So, We Have About 1,200 Pottery Molds Now

I'm so excited to share that we recently acquired a local pottery-painting studio that operated in Moscow from the 1970s through the 1990s, including its collection of about 1,200 slip-casting molds.

Twelve hundred. That's not a typo. 

We’ve identified about 400 so far, so if you’re wondering what’s in the rest of the collection, we are right there with you.

We have a lot of items straight out of the early '80s and '90s. 

I mean a lot.

And starting in November, these items will be available for purchase--and winning (!!) Keep reading for details. 

There’s a lot to be excited about here, but the part I keep coming back to is that these molds were part of people making things together in our community long before Terracotta existed.

"Ceramics by 'Rene" was a beloved local spot where kids and families could paint pottery on the Palouse. And judging from the curated--and hilarious--collection of infinite inventory options we now have, 'Rene had a GREAT sense of humor, and her customers are probably still cherishing the items they painted with her back then. 

I wonder who sat down to paint those pieces the first time they were slip cast with 'Rene. What they made for their kids or their parents. Whether something they painted is still brought out every Christmas, or sitting in a kitchen somewhere, holding keys or collecting little odds and ends.

Those things have a way of becoming important without anyone planning it. You go in to paint something, and years later it’s the thing nobody is allowed to get rid of.

I love thinking that we get to help that happen again.

"OK, but how do I win stuff?"

Starting in November, we are going to ask you to guess a number on our Instagram post. If the number you guess matches the number our Bingo ball dispenser-thingy produces, then you will win the item in the mold that matches that number. All laws and normal rules apply, and full details will be included with each instagram post. 

Y'all, there are some real gems in that mix. 

On the practical side, these molds mean we can make our own ceramics from scratch in our studios for you to paint. This matters because most pottery painting studios order in their inventory from far away. You already know that minimizing waste is important to us, so being able to create our own pottery painting inventory in our downtown studios is important to us to continue minimizing waste. 

If slip casting is new to you, the short version is that we pour liquid clay into a plaster mold to create a ceramic form. There’s more work between that and a piece that’s ready for your paintbrush, but that’s where it starts.

And we can make that shape again, and again, and again,  which means a more consistent selection of studio-made pieces alongside our popular adoptable pottery.

Our adoptable pottery is staying, by the way. We love it, and we know you do, too. Finding a piece that catches your eye and deciding what it could become is a big part of the fun. This gives us more to work with, and gives you more choices when you pull up a chair.

I’m excited to have more of a hand in what we put on the shelves. To make something here, then get to see what you do with it. We can start with the same shape and end up with something completely different depending on who’s painting, who it’s for, or what kind of day they’re having.

That’s one of my favorite parts of the studio. You get little glimpses into people’s lives through what they make.

We still have a lot of sorting and figuring out ahead of us. About 800 molds remain a mystery, so I don’t have a neat list of everything we’ll be making yet. We have enthusiasm. Organization is working to catch up.

But I didn’t want to wait until everything was sorted to tell you. You’re part of why this is exciting in the first place. We get to bring this collection back into use and share what comes out of it with the people who make our studios feel like our studios.

If you remember this Moscow pottery-painting studio, I would really love to hear from you. Maybe you went there with someone you love. Maybe you still have a piece you painted, or something a family member made. I’d love to hear those stories and see those pieces if you feel like sharing. Please email me your story: Candace@terracottapullman.com 

We’re still getting to know what we’ve brought home, and those memories would mean a lot.

We’ll share more as we work through the collection and start making pieces. Thank you for being excited about this kind of thing with us, and for giving us a reason to keep dreaming up what we can do here.

Apparently, sometimes that means saying yes to 1,200 pottery molds. I’m really glad we did.