My Visit to Deneen Pottery
Written by Jay Karen on April 27, 2010 – 4:04 pm
Who is luckier than me? I had the great fortune recently to spend some time at industry-famous Deneen Pottery in St. Paul, Minnesota. I had just spent two wonderful days with innkeepers from all around Minnesota at the Minnesota Bed and Breakfast Association conference, and capped off the visit with a tour of the plant and trying my hand (for the first time) at throwing some pottery on a wheel. To see more photos and an exhilarating video of yours truly trying to throw some pottery, click here to visit my Flickr site.
Peter Deneen gave me the grand tour of his worldwide headquarters, and I was incredibly impressed with his operations. I observed his team in action, pumping out hand-made pottery with amazing speed and precision. With great pride, Peter showed me many examples of how his operation has evolved over many years. While all the pottery is indeed hand-thrown, I was simply amazed at the custom-built machinery that enables his staff to move production along very quickly. Peter is always tinkering with the system to make it that much faster or that much more efficient. I’d love to show some photos of some really ingenious devices, but I would hate to share Peter’s trade secrets.
Deneen Pottery has been producing the commemorative mugs at PAII’s annual convention for many years. We give away about 600 of these great gifts every year! And, I have amassed quite a little collection of my own from my travels to B&Bs across the continent. I’m anxious to see which of my children will pressure me to leave my collection to them in my will.
Thanks, Peter Deneen, for a fantastic tour and for being such a good friend to PAII and the B&B industry. I look forward to seeing you and Niles on the road the rest of 2010 and at the Innkeeping Show in January. Can’t wait to see what the Charleston mug will look like. For all you PAII innkeepers, if you want to buy a beautiful, blue PAII mug, handmade by Deneen Pottery, we sell them here!
Interested in another exhilarating video? Check this out of me using a rotary iron at the Chambered Nautilus B&B in Seattle, WA when I served as an apprentice under innkeeper extraordinaire, Joyce Schulte. Man, do I have fun on the road, or what?
Posted in PAII Travels | 4 Comments »
Jay Karen, President & CEO of the
April 27, 2010 at 7:05 pm...
Jay: I knew you would love the tour. And all that clay, your mug turned out “great”. Thanks for sharing the great photos. Deneen is a real asset to the hospitality business and Peter, Mary and Niles are wonderful to work with.
April 28, 2010 at 12:08 pm...
Hey Jay … not bad for a first throw. Is Peter going to fire it for you? Maybe we can have a line of PAII thrown mugs in Charleston! Thanks for sharing the photos.
May 2, 2010 at 5:40 pm...
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May 6, 2010 at 9:34 am...
[...] In March we, here at Deneen Pottery, decided to do an ad campaign offering a free handmade coffee mug to those that mentioned the add when requesting a catalog on our website… I use the word ‘campaign’ loosely because it was just a single ad, but in a industry leading publication IQ or Innkeeping Quarterly. As PAII is the leading organization in this industry it only makes sense to test the waters with this type of an offer with them. We’ve always found success when working with PAII, and will continue to do so indefinitely! On a side note the president of PAII, Jay Karen, was recently here for a ‘hands on’ tour by our president, and my dad, Peter Deneen. To read up on that tour click here. [...]