Deneen Pottery
Favorite part of working at Deneen Pottery? Everything! Working alongside and inspiring our awesome staff and assisting our incredible customers. Getting to be around such a creative process and talented artists - the variety of 'opportunities' that fill my day keep me on my toes. Witnessing the transformation from proof to product.
When your Monday starts out cold, windy and rainy – it’s nice to look back at some recent victories: the custom mugs that we made and the fun moments that took place. Last week Jason DeRusha from WCCO news stopped by for a quick meeting and tour. Jason co-anchors WCCO This Morning (weekdays from 4:30 a.m. until 7:30 a.m., mid-morning from 9 to 10 a.m.) while also producing “DeRusha Eats” for WCCO Thursday Mid-Mornings
Our friend Eddie Wu, co-owner and operator of Cook St. Paul, was recently featured on “DeRusha Eats” and after filming he came over to the shop to pick up an order of his mugs. Eddie mentioned that Jason had noticed our mugs and had made a comment on their quality and said that I should definitely follow up about it. Here’s the piece that aired on Cook.
It’s so great to cross pollinate with the good people in our Twin Cities restaurant and hospitality circle – needless to say that meeting Jason was awesome and when he returned last Thursday with a cameraman we had even more fun. My dad, Peter Deneen, was more than happy to help mentor Jason on glazing. Of course, smiles were unavoidable when the mug burped up glaze on both of them.
After glazing, Peter and Jason went back into the Greenware Room where my Uncle John Deneen kindly gave up his wheel for a bit of filming. (Fun fact: the last person who tried throwing at John’s wheel was Mayor Coleman – he visited and toured our studio not that long ago. You can read the full story here.) With the right instruction, Jason was able to make cute little bowl…and depending on the glazing he might submit to the Walker Art Center very soon! Can’t wait to see and post the final cut of Jason’s visit.
On a slightly related note – let’s talk about donuts! Especially our favorite local donut joint Glam Doll! Since their first order shipped, we have visited a handful of times, but after stopping out on Sunday morning and enjoying the donut bliss -I think it might be time to start a new family tradition. It was totally awesome to see our handmade mugs at the register, PINK is just the perfect color for them.
After stepping inside to the most ah-mazing smells, friendly attentive staff and a moderate line, the stocked cases of donuts took our full attention. Eloise immediately picked out a STARLET (cake donut covered in white glaze and sprinkles), TT and Annie both decided on a classic glazed, while I had the DADDY DEAREST (SURLY cake donut, SURLY BENDER glaze & bacon crumb topping…mmmm…beer themed donut – YES!) – so delicious! (PS. More fun to come related to the donut that I picked out.)
After sitting down at a table to eat these magnificent creations, drink our coffee and whole milk, it wasn’t long before the sugar kicked in and Eloise wanted to move!!!
Well, that’s all on the local “Mug Recap” front for this gloomy Monday in Minnesota. I hope you have some wonderful holiday weekend plans in the works…onward to summer and BBQ shenanigans.
Thanks for reading our blog.
Niles Deneen – CEO
Deneen Pottery
Favorite part of working at Deneen Pottery? Everything! Working alongside and inspiring our awesome staff and assisting our incredible customers. Getting to be around such a creative process and talented artists - the variety of 'opportunities' that fill my day keep me on my toes. Witnessing the transformation from proof to product.
