Dear Friends,

I am pleased to invite you to my Christmas sale for 2025, on November 29th and 30th. You can see the latest photos on Wednesday, Nov. 19 on Facebook when I will be uploading my gas kiln after its firing #275.

I have made covered jars in 6 different sizes for the first time in many years. These jars and the different sizes of pitchers that I made turned out well, partly because of a new clay recipe that I developed over the spring cycle. I’ve made teapots in tow sizes for this sale. There are casseroles and sauce dishes and I always make plates in 3 sizes and pasta plates and mugs and bowls. I am, luckily, getting older every year (better than the alternative) but I’m getting slower too…

Although I have worked harder than usual this year, I did less in the workshop and more around the property. I fixed up and repaired buildings and fences, and I sold a lot of equipment and refractory bricks that I no longer have use for. I am pleased to say I got a lot of things done this summer that I have wanted to do for years. I’m planning a wood firing in the spring if weather permits and will then be able to make some larger pots.

Ove my years of making pottery I have had many people who have supported and encouraged me and I am very grateful to you all! Pat will also have honey for sale from Kiln Shed Apiary, which is about as local as it gets!

Pease and happy holidays!
-Sam

The American president’s threats to Canada this year have enraged Canadians (at least this Canadian). I invite everyone to “Buy Canadian” at some of the many craft sales in Edmonton as well as local and regional sales happening all over. The biggest (I think) is the Butterdome Sale on December 4-7 and the Alberta Craft Council has a wide selection of Alberta crafts.

Dear Friends,

I’m pleased to invite you to my spring sale 2025. I have more porcelain pottery at this sale including some nice sauce dishes and sake or whiskey cups. yunomis and beakers. Some of them were glazed with my copper red glaze and most of them fired beautifully. I also have about a dozen porcelain teacups and saucers and a couple dozen porcelain coffee cups. I have oval lasagna dishes and smaller oval dishes for the sale as well as many sizes of bowls including flutted porcelain rice bowls. For the first time in few sales I have mixing bowls in two sizes. I will have a selection of dinner plates, breakfast plates and pasta plates.

All of my pottery is hand thrown by me with clay that mostly comes from southern Saskatchewan mixed and prepared by me with equipment that I build and have maintained for 45 years. My clay mixing equipment including my pugmill was built from scrapyard metal and gearboxes. Buy Canadian.

I have felt my age this year. My new wood kiln is perfect for firing bigger pots but my shoulder and hands hadn’t recovered enough since my bike accident last November to even attempt making them this winter. But, I have a new clay test that I am excited about and which contains 10% pond clay, clay that came from the bottom of our pond. The clay throws beautifully and seems to dry well without cracking. I will be using it for some bigger jars in September and will aim to have my 8th wood firing before the Christmas Sale.

Since Putin invaded Ukraine I have donated 10% of my spring sale income to relief and reconstruction of Ukraine. I don’t have Ukrainian heritage, but some of my family and friends are Ukrainian Canadians. My beautiful sister-in-law, Christine Place (nee Krytor) has been my closest connection to Ukraine, the face of Ukraine for me. Chris was kind and hardworking, a thoughtful and beautiful person in every way. Chris was loved by everyone who knew her and I always felt better after a visit or chat. Chris passed away on February 26th. She had what I think of a triumphant life. I’ll be making my donation this year in her memory.

I hope to see many of you this spring.
Peace and best wishes!
Sam

Dear friends,

Our sale this year will be on Saturday, December 7th and Sunday, December 8th. I had a good reason to postpone my sale this year. I fell while riding my bicycle on November 6th, on a muddy trail at Cooking Lake Blackfoot Recreation Area. A split second accident, that injured my right side and also my left thumb. My ribs still hurt when I cough or sneeze, but nothing was broken and the sale is only a week later than normal.

Another busy year with more than the usual trails and stress! War and Climate Change and Politics! But in spite of everything going to hell, I have been fairly productive. I’ve had fun throwing my new porcelain clay this fall, for the first time with the help of my new pugmill. I’ve made fluted porcelain teapots and teacups and saucers, mostly fired in my wood kiln. I’ve just had my 269th firing in my gas kiln with one more to load before the sale as I write this, and I had 7th firing in the wood kiln. I’m happy to say that I can still learn new things. And I’m also still forgetting some of the old things. Names, dates and what I’ve walked into a room to find.

And speaking of porcelain I would like to recommend a novel that I read and really enjoyed: A Cup of Light, by Nicole Mones. Her main character, remembering how she came to love pottery: ”Albert made her feel that it was alright to sense a connection to objects, because objects in their perfection resembled love. And when they were imperfect, you loved them for their flows too. As it was in life.” You all know that there are no end of flaws in my work…

I hope to see you this Christmas. Please join us for coffee and cookies, and feel free to bring a friend. Between sales, there is always a selection of pottery available in the studio and we welcome your visits. Please call ahead for an appointment (780 922 5061).

