Joel Cherrico will be exhibiting and performing live pottery demonstrations on his York Kick Wheel August 19th and 20th in Duluth, Minnesota at Art in Bayfront Park. One of Joel’s best BIG pottery jars will be on display, as well as a few of his best Cosmic Mugs. This will be Joel’s 7th year participating in this festival. He will also be crafting Cosmic Mugs live and anything else he’s inspired to throw, while breathtaking Lake Superior shimmers in the background.

Just one of his Big Pots will be on display in Duluth. They take a LONG time to make. In a hurried month, Joel can throw, fire and finish 100+ Cosmic Mugs in under a week and have them ready to order, but one Big Pot takes several months from start to finish. Just the drying takes a few months! Read about how Joel creates these beautiful works of art in a blog post he wrote back in 2012:

Big Pots deserve to be displayed on a stand as beautiful as the Big Pots themselves. So, Joel and his team have been creating beautiful wooden slabs over the last month to use as pedestals. The pedestals also help to level the jars on uneven ground. Four different types of wood slabs were harvested in sustainable ways from the St. John’s Arboretum with the help of a full-time forest technician: Aspen, Maple, Sugar Maple and White Oak. Slabs were dried slowly in Joel’s pottery kiln at 100 degrees C. for a few days, and then hand-planed, sanded and finished with love by local woodworker Tom Kuhn.

And yes… that is actually real gold in the bottom right corner of the gorgeous red jar. That is the Cherrico Pottery jar Joel plans to display in Duluth. Hope to see you there!

Millstream Arts Festival

September 24th, Joel’s artistic talent will be on full display when he participates (for the 7th time) in the Millstream Arts Festival, located in his home town, St. Joseph, Minnesota. This is where Joel lives, works and operates Cherrico Pottery. They even generously put his work on billboards around the city.

Joel will be set up with 3-5 more of his best Big Pots right in front of the Local Blend coffee shop, where you can eat an entire meal from his artwork everyday. This interview with the American Craft Council tells how they developed an innovative business model. A few things have changed, but you can still buy pottery everyday and anyone can still go eat an entire meal from innovative pieces of Cherrico Pottery. Hope to see you at Millstream!

Joel is passionate about supporting the community of St. Joseph, and his unique partnership with the Local Blend is a perfect example of that support. If you’re not too busy, come see Joel create his famous Cosmic Mugs and learn more about his artwork by absorbing the energy of his specialty “Big Pots” in person.

“The most important thing is communicating with the user. It is only when the user feels the presence of the hand of the potter that communication truly exists.”

– Warren Mackenzie, 1999 Distinguished Artist Award” The McKnight Foundation

4 December, 20163 December, 2016

Good News/Bad News: Early Bird Package on Guinness World Record Pottery

Well, unfortunately the new Nuka Cobalt pots didn’t turn out as expected.

Maybe I applied too much glaze. Perhaps I fired too quickly, or applied the glaze layers without proper drying time, maybe. In pottery, sometimes pots just don’t turn out as expected. The glaze “crawled” and dripped during the firing, revealing the clay underneath.

I sincerely apologize that these pots do not look the same as our standard line of “Nuka Cobalt” pots. However, they are 100% functional and still great pots. The only flaw is in the wild appearance that does not match our normal line of pots. In some ways, I actually like this wild, unpredictable style more.

So, we’re still moving forward with our Guinness World Record Pottery package:

2 FREE Random Nuka Cobalt Spiral Mugs roughly 14-18 ounce size, shown above ($160 value: $65 + $15 packing and shipping each).
2 FREE Random Nuka Cobalt Ice Cream Bowls, roughly 8oz. size, shown above ($120 value: $45 + $15 packing and shipping each).
Simply Purchase 1 Guinness World Record Pot. You can even get 20% off, using this coupon: POTTERY20 ($179 value: $159 + $20 packing and shipping).

$459 value!
Limited Availability: Purchase before 11:59pm today, December 4th

To get this package, simply purchase your favorite Guinness World Record Pottery from our online store here and we will include all four of the above Nuka Cobalt pottery pieces, totally free, without adding even a dime to shipping costs. You can even use this 20% off coupon: POTTERY20

Purchase World Record Pottery + 4 Free Nuka Cobalt Pots

We’re planning one more awesome coupon package for the Holiday season. Stay tuned for more Holiday pottery deals on Nuka Cobalt Pottery and Cosmic Mugs.

“Problems are eternal, get rid of one and another appears. Pottery problems, disastrous firings, irresponsible galleries, etc. are often devastating if we don’t regard them as experiences. Seen in this light, problems often set the stage for creative action and allow us the opportunity to self expression.”

– Jenny Lind, Quoted in The Studio Potter, A Question of Quality, 1979

28 August, 201528 August, 2015

Cosmic Friday: Free Cosmic Mugs, Studio Shot and One Cool Quote

As a thanks for subscribing to my email list, I decided to send one Cosmic Mug to one random person each week- totally free. My goal is to give more people the experience of using this new, valuable type of artwork. This week’s winner has an email waiting in your inbox, ready to receive this free mug anywhere in the continental United States!

Sorry I can’t afford to ship free mugs worldwide yet. If you’re dying to get your hands on a Cosmic Mug, I have just a few jewels available in my online store here. Feel free to use this 20% off coupon code as a thanks for subscribing to my mailing list: COSMIC20

Otherwise, be sure to enter into the Triple Cosmic Mug Giveaway running through the end of August- definitely your best odds at winning a free mug!

