Our Artists

Featured Artist: Paul Borian - Blanket Creek Pottery

About the Artist:

Blanket Creek Pottery was established in 2001 after two years of work experience at a busy production pottery factory in Cincinnati. I was involved in all aspects of the process, such as 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 the formidable project of adapting the production system to accommodate such high volume. I developed a series of dynamic, flowing glazes that could be efficiently applied by combinations of dipping and spraying and fired in a newly constructed gas kiln to 2350° F in a reduction atmosphere.

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 some rural land near Falmouth, Kentucky, I relocated to the area and began the process of setting up an efficient workspace. I had already concluded that it was more practical to focus on wholesaling because it allowed for more productive time and less traveling, 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 / Blanket Creek Pottery