Spring!

What can we say? It's already springtime and we're just getting to our second blog post of the year. We've been busy!

After briefly decompressing from the holidays, we jumped right into the the new year trying to replenish our shelves and start on our big project for 2009: Launching the new Russel Wright American Modern line.

Things are going along nicely with the new line. It made it's debut at the New York and San Francisco gift shows, where customers new and old were very excited to see it. The new American Modern by Bauer Pottery will be available starting in April. Stay tuned to this page and our email list for the launch.




We also kept ourselves busy in our newly remodeled Atwater Village showroom. For those of you who had visited in the past for the Holiday Sale, it's the same location but we've gussied it up a bit. We also had our first sale outside of the holiday season back at the beginning of this month.

We'll be opening up on the first full weekend of each month (except a few selected weekends that coincide with holidays) throughout the year. The March sale was very well attended, thanks in no small part to a piece that appeared in the Los Angeles Times Home Section.

Our next sale will be this coming Saturday and Sunday, April 4 and 5. For all of the details, please visit our Showroom Sale page.

Keep an eye out here for the next few weeks for more info on the new Russel Wright pottery, more showroom sales and other news from inside the factory.

Happy New Year!

We're only seven days in, so I think New Year greetings are still appropriate.

For those of you interested, the online Holiday Sale is now closed. Shopping ended on Monday, January 5 at 5pm PST.

Thanks again to everyone who visited us in person or shopped online during the holidays. Your loyalty and dedication to Bauer Pottery is much appreciated, especially when times are tough for so many.

For those of you who shopped and are anxiously awaiting your pottery, please be patient.

Though we took orders staring on December 22, we were closed between Christmas and the weekend after New Years, so nothing started to ship until this past Monday. As we mentioned in the sale instructions, this year we would not be shipping in time for the holidays.

Orders are going out and will continue to do so for at least a couple weeks. Everyone should have their new Bauer in their hands no later than the end of the month.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email or call, otherwise keep an eye on your doorstep for the UPS man.

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Next up for us will be the gift shows in New York and San Francisco. We're hard at work to get ourselves ready and are excited to give buyers a first-hand look at the new Russel Wright pieces at these shows.

Stay tuned here and we'll give you some more behind the scenes looks before the debut of the new American Modern.

Online Seconds Sale - UPDATE

The online seconds sale is now live!

Again, we apologize for the delay and we thank you very much for your patience.

To shop online for seconds, please visit the Holiday Sale page and read all of the information on the sale before proceeding on to the store.



Thanks again to everyone who visited us in person for the Holiday Sale and to all of those who have already shopped and are now shopping the online sale.

All of this excitement is not just the celebration of the end of 2008. Please continue to visit us here at the Bauer Pottery Company blog for more exciting news in 2009, not the least of which will be the launch of the new line of Russel Wright American Modern pottery.

Online Sale Delayed

Just to let you know, due to technical difficulties, we have had to delay the launch of the online seconds sale. We hope to have it up and running by 5pm PST today, Monday, December 22.

An email went out to everyone on the email list advising them of this delay, but we know that not everyone is subscribed to the list, so we wanted to post something here as well.

If you believe that you are subscribed to our email list and you did not receive this notice, please check your spam folders and be sure that you have "lists@bauerpottery.com" on your whitelist.

We thank you in advance for your patience and rest assured that the sale will open shortly.

The Holiday Sale - 2008

Moments before the doors opened for day 1 of the sale

Just a quick reminder that this weekend, we will be hosting weekend two of our annual Holiday Sale.

Come on down to our Atwater Village warehouse, which has been redesigned since last year into the new Bauer Pottery Showroom.

As always we have great deals on seconds and since we have such a large selection, we are not stocking any firsts this year.

If you need more information about the sale, please visit our Holiday Sale page.

Now, I need to get back to work so we'll be ready for all of you tomorrow!


Moments after the doors opened

New American Modern

If you’re reading this, you probably got here by way of the Bauer Pottery home page. If that’s the case, you may have already seen the very exciting announcement that Bauer Pottery has partnered with Russel Wright Studios and Annie Wright, Russel’s daughter, to reproduce a collection of pottery based on Russel’s American Modern line.

The only bad news here is that all you fans of Bauer Pottery and Russel Wright won’t be able to get any pieces in your hot little hands until Spring of 2009. The announcement is a lot like one of those movie trailers you saw in the theatre last June that ends with “Opens Christmas Day” or worse “Coming Summer 2009.”

Well to fill the time between next Spring and now, we’ll be posting up some stories and images of the line as it’s being developed. You’ll get an early look at the designs and colors won’t be in stores for another four months.

If this is the first you’re hearing about the new Russel Wright collaboration with Bauer, what we can say so far is that the line will consist of thirteen pieces in four classic colors: Chartreuse, coral, seafoam and granite. We’ll be working hard to match the new glazes to that of the vintage line and you’ll get to see some of that process here.

* * *

To kick off this journey, let’s take a look at some of the earliest steps in the process of creating reproductions from vintage pieces. The first pictures show both original pieces and early steps in the models of the sugar bowl and creamer.


Vintage Russel Wright American Modern Creamer on the left and the model for the reproduction emerging from the block of plaster on the right.


Vintage Russel Wright American Modern Sugar Bowl sans lid and beginnings of a model of same.


Our model maker uses the original pieces as a guide as he crafts the new models from a block of plaster.

In the following pictures are models for the pitcher and the lid to the sugar bowl. The new models are made about 8-10% larger than the size we want them to turn out, in order to accommodate for shrinkage in the drying and firing phases.


Model for a new American Modern Pitcher and a vintage American Modern Pitcher. It's a little hard to see, but take note that the model is solid, not hollow like a finished piece. The pieces that will be slip cast, do not need to be hollow, but more on that when we get to casting pieces.


A vintage Creamer, next to the model for a new Sugar Bowl lid, next to a vintage Sugar Bowl lid


The finished models are then used to make the master mold from which the first samples are made. Any adjustments to the model can be made at that time before making the block and case. We'll get you some pictures of this part of the process and post them up next time.

* * *

Coming up: Slip Casting, Pressing, Greenware, Bisque Firing, Glazing and more!

Oil Jar Fountain

Patrick, a local customer here in Southern California, sent us these pictures of recently completed fountain project, featuring a 22 inch Oil Jar in Bauer Orange.



We've sold quite a few Oil Jars that we've heard were destined to become fountains, but we rarely get to see the finished results.



If you have an image that you'd like to share with us, please feel free to send it along and perhaps we'll feature it here on the Bauer Blog!


A vintage Swirl Pot shares the spotlight with the Oil Jar fountain.