Ginger's Glass Art - Featured Artist

Flynn Sochon Talks about his work

"I began my pottery career in 1966. After several location changes over the years, we have most recently settled in Twin Lake, Michigan.

All of my current work is created from porcelain, and designed from a unique combination of hand building and wheel thrown techniques. All functional pieces are intended for daily use, are microwave and oven safe, and are lead-free.

We take pride in knowing that all of our work is one of a kind! All of the creative work is done by me. Because of the way I work and the random nature of the glaze technique, it is intentional that the shapes, sizes and colors vary from piece to piece. Each object is intended to have an individual look and feel, much like every person is unique.

Our colors have been created by many years of trial and error experimentation. The colors are a blend of several layers of glaze, washes, slips and other ingredients layered over one another to create the unique colors for which my objects are known.

My wife Halona, (also a part-time potter), helps periodically with the mixing of glazes and firing of kilns, and other miscellaneous shop chores. We have no other assistants. We use no commercially prepared clay or glazes and all the formulas that we use are our own creation.

Recently I have been incorporating wood lids for my covered vessels and reversing the process by making wooden vessels with porcelain lids, handles and feet. In 2007, I also began making tile inlay end and entry tables.

I am very proud of our unique shapes and glazes. My work has appeared on HGTV’s Carol Duvall Show. The segment highlighted how we create our teapots and other hand built and wheel thrown shapes. Currently my work is represented in 140 shops and galleries throughout the U.S."

Flynn awakes daily around 5:00 am and shortly thereafter is in his studio working. He is not a man who likes to be idle, and he has been diligently stocking inventory for the up-coming show season. I couldn’t believe how many beautiful pieces he had, and there were still 3 very large kilns to be unloaded, and many more pieces waiting to be fired! This is all the more amazing as I learned that he does it all himself. Other than his wife Halona, who assists him with some of the tasks in the studio, he has no other help.

I had the pleasure of making the trip with Kim Clark, who many of you have met on Saturdays when she assists me in the store (on one of her days off from her full time job!) Kim did all the driving, since we took her husband’s SUV with LOTS of room in the back. After we were given the grand tour and informed about the various processes involved in making pottery, we were directed to the very large storage area. I was like the proverbial “kid in a candy store” as I walked among the many, many shelves loaded with beautiful pieces.

Flynn instructed me to pull anything I was interested in. Items were then taken to the other room and arranged on a very large table from which I could make my final decision. Kim dutifully ran back and forth with the pieces which I had selected, so it was very easy for me to loose track of how many items I had chosen. When confronted with the decision of which pieces to eliminate, I had a very difficult time, wanting to keep all of them. I finally narrowed the selection a bit, but not much. It’s a good thing we didn’t have an even bigger vehicle, or I might have been tempted to keep more!

We have arranged most of the new pottery in our front window, which makes a great display! I would like to invite you to come by soon, while the selection is best.

We have a special offer during May, so please click here for more details.

I hope to see you soon in the store to show you these wonderful pieces in person...

Ginger