Dear Friends,

I have missed you all! This pandemic year has made us all more isolated. I work alone so my sales over the years have been a sweet way to make contact with the people who have sustained me for decades. (It’s also meant that twice a year I had to clean up the unholy mess that is my workshop!) I have loved hugging and shaking hands with old friends and chatting. The cookies and coffee and tea have made it more convivial and meant that you could stay and chat with me and friends that you might meet at the sale.

There will be no cookies and coffee this year. On the bright side, workshop sales have been claustrophobic for some people on a busy sale Saturday morning so the outdoor setting and two metre distancing might be a refreshing change for them! It is a bit odd to earn a living doing something as archaic as making (by hand) pottery. This has been a disaster of a year for many people and it has made some of us slow down, me included. But the worry and isolation have been a burden for us all.

We want this sale to not add to that worry, and to be following AHS guidelines this will be an outdoor sale. We ask that everyone who attends wear a mask and maintain a two-metre distance from others. If you forget your mask we will have some here. There will be hand sanitizing stations throughout the area. If you feel comfortable packing your own pottery at the check out tables that would help us. Let’s keep all of us safe.

The Uhlick Pottery sale will be on October 3 and 4th and according to the forecast the weather should be wonderful. I have had one gas firing, just unloaded Sunday night, and will load the gas kiln for a second one tomorrow. I also had the second wood firing in my new kiln. Both of these firings went well with some unusual, and in the wood kiln unexpected, results. There have been some photos for the firing process on Facebook. I will be posting additional photos on Facebook today (you don’t need to have a Facebook account to view my Uhlick Pottery & Tile page).

Pottery for sale will be in the kiln shed on racks and tables and in front of the kiln shed as well. Part of the parking lot will be roped off for this purpose. There will be less parking available in the parking lot but we will try to maintain a space for cars to turn around. Most parking will be available along the driveway. Please park on the grass or any available space.

After this sale weekend, order pickup and sales until Christmas will be by appointment only.

Because there will be some people who have been receiving mailed invitations only for years, I don’t know if everyone will hear about this sale. If you know of anyone who has been to a sale or someone who would like to come, please let them know about this one.

I hope that we will be able to have the 2021 Christmas sale indoors, that we can hug and chat again without fear. Stay safe and I hope to see you this weekend.

Sam

The kiln that took 25 years to build

Dear Friends,

This will be a red letter sale, with pottery from the first firing from the first new kiln that I've built since Antonia and I moved out to Ardrossan all those years ago.

Everything takes me longer to build than I hope, but 25 years is a bit much.

When I started making pottery, almost 50 years ago, one of the first books that I bought was Pioneer Pottery by Michael Cardew, newly published in 1969. This book appealed to me in so many ways with information about finding and grinding minerals for glazes and firing with wood. I didn't want to be a pioneer potter, but I did want to be a do it yourself potter. I have always wanted to build a wood fired kiln and that was the main reason that I went to England when I was 24 years old to study with Michael Cardew. We fired his round bourry box kiln twice while I was there.

In 1996, I received a $4000 Alberta Arts Council grant to build a wood-fired kiln. I had been working on our new home/workshop in Ardrossan for 3 summers and the building was only partly finished but we wanted to take some time building the kiln before we spent more money finishing the workshop. I had already moved the bricks, mostly new rotary kiln bricks from Inland Cement and the grant was to buy the shelves and build the kiln foundation. 1997 was to be the summer that I built this kiln but instead it was the Summer that we moved. That Summer and Fall was like a campaign, hard and long hours but we completed the plumbing and wiring, drywall and painting, but didn't have all of the windows installed. I didn't have time to hang any of the interior doors and we didn't have finished floors for years.

But we worked like navvies and after the kids had started school in Ardrossan that September, we got busy rebuilding the gas kiln that we had been using at the Bonnie Doon studio, finishing the workshop damp room and building the racks and stiles that we needed to have a functional workshop.

And we made pottery, enough to have a very late Christmas Sale on a weekend with snow and a temperature of -20. But many people came, and it was a very heart-warming sale for us. It was disappointing for me not to build the wood fired kiln. Luckily for us the Alberta Craft Council didn't ask for the grant money back. At the time I don't think that we could have paid it back either! But we just carried on and it was exhilarating to work at finishing our home and enjoying our young family. And time flew, our priorities changed, and life happened.

In 2015 I was able to take the first concrete step in building a kiln shed extension and last summer I worked for more than a month on the kiln.