Dear friends,

Another epic trip around the sun! This year I learned some valuable lessons about firing my wood kiln and I’ve been rewarded with some good results. The Alberta Craft Council is hosting a show of my pots, called Glorious Mud, until December 21st. The show highlights my wood firing and I was honoured that they gave me the opportunity. The Alberta Craft Council Gallery is always worth a visit, full of beautiful pottery, weaving, jewelry and hand crafted gifts all made in Alberta.

I spent most of last summer repairing and then building new equipment for the workshop. I built a new stainless steel blunger for preparing porcelain clay and I have a pugmill now (thanks to Rita McGie) that is dedicated to porcelain as well. Porcelain must be handled separately from regular clay, so because of these tools I will be able to more easily make porcelain pieces in 2024. In the past I had to laboriously knead and recycle porcelain clay by hand. I spent much more time preparing and recycling porcelain than I did actually throwing and trimming the pots. I can feel the ache in my back just thinking about it.

I’m writing this, as usual, before the final firing has even been loaded, but judging by the October firing and my 266th gas firing that I unloaded on Wednesday, this Christmas sale will be one of my best. Most of the glazes in the gas firing were as close to perfect as they can be. The exceptions are the copper reds which were in a part of the kiln that is usually cool and they were overfired. There were some surprises, and there will be more photographs on the Uhlick Pottery & Tile Facebook page on Wednesday Nov. 29th.

This has also been an epic year for honey production by Pat’s bees (Pat is calling it the Kiln Shed Apiary) and there will be fresh honey for sale, bottled in August.

Thank you to all the people who came to my Spring sale. I committed 10% of sales to the Canada-Ukraine Foundation for humanitarian work in Ukraine and so the donation I made was thanks to you all. And still that war goes on. The terror and response in Israel and Gaza, so many innocent lives lost in another horror. So much to keep us all awake in the night.

Dear friends, I was able to visit with many of you at the Craft Council show opening but I am hoping you will all still come to visit at this workshop sale.

Best wishes for Peace and good will to all of you.

Best wishes,
Sam Uhlick

Dear friends,

I am again thinking about the passing of time, partly because it has taken me so long to write my invitation, but mostly because I turned 70 in April. Time is flying by and 70 sounds old but I know I’ll get used to it. I’ve had a wood firing in the rain and two gas firings for this sale and the pots that I didn’t have time to make will get done for my Christmas sale. If you have any requests please talk to me and I will do my best to fulfill your order.

The Alberta Craft Council is hosting a small show of mostly my wood-fired pottery this fall to commemorate my age and the fact that I’ve been making pottery for 50+ years. I will be sending out an email invitation to the show in the fall. Some of the best pots from my last 5 wood firings have been reserved for the show. I am continuing to learn about wood firing with some success and quite a few, I have to admit, failures! The temperature is less reliable than in my gas kiln, not surprising since I’ve had 28 years and 267 firings to learn how to fire it.

I had only my 5th firing of my wood kiln since I finished it with the help of my dear friend John McGie in 2019. With every firing I learn something new, and whether good or bad it is always progress. The wood fired pots have more warmth and show the tracks of the flames, something that wrote about in my spring 2022 invitation. Sometimes this means that the pot was in a hot spot and the glaze has run down to glue the pot to the shelf! Not the best result. Sometimes the pots are a bit gnarly with a roughness from deposited ash on the flame facing side and sometimes there is a warm glow to the pots that can’t be achieved any other way. It always takes more time fettling the wood fired pots and sometimes I increase the price a bit to reflect this. And sometimes they are just seconds. In fact I have more seconds from my wood fired kiln but more subtle zingers too. I will, I hope, always want to make one more pot, have one more firing.

I have no Ukrainian heritage, but I have been horrified by the war in Ukraine since it started and last spring I gave 10% of my sale income to the UNHCR for Ukrainian refugees. I will be repeating that donation after my spring sale this year.

Pat and I are enjoying good health and we are not taking it for granted! We are hiking and biking as much as we have time for (but Pat has biked and hiked more than I have). Pat’s bees came through the winter in good shape and there are 4 hives on the hill behind the kiln shed. They are busily working and there will be honey for sale at the Christmas sale.

I love making pots and having pottery sales too and I am looking forward to seeing everybody again.

Best wishes,

Sam

Dear friends,

I’ve been working especially hard for this past year. Making pottery of course but I’ve also been able to do some other work, maintenance and repairs of the workshop, work that has accumulated for the past 11 years. This work has been satisfying but it has taken time! I’ve worked with the pressure of time passing - faster as the summer changed to fall. I have had to work with an intensity that I haven’t felt since my early years, when we were working and living hand to mouth. This has focused my work and I think that I’ve fired some good pots in spite of myself. I’ve made some shapes that I haven’t made in decades. There have been some photos on the Uhlick Pottery Facebook page and there will be more this week and next as the new pots come out of the kiln. I’m firing my 261st glaze firing in my gas kiln as I write this.

