The Mt. Saint Helens vocano ash mug

Posted on June 2, 2011 by admin

Here’s a new mug handle design that is actually an old mug handle design.  I used to make a lot of these “loop mugs” when I first started making pottery for a living back in 1978.  It’s got a really comfy grip even though it looks kind of clunky.  They are for sale in my online store.  This mug handle was a mainstay in my pre-Wally reduction glaze line (1978 – 1984).  A really interesting artifact from that era are the “volcano mugs” that my wife Lori and I created back then.  Lori’s father grew up in Castle Rock, Washington and his family farm was flooded the day after Mt. St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980.  That year, he gave me some coffee cans filled with ash from this eruption, and the pure ash made an excellent cone ten glaze.  Lori did the artwork on the outside of the mugs and we sold them at craft fairs for years.  I’m guessing we produced about a hundred of them over a period of three years.  Thank goodness I kept one for posterity!

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Father’s Day gift ideas!

Posted on May 24, 2011 by admin

If you’ve got a goofy dad, I’ve got a bunch of Father’s Day gift ideas for you.  My work really connects with geeks, oddballs, weirdos, wacky guys, etc. and my online store is the place to find the perfect gift that says, “We love you, Dad.  You’re weird.”  Just click on the names of the items below and you will be magically transported to a place where you can break out your credit card and buy some pots.  Let’s start with ice cream bowls.  The Ice Cream Monster is a time-honored favorite among sci-fi geeks and Ben and Jerry’s aficionados alike.  If your dad leans more towards the fine arts, then the I SCREAM bowl could be the best gift for an art-loving, brain-frozen pop.

Mugs are the mainstay of our existence here in Wallyworld, so let’s pull up some of the heavy hitters in our lineup:

These eight mugs are a good start on your quest for the perfect gift.  There are over one hundred and fifty mugs for sale in my online store!  Here are store links to the mugs pictured above: Why we like dad, “Holy Shit! That’s good coffee!”, I’m on a drug, it’s called Charlie Donald Trump Sheen, The best way to fix something is to bomb the crap out of it, Wally tries viagra and has one of those “call your doctor” situations, When I was your age, we had to make our own coffee and it tasted like crap, Who needs sleep?, My brain is bursting with ideas.

The weird guy cover box is a great design, a time-honored classic! Over the past twenty years, we’ve produced literally hundreds of them.  But we really don’t want to know what all the dudes who own them are putting inside them, OK?

How about a custom mug, plate or bowl for your dad?  Check out our custom orders section for instructions on how to place an order.  You’ll have to hurry on this one because our last firing before Father’s Day goes in on Friday, May 27th.  And get this: the mug pictured above was a custom order for my very own dad!  The wording on the other side of the mug is “Walt woks Wally”.

So you say our dad isn’t weird? That’s no excuse! Here’s another option: red pots.  We’ve got a fantastic selection of  beer steins (pictured above), coffee mugs, shot glasses, ice cream bowls and more in the Ohata Kaki red section of my online store.  Check it out!  And have a wonderful Father’s Day.

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CRAZY NEW DESIGNS!!!

Posted on May 2, 2011 by admin

It’s a curse doing topical humor for a living.  When there is something really big and really silly in the news, people naturally expect you to do a joke about it.  But the problem with big silly news stories is that they generally tend to do the best job of making jokes out of themselves and anything you come up with is just redundant.  Charlie Sheen is a good example.  His recent flurry of rhetorical weirdness is totally incredible.  I just can’t top it.  And Donald Trump?  That guy is a human cartoon!  But I realized the other day that if I put the two of them together, it would make a nice little statement about the wonderfully absurd nature of insane blowhards with huge egos.  I love the fact that the blonde woman in the tiger print dress is holding a birth certificate.  This timeless celebration of crazy-ass narcissism is for sale right now in my online store.

Also new this week is Wally’s latest adventure: “Wally skips the fine print about the covenants, buys a house and finds himself a member of a satanic homeowners association”.  Here we see Wally about to get branded with a pentagram by his new neighbors.  I’ve heard a lot of odd stories over the years about how HOA members get drunk with power.  This design in a mug, plate or bowl would make the perfect housewarming gift for your friends who just sold their souls to the devil under the guise of “the perfect neighborhood to raise children, with homes starting in the low three hundred thousands”!

