Kay Yourist opens the kiln after its first firing. It's a brick-by-brick process. The top row is labeling for ease of re-assembly.

By the time The Chronicle arrived at Yourist Gallery on Broadway Street last Wednesday, the temperature had cooled from its maximum of 2300F° to around 170F°.  The owner of the gallery, Kay Yourist, had donned giant leather gloves to open the door to her new kiln after its first complete firing the previous night.

The door to the kiln is actually a wall of un-mortared bricks that gets opened and closed by stacking and unstacking the wall brick by brick. The top few rows of bricks, which were sourced through Schad Boiler Setting Company in Detroit, are custom shaped to match the arch of the kiln’s roof, and labeled to prevent the door-closing task from evolving into a puzzle-solving exercise.

Even though we were there to see the opening, we got a chance to see a bit of the closing process, too – Yourist had actually begun the opening process before we arrived. But she indulged us by first re-stacking the bricks into a solid wall, so we’d have a clearer idea of how it worked.

Unstacking the bricks was slow going at first, but once Yourist had un-wedged the top row, the pace picked up. It wasn’t long before the top front layer of pottery pieces became visible. The kiln has three tiers and a front and a back, so the volume of art work we saw was about a sixth of the kiln’s total capacity.

This collection of pieces was the first to become visible during the unstacking process. It's one of six sections in the three-tiered, two-sided kiln.

It was a story we’d been tracking since talking to Yourist late last year. She’d initially hoped to complete the first firing before the end of 2008, but a mis-communication on the permitting and inspection side of things led to the delay. Hers is a commercial installation, and the initial design had satisfied requirements for a household installation. The key difference was the requirement that the chimney be made of brick as opposed to a steel pipe, and to construct a brick chimney – with mortar, unlike the kiln door – required a moderation in the weather, which finally came a few weeks ago.

On the day before tax day, Yourist emailed us to say that they’d finally passed the mechanical inspection.

A sign in the gallery soliciting contributions to help fund the new kiln indicates there are 1,000 bricks costing about $3 apiece. Yourist said that the dollar amounts of the contributions over the last year and a half were not huge but around 100 people had participated. So it was a way for people to contribute however much they were able, she explained. She said it was particularly gratifying when a child would visit the studio, see the sign, and want to become a part of the project.

Beyond the $3 cost per brick, the project cost included the construction, the gas heating element, plus the remodeling of the studio to provide access to the outdoor kiln. The total cost of the project came to around  $30,000. The design for the work was done by rizzolobrown + novak, with construction completed by Monal, Inc.

Why make the $30,000 capital investment? Yourist said, “I want to give our students the best they can have. If you give people the best you can give, then people will notice.” She explained that part of the project will entail teaching the students at the pottery studio how to use the new kiln. Once the initial learning curve is overcome, she imagined that the big kiln will be fired about once a week.

How much natural gas does it take to fire up the kiln? Yourist said they’ll be able to measure that exactly, because there’s a dedicated gas line just for the kiln.

The contrast between the electric kilns that Yourist has been using and the new gas kiln is the kind of atmosphere that exists inside the kiln during firing. In an electric kiln, you’re just adding heat, so there’s no reduction in oxygen content. With the gas kiln, there’s less oxygen, due to combustion, and the additional carbon adds more interest to the glazes on the pots, Yourist explained. It means that predicting results with the gas kiln is a little harder.

As for the studio’s three electric kilns – they’re not getting fired, erm, or  they’re still going to get fired, too. That is, Yourist is keeping the electric kilns.

Celebratory champagne.

Permits and inspections for the kiln and the remodeling work.

Thermometer for the kiln.

Ooooh WARM!

The Sunday Artisan Market banner, made by artist Cheri Reiman, who sells tie-dye clothing at the market.

Maybe it was pre-FestiFools roaming, or maybe it was spillover from the NCAA tournament in Detroit – whatever the reason, crowds were bigger than on any previous opening day at Ann Arbor’s Sunday Artisan Market, according to the group’s vice president, Joan Hutchinson. It wasn’t clear whether those people were actually buying, though – vendors we talked to had mixed experiences.

Kate Kehoe, whose notebooks made from old video box covers are the reporter notebooks of choice for The Chronicle, said she was having a pretty good day. Some of the people who’d passed through included a group decked out in Tar Heels regalia, she said. (The University of North Carolina team beat Villanova on Saturday and faces Michigan State University in Monday’s championship game.)

