake of a mass consumption culture.
— Paul Borian
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