This Summer and Fall I have worked hard to finish it and the first firing will occur about the same time that this invitation gets mailed, with the kiln gods willing. The first firing of any kiln is always an exciting event with hope for good reduction and even temperature, but wood fired kilns are especially unpredictable. Although in theory you will see a warmer tone to all of my glazed pottery, bloated pots and runny or under-fired glazes or worse are also possibilities. So this Christmas Sale will be a bit like the Christmas Sale in 1996. There will be fewer pots than usual but it will be just in time. I hope to see many old friends.

Best wishes, Merry Christmas, and Happy Holidays!
Sam

How I got here: My Dear Friends

Almost 50 years ago, when I was in grade 10, I was introduced to pottery making at the Students Union Building arts and crafts studio by my friend John Lyons. I loved making pottery right away and over the years made many pottery friends who have changed my life. At SUB I met Janet Moore who later gave me a job and Bob Blackmore who gave me helpful lessons in driving and when I started taking classes at Corbett Hall extension studio I met Jane Van Alderwegen and David Green, my first real pottery teachers. I met many kind and encouraging pottery people like my lovely classmates Elise Duggan, Nora Corbett and Marnie Sproule, who continued to encourage and support me into their later years. Sadly Marnie recently passed (and her memorial service will be on June 7th).

But down in the basement of the Corbett Hall studio I met someone loading the kiln who became a very special friend for me and my family. It was Mary Porter and it was in 1970. Although Mary was 14 years older than me, we had a few things in common, we were both shy, and both our mothers had died of cancer when we were 14 years old. Mary's birthday is on April 26th and mine April 28th. Mary was a graduate of the Alberta College of Art in ceramics and at the time was working as a clay and glaze tech for the extension studio. She taught me how to load the alpine kiln and fire it. Mary just had her 80th birthday and is now living in the Alpine Summit Seniors Lodge in Jasper, Alberta.

Mary recently gave me a copy of a photo taken in 1981, when we were both young. It's taken at my dad's old house in Bonnie Doon in front of my second kiln there and not long after I'd gotten my first B-train load of clay from IXL in Medicine Hat. Over the years I have talked to Mary about every good and bad thing that has happened to me. She has been a confessor and adviser, the best friend. Thank you, Mary.

There are many other friends and strangers too who have helped me over the years. Some of them I've written about and some of them I've unfortunately written eulogies for. But I wouldn't be here today without all of you who have thought that my pottery was worth having. Thank you all.

Best wishes,
Sam Uhlick

Dear Friends,

Pat and I enjoyed our snowy winter this year and skied a lot but the snowstorm and wintry driving conditions on the weekend of the Christmas sale were poorly timed. Thanks to everyone who came anyway and we can hope for better in June.

I will have two firings finished for this sale. My pottery production was slowed by more than two weeks because I managed to cut my finger fairly deeply with my angle grinder in March, luckily, I was wearing a heavy pair of gloves so I still have all my fingers. Because I couldn't throw for those two weeks I cut firewood for the new kiln. Very good exercise it was too. The spring sale will have bowls and plates of various sizes, teacups and saucers, porcelain yunomis and some copper red ones too, and completed orders for commemorative pots. Over the years I have made many, many personalized birth, wedding, graduation and anniversary plates; hundreds of baby name bowls; funeral urns; and a variety of custom pottery. Mary’s unfired birthday plate is on the cover of this invitation.

I hope to see many of you at this Spring Sale! If you can't come but still want to be on the mailing list please let me know at samuhlick@gmail.com. I will be staying close to home this summer except for a couple of backpacking trips with Pat. Visitors are always welcome, though please call first to make sure I’m here.

Dear Friends,

The Uhlick Pottery & Tile Christmas Sale will be on December 1st and 2nd this year and if necessary there will be a Storm Sale on the following weekend. There will be a good selection of pottery at this Sale. Over the next weeks, the Uhlick Pottery and Tile Facebook page will have previews of new pots as they are unloaded from the three firings that will be done this year. There will be quite a few casseroles and teapots, cream and sugars and some other shapes that I didn't have at the spring sale. There will be porcelain and stoneware yunomis, stoneware mixing bowls, square plates, pitchers and a slightly bigger version of my butter dishes among the vases, plates and mugs that I make for every sale.

This is a biggish anniversary for me, since it's the 40th Uhlick Pottery Christmas sale. My first sale invitations were postcards from museums that I'd collected and I had a rubber stamp made with the address for the sale. 9324-86 Ave... I sent out about 30 cards. There has been quite a change over the 40 years. There were some invitations that my friend Dirk Van Wyk designed for me, then we made pottery postcards for awhile by taking actual printed photographs to the printer and except for the date the text was the same every sale. Then we changed to a photo on the front of a card when I needed more space to blather on about a glaze or something that seemed important to me. Layout and photos are more complicated now but I am learning to do it myself. Now the mailing list has over 600 names! Many of you are telling me you would prefer email to paper and I would like to accommodate that wish and over time, move any mailings to an electronic format. Please, especially if you haven't been coming to my Sales for a few years, email me at samuhlick@gmail.com if you wish to keep receiving these invitations.

