Red Wing Pottery – An Interesting Find
It’s always interesting to learn of a pottery that you didn’t know existed. This past week, Brian and I visited my son and his wife in Minneapolis. They suggested that a visit to a local winery would be a fun thing to do on a gorgeous Fall day. We headed to Falconry Vineyards in Red Wing, Minnesota. When I heard the word “Red Wing”, I immediately thought Red Wing Work boots.
In the town of Red Wing, Minnesota, there is a pottery. It was operational between the late 1890’s to the 1960’s. Believe it or not, it closed due to a labor strike over wages. It is too bad that they couldn’t work it out, to continue offering hand made storage jugs and more.
Today, one part of the original pottery is a museum and another part is a studio offering clay classes. Pretty cool. One couple, the Schleich’s, collected Red Wing Pottery for more than 30 years. By 2001, they had acquired more than 5,000 pieces. They decided a museum was required. So, they donated money to make that happen in Nebraska. A few years ago, they arranged to have the collection moved to where it started in Red Wing, Minnesota.
One of the more interesting facts: Women would sit at tables all day long and make just two strokes on a piece of pottery with glaze, then pass it to the next painter for their two strokes. Can you imagine doing that all day long? I would go nuts!
Red Wing was unusual in that it used two colors on their storage jugs. The number told someone how much it would hold. I don’t remember how much liquid this jug holds. It looks like Brian could almost fit inside of it.
