Hi Members—

A few things to share with you this month — a glaze story, our upcoming Bouquet Making event, and a couple of small things worth knowing.

QUAIL EGG, AND THE POTTER WHO GAVE US HER MATERIALS

A note on where our most-adored glaze comes from.

Quail Egg is the cream-colored glaze with the warm brown speckles and the soft eggshell finish — the bucket that empties faster than we can keep it stocked. Here's a story about it we've been meaning to tell.

The speckles come from raw sienna, an iron-rich earth pigment. We got our first batch from Lucy, a potter who spent her career designing glazes at Heath in the 1980’s. Lucy was entering hospice care and wanted her lifetime of materials to go somewhere they'd be used. She gave us everything — jars, tins, hand-labeled bags, her extruder, decades of a working potter's shelf. We used her raw sienna in the first batches of Quail Egg.

When we used her batch, we learned raw sienna hasn't been mined in the United States in decades. There is no U.S. pottery supplier that carries it.

We now source it from a watercolor supply company in Germany. We order it by the kilo, and it makes the speckles you've come to know.

Every jar of Quail Egg on the shelf carries a little bit of Lucy's studio in it.

BOUQUET MAKING AT THE STUDIO

Something a little different this summer. On Sunday, August 2 from 11am-1pm, we're hosting an afternoon of bouquet making at the studio.

Ashley will head to the Flower Mart and come back with armfuls of whatever's beautiful and in season. Members are invited to bring a vase — one you made, one you love, or one you just pulled off the shelf at home — and build a bouquet to take with you.

No experience required, no signup needed. Bring a vase, bring a friend if you'd like, come make something pretty.

Sunday, August 2 · 11am-1pm · at the studio

THE LOST AND FOUND

Every few months we go through the bin. Here is what's in it right now:

Jewelry, none of which anyone will claim. Four sweaters. A single jacket. Three water bottles, one of which appears to be someone's whole personality. Headphones. Single AirPods.

The bin lives by the door next to the leftover pottery bin. Come reclaim what's yours.

Any leftover pottery will be given to our August Collage Club night.

SUMMER HOURS & CLOSED DATES

A few practical things as summer settles in:

Closed: Monday, September 7 — Labor Day

Regular open studio hours continue through the rest of summer (Mon–Th 5–9pm, Fri 1–9pm, Sat 10–6pm, Sun 10–9pm).

A quick reminder for summer: the week of Burning Man is a particularly slow week in the studio. If you’re around in late August, it’s a great time to push work through.

IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: ARCH ART SUPPLIES

A short walk up 17th Street, at the corner of Arkansas, is the best art supply store in the city.

ARCH opened in 1978 as a drafting supply store, back when architects and engineers and illustrators still needed the equipment. When computers arrived and drafting supplies went obsolete more or less overnight, ARCH became an art supply store instead. It's woman-owned, independent, and one of the last of its kind in the Bay Area.

It is also the only place we know of that stocks plywood, cast acrylic, foam blocks, and rotary sandpaper alongside the watercolors. Go in for one thing and leave forty-five minutes later with six.

Worth knowing for anyone thinking about surface: their brushes, their papers, and their pigments are all better than what you'd get online, and the staff will actually talk to you about what you're making.

Open weekdays 9–6, weekends 10–5

1490 17th Street

See you soon,

Ashley + Daniel