OK, this is getting sort of formulaic, isn't it. I've always been a collector of things and now I collect pots. Here is one of my absolute favorites, really. I got this M-U-G from Kim Ellington the first time we met at his shop in Vale, NC. It's a real mug, not like all of these other ones I've been showing. This one says mug all the way from its flat bottom to its sturdy roundish rim. It has the kind of alkaline glaze I could only dream of, runny, dark, full of variation from its fire-birth. For a while, Stacey and I would rush to claim it in the morning for our coffee. Now it's afternoon and she's not around to compete.
Kim fires his pots in his version of a groundhog kiln about an hour and a half from me and I occasionally get a chance to 'burn' with him. Kim came and taught with me at Penland a couple of years ago, and I will admit that I asked him to teach with me for selfish reasons. I love the pots he makes and the way he fires them. It's been great to get to know him and his family as well. His web site is here and you can find out how you can get your own Kim Ellington mug, because you can't have this one.
