Gnomes...Nisse... Elves... Dwarfs

Many Scandinavians coming to America in the 1800s headed right for the upper Midwest.  It is a land of many lakes, lots of trees and very cold winter temperatures... all things that reminded the Scandinavians of their homeland.  Their decendents are still there enjoying the same things as their ancestors in the old county and sharing there folk lore with the rest of us.

For the past few years, I have been demonstrating pottery making at summer fairs in Minnesota. Minnesota has 95 fairs every year. The fairs across the country are annual events where locals can show off their livestock, their produce, be entertained and have decadent food they would not have at home.

Scandinavians are also great story tellers and everywhere you go, you hear about the Nisse. The little men with the red hats. 

The Barn Elf (Fjøsnissen) is a creature from Scandinavian folklore. He was often described as a short man, “no bigger than a horse’s head”, wearing grey clothes, knickerbockers and a red hat similar to what Norwegian farmers would wear.

As the name suggests, the Fjøsnisse lived in the barn. Of course, he was so shy that he was hardly ever seen, but he was a good little helper on the farm as long as the farmers treated him well. Especially at Christmas he would expect to get a large bowl of porridge and homemade beer, in return for looking after the livestock. Often the farmers would leave the leftovers from Christmas dinner on the table so the Nisse could help himself. But if farmers failed to keep him fed and happy, the Nisse would do mischief or harm to both animals and people.

One story tells that the Nisse, upon finding that the farmer had failed to put a speck of butter in his porridge, got angry and killed the farm’s best milking cow. Later he found out that the farmer had simply put the butter in the bottom of the bowl and the porridge on top. Regretting his mischief, the Nisse then went and stole the milking cow from the neighbor's farm to replace the one he killed!

Fjøsnissen was thought to have supernatural powers. His red hat was grey on the inside, and if he wore it inside out he would become so grey that he turned invisible. The Nisse was also the one responsible when anything strange or unexplainable happened on the farm. In folklore and literature he has been described as the guardian saint of the farm. Even today it is a custom to leave a bowl of porridge and a jug of beer in the barn for the Fjøsnisse.


We all know this guy in the red hat. I am not sure if Santa or just his helpers were elves.

In the 1980s, Travelocity began advertising a man named Bill who was looking for his garden gnome.  The "Roaming Gnome" became the mascot of the company. A great campaign with a list of pranks and intrigues revolving around this little guy with his red hat.

People still collect gnomes for their gardens. Linda Langford of the UK has these two little elves on her front lawn.

Norway has a stamp showing off the little guys.

And who could forget the 7 dwarves?

Which brings us back the my obsession with the little guys in the little red pointy hats.

These are 3 of my own little pottery gnome heads.

And so, read some Nisse stories, put a gnome in your garden, make yourself a red pointy hat and...

Isobel, Adelaide, Meta

Roger

order a gnome at my web site or stop by my tent at any of the upcoming 2015 fairs for a gnome of your own.

www.eastknollpottery.com

Miniature Face Jugs

I demonstrate the making of little tiny pots across the county every year. I have become known as Reggie the miniature potter. And that's okay... because I really do like making my tiny pots. It is like doodling with clay. Three dimensional doodling.

Making tiny pots is not something I invented. Lots of potters still like making these little miniatures. We make them just for fun. They serve no purpose except maybe to hold tiny flowers or fruit, dollhouse decorations or just because they make you smile. And that is all they need to do.

www.antiquebottles.com/southeast/jul03.html
Orville Seals shared his very comprehensive display of
"Louisville Kentucky Mini Jugs"

To the right is a photo from an on-line collectors
group that collects all size jugs, but as you can see, there are a lot of old tiny jugs out there to find.

Potters used them for advertising... to show shop owners what style, color and design pots they could make in a larger version and they would not have to travel around town to town in horse and buggy and lots of big, heavy, fragile pot samples..

And potters had children of their own to please and the neighborhood urchins at the potters shop as well.

I make hundreds of my tiny pots every year at shows and I am making hundreds of them in my studio this winter.

  

My bigger kiln full of tiny pots.

I ran out of pots by October last year, I cannot fire them while I am away. I make 50-70 pots each day at an event, dry them, pack them in sawdust and wait till I get back to my studio to fire and glaze them.

