Smooth Sale-Ing Since 1983, The Inland Craft Warnings Has Been An Unusually Friendly Gathering Of Area Artisans

Something special occurred back in 1983 when seven local artists invited friends and patrons to gather in the South Hill’s handsome old Glover Mansion for a holiday-themed exhibition and sale.

Despite its curious name - Inland Craft Warnings - the event exuded unusual warmth.

Since then, the autumn arts and crafts sale has grown, moved and moved again. But throughout its peripatetic evolution, Inland Craft has maintained the sense of intimacy that distinguished it from the start.

This morning, 51 of the Northwest’s finest artisans will convene in the downtown Crescent Court’s lower exhibition hall to rekindle old friendships, make new ones and help buyers choose the perfect gift, self-indulgence or future heirloom.

“In the age of the computer,” observed long-time participant Gina Freuen, “Inland Craft Warnings artists look to craft-making as a way to hold onto their humanity … and increase their own and their clients’ quality of life.”

Among this year’s artists is Patrick Eckman, who traveled all the way from central Montana for this, his second Inland Craft Warnings.

It’s rare for Eckman to set up shop outside the cozy, 200-resident mountain community where he lives, works and operates his Basin Creek Pottery and Gallery. “I only do maybe two shows a year,” noted the easy-going 47-year-old. “Nowadays, going to shows is an excuse to get out of town more than anything else.”

Eckman, who earned his fine arts degree at Indiana State University, moved to Montana two decades ago to study at Helena’s internationally renowned Archie Bray Foundation for the Ceramic Arts.

Afterward, he and his wife, Joan, settled in Basin - a quiet, century-old, gold-mining community just off Interstate 15 between Helena and Butte.

About that time, Eckman began experimenting with what he calls his “painterly” style.

“Instead of using different colors of glaze,” he explained, “I painted on the pottery with brushes and an airbrush.”

Few university-educated American potters were producing colorful pieces back then, preferring instead to use reduction glazes and muted tones.

So when brightly colored, functional pottery began to catch on in the early ‘80s, “suddenly I was set. I had the technique figured out for years. I was selling everything I could make.”

Instead of relying on high-volume, wholesale transactions with far-flung galleries, Eckman concentrated on building clientele through word-of-mouth and retail sales in his gallery, just across Basin Creek from his home, where three goats keep the lawn in check.

Today, Eckman caters to a steady flow of customers seeking him out in his studio or placing orders over the phone.

His pieces range from $12 coffee mugs to $500 decorative vases. He fires them at 2,250 degrees for 14 to 16 hours, giving them the strength to withstand everyday use.

“I’m not pushing the bounds of Western thought here,” Eckman says self-mockingly, “but people respond to my work. They like the colors and the designs. They like it in their homes, and they like to use it.”

Often, clients request custom pieces to complement their decor.

“I could have a business just making sinks if I wanted to,” Eckman acknowledged during a recent interview among his gas- and wood-fired kilns. Decorated with trout or other images, his sinks sell for $185 to $300.

But making only sinks - even for a guy who chose to live in a town called Basin - isn’t Eckman’s idea of happiness.

He prefers to do what he feels like doing, whether that’s extracting natural clay from a nearby mine, remodeling the dilapidated old Catholic mission church he rescued and converted to studio space, or taking the day off to spend time with his wife and three kids - the actress, the saxophonist and the football player.

Eckman says he’s still a potter after two decades “because I love the lifestyle, the rhythm of a potter’s life: walking to work; having the freedom, the control of my life.

“When I’m throwing pots and listening to jazz or blues, I never want to stop.

“I’m not in pottery to make a lot of money,” he says. “I got into this to have a creative life.

“I don’t have much money, but I have everything I need, and quite a bit of what I want. What more can you ask for?”

Eckman and 50 other artists - including glass blowers, woodworkers, weavers, photographers and jewelry makers - will be available to talk about their work all weekend in the Cresent Court’s lower exhibition hall.

On Monday from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., Eckman will offer a free pottery workshop at Spokane Falls Community College’s Art Department. For more information, contact SFCC instructor Mardis Nenno at 533-4412.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 3 Color Photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: INLAND CRAFT WARNINGS Inland Craft Warnings opens today and continues through Sunday at the Cresent Court lower exhibition hall in downtown Spokane. Hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. today, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $2 today from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., $3.50 thereafter.