I won't send many emails and there will be the option to opt out of the list. Some other changes this year and next involve the help of my son in law Ryan Parker who will be updating my website. Check for new photos and even video on the website and on Facebook before the sale and in the coming months.

My old website was designed and built and is maintained by my old friend Jim Speers. Jim, I can’t thank you enough for all of your help all of these past 20+ years. With the new format I’ll be able to do my own updates and won’t need to pester you so much. I hope to see you all at this year’s Christmas Sale and if you can't make it please make sure that I do have your email!

Peace and Happy Holidays,
Sam Uhlick

My 65th year

This has been a good and productive year for me even though things didn't go exactly the way that Pat and I expected.

I began my new Kiln construction in mid-July thinking that a month would be plenty of time for my project... I can say that I was very wrong about that estimate. Like I have been wrong about so many of my estimates. A friend’s advice many years ago was to make your best estimate for time and cost, double it and then add 10 percent. Even that isn't enough for bridge construction in the city of Edmonton but it might be enough for me to complete my kiln, I will find out next Summer. I started out having to move all of my 18 lb firebricks from 20-year-old rotten pallets onto new pallets that I could then move with my tractor. This was a great workout for an old man and I didn't need a personal trainer. I moved a total of 30,000 pounds of brick. Before I could start to lay out my kiln I had a brick saw to repair and kiln pad to re-organize. The best thing about being 65 is that I have no pressure or deadlines for completing this kiln. I already have a kiln. This new kiln is gravy and will be fun to fire when it is finished.

In June Pat and I were able to visit my old friend Nicole Cleriot in France. But our plan to hike the North Boundary trail in August was thwarted by smoke and dangerously high water at some stream crossings. So instead of 12 days of hiking 172 kms that we had planned we ended up doing two shorter backpacking trips instead, and we still managed 9 days of hiking and 170 kms. When we visited the Adolphus Patrol Cabin in Jasper National Park we read this poem on a panel over the door, written by RCMP officer Sydney Montague over 100 years ago:

This Moment is my Life

Here on the dust of countless ages past, I stand, this moment is my Life. All the past is but a memory, therefore the future is only hope. Amid the towering peaks so cold, serene and high, life is eternal. The roaring rivers at my feet, the sun the moon, the stars, the sky. I am a part of all this universe, I am tomorrow’s dust. Here on the dust of countless ages past, I stand, this moment is my life.

There is nothing better than walking in the mountains. But I also enjoyed every day this summer that I was laying bricks and I am looking forward to doing it again next Summer.

Dear Friends,

Spring is really here now, the frogs are singing at night and we hear the dawn chorus of birdsong. The air is sweet with the sounds and feel of Spring. The leaves are popping out today too (May 6th). Although Spring was a little late this year the Uhlick Pottery Spring Sale will be a week earlier than usual, on May 26th and 27th.I had my 65th birthday on April 28th and I have now become officially Old. Old Sam ... This is a good thing. For my whole lifetime I have had trouble remembering people's names and dates. So now at least I will have an excuse. I'm just old. So this will be a special Sale, with quite a few fluted porcelain bowls and yunomis. And since I am now a senior citizen, and would like to celebrate this achievement, there will be some special treats including a door prize and some gifts and special offers.

This will be a busy Summer with my special project (building a new kiln) and Pat and I have booked our campsites on the North Boundary trail in Jasper, a hike that has been my goal for the past 5 years.

Best wishes to all of you and I hope to see many of you at this Spring Sale.

Art and Ordinary Pots

Every once in awhile someone will ask me if I am going to spread my wings and try something New. And I suppose they mean something more "artistic." But the pots that I make are, to me important, they are not just bowls. Plates. Cups.

In Japan, some ordinary bowls were originally used in the tea ceremony and are now national treasures. These pots were prized for their accidental beauty in all of their imperfections. This aesthetic and my early experience in Japan, in 1972, had a profound influence on me. There is a book about the Japanese tea ceremony and its history written in 1906 by Kakuzo Okakura. The Book of Tea gives an insight into this Japanese art. In the opening paragraph Okakura says this, "Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts of everyday existence. It inculcates purity and harmony, the mystery of mutual charity, the romanticism of the social order. It is essentially a worship of the Imperfect, as it is a tender attempt to accomplish something possible in this impossible thing we know as life".

