Newsletter Excerpts
From the April 2010 Edition

President’s Message
by Bev Kadrmas    

Convention in Grand Forks was fun and the UND display of pottery at the Columbia Mall was great.  There were treasures brought into the road show on Thursday night, great pieces of pottery at the art show; and auction and show and sale.  The speakers at the banquet were Lorene Jasper, Curtis Rustand, and Ken Forster. It was great to get an inside view of the personal side of some of the UND potters as discussed at the banquet by Lorene Jasper, whom was a student at UND under the era of Margaret Cable.

Thanks to Quent Christman and Don Miller co-chairs and all their members who helped make this memorable and also to the Art Department of UND.   There was great publicity and advertising for this convention and hopefully we will gain some new members from the publicity.  Part of our banquet speaker was on the local TV news for Grand Forks on Saturday evening.

Gayette Fratzke was nominated to the board of directors to replace Bill Bakken whose term will be over in 12/2010.   Bill Bakken has been appointed Endowment chairman beginning in 2011.  At the annual meeting, the board recommended that our club donated $500 to Mandan Historical Society; $500 to Towner County Historical Society and $500.00 to Ashley Public Library.  Earlier this year, our club made a donation of Rosemeade pottery given in Memoriam of Cliff Olson to the Richland County Historical Society in the amount of $300.00.   The Club requested the interest to date from the Clarence O. and Ardeen Sveum Endowment Fund which was around $450.00 and said funds be applied to one of the above endowments and we paid the difference.

2011 is scheduled for Bismarck/Mandan at Bismarck and those plans are in the works now for next year (more details will be in future newsletters), and 2012 is scheduled for Fargo and Co-chairs are Don and Rose Goerger.  Until next newsletter, good luck treasure hunting! 

Potter/Artist & Collector Displays Featured at 2010 NDPCS Banquet

The NDPCS Banquet held Saturday evening June 12^th at the North Dakota Museum of Art featured UND pottery displays along with presentations by Lorene Jasper, 1930’s UND potter and artist, from Grand Forks and Curtis Rustand, UND pottery collector, from Fargo.

 Curt Rustand displayed 12 rare UND pottery items from his personal collection. Among the items displayed included: a. Bentonite vase, Indian on horse-back & buffalo, incised Schnell 1946; b. “North Dakota Products” vase, by Cable for Pres. Budd of the Great Northern Railway, 1927; c. Tree Vase, 14” by Cable - 1917, largest known decorated UND vase; additional vases made by Cable along with items made by Julia Mattson, Irene Nelson, Grace Carlson were shown.

 Curtis stated he started collecting UND pottery items about the time of the 1989 Barr pottery auction sale.  He was attracted to collecting the famous pottery of Margaret Kelly Cable. In a WDAZ TV News interview, Curt said, “I think that that’s probably exemplary of the best pottery that was made here. That, I think, is very significant because of who she was, what she did, and all her accomplishments. And her influence on so many people, even through today.” “It’s her style, it’s her craftsmanship, and certainly her designs” says Curt as he referred to collecting Cable era pottery.

Lorene Jasper, 96 years young, of Grand Forks worked as secretary for the dean at the School of Mines. The dean asked Lorene to become acquainted with what they did there and go down in the Ceramic Department and learn something about the pottery.  She became a student and friend of Margaret Cable and made and designed pottery pieces during the mid 1930’s thru the 1940’s.  Lorene became close friends with Julia Mattson, Ruth Schnell and others in the Ceramics Department. She and her husband purchased Mattson’s lake cabin in the 1950’s. In a WDAZ TV News interview, Jasper said, “The concept of the ceramics at that time was changing. It wasn’t just going to make things for electricity [commercial use-bricks, porcelain insulators, etc.] and things like that. It was going to be for pottery and for sale.” She stated, “Ceramics was turning into an art-form then, and Cable mixed poetry into her pottery.” Lorene brought and displayed four of her pieces to the banquet. They included: Two cobalt blue glazed sgraffito vases; a bentonite vase and a western designed lamp which she said pointing to the lamp “…that one there, you can see its quite involved – it took a little skill and time” She commented that she had made nicer pieces but had given them away as gifts to her sisters. 

 The plate centerpieces pictured at the right were made by Don Miller and given away during the banquet.  Don Miller is the photo on the right of the centerpiece pictures.

 Click here for more information on the 2010 NDPCS Convention