 During the summer of 2017, I created a new design reflecting the Milwaukee Downtown Skyline, viewed from Lake Michigan. It has been an exciting new design for me and I am currently carving it on plates and vases of various sizes. A night time silhouette carved in the black slip with a windy sky.....lots of fun to carve! The water is a blend of cobalt blue and turquoise slip, then carved with rhythmic waves.
Shortly after I displayed these pieces online and at the Morning Glory Craft Fair in Downtown Milwaukee, the Milwaukee Downtown BID contacted me to see if I could create their annual awards for an upcoming event. I created 16 vases for each of the different award recipients, with the award name carved in the rim of the vase.
 For the Holidays, Milwaukee Downtown also purchased the little plates as gifts for their Holiday Light sponsors! I was able to find a beautiful black glossy gift box and black plate stands to make their gifts complete!
Several customers asked if I could create a Madison Skyline Plate and just last month, I created the first pieces pictured below. I hopefully will be able to carry these plates and vases in stock both at shows and in my online Etsy Shop. If you have any questions about these items, please contact me.
#Milwaukee #Madison #Skyline #Wisconsin #handmade #pottery #lakemichigan #lakemonona #WIcapitol #Downtown
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On May 6th and 7th, 2017, the 9 members of The Clay Collective and 15 guest potters will open their studios to the public for a free self-guided driving tour. The studios are all within a short distance of each other, nestled in picturesque Eastern Dane and Western Jefferson Counties (only 45 minutes west of Milwaukee, 30 minutes southwest of Madison and two hours north of Chicago). This year marks the Collective’s 6th annual tour. To celebrate this milestone, the 2017 Spring Pottery Tour will feature the largest and most diverse selection of pottery ever. This is a special opportunity to meet the makers and discover some of the unique processes involved with their work.  The Clay Collective, a group of 9 potters based in South Central WI, boasts a combined total of over 250 years of experience and a wide variety of traditions. The Collective formed in 2012 to bring more pottery to the public by showcasing their art in the studios where it was created. Together, they represent styles in pottery ranging from Arts and Crafts to rustic wood-fired pottery.  Jean's Clay Studio, Tony Winchester and John Garland & Mary Paul, are potters that will be participating at Bruce Johnson's Clay Studio in Lake Mills, WI. One of the 7 stops on the tour.
For more information and a map, please visit: The Clay Collective Jean's Clay Studio has been commissioned by the USGA (United States Golf Association) to make custom pieces for the 2017 U.S. Open held at Erin Hills, WI in June. For the past few years, the USGA has been contacting local artists near the Championship and featuring their work in the merchandise tent. I have been commissioned to create about 560 pieces.  These 10 inch plates are just some of the items I am in the process of making this winter/spring. These plates have just been carved with the logo and are waiting to dry. The colors will turn out darker once they are fired and glazed. I am also making vases, serving dished, wine cups and large mugs.  Stay tuned as I hope to create a video of the making of the pieces for the 2017 US Open in June.
I would like to give a big shout out to all of my colleagues, friends, and volunteers who helped create 840 bowls on Saturday, May 7, at Murray Hill Pottery Works for our 18th Annual Bowl-A-Thon for Milwaukee Empty Bowls! The generosity of these people over the years just astounds me and I am truly grateful for their time and energy to make this event such a success. The world is a much better place with these folks in it. Thanks Everyone! Click Milwaukee Empty Bowls to find out more information about the annual event where these bowls can be purchased. Thanks to Stephanie Bartz Photography for taking these great photos on Saturday! 
 The Clay Collective, a group of 9 potters based in South Central WI, boasts a combined total of over 250 years of experience and a wide variety of traditions. The Collective formed in 2012 to bring more pottery to the public by showcasing their art in the studios where it was created. Together, they represent styles in pottery ranging from Arts and Crafts to rustic wood-fired pottery. It has been an honor for Jean's Clay Studio to have been an invited guest in the Spring Pottery Tour for the past three years of this growing event. This year, I will be a guest potter at Bruce Johnson's Studio, at 302 Campus Street in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, along with Winchester Pottery and Susy & Erik Anderson. The Tour will be held on Saturday, April 30 and Sunday May 1 from 10am - 5pm both days. A driving tour with 7 total locations in the towns of Lake Mills, Johnson Creek, and Cambridge, WI, the tour offers a unique variety of contemporary pottery from 27 regional potters. For more information, maps and photos, visit: www.claycollective.org      This past Saturday was our Bowl-A-Thon for Milwaukee Empty Bowls. We created approximately 900 bowls that will need to be glazed over the summer and then sold at Milwaukee Empty Bowls' annual event held on Sunday, October 4, 2015 at MSOE Kern Center in Downtown Milwaukee. For only $20, you can purchase one of these lovely handmade bowls and get served a meal of soup and bread from 35 different restaurants serving their homemade soup at the event. All proceeds go to fund area food banks and meal programs that were selected as recipients this year. The Bowl-A-Thon has been hosted for 17 years by Murray Hill Pottery Works, and is an essential part of making Milwaukee Empty Bowls' event a success. Professional and amateur potters from around southeastern Wisconsin come to make bowls this day. Twelve wheels constantly working from 9 am till 1pm throwing the bowls. At 1pm we take a break and enjoy a wonderful pot-luck lunch. Then from 2pm - 5pm we sit back down at the wheel and trim the bowls that were thrown in the morning. This can only be accomplished by the many volunteers who are moving, monitoring, and flipping bowls for the potters throughout the day. Numerous volunteers also work in the morning weighing and forming the clay into balls during the morning trowing time. It is a fantastic community effort by so many generous people! I feel very honored to be a part of the group. Back in February, I had my first 'Lifestyle" photo shoot of my work in a art colleague's, Barb Pelowski, beautiful kitchen. It was a true pleasure to work with Stephanie Bartz from Stephanie Bartz Photography for what took most of the entire day; arranging pottery, lighting, adjusting, re-adjusting and having lots of laughs. I am thrilled with how the photos turned out. It is more pleasurable to look at the work in a home setting, the way people would see and use the pottery in their own home. A good investment in my business as I grow and learn to market my work on my own, in the ever-changing technical world and market place.
In the ever changing world of business and technology, I felt the need to update my website. If you would like, please take some time to check out the content on various pages and feel free to give me some feedback and suggestions to make the site more user friendly and informative. What information do you think is missing? What would like like to see? How is the navigation? This blog will also be a new feature on the website. I hope to post information about my work in process, and perhaps feature different artists from time to time and interesting events. Do you have suggestions for blog topics? Questions about what I do? Any thoughts you would like to share will be appreciated. Happy Spring! - Jean 
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Jean WellsPotter - Milwaukee, Wisconsin Archives
March 2018
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