This respect for ordinary things, bowls, handmade sweaters, baskets, has been fundamental to my life's work. My "Art", for whatever it's worth, is in my bowls and plates, my cups and ordinary pots. This is what I do and I have made my pottery with this intention and respect for 47 years. There is not a lot of technical skill in making a bowl. But there are infinite modulations in its shape and glaze, colour and decoration. This subtlety is what keeps me working as a potter and making "ordinary" pots.

-- Sam

Dear Friends,

The Christmas 2017 Workshop sale will be on December 2nd and 3rd this year and if necessary there will be a Storm Sale on the following weekend. I have made some new and old pottery shapes for this sale. Some double condiment pots which I haven't made for more than 10 years I think, slightly larger lidded bowls and some 1 1/2 lb. and 2 1/4 lb. casseroles that are more shallow than I usually make them. I made a few sets of mixing bowls for the first time in awhile too and nut bowls of various sizes. There will be a good selection of pottery for this Christmas sale. I hope to see you all on the first weekend in December and if not, I wish you all Peace and Joy this Holiday season.

Time, Tractors and Pottery Kilns

I have been thinking these days about time and how quickly it passes, and how I want to spend my time as it becomes more precious. We can measure time by the lives of our children and grandchildren, with milestones marked by travel and with time spent with friends. It seems to me that when I am doing creative work or making and building something that my experience of time is more intense, and I can measure it with what I have made and see that it has been satisfyingly spent. Time spent where I am not making something (for example on the internet!) seems to vanish. Over the years my creative work has been more than just making pottery, it has been building my workshop and machinery and repairing things too. Keeping my old tractors running has been part of this work that I used to enjoy. However I have spent many hours fixing leaking hydraulic hoses only to have a different hose or seal start leaking almost immediately. This is one of the things that I no longer want to spend time working on, (along with spending less time on the computer). I am approaching a milestone in my life, next Spring I will be 65 years old. I haven't looked more forward to a birthday since I turned 18. And as an early birthday gift to myself I am buying a new Kubota tractor. This new tractor will give me a gift of time, that I hope to put to the best use, for me, of making and building.

If I am really lucky I will never actually retire. I have spent my life trying to make functional pottery that is beautiful to me. It seems to be beautiful to other people too and I am very grateful to all you who have bought my work and allowed me to continue making pottery. I like to tell people of my friend Paul Ryan's Freedom 72 retirement plan that I have adopted: 72 hours before my funeral is when I will retire.

One way I do want to spend my time is by building another kiln. I have had this plan for years (but everything seems to take me longer). This August and September I was able to build the kiln shed roof. There is an old saying that "Men make plans and the Gods Laugh" but I will risk stating that if all goes according to my plans I should be able to build my kiln next Summer in my 65th year. Do I hear the Gods laughing?

Best wishes, Sam.

Dear Friends,

The Uhlick Pottery Spring Sale will be on May 27 and 28th. I have been more productive this year than I have been for quite awhile and if the results of my first firing are an indication there will be some very nice pots at this sale. Please check out the Uhlick Pottery & Tile Facebook page to see photos of some of the latest fired pots. I will have quite a few plates this time as well as another 30 lb bowl (21 inches across).

This Spring I will also have one particular pot that I haven't made for about 30 years. At the Christmas Sale I was reminded of the lidded bowls I made so long ago in our old workshop in Bonnie Doon. These were bowls that I saw during my first visit to Japan when I was 19 years old. They were used for donburi, a rice dish and the lid became a dish for pickles. Anyone who has been to Japan has seen some version of these bowls. Over the years I have made pots in many forms for many uses, some that you will see at every sale, and others that are more seldom seen. It was fun to be reminded of the donburi bowls and to make them again. I made 10 of these covered bowls, which are rather time consuming, but I do like them and will make more of them for the Christmas sale.

You will notice something sadly missing at the pottery now, in February my old dog Pepper died. We got her in 2005 when our first black dog Mishka died. Pepper was a shy dog, too timid to herd sheep as she was meant to do, which was why we rescued her when she was about a year old. She was a good dog, and could be silent as a shadow, slipping out the door behind you without even noticing her. She loved to put her head against my knees in the morning for a good rub. She loved Antonia and kept her company when she was sick and lately she loved the walks that Pat would take her on. We miss Pepper and we hope she has gone to the happy squirrel chasing ground in the sky.

