The East Fork Journal The Journal

Two people smiling and standing outside a craftsman home.

The Key to Ending Homelessness

An introduction to our Q2 Community Partner, Homeward Bound

A black and white photo of Alex Matisse kneeling in front of large ceramic pieces in a wood kiln

Why Is It Called East Fork?

Alex Matisse, East Fork’s founder, on how the company got its name and why it represents a “little private victory” for him.

Various sizes of ceramic plates and tiny bowls in a rainbow of earthy colors are artfully laid out together against a white background.

Color Theory: Core Colors

Our Head of Design, Nicole Lissenden, shares the details of how we built our core color palette.

A person wearing a black sweatshirt is holding a ceramic terracotta mug with 2 hands.

How We Make The Mug

Want to know everything there is to know about how we make The Mug? It’s your lucky day. Get the behind-the-scenes on how we make our iconic ceramic mug.

A ceramic pottery factory with large kiln carts filled with pots, assembly lines, and two people working in the center.

Update on How Our Pots Get Made

East Fork’s manufacturing floor stands on the precipice of a big change. We’re preparing to move to a new clay body and glaze recipe that’s been three years in the making.

Potter From Dacula

An eager learner from the start, Cade approached her apprenticeship with fierce concentration, taking a holistic approach to the study of clay and quickly developing the hand skills needed for throwing production pottery.
Clay Buddies: John's 5 Things

Pottery has this lovely capacity to accumulate meaning as they move through time. They can bear witness to important events or be part of emotional transactions - they absorb all sorts of meaning from the circumstances they pass through, dark and light, and it’s potent stuff!
Clay Buddies: Thomas's Five Things

For this month's Clay Buddies, our meet-the-family journal series of employee profiles, meet Thomas: East Fork bookkeeper, number-cruncher, smiler, and all-around calming presence. Below, he shares five of his most precious possessions to let us peek into his inner world.
Meet Jessie

For this month's round of Clay Buddies, the EF journal series where we ask East Fork team members to introduce...
Clay Buddies: Alex's Five Things

For this month's Clay Buddies installment: the man who started it all. Many of you are lucky enough to know...
Meet Cade

East Fork Pottery's New Apprentice Cade Hollomon-Cook is not the type of person to dabble or dally. When something tugs at her...
An Interview with Alex Matisse & John Vigeland

Earlier this summer I sat down with Alex and John to talk about East Fork's transition from wood-fired, one-of-a-kind, "country"...
Meet Kyle

Kyle Crowder was busy scraping wadding off the kiln floor on a 94º Wednesday afternoon when I pulled him away...
New Kid on the Block

We are very pleased to welcome a new apprentice to the East Fork Team! Recent Warren Wilson grad, Kyle Crowder, just...
The Blaauw

As Alex likes to say, the wood kiln is like a Conestoga wagon; the Blaauw, a Tesla.
Meet Amanda

East Fork Pottery's New Apprentice.
Too Much Birthday and A Wedding for the Books

“Sometimes an event is so deeply impressed upon the mind it takes a while to unpack. Last Sunday I had...
Pitchers, Pictures, and Pictures of Pitchers

In late November, 2010, after a year of building the kiln shed and kiln, outfitting the workshop, sourcing materials, and...
South Comes North

All of our astrologically sensitive friends gave us due warning of April's encroaching, energetic thunderstorm, so we had our feet...
EFP Doin' Work

It happens the same way each throwing cycle: about four weeks before loading & firing, we start worrying that there...
October

I start getting excited for October in April or May and start to lament its impending departure in August or...