David Stewart Lion's Valley pottery

I have a few thrift store White Whales, and David Stewart Lion's Valley pottery is one of them. David Stewart was a potter in San Diego in the 1970s. I absolutely love his work. I mean, I like a lot of pottery from that era, but the combination of the terra cotta with the neutral glaze, being the perfect size for cactus and succulents, and the goofy animals...I'm sold.
After finding a Gainey Ceramics planter in DC a few months ago (and walking through the store with it going, "Bob! It is my White Whale!"), I had been really holding out hope that I would find some David Stewart pottery. When we were in California, I did find one nice Stoneware Designs West piece, but no Lion's Valley- not even at the Rose Bowl!

I was very dejected.

Then last week, we went thrifting in Baltimore- and what was in the first Value Village that we walked into? (No, not the crazy man who kept trying to talk to me about how glassware "really makes you think," or the vintage Coleman ice chest that I almost bought to use as a coffee table and kind of regret not getting).

Absolutely perfect condition Lion's Valley pottery bird planter! It doesn't have the sticker, but looks

otherwise untouched. Now on Etsy, it can be yours!

These are the two pieces I have; I bought the snail on Etsy and the alligator was a present.

Here's my dresser with some pottery, and a cactus in a planter that I made:

Anyway, I want all of these animal friends to come live with me.

Bees Knees and Biscuits on Etsy

Austin Metro Retro on Etsy

Sassy Irish Lass on Etsy

Swear to Mod on Etsy

In addition to the animal planters, he also made other planters, figures, bowls, etc. 

Please note this nice opuntia in a Lion's Valley Pottery planter on The Brick House. Which is like my favorite blog ever. 

Temple of Vintage on Etsy

A La Modern on Etsy

Cement Pots!

Check out these awesome cement planters I made! I'll have these available at the Dox in the Dez table at the Punk Rock Flea market this Sunday in Philly.

Long Island Thrift Review

We went thrifting in Long Island on Friday and it was kind of... meh. I was hoping that if we went out far enough, it would not be too picked by people from NYC, but I don't think that's the case.  

I still got some pretty good stuff. Some good planters- I particularly like the brown lava glaze planter, I am tempted to keep it. I also got a small Stoneage Modern planter (from Zanesville!), a hanging studio pottery planter, little elephant planters, Dansk glass candleholders, and a Catherine Holm saucepan. I was very excited to find the Catherine Holm, since I've been keeping an eye out for it and was beginning to think that her designs are just not to be found on the East coast. Unfortunately it is missing the lid, but it's in really good shape otherwise. 

Dream Car/Zanesville, OH

So when I was driving to New Jersey from Texas, I stopped in Zanesville, OH. Why did I do that, you might ask? Well, BESIDES the standard offerings of every thriving metropolis in the coal belt, Zanesville was also the location of McCoy pottery, and I think also some other Ohio potteries of the same time period. So I wanted to stop and go to thrift stores in hopes of finding some pottery. It was kind of underwhelming. Google maps said there were three Goodwills and one other charity-related thrift store in Zanesville, but if there were, I could not find them. There were, respectively, a CVS, an empty lot, and an apartment building where three of the four were supposed to be. 1 for 4 is not such a good ratio, Google maps.
At the Goodwill that actually existed, there was a little bit of pottery but nothing crazy. I also was there at 4 p.m. on a Sunday, i.e., THE WORST time to go to a thrift store, in my opinion. I got one little green planter from Ungemach Pottery(UPCO) with a kind of cactus-y pattern. I like the green, and I think the pattern will look really nice with a cactus planted in it.

After that, while I was driving to the supposed Goodwill that is actually a CVS, I drove past a used car lot with an AWESOME car in it. For those that do not know, one of my life goals is to own a cruck at some point. Probably an El Camino, because they are pretty much the defining vehicle of the style, but I am open to other crucks with similarly desert/ Southwestern-themed names. Also, I love the color orange.

At that point I was pretty frustrated and still had a 7 hour drive in front of me, so I headed back towards the highway. On the way I saw this awesome sign next to a church:

The thing about any event of significance is that you HAVE to create hype. That shit had better be exclusive. If you wake up on October 27 and are like, "you know what I would really like for lunch today? Saurkraut," TOO BAD. You should have thought ahead and bought advanced tickets, because they aren't taking just anyone who shows up. Maybe if you know the bouncer or are really hot you'll be alright, I don't know.

While I was in Zanesville, I definitely did not see anyone who had used meth in the past week. Definitely not. Also did not see anyone pushing a broken push mower down the street while drinking Mountain Dew and chirping on a push-to-talk phone. Nope.