East Fork Recaps

We share highlights from our new product offerings, Internet ramblings, social media adventures, and everything else we got cooking (including actual cooking) in the last month.

East Fork x Drip Life

Tony Pearson, a member of East Fork’s roller team, is an artist who started a line called Drip Life last year. After making hundreds of custom shirt designs, he made two for East Fork that we’re offering for sale in limited quantities.

Shop Updates

What a world! This pandemic has turned our business plans inside out. We're here to keep you updated regarding by-appointment shopping at our stores, launch dates, lead times and all that.

Clay Buddies: Lisa Flamion

Lisa Flamion leads East Fork’s Quality Control team. She’s also a potter and a gardener carrying on the family tradition of growing vegetables to eat and share with others. She doesn’t mind when the rabbits take their share.

$20 an Hour Minimum Wage at East Fork

This week we realized a years-long dream of raising our company-wide minimum wage to $20 an hour.

Chapter 2

This is the first page of our next chapter.

Clay Buddies: Lindsey Zinno

Lindsey Zinno is East Fork’s e-commerce manager. The way she writes about her outside-of-work passions will get you fired up about your own.

The Dish: Episode #3

Watch the third episode of The Dish, a quarterly conversation with East Fork’s Founders, CEO Alex Matisse, CMO Connie Matisse, and CFO John Vigeland. They devote this hour to answering the audience's questions about, well, everything.

Clay Buddies: Connie Matisse

Connie Matisse: East Fork co-founder, chief marketing officer, determiner of future glaze colors and never the subject of a Clay Buddies post? Let’s fix that.

"The Masks from Talea"

A feel-good story about taking care of one another, old friends, and masks that East Fork employees really, really love.

Clay Buddies: Karla Valdez

Karla makes dies and plaster molds that form the pots we make at the factory. She spoke with values manager Manny Ayala about life in the mold shop and what she likes to do when she’s off duty.

How We Make The Mug

Want to know everything there is to know about how we make The Mug? It’s your lucky day.

Tong Marks

How did those mysterious marks find themselves on the inside of our larger bowls? We explain here.

Marvels in Glass: R+D Lab of Milan

In appreciation of glassware, timeless and special, and the people who design it and create it with their breath and hands.

The Dish: Episode #2

Watch our second episode of The Dish, an inaugural talk of what will become an ongoing quarterly update from East Fork’s  Founders on what it takes to run a manufacturing business with integrity. 

Clay Buddies: Cherry

Cherry Iocovozzi wears many hats at East Fork and all of them are funky. They are our food systems manager.

Catching Up with Cade Hollomon-Cook

Cade is our Small Batch Studio Manager and makes limited-release, wheel-thrown, extra special pots. On the team since 2014, Cade is a bonafide East Fork historian and a super-duper nice person who shares what’s been happening in the studio and what’s on the horizon for hand-thrown limited releases.

The Scoop on Coupes

Learn about the engineering, guesswork, lasers, 3D printing and testing (so much testing) going down at East Fork HQ, all to bring you a new form that’s going to solve your not-a-bowl-not-a-plate problem.

Stamps on Pottery

Ever flip over your pot to find a teeny, tiny piece of cutlery stamped on the bottom? What’s that all about? We're here to clear that up.

Clay Buddies: Donna Casellas-Banks

Donna Casellas-Banks’s title here at East Fork is sales associate but it should be professional listener. She can tell when she’s talking to a plate person or a bowl person and she knows who should (and shouldn’t) dive headlong into a seasonal glaze.

Caring for Pottery

Here are some easy tips for caring for brass and clay pieces from East Fork.

Reflections on East Fork’s Origins

East Fork is rooted firmly, joyfully, intentionally in Western North Carolina. It’s in the name of the company: the east fork of Bull Creek flows near the old Madison County farm where Alex started making and selling pottery in 2009.