I am offering my mini face jugs in sets of 3 for anyone who missed out on them at last years shows.

Visit my web site to order these one of a kind jugs.

www.eastknollpottery.com

Who the Hell is Krampus?

It is a little early for Christmas blogs... but I just had to plug Krampus for my pottery sale at Regional #7 this Saturday, November 22.

I make little Krampus Jugs.  I can never make enough of them.

I first heard of Krampus when I met a fellow tradesman from Minnesota. He linked me up to this video and it has become "our song". Roger plays a Krampus in the upcoming winter event in Grand Marais, MN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOd3mW_bJUw&index=19&list=FLld5yPMyhpEQsHWkY1BjcWw


Die Seer - Ubern See.... we still don't have a translation of the song except the title... "Ubern lake".... I think.

But who is Krampus?

Krampus is the dark companion of St. Nicholas. Europeans holiday gift-giver, St Nick, gives good children gifts on December 6.  Bad children are punished by Krampus, the hell-bound counterpart. He has many names, Knecht, Ruprecht, Certa, Perchten, Black Peter, Schmutzli, Pelznickel, Klaubauf... and Krampus. Krampus punishes naughty children with switches and rusty chains, sometimes dragging them to the firey place below and has been known to eat really bad children. Not a nice guy. Here in America, we have deleted this fellow from our Holiday, except for the finding of coal in our stockings occasionally.

Here are just two of peoples images of what Krampus looks like...

So celebrate the Holiday this year and remember there is a dark side to our traditions. Go buy American Crafts. Be good.

my krampus collection

Buy Connecticut made Crafts at Local Events!

My old high school, Regional #7 is having a Craft Sale this Saturday, November 22, 2014 in Winsted CT

If your budget is tight this year, or if you need some economical stocking stuffers, why not shop at your local Church, School or Civic Events?  Sometimes you can buy extra mittens for grandkids for under $5.... home knitted mittens by some little old lady (that could be me), home assembled soup mixes, all kinds of cool stuff. And you will support the homemakers and crafters, the sponsor group can make some cash to keep going, and you get some great stuff you would like to make yourself if you had time.

Or, you could support Walmart....NOT.

I will be there in my booth,#78 in the gym, supporting the Agricultural Department of my school and offering some great stocking stuffer's.

the before photo...

I was busy making tiny pots down in the Carolina's and Tennessee fairs in October. I made an incredible 833 pots! Yes, I counted them!  The tedious part comes when I have to load them one-by-one into my kiln. Scoop them out after firing. Dip each one in glaze with tongs. Wipe glaze off the bottom of EACH one. Load each one into the kiln again. The next day is Christmas for me. It is like opening a package because you are never quite sure how they will come out. The outcome is looking down on 833 brightly glazed tiny pots... an awesome sight. They change from flat grays and browns to little jewels. It;s wonderful. It's what keeps me making more.



                                                         


and the after photo...

I will see you there.... And did I mention the Regional #7 Event is FREE and has food too?

Come out and have a nice shopping experience.

EKP... East Knoll Potterys' Stamp.... Reggie the potters stamp for Minniatures...

I have come to be known as Reggie the potter.

Locals, my students and on my travels around the country, folks now know me as Reggie the potter. Sometimes I answer the phone as, "Reggie the potter speaking". Sometimes I introduce myself as, "Hi, I'm Reggie the potter.  This past weekend I finally got to go to St Johns pottery in Collegeville MN, I introduced myself to a famous potter in residence there, Richard Bresnahan, as Reggie the potter.

I am also known now for my miniature pottery. Little gems of colorful glazed clay pots. "Still only $3..." at my shows.

Years ago when I first started demonstrating at the Goshen Fair in Connecticut, I made large pots for three days at the fair. I would be at the fair from 8:00 in the morning till 8:00 at night. As all potters know, throwing a pot on a wheel is a fairly quick procedure, especially mugs and small jugs.  All the visitors wanted to see me throw a pot on the wheel and the Goshen fair has a steady stream of visitors. By the end of each day, I would have scores of thrown pots, still damp and heavy to transport home in my car. Some pots I could trim and put handles on the next day, but again, people wanted to see me throw a pot so by the time the fair was over I would come home to scores of pots in various stages of drying and have to finish them up.