Pat and I had a couple of very special vacations this year including a trip to visit friends in Iceland. We managed to get Covid after this trip, in one of three airplanes or four airports. But we recovered fairly quickly. We also had an excellent backpacking trip with friends, thank you Peter! It has been a very full year!

I really enjoyed my wood firing this spring but I didn’t have time for another one this fall. I’m excited about making more progress next year (with my 70th birthday looming in the spring) with raw glazing and raw flames. I’ve been honoured to have been offered a show at the Alberta Craft Council gallery next fall, likely because of my advanced years: 70 of them! I am truly one of the old dogs now and I have been making pottery for more than 53 of those years. I will be sending out an email invitation for the Craft Council show opening and hope that many of you will be able to attend.

And I hope that many of you will be able to attend my Christmas sale this year. I love making pottery and will have some good pots at this sale. But the real completion of my work is when these pots are used. I hope that they will all find good homes!

Peace be with you all.

Sam Uhlick

Spring Sale 2022

Dear friends,

The first spring sale in two years!

For the past forty years the Uhlick Pottery spring sale has been more or less on the last weekend in May, the sale this year willl be 2 years and 2 weeks later than usual. I hope to see many of you here again. Making pottery is in my case a fairly solitary occupation and I am always glad to meet the people who want to buy my pottery.

I have just had my 4th wood firing and it was the best one yet for many reasons. I feel that I am learning more about the way to use glaze and decoration to enhance the special effects of this way of firing. During this firing when I was looking through the peep holes to check the cones after stoking, I was able to see the flames flickering across the shelves that the cones were sitting on and when I unloaded the kiln I can see the flicker of wood ash, the shapes of that flame, deposited on the sides and inside almost all of the pots that were fired. The pots closer to the firebox get more ash of course but this signature of flame and ash is very attractive to me. Using firewood that I collect from my land (most of it standing and fallen dead spruce trees from the spruce bog just in front of the workshop but also some pine from trees that we planted 30 years ago) is a way for me to more fully participate in the firing of my pottery. Mixing my own clay and processing it has always been a part of the process that I have enjoyed.

This will be another indoor sale but if the weather is nice the checkout and cookies and coffee with be outside. Please feel free to wear masks or not, we are all vaccinated and boosted. I should also mention that there is construction happening on our road, Range Road 214, which is being repaired. The county tells us that it should be quiet on the weekend however. Also, Pat will have some honey for sale.

I want to say that if I ever go truly crazy it will be because of computers, the trouble I have had making posts and keeping up with new apps and features, or not keeping up with them. I still like pleated trousers and talking on the phone…

Finally, I have been making fragile things for my whole career, and like many people, I have been horrified by the war in Ukraine. The fragility of cities and towns and the destruction of lives has been very upsetting. I am committing 10% of this sale for humanitarian relief for Ukraine. How lucky we are to live in Canada.

Best wishes,
Sam Uhlick

Dear Friends,

I hope this finds you healthy and happy! This is to invite you to the upcoming 2021 fall sale, to take place as always here at the Uhlick Pottery & Tile workshop. Like last year’s it will be an outdoor sale.

It has been a long, long year. These sales have always been the highlights of my potting life: the times when I get to meet some of the people who actually use my pottery. To get, usually, some positive feedback for all of my hard work. I have been working hard although I didn’t get everything done that I was hoping to do. I have made more jardinières, lots of bowls and plates, etc. There are some shapes and pots that I didn’t get around to making. I had my 3rd wood firing this fall and I was able to use raw glazes with better results than in the first two firings. I am slowly learning what works best in this kiln. I like to think that my pots are getting better.

This year has been hard at times not only because of the grinding worry about this pandemic, but it has also been marked by the loss of two of my dear friends.

My dearest friend John McGie passed away this year, he and his wife Rita, both gifted potters, have been friends for almost the whole of my pottery life. He was an exceptional man, intelligent, kind and gentle. The best friend, that I could count on to tell me the truth to my face and who supported me through all the most difficult days, years, of my life.

John helped me when I was building my kiln shed; and then when I was finishing my wood kiln. He was able to do this after he retired from his role of technical demonstrator in the sculpture studio in the faculty of Fine Arts at the U of A. He is remembered by all the sculpture students too as a kind man who was generous with his time. I am deeply saddened by the loss of this good man and best friend.

I was also saddened by the loss of my old friend Jack Williams, aged 92 years, who helped me build my gas kiln 256 firings ago. Jack was a good friend to me and left me with many happy memories. Many people have experienced losses this year. May peace be upon us all.

On a much happier note there was a COVID compliant outdoor wedding for Patricia Anne Dunn and me on July 31 st. After 7 years and several ways of saying “shall we get married?” I wrote it on the back of a special plate for Pat. When she finally noticed the “Will you marry me?” she said “well, okay”. In spite of that unenthusiastic response I think she was happy to marry me. And it was a joyful party on a warm summer day without too much fuss; with the usual prairie wedding food, donkey rides for the children who attended and a campfire at the end. Just about perfect.

--Sam