Purchase Raffle Tickets at Item #200

We all Scream ...

For ICE CREAM!

Enjoy a craft-made pint or two from Weckerly's Ice Cream in these lovely Janel Jacobsen Bowls. Scoop included to make it easier for you!

Two Bowls and a $20.00 Gift Card

• All winning bids or purchases are charged automatically at the end of the auction.
• Shipping is NOT included in the winning bid.
• Items can be packed and shipped, and the winner will pay the cost.
• Items can be picked up at The Clay Studio for no additional cost.

Donated by Janel Jacobsen and Weckerly's Ice Cream.

About the Artist:

Since moving to Sunrise, Minnesota in 1975 as a 24-year-old potter in love with making pottery for daily use, I have worked in stoneware, porcelain and wood. I established Sunrise Pottery in 1975 and worked in the house that was built in 1911 and later moved to the new, separate studio building in 1995. My pots were fired in a gas-reduction kiln in the metal pole building just out the front door.

During the first several years in Sunrise, I made functional wares mostly from stoneware clay. The continuum of change for my explorations in clay grew from the mid 1970's through 1995 as a compelling desire evolved to illustrate themes from the natural world around my home by carving porcelain clay.

In those early years each summer, for about ten years, I gave myself limited periods of time to explore. These "summer camps" were always a separate time, only focusing on growth and not making pottery for income. It started with two weeks of focusing on stoneware pots and tiles that eventually grew into two months being set aside for porcelain and carving exploration. In the mid to late 1980's I stopped all stoneware work entirely to focus solely on carving porcelain, and brought that new work to national level shows.

In those learning times I drew, carved or added sculptural relief on pots and tiles. I pursued rendering images first as surface drawings in stoneware clay with knife, slip and glaze, and shallow sculptural relief with subjects that depicted what inspired me from around my rural home.

Further broadening of detailed illustration grew into shallow relief carving using porcelain, to be enhanced with celadon glazes. When some subjects began to emerge from the shallow carved surfaces, they did not seem to fit the rest of the composition. At that point I separated two distinct styles in my work in porcelain: the shallow-reliefs, and small sculptural 3-D porcelain pieces, working in one mode or another, on one piece at a time until the small sculptural work became a strong passion-driven pursuit.

Now, the joy of using pots every day goes hand in hand with loving to make useful pots for others to incorporate into their daily lives. My current work uses porcelain clay to make wares such as drinking vessels, bowls, plates, covered containers, and an assortment of things that can be found in kitchens for food preparation.

My work currently explores celadon and carbon trapping glazes, using both our studio's carbon trap recipe and Malcolm Davis' Shino. The pots I make may be gently reshaped, textured and may have stamped or stenciled imagery applied. I am beginning to explore carved porcelain designs on a limited number of pieces. The clay and glaze are different, so these are exploratory to see what direction the new materials encourage.