One of the best things about my sale is seeing and talking to all of you who take the trouble to come! I am so grateful for the support that I and my family have had all of these years. The only sad thing about my sales is never getting enough time to talk to all of you as much as I would like. When it's busy I have to write orders as well as chat about Life and Art. If you have a question or a request for me, I would love to talk to you. If it's too busy during the sale please call me afterwards and you can always send me an email.

Best wishes, -- Sam

Dear Friends,

The Christmas Sale for 2016 will be on December 3rd and 4th. There will be quite a few beautiful pots if the first firing is an indication of the next two. The Shino glaze has turned out especially well and the copper red is perfect. I have made some small porcelain yunomis and sake cups that were also in the first firing. Given the events of the American election, the image of a bull in a china shop comes to mind. Pottery is fragile but it is also the most enduring and the most ancient of the arts - and it might be an act of faith in our future to buy it now. It is meant to be used in spite of its fragility. The warmth we feel when we use something that is handmade is the result of the love and skill that the Artist/Craftsman puts into that pot, a little piece of their life.

This has been a good year for me and for my family. My grandchildren are growing more accomplished and beautiful every day. This past summer went by so quickly with many beautiful days and evening meals outside on the patio. There was enough rain and sun for the garden and it was productive in spite of the weeds (200 lbs of tomatoes from 7 plants and 500 bulbs of garlic). Pat and I went camping with Anna and Jeremy and their children and we also had two backpacking trips that were perfect in every way. We had sunny days in Willmore Wilderness Park in Alberta and more unexpectedly sunny days at Berg Lake in Mt. Robson Provincial Park in B.C.

I was productive in my work as well. I have been making functional pottery for more than 40 years and there has been both progress and setback during that time. There is still learning and improvement, I like to think, in the quality of my work. I love the process of making pottery. The mixing clay and throwing, the rows of freshly thrown glistening pots as soft as jelly, the sharpening of tools and trimming as they harden, the rhythm of pulling handles and throwing knobs, the command and sometimes urgency of drying clay. The kiln loading this year has so far been a treat because of the weather! I think the first warm days of loading for a Christmas sale in my memory.

This year I will have completed 8 firings, one more than last year. I have been trying to get back to my old level of productivity and I have been partly successful. There is a Work / Chaos ratio that is necessary for this productivity and I feel that I am getting back to that equilibrium. I hope that I will see many of you at this 38th Christmas Sale and if not, Best wishes for Happy Holidays and a not too exciting New Year.

Sam Uhlick

Dear Friends,

You are invited to the Uhlick Pottery Spring Sale on May 28th and 29th. The velocity of time increases as we get older. I'm not the only one who has noticed this. A mathematician told me that the formula for calculating this phenomenon would be similar to the calculation for the speed of a falling object. I don't know how far I am from the ground but I feel like I'm going really fast.

One of my favourite times of the year for making pottery is in January and February when I have a nice warm studio and windows looking out on the snowy yard. At the start of the year I have lots of time to make pots for the Spring Sale. This year I spent the first 6 weeks making plates and bowls and there is time for other projects too, organizing, reading, skiing, hiking and a nap after lunch. Then March rolls around and I start thinking about the Spring Sale and Time starts to accelerate with the making of teapots, mugs and covered jars. By the time it's April I have to finish orders and make a firing schedule. I pick the sale dates and count the pottery to calculate how many firings I'll need to do. Then I work back from my sale dates to decide when the first firing needs to be loaded.

I switch into high gear to make the last few pots and have another look at my order book. I can sometimes squeeze out a couple of pots while I'm glazing and decorating the pottery for the first load. And at this stage I'm working as hard as I can and Time is flying by. As I get older I notice that I'm just as efficient as I used to be, but I'm not as productive! I used to throw 200 mugs on my kickwheel in a day. Now my back and leg gets tired when I throw 100, it still takes me the same time to throw a mug (about 2 minutes) but there seem to be other things in the day that are important for me to do. Finishing other pots and reading and a nap.

In spite of this I will have 5 firings completed by Sale day and I have been in high gear for the last few weeks as I write this. I will have 2 cup teapots for the first time in 3 years, and sets of covered jars .

I have several things to be thankful for this year. A new grandson Sebastian Samuel was born on February 7th to make Anna and Jeremy the happy parents of two. That makes 3 grandchildren for me and the joy that these beautiful children bring continues to enrich our family. My partner Pat and I are making plans for hiking and backpacking this Summer. Pat is retiring from Parks Canada after 33 years and for the first time will have the whole summer off. I feel lucky to be sharing my life with her.

I hope that I will see many of you at the sale.

Best wishes,
Sam Uhlick