And last but not least, Wally’s take on the sleepy air traffic controller situation.  I love the fact that solving one problem (sleep), leads to a host of new problems (UFO sightings, imaginary flying hot dogs, etc.)  I only made a few of these and they are staring at the sky with their eyes wide open in my online store.

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BBQ tools, bummed-out birthers and drug-crazed air traffic controllers!

Posted on April 27, 2011 by admin

This week’s post has a trio of odds and ends from the world of Wallyalia.  First up: an item that’s going to make all you Wallyheads out there drool with envy because it’s not for sale! This one of a kind Wally BBQ spatula was created by my assistant Kelly Clements for her college metalworking class.  No news yet as to what grade she got on it, but I give it an A+!!!

NEWS FLASH! The president of the United States effectively rendered this joke null and void this morning so I’m putting these pots on sale today.  Thanks a lot Barack Obama! Groan.  Some of us were making good money off of that whole birth certificate thing.  To snap the last of these historical collectors items up for cheap, take a trip to “Wally’s Bargain Basement”.

And last but not least, here’s a brand new design about something big in the news these days.  I really like the graphic on this one and it’s interesting to note that this is the first Wally cartoon that doesn’t have Wally in it.  I guess he’s off at the meth lab cooking up the payroll.  You can purchase these right now at my online store.  They will be ready to ship on Monday, May 2nd.

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The first time I made an ashtray, my mom loved it.

Posted on April 7, 2011 by admin

Last week’s firing yielded some of the best ohata kaki red pots I’ve made so far.  The glaze surfaces continue to dazzle the eyes and I’m doing some bigger, more ambitious forms now.  The above cookie jar was actually promoted and sold via Facebook.   I had posted photos of these jars as I made them and a local Facebook friend dropped by the studio and purchased it just a day after I rolled out the kiln.  That’s proof that social networking sites can be used to successfully market one’s work!  You can friend me on Facebook by searching for “Tom Edwards, Evergreen, CO”.  I try to post something interesting just about every day, and every so often I share pictures of my work in progress:

There are a slew of new items in the Ohata Kaki Red section of my online store: beer steins, one of a kind serving bowls, creamer and sugar bowl sets, ice cream bowls, and even an ashtray.  I thought it was kind of funny to get back to my roots and make an ashtray (the very first thing I made on the wheel in high school was used as an ashtray at our house), but I’ve received some criticism for making this horrible item.  Fair enough.  I’m not a big fan of cigarettes, either, and I’m hoping this doesn’t make people boycott my work in protest.  You know, public health realities aside, it is a really nice looking ashtray!

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You can be one of the first to own this authentic commemorative war mug.

Posted on March 30, 2011 by admin

In the documentary, “Fast, Cheap & Out of Control” lion tamer Dave Hoover explains why those in his profession use a chair to keep the lions at bay.  It turns out that the cat brain can only focus on one thing in its immediate field of vision, so the four chair legs circling in front of the lion’s eyes put the kitty’s brain into gridlock and thus prevent an attack.  This is how I feel about the news these days.  I don’t know about you, but I’m totally hypnotized by it all: the Japanese earthquake, tsunami and crippled nuclear reactor, people all over the world rising up in places that never rose up before, the still-flailing U.S. economy, the brand spanking new Tea Party governors going on ape-shit crazy power binges and on and on and on.  So last week when our president started a war with Libya I marveled at the absurdity of it all.  Wasn’t this the guy who got elected by telling us that we shouldn’t outstretch our military reach?  His speech on Monday sounded like vintage George W. Bush minus the Texas accent, mispronounced words and utterances of the word “freedom” every couple of minutes.  I think the Obama Doctrine is the same the way many of us attempt to fix our broken TV sets: just keep banging on it until it works.  I’m excited about this mug and I think it’s helped to get me out of my catatonic stupor.  You can buy it at my online store.

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For a GRRRRREAT night’s sleep!!