The Dish, Episode #1

Watch our first episode of The Dish, an inaugural talk of what will become an ongoing quarterly update from East Fork’s  Founders on what it takes to run a manufacturing business with integrity. 

2020 Fall Preview

Our newest glazes Panna Cotta and Amaro are coming mid-September, but we have more than that up our sleeves for the rest of the year. Stay tuned...

What Are Seconds?

What's a Second? A pot with cosmetic blemishes of many types can be labeled as a second. We're here to show you what a seconds pot might look like when it arrives at your doorstep.

Clay Buddies: Nicole Lissenden

Nicole is East Fork’s Art Director. That means she is in charge of making our digital and print materials look and feel great! Learn about her involvement in the early days of East Fork, her printing presses, her wonderful and creative kids, and of course, her five favorite things.

Clay Buddies: JaQuan LaPierre

JaQuan is East Fork’s Roller Tool Lead. We talked about why he is proud to call himself a member of East Fork’s team, how he gets into ‘the zone’ at work, and his absolute favorite thing—his family.

Clay Buddies: Britta Baker

Britta Baker is on East Fork’s fulfillment team. You can thank her personally for packing up your pottery and sending it to your door with so much love and care. Read below about distant memories of Syria, her tiny home project, and her mead making hobby.

Clay Buddies: Molly Webb

Meet Molly Webb, the manager of our Atlanta store. As a lover of art, design and all things fashion, Molly helps complete our look in Atlanta. Read below about her past life as a founder of the Spin Style Agency, her thoughts on fashion in golf, and of course, her five favorite things.

East Fork: A History

What is Forecasting?

At its most basic, forecasting means using historical data and educated assumptions to predict a future state. At East Fork, we use historic sales to determine our typical % of Revenue is for each of our forms and glazes.  If that's not enough to get you to click in and keep reading then we can't help you...

Clay Buddies: Devin McMillen

Questions, Answered!

Hey folks! I asked our Instagram followers if there are any burning-business related questions folks had.

Clay Buddies: Emilja Tokarski

Emilja is in charge of producing the thing you all go crazy for—THE MUG! Keep reading to learn about our awesome “mug operations lead”—from her journey at East Fork to her thoughts on different kinds of motorcycles.

Clay Buddies: Daryl Nathanson

Meet Daryl, fulfillment manager by day and talented musician by night. Here's a bit about him, and why we're so glad he's a part of our team.

Between Two Bowls

Wild news, y’all. You can eat breakfast in the Ice Cream Bowl and ice cream in the Breakfast Bowl.

10 Years Ago on Ras Grooms Road

"We contemplated the cosmic absurdity that two people from such different worlds would find themselves together in this little clearing in the woods, listening to the wind and snow. We were alone in a strange dreamscape, and life felt new and wild and sweet and full of possibility."

Holiday Shipping Deadline

The last day to get your orders in is Friday, December 13th at 5pm EST.

A Friendly Holiday Shopping Season Reminder

Ah, the holidays. A time to gather together with friends and family.  A time to give thanks. A time to give gifts. And a time—as evidence shows—when depression, anxiety, and misdirected anger are at their peak.

Quality at East Fork

In the early days, there were no set standards for quality, no SOP’s, and no QC position. The quality and price of a pot was based solely on the maker's own intuitive judgment.

A (Heartfelt) Financial Report from CFO John Vigeland

"We’re a pretty good microcosm of the middle of the US Economy more broadly (no flashy silicon valley salaries, a $15 minimum wage company-wide)."

The Geami

My Chemical Romance: Glazing 101 with Kyle Crowder

The Wheel

Freckles

Hand Tools

Acid Tests

The Mug

Bowl Maker & Mug Shaper: The Jigger

When making vessels with a lot of depth, we turn to our trusty old hand machine, The Jigger. If you've got a hankering for some process content, pull up a chair. 

A Feast Fit for Kings

Thank you so much to all who came to our first pottery dinner last weekend! Alex and I had such an amazing time getting to chat, eat and drink with all of you.