Hi Members—

A few things to share with you this month — upcoming Collage Club, our recent Bouquet Making Event, and some fun updates.

POWDER PINK!

Powder Pink is a soft, buttery pink with a matte finish — one of the quieter glazes on the shelf. It's partially transparent, so the clay underneath matters: on a light body it fires powdery and pale, on darker clays it picks up depth and warmth. A second dip pushes it richer, too. Once you know that, you can steer it toward whichever version you're after.

Look closely at a fired piece and you'll find a mild crackle running through the surface — fine lines that soften it in a way a flat pink wouldn't be.

If you've been circling it, dip once for pale, twice for rich, and consider a darker clay if you want to see the deeper end of its range.

COLLAGE & POTTERY PAINTING NIGHT

Interested in more than just pottery? Join us as we join forces with @ourmutualfriendsf for a night of collaging and painting with underglazes. They provide the magazines and catalogs while we bring unused bisqueware and underglazes. It’s a great chance to make friends with other casual artists and try out something new.

No firing fees for members.

Thursday, August 27th at 6pm

RSVP here: https://luma.com/jbp17n5t

BOUQUET MAKING

Thank you to everyone who came out for bouquet making earlier this month. The Flower Mart was fantastic — buckets of stems covered the handbuilding tables, and for two hours the studio smelled magical. Plus, we supported other locally owned businesses at the Flower Mart.

The best part, predictably, was the vases. Handmade ones fresh off the shelf, wobbly first attempts, a few beloved pieces from home. There's something satisfying about watching a pot you made get a job to do.

We'll do it again this winter. If you missed it, keep an eye on this newsletter — and maybe start thinking about which vase deserves flowers next time.

Mason stains

Did you know we sell 1oz containers?

If you haven't used them before — Mason stains are ceramic pigments, blends of metal oxides that have been fritted and milled so the color you see in the jar is more or less the color you get out of the kiln. No guessing at what a raw oxide will do. You can wedge them into clay, tint a slip, mix a wash, or color a clear base into a glaze of your own.

The trouble with testing is quantity. Suppliers sell them by the quarter-pound minimum, which is too much pigment for someone who wants pink handles on exactly one mug. An ounce goes surprisingly far — most applications only call for a few percent by weight.

Find them in the canisters next to the handbuilding table for $4 each. Have a particular color in mind? Ask us.

CLASS SPOTLIGHT: POUROVERS & MUGS

A set for slow mornings

Keisha returns this summer with another focused design class.

In this class she’ll focus on each piece in a coffee set: the carafe, pour-over, and matching mugs.  This class is about the design choices that pull a group of pots together: How a foot on the carafe can echo the foot on a mug. Where a handle wants to sit. What a small change in proportion does to the whole group.

Hone your details while also achieving technical and functional forms.

Thursdays at 6:30pm

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: DISCOUNT BUILDERS

Down where Mission Street slides under the freeway, at the corner of South Van Ness, sits the largest family-owned hardware store in San Francisco. It doesn't look like much from the outside. That's part of the charm.

Discount Builders has been there since 1961, family owned and operated the whole time, and it's the kind of hardware store that barely exists anymore — the kind with a lumber yard in the back, an actual paint counter, and staff who have worked there long enough to answer questions the big-box stores can't.

Much of what’s in the studio came from there: our round plywood bats, non-skid tape for the stairs, our sink stoppers…and so much plywood.

And — a miracle in this city — there is a free parking lot.
1695 Mission Street

See you soon,

Ashley + Daniel