By November, I’m planning to have a HUGE selection of Cosmic Mugs available at HUGE price discounts, ready in time for Christmas delivery.

Studio Shot

Each “Cosmic Friday” you will get a short email where I give away one free Cosmic Mug, show one cool process shot from my studio and share a quote that I found during my artistic research. Enjoy!

cosmic platter — The first “Cosmic Platter” – a huge wall piece with dark, starry night glazing…the first of many!

“In many ways, fame is the industrial disease of creativity. It’s a sludgy byproduct of making things…It’s my job as an artist to be understood, and I would rather fight for the audience to have a good experience.”

– Mike Myers, qtd. in Marc Maron’s podcast.

2 June, 20152 June, 2015

Cosmic Mugs, June Giveaway

Hope everyone is having a great summer! To help spark interest in my newest artwork, I’m giving away one “Cosmic Mug” each month, totally free. You’re reading this…so you’re probably on my mailing list and automatically entered in the random giveaway! (If not, signup here). If you’re the lucky winner, you’ll receive an e-mail asking for your address so we can send a pot at absolutely no cost to you. And this month’s winner is…drumroll, please…

Cosmic Mug with Whipped Cream Coffee Drink and Hands and Red Nails, Cherrico Pottery

Subscriber #436: m********@aol.com! CONGRATULATIONS! Thanks to everyone else who signed up!

While these mugs are almost entirely sold out in my online store, I’m currently working on a new body of artwork. A whole bunch of cosmic mugs will be available in the coming months at a discounted price. Please watch for more of these e-mails to find out when you can get a great deal on my newest artwork.

Be sure to check out Instagram for the freshest pottery updates:

1 May, 20151 May, 2015

Cosmic Mug Giveaway, Laughing Squid Feature, and Mainstream Art Ambitions

Artists all over the world struggle to find ways to avoid attaching the word “starving” to their job title. For ceramic artists, this often means going to graduate school, becoming a professor, and building networks in academia. Recent industry polls (from the NCECA blog) show how 50% of ceramic artists are academics. Non-academics support their art by selling their wares, working part-time, and pairing with community art centers or galleries. These are all great options.

But are there ways to support art making that we haven’t yet discovered?

Our plan is to utilize the internet to face the “starving artist” fear by forging new paths that would not have been possible until recently. By trying to explore every possible connection through the internet, and then focusing on the few that succeed, we discover new ways to get pottery into people’s hands.

In case you haven’t seen the Facebook posts, Joel is giving away one Cosmic Mug each month to help spark interest in his new work. You’re reading this, which means you’re probably on the mailing list and automatically entered in the monthly random Cosmic Mug giveaway! If you’re the lucky winner, you’ll receive an e-mail asking for your address so we can ship you a free Cosmic Mug at absolutely no cost to you. And the first winner is…drumroll, please…

Subscriber #255: r********@yahoo.com YAHOOOO! CONGRATS! Thanks to everyone else who signed up! Keep your hopes up for your chance to win the next monthly Cosmic Mug giveaway, posted at the end of May.

Social media sites and blogs let us creatively market pottery at extremely low costs. More popular blogs expose Cosmic Mugs to people who might never have seen them otherwise, like the Laughing Squid feature that got 1,000+ social media interactions.

We think it would be awesome to get Cosmic Mugs featured by mainstream media, where millions of people would see what beautiful handmade ceramics look like. Talk show hosts and their guests so often drink from boring, mass-produced coffee mugs. Wouldn’t a Cosmic Mug look cooler?

From left to right: Bill Nye (THE SCIENCE GUY), Boring Mug, and Chuck Nice

The internet allows us to build a network among celebrities. A few months ago, we started communicating through Facebook to people at StarTalk Radio. Their host, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, has six Cosmic Mugs in his office right now! The radio show has since evolved into a TV show, airing every Monday on National Geographic Channel.

StarTalk collage — StarTalk with Neil deGrasse Tyson airs on Mondays at 11/10C on National Geographic Channel

#1 New York Times Best-selling author and entrepreneur Tim Ferriss podcasts through the Tim Ferriss Podcast, and he also launched a killer, new TV show this week: The Tim Ferriss Experiment. Oh yeah, Tim also owns a Cosmic Mug!

This week I am writing a letter to Bill Nye the Science Guy and sending it along with a Cosmic Mug and an issue of American Craft to the Planetary Society in California. We joined the Planetary Society, and we hope they will like the way Cosmic Mugs bring distant wonders into our hands, allowing people to experience the feeling of space.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with becoming a teacher or professor to support yourself as an artist – many of Joel’s greatest inspirations are teachers (shout out to Ben Carter – innovative educator and podcaster who you pottery people will love.) But we’re devoted to exploring new ways to find success in the ceramics field by teaching indirectly. Connections that started online have already brought Joel’s pottery into the hands of over half a dozen celebrities and astronauts: Neil deGrasse Tyson, Tim Ferriss, Bryan Callen, Joe Rogan, Brendan Schaub, Buzz Aldrin, & Mike Massimino. Monday a Cosmic Mug not only goes in the mail to Bill Nye, but also to Matt Mullenweg. He created WordPress, which not only runs my website, but 23% of the entire internet!

Our global vision is to reach a tipping point that causes pottery to enter the mainstream eye. Stayed tuned…