I have two girls, younger at that time with doll houses so I had begun to make little pots for their dolls.  One day at the fair, I showed someone how to make them off a hump of clay and that began my career as the miniature potter.  It has worked out wonderfully for me. Not only do I enjoy making, decorating and glazing thousands of them each year, but I can make them at the fair with a small amount of (heavy) clay, dry them by the end of a summers day, pack them in layers of sawdust from the Goshen shingle mill outside my door and bring a little box of gems home ready to fire and glaze. Soon these will be poured into the basket bin at the next fair for sale... "Still only $3"... and the circle continues.  Fun.

I have a little stamp I put on the bottom... EKP. East Knoll Pottery, the name of my works, is the name of my old house in Torrington Connecticut.  East Knoll was the name given the little brick house I live in, on a knoll on the east side of an old highway in my little village.

Quite a few visitors lift up my little pots and ask me what the EKP stands for, so I thought I would clear it up.

This year I have some new items along with the old standards. I have new Momma and Poppa molded gnomes. I have sold out of my first batch of cast gnomes and need to make another batch next month for my fall circuit. I have my chef heads for tooth picks, Krampus and troll heads, little bowls, pitchers, face jugs and swirly plates. Lots of George Ohr influenced vases and a few coveted piggy banks. I have more of the little jugs with naked mermaids and popular deer drawings. My cows and sheep drawings are improving too.

Come and see them all at this years fairs.  For my long standing customers, I will be in the same spot again at the Big E in Springfield in September.

All my minis will have my little EKP stamp on them. Come and collect some more! See my fair listings below...

http://www.eastknollpottery.com/demonstrations.html

Francis Cooke, Mayflower Passenger, Wool Carder by Trade

Looking into my genealogy I have found mostly farmers, blacksmiths, sugar makers, florists, mechanics and factory workers in my past. I did find a potter connection in Vermont in the 1800s. Just recently, after 16 years of working on my family genealogy, I finally came across a Mayflower ancestor, Francis Cooke. His occupation was listed as a Wool Carder. What does that mean in 1620 New England?

Cute girls in linsey woolsey fabric dress

How much need for a wool carder was there in Plymouth MA in the 1620s? Born in England about 1583, Francis was living in Leiden by April 1603, when he worked there as a wool comber. 

The only animals for certain on the Mayflower were two dogs, an English mastiff and an English spaniel. There were probably a few chickens, there was talk of giving given chicken broth to an ill Wampanoag native American. Five more ships brought more Pilgrims and more supplies, including cattle to the Plymouth colony between the 1620 Mayflower till the mention of sheep in 1628. In 1623 there were listed on a following ship, six goats, fifty pigs and many chickens. No sheep. In 1628 there were exchanges of lambs for cows going on, but it is not certain when the lambs first showed up. 

Francis was there to show them all how to comb and card the wool. What is the difference between combing and carding.  When did people shift from combing to carding and why? 

"Before the arrival of hand-carders, only combs were in existence, and it is possible that short-staple wools were simply tease by hand before spinning. However it may also be that combs were used in a more general way on all fibres." 
"English Medieval Industries", edited by Blair and Ramsay

For worsted yarn, simple wood combs were used to separate and straighten the fibers. The teeth of the combs might be wooden or, as the Middle Ages progressed, iron. A pair of combs were used, and the wool would be transferred from one comb to the other and back again until fibers had been straightened and aligned.

combs

In the central Middle Ages cards were introduced. These were flat boards with many rows of short, sharp metal hooks. By placing a handful of wool on one card and combing it until it had been transferred to the other, and then repeating the process several times, a light, airy fiber would result. Carding separated wools more effectively than combing, and it did so without losing the shorter fibers. It was also a good way to blend together different types of wool.

cards

William Bradford wrote that there were ordered on board the Mayflower 125 yards of Kersey, 175 [ellons?] of linen cloth. In 1636 there was an order for every householder to plant one square rod of flax or hemp per year. Cotton was unknown in those days. It is not written, but we can assume at least one spinning wheel was on board, although perhaps, they only brought the necessary metal parts for wheels and looms and assembled them with Massachusetts wood when they were able.  Or maybe they brought or carved drop spindles? It is more likely that spinning wheels were brought over on the Fortune or Anne(1631 and 1623). In England and Holland, many pilgrims were engaged in the fiber trades and occupation. William Bradford was a weaver of a course fabric named Fustian. 