Mike Grady, who makes wood-turned objects, said he’d sold exactly one corkscrew all day. The cold weather, the economy – who knows what makes people spend their money, or not? He hopes next Sunday will be better.

The three Js, from left: Jane Kent, Jane Holt and Joan Hutchinson, at Kent's pottery booth. All three are officers on the artisan market board.

Hutchinson said more than 60 vendors have signed up to have a weekly spot at the market, which runs from Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., April through December.

They pay $200 annually for their booth. In addition, the market includes “dailies” – artisans who show up on an ad hoc basis week-to-week. They pay $15 a week to get a space on a first come, first served basis.

With more than 200 spots in the covered area – which is also home to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market on Saturdays – there’s room to grow, Hutchinson says.

In terms of raising awareness about the market, she says, “I think of it as a destination market, and we haven’t made it there yet.”

Shoppers at the Sunday Artisan market in Kerrytown.

Mary Baker makes these kaleidoscopes out of Pringles cans.

Barn paintings by M. Royal Schroll.

Joan Hutchinson sells smudge – bundles of dried herbs that are used as incense and in healing rituals.

Marjorie Johns sells handmade herbal soaps. Her business is named Stone Cloud Gardens. Her husband sells the same soaps under the name Bob's Wife's Soaps.

Across North Fourth Avenue in Braun Court, folks were setting up Sunday for the FestiFeast, a barbeque and evening of entertainment following the FestiFools parade and hosted by the aut bar.

Look for these signs to guide you to the Chapel Hill clubhouse, off of Green Road.

This year, Judy White organized her first holiday craft show, held today and Friday at the Chapel Hill Clubhouse on Ann Arbor’s northeast side. Here’s a quick Chronicle guide to how she pulled it off – we’d also encourage you drop by and check out the final result, where 15 local crafters will be selling wooden bird houses, jewelry, aprons, photographs, scarves, ornaments and other handmade items.

Step 1: Be obsessive

White was diagnosed with cancer in 1997, and though she’s a writer and editor by trade, during chemo “I couldn’t form complete sentences,” she says. In desperation to keep her mind occupied, she started twisting colored wires into paper clips, which turned into a bit of a compulsion. And to her surprise, there turned out to be a market for these little swirls, called Clippits – for years she sold them at stores around Ann Arbor. She has since added to her craft repertoire, making hammered copper and sterling jewelry, and knitting baby jackets and caps.

Judy White

Step 2: Lose your mind

If you’ve never organized an event like this, it seems like a simple thing. Only when you’ve already made a commitment to do it do you realize what you’re in for. White had never even taken part in a craft show before – that’s true for many of the people who are participating. It’s been a bit of a logistical challenge, and at times she told her husband that if she ever talks about doing it again, “just slap me.”

Step 3: Find a venue, and use cookies as bribes

The clubhouse at the Chapel Hill condo complex is spacious with lots of natural lighting. It’s often used for wedding receptions and parties, and seemed perfect for a small-ish craft show. White didn’t really want a large event. When she went to the popular Saline Craft Show, which draws around 10,000 people, she took one look at the crowd and drove back to Ann Arbor. “I don’t like gingham that much,” she admits.

The clubhouse manager isn’t charging her for the space – but that might change if they do it again, White says. “I’ve been plying them with cookies. But how long can you pay people with cookies, really?” (The Chronicle saw a plate of cookies in the clubhouse while we were there, and the correct answer is: A really long time.)

Laura Wolf and some of her birdhouses.

Step 4: Enlist other crafters, and Moose

White put the word out at the condo complex, which has more than 400 units, but also contacted others she knew, like Laura Wolf, who does handywoman tasks for many residents at Chapel Hill. Wolf uses weathered wood to make her unique birdhouses – some are made from old porch posts. She was setting up her table on Wednesday afternoon, bringing the outside in with sweeping evergreen branches to frame her work.

Don Kenney, who picked up photography when he retired from Concordia 10 years ago, lives in Chapel Hill and is selling some of his photographs, many of which have been artistically altered by computer. In one, Kenney colorized an X-ray of an artichoke. Many of his pieces incorporate images from nature.

Elke Ferris makes intricately woven scarves and belts – including one in a maize & blue color scheme. She’s recently retired from the Ann Arbor Convention & Visitors Bureau, and hopes she’ll have more time now for her craft work.

