Happy September, my crafters and makers!

We’ve had a gorgeous summer with all of you. While the sun still beams, we’re enjoying the last of the heat before readying for sweater weather. We have a plethora of amazing deals this month, and we’re excited to get you your items!

Need to stock your recreation centers or classrooms? Visit Stone Leaf Pottery to outfit your educational needs as we continue through the start of the school season!

A note to our lots-of-clay purchasers, from schools to independent artists: if you're picking up large clay orders, anything more than 500 pounds, please let us know ahead of time! The ideal time frame to let us know is 24 hours prior to pick-up. This ensures we have plenty of preparation time. Large clay orders are also best picked up prior to 5:30 pm. 

Stone Leaf Pottery staff and friends at our Anniversary Open House this summer.

Create Your Own Pumpkin Head Workshop

Saturday, October 05, 2024
10 am - 1 pm

A stoneware pumpkin means not carving a new Jack O’Lantern every year! Local amazing full-time professional potter, Peri Charlifu, will be teaching this fun workshop. Peri will be demonstrating how to throw as well as how to hand build lidded Pumpkins and will provide each participant one starter pumpkin about 6” high for you to sculpt facial and lid features. If you want a second pumpkin, order ahead not later than Wednesday, 10/2. 

Workshop fee = $50
Second pumpkin = $15

Limit one additional pumpkin per person. We will be providing Los Altos clay for the pumpkins as well as for people to use for added features. Los Altos is an amazing Laguna clay exceptional for both throwing and hand building, with an extremely low cracking rate. We have used it extensively in low and mid fire ranges, but it is a cone 10 clay. Peri will also teach glaze tips and information specific for use with Los Altos clay. 

Last day to sign up is 10/2/24. Pre-registration is required to attend.

CLAY OF THE MONTH

Speckled Brown Bear Cone 5-6

We’re all excited at Stone Leaf to offer this discounted clay. A speckled version of a store favorite, Speckled Brown Bear is a lovely dark brown clay body with excellent plasticity. It’s commonly thrown with, though it can also hold up well as a sculpting clay. Its silky smooth texture is enough to enchant any wheel-thrower, along with lovely specks that show through glazes. These specks can be defined or smaller in appearance depending on the glaze. This clay gives a nice warmth to glazes, giving that reduction look to them in oxidation. Try white, green or blue glazes with this one, they tend to look beautiful against its dark chocolate coloring! Grab a bag today!

Check out this example of Speckled Brown Bear on Krueger Pottery’s Instagram page!

TOOL OF THE MONTH
Sponge on a Stick tools - 10% off

A truly necessary part of any studio is a sponge on a stick. I wish I could write in-depth on the complexity of the design, but really, it’s a sponge on a stick. That’s why it’s so gosh-darn brilliant! Ever had a deep vessel with moisture pooling at the bottom, but your wrist and hand are too big to reach through the neck? Sponge on a stick. Slab-sculpting a piece with just too much slip in that one hard-to-reach place? Sponge on a stick. Need to move sediment around at the bottom of a gloopy glaze gallon? Sponge on a stick. Measuring? Sponge on a stick. Seriously. If you don’t have one of these, I couldn’t recommend them enough. We carry sponges on sticks from Kemper and Xiem, and are very happy to offer this discount to customers. Xiem’s sponges on sticks can extend and collapse, which is incredibly helpful for spacing. We know everyone needs them, and so do we!

Check out this student’s discovery of the Xiem extending sponge on a stick on Facebook!

GLAZE OF THE MONTH
AMACO Potter’s Choice Satin Oribe - 10% off

If you’re a mid-fire matte fan, you’ll love the glaze special this month. Satin Oribe is a soft blue-green with a smooth velvety finish. A modern take on a traditional Japanese oribe glaze, Satin Oribe adds a wonderful blue-green burnished look to your wares. Over texture, the dark green pools and light gray breaks bring an extra level of depth to this opaque glaze. If you’re looking for a true satin mid-fire glaze, Satin Oribe may very well become your next favorite. This is certainly one for our earth-tone lovers, with the matte blue easy on the eyes. It pairs excellently with other glazes in glaze combinations, but also maintains its elegance when used alone.

Want an example of Satin Oribe in a glaze combo? Check out this awesome YouTube video! Don’t forget to watch Part 2 with the results!

September Public Events

Looking for a perfect opportunity to flex your creative skills this month? Participate in Denver’s Art Drop Day! All across the Denver metro, Coloradans will be able to hide and seek for art. Taking place on the first Tuesday in September, local artists will hide their works in and around the city for people to find and keep. For more information check out their website!

Art on the Green is happening September 14 - 15 in Greenwood Village. This event will host a wide variety of artists, including a great many local potters! Go check it out and support the local art scene.

We also have the Park Hill Arts Festival happening September 30 - October 1. The show is a juried fine art and fine craft show that will showcase 80 + professional artists from Colorado and beyond.

Lastly, if you’re looking for a fun pottery competition, swing by Clayfest! Clayfest is returning for another fabulous year in Manitou Springs. Based on the idea of hosting a “pottery olympics”, Clayfest is known for its community-building games and prizes! Grab a friend or two and sign up for contests such as Blindfolded Throwing and the fabled Soldner Challenge.

A reminder that our firing services has an online scheduling system! Having trouble reaching the front desk on a busy Tuesday to make an appointment? Head to the new page on our website, select “Book Now” and then “Firing Services”, which will bring you to our firing calendar. Simply select the time slot that works best for you!

Speaking of art, our gallery has been seeing lots of artists’ work lately, which we’re ecstatic to feature! Swing by our store’s gallery next time you visit for a gorgeous variety of pottery and other goods.

Ingrid’s Tip of the Month:

In one way, kilns are like cars. Cars require consumable items like fuel & oil, replacement parts, and regular cleaning. So do kilns! Pay attention to your firing log. When you see on your kiln log that it’s now taking 5, then 10 minutes longer to achieve the cone you want, order new elements to have on hand for you or a repair tech to replace them (or at least start setting aside money now). Pretty soon your elements may only fire to bisque temperature, not higher. Before cone 5 or higher is no longer possible, buy new elements and call us to get on the schedule for a repair visit.

The other “consumables” in your electric kiln are thermocouples and relays, which are relatively inexpensive (most under $50, on average). Replacing them is pretty easy and kiln manufacturers have videos sharing how to do it yourself (see below). It’s a good idea to have them on hand so you don’t have to make an emergency trip to Stone Leaf Pottery or wait for shipping.

Happy firing!

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That’s all for now, folks! Happy potting and we look forward to seeing you around the store!

Elise and the Stone Leaf Pottery Crew 

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All Clay of the Month purchases are limited to 100# of clay. The sale price is valid only in September 2024 and not combinable with other discounts.

It's not uncommon for us to run out of the clay(s) of the Month, so we always suggest you shop early in the Month to ensure the clay is in stock. Also, when purchasing Glaze or Tool(s), or Equipment of the Month, again, it's limited to products on hand. So, if we don't have it when you shop, come shop with us again soon! We replenish our shelves constantly—we'll hopefully have more soon! Got more questions about how this works? Please, please reach out to us!