Kersey...
A coarse woolen cloth with a dense twill pattern and napped on one side.

kersey

Linen...

flax plant

flax fiber

linen fabric

Canefas...

The Dutch made a light fabric out of hemp they called canefas, derived from the Latin word cannabis. It resulted in or word 'canvas". Canvas was originally a hemp product.

Hemp in the field

Hemp fibers

Canefas fabric

Linsey-woolsey...

A fabric with a linen warp and woolen weft. The linen is a strong fiber and the wool is warm... a great combination for durability and warmth. (In the Torah, Jewish law forbid wearing it, so it has been around for a long time). I am sure that the Pilgrims started weaving this as soon as they started shearing the sheep. 

linsey woolsey

Fustian...

As far as I can research, is a textile blend of cotton and linen, a hard wearing stout fabric with a short nap.

Fustian

Teasle for creating the nap

the teasel flower

And then came the looms. 

I feel pretty certain that the simple tape loom was soon carved out from a slab of New England wood. They are so easy to make, just the simple plank with holes and slots for the warp.  Soon pilgrims would be weaving narrow bands of cloth for clothing and bags from the wool, flax and hemp my ancestor Francis Cooke had carded. 

English tape loom, Deerfield MA

Want to learn more about tape looms? Search my blog at the top of the page for more of my tape looms blog pages and visit my web site, www.eastknollpottery.com or Amazon to find my book on the history of tape looms and how to weave on them... "Tape Loom Weaving... simplified" 

And for fun... google images for Tape Looms and see the hundreds of individually carved tape looms from all over the world! They are all amazing works of folk art... that worked!

A line-up of funny looking Men... Face Jugs are Fun to make!

Jugs are head shaped! There is a face trapped inside the clay... waiting to come out!











I demonstrate early American pottery at fairs in the Carolina's and Tennessee.  People always stop to ask me if I have been to Seagrove, North Carolina to see the potters there. It is a pottery mecca. You can spend days looking at over 100 potteries in the area today. There was a good quantity of good workable clay so English and German potters started making earthenware in and around Seagrove before the American Revolution. No, I have not been there. Although I have been near it, I have not had the opportunity to stop by. Also, I am usually in a hurry to get to my next gig. And, I am a potter. Although we potters do get together and talk shop, admire each others wares and share information, joys and failures... and a little whining, I don't usually go out of my way to seek them out.  No offense. I will stop by someday when I can.

Many people ask me the origins of face jugs.  I suppose the southern tradition is that they were effigies for slaves to mark their graves. There is a great explanation by a modern potter who makes face jugs in Ashville NC. Jim McDowell, http://www.blackpotter.com. Check it out, very interesting.

I found one old face jug made in New Hampshire. As many potters did not mark their wares, I cannot tell what the history behind it is.

Looking down their noses

Look at a jug. It looks like a head. It is begging to see, hear and talk!  It's just fun to make a face on it. "Put a face on me!"

Some people call them ugly jugs. Some are pretty ugly, some are downright scary.  Were they meant to scare away demons?  Some are silly.  I like both. Deformed ones not so much, realistic ones are creepy too. Sometimes at fairs I ask children to help put faces on my little jugs.  These are about 1" tall and kids come up with great faces. Two of my granddaughters love putting faces on jugs. At 4 and 6 years, they can see faces in the little pots just like I do. The faces just emerge.

little jugs... about 1" tall

"See, we made these, it was fun!"

So here is a new batch of jugs. The corn cobs made fine corks and they are cheap, plentiful, hanging around and pretty cool. If they fall in they will eventually rot and you can get them out again, unlike real cork corks.













I mostly sell at shows, but occasionally sell my jugs on Ebay. Check the jugs below for the most recent postings. If you like them and are interested in seeing more, add me to "follow this seller" and you will receive updates and listings on your Ebay homepage.

Big or small, I like them all.

LF1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331214328540

Lovable faces...

LF2

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331214326614

Creepy faces...

CF1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331214329832

CF2

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331214330804