Then there’s Moose, who on Wednesday was providing all sorts of energy as people set up their displays. When Moose enters the room – Mr. Mouse, to the ladies – he instantly becomes the center of attention. Which is good, because his own attention span is pretty short, even for a dog. Every event like this needs a Moose.

Step 5: Set modest goals

“I would just like to be able to support my little wire habit,” White says. Several people who’ll be selling at the event say they’d be happy if they could cover the cost of their materials. But they likely wouldn’t mind making a little extra, too.

As The Chronicle was chatting with White, a Chapel Hill resident walked by, surveyed the activity and declared, “You’ve done a magnificent job!” We’d have to agree.

Laura Wolf holds a bird sold at Heavenly Metal in downtown Ann Arbor. She nestled it into her display of handmade birdhouses.

Elke Ferris models one over her colorful belts.

Judy White holds her hand-knit jacket and cap for infants.

Moose is blurry in this photo because he never stops moving.

Some signs at the Sept. 28 Artisan Market, promoting the Oct. 5 Etsy show.

Kate Kehoe has lots of energy, creative and otherwise. You get a sense of that if you visit her booth at the Sunday Artisan Market, where she sells notebooks made out of vintage album covers and video boxes, LPs formed into bowls, a variety of cards and pins – all made by her, by hand.

It’s the Etsy way.

She’s also funneling a good bit of energy into organizing the Oct. 5 Etsy show, where about 30 vendors – mostly from the Ann Arbor area – will be selling their wares in this second annual event, held in the Ann Arbor Farmers Market area in Kerrytown.

If you’re asking, “What the heck is Etsy?” well, you’re forgiven for not having hipster cred. Read on.

Etsy is an online market for all things handmade. Launched three years ago and growing in popularity, it’s a way for crafty DIY types to market and sell their products online without investing in their own website. A lot of items are made from vintage or repurposed materials – like the record-cover notebooks that Kehoe sells.

Just as important, though, is the social aspect of the site – forums where users can share tips, get advice, find supplies or grouse, all with like-minded compatriots.

“It’s really a very strong community,” Kehoe says.

You can search by category or geographic area, and there’s an eclectic range of items with an Ann Arbor connection. Here are some of the things you’ll find online:

• KaRe Package Baby Clothing, with images of eggplants, carrots, pumpkins, hearts and more on baby Ts and onesies made from organic cotton.
• Porcelain dog and cat pins, sold by “Popogirl.”
• Prints of an original painting by John Tebeau, of a bottle and mug of Arbor Brewing Co.’s Brasserie Blonde beer. (Tebeau did the label designs for the bottles.)
• Hand-dyed boiled wool hats by Scottys Ellys Fleece.
• Clothing, jewelry and other items from a collective of artists called SAAMAA.
• Pins of Ypsilanti-related objects and images – like manhole covers and cemetery etchings – sold by Maproom Systems.

Kate Kehoe

Some people who use Etsy, like Kehoe, are regulars at the Sunday Artisan Market, too. But for many who’ll be selling next Sunday at the Etsy aisle – they’ll be set up along the covered section nearest to Kerrytown Market & Shops – it’s their first show. There’ll be photography, leather handbags, fiber art, jewelry, clothing and more.

Kehoe first got permission for the show from the Public Market Advisory Commission, then used the Etsy network to get the word out about the event. Exhibitors are paying $25 each for their space, she says, which covers market fees plus promotional costs.

In some ways, it might actually be an easier introduction to Etsy to check out their Oct. 5 show in person, rather than tackling the website. Rob Walker, writing in the December 2007 New York Times Magazine, described the Etsy experience this way:

LP bowls are among the many items that Kate Kehoe makes and sells on Etsy.com and at the Artisan Market.

“Browsing Etsy is both exhilarating and exhausting. There is enough here to mount an astonishing museum exhibition. There is also plenty of junk. Most of all there is a dizzying amount of stuff, and it is similarly difficult to figure out how to characterize what it all represents: an art movement, a craft phenomenon or shopping trend. Whatever this is, it’s not something that Etsy created but rather something that it is trying to make bigger, more visible and more accessible – partly by mixing high-minded ideas about consumer responsibility with the unsentimental notion of the profit motive.”

Bottom line for many Etsy-ites? They’re having a blast following their inner artist – and if they make some money at it, so much the better.

And as for the name, well, its meaning remains a mystery. “They won’t tell us,” Kehoe says.

Etsy @ The Market: Sunday, Oct. 5 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. during the Artisan Market, 315 Detroit St., next to Kerrytown Market & Shops.