Posted on March 28, 2011 by admin

I’ve always been a sucker for those Lunesta ads.  Seeing that psychedelic neon green butterfly floating above the rooftops and fluttering in through the open window totally piques my curiosity every time it magically appears on our flat screen TV.  I suffer from insomnia from time to time, but the warning labels on those sleep drugs scare the heck out me so I’m never going to try any of them.  Thank goodness Wally can do the things I can’t do.  This latest adventure is both silly and serious.  I just can’t believe that we live in a society where powerful psychoactive drugs are pedaled like breakfast cereal! Were we all asleep when this legislation got approved?  I guess so.  At any rate, I’m pretty sure this new design is going to be a hit as the artwork and concept are spot-on.  Mugs, plates and bowls with this design will be out of the kiln on Wednesday and I’ll have them for sale in the online store that afternoon.  Sleep tight, and don’t let the bed bugs bite.  Hmmmmm… where can Wally go with that one?

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BRAIN-EATING SPACE MONSTERS!!

Posted on March 17, 2011 by admin

FINALLY!  A new Wally cartoon!  I’d been beating my head against the wall for a long time, trying to come up with a good Tea Party joke and nothing seemed to hit the mark. This weekend I was brainstorming ideas and setting goals for the week.  I simply had to have a new joke on the pots for this week’s firing.  I’d come up with a pretty good one with Sarah Palin and Ted Nugent winning the 2012 Presidential ticket, but it didn’t seem quite right.  There’s an old saying in the cartoon world, “When you wrestle with a cartoon, the cartoon usually wins.”  So the next thing that happened was a minor miracle.  I woke up at 4 a.m. on Sunday morning with the perfect joke in my head.  The basic idea, composition and words “brain-eating space monsters” were all in the dream.  How cool is that?!!  A good Wally cartoon is like an entire movie in one panel and one sentence.  What I love about this one is the series of multiple ironies: Wally is using his smarts to act stupid to stay alive, the guy about to get eaten works for a government agency that loves outer space, the slogan “Don’t tread on me” is getting a whole new meaning, and even a few more if you think about it.  I think this one is going to be a hit!  If you wish to purchase a mug, plate or bowl with this design, head on over to my online store and place an order.

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Square dinnerware!

Posted on February 28, 2011 by admin

Starting this week, the Evergreen Gallery is featuring two of my ohata red dinnerware place settings in their month-long “Dining on the Arts” show.  The square pieces above just came out of the kiln last week and they are part of a display in the center of the gallery.  If you live in my neck of the woods, I recommend you stop by and take a look.  It’s a great selection of pots and the other artists featured have some lovely pieces at the table, too.  If a trip to the mountains of Colorado isn’t feasible, you can purchase my work at my online store.  Dinnerware sets take 3-5 weeks for me to produce, and I can certainly make custom items to suit your needs.  Just ask!  We’ve been using dinnerware with this glaze for a year now and it is a joy to have.  It is wonderfully durable, dishwasher and microwave safe, and lead-free, of course.

Another new item in last week’s kiln is this 5″ x 4″ soap dish.  I only made a few of them, and you can snap them up for a mere $15.00 each in my online store.  We have a pretty good selection of red pots in stock now, and all of the items below are available!

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CONTEST: How many pots are in the kiln?

Posted on February 26, 2011 by admin

With all the small items I’ve been making lately (e.g. shot glasses, tiny plates), my kiln has been densely packed to the roof.  Every available inch of space is utilized and it’s fun to roll out the finished product.  I’ve gotten in the habit of posting pics of the finished kiln on Facebook, and yesterday I decided to make it a contest to see if my friends could guess how many pots were in the kiln this week.  The winner gets a shot glass, and the deadline is Monday night at midnight.  The pic above is of great help, but I should warn you that there are pots on the second level that can’t be seen.  Good luck!  You can post your answers on the Facebook thread, or simply email them to me through my contact page.

03/01/11 – Congrats to fellow potter, Kathleen Laurie for coming within 4 pots of the correct answer: 254.  I think I’ll be doing more of these contests in the future, so friend me on Facebook if you want to get in on the fun!

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