About Bur Oak

Founded in 2002, Bur Oak Pottery is the realization of a dream shared by Ed Klein and his wife Laura. Both Ed and Laura have worked for prominent potteries in Wisconsin at different points in their lives (Laura continues to work for a worldwide known Wisconsin pottery) but they wanted a place where they could create works in a style of art that better reflected their personalities.

Using the talent they were born with, they now enjoy working for themselves - creating an art nouveau style of pottery that is infused with a love of nature and a dark English sense of humor. Ed and Laura are great fans of the wonderful works of the Martin Brothers pottery. They take much inspiration from the Wally birds created by Robert Wallace Martin and have started their own line of birds. They also offer many other Martin inspired pieces such face jugs and pitchers and grotesque spoon jars. Ed enjoys working on sculpting the birds and other creatures. Laura, in addition to throwing all the base forms for every piece at Bur Oak, enjoys making the more stylized vases and spoon jars.

All pieces created at Bur Oak are hand made, no molds or stamps are ever employed in the creation of any piece. Each piece is bisque fired to remove any moisture in the clay, carefully glazed by hand, then wood fired with a salt glaze.

The firing is a ritual unto itself. Good hardwood must be obtained. Enough wood to sustain the 20 hours of firing must be split and stacked before they can start. The fire must be feed constantly until the target temperature is achieved (in excess of 2300 degrees F). Salt is added to the fire, then the temperature must be maintained for at least an hour in order for the salt to melt properly and give the desired effect. Ed and Laura have learned that there is no predictability with wood firing. Opening the kiln after each load is an adventure, glazes react differently each time. Wood firing continues Ed and Laura's desire to give each customer a truly unique and one-of-a-kind piece of art, since there is little predictability in how something will turn out in the end. Because of that, any time you see a piece that you love, grab it up - you'll never see another just like it.

About the Klein Family

Ed and Laura both maintain full time jobs out side of the pottery. They have two young children (Sean and Liam) as well as a grown married son (Derek). The family also includes an English Bulldog, Buck, a "voluptuous" cat, Alice (it hurts her feelings when you call her fat) and the baby of the family a Victorian Bulldog, Megan. Laura enjoys biking, planting a garden each spring and raising chickens. Ed enjoys making improvements to their Victorian style home and playing practical jokes on his co-workers.

As you can imagine, there are many family and work demands on Ed and Laura's time. They are the only employees of Bur Oak Pottery -- This has dictated that the firing schedule for Bur Oak be every two to three months. Please keep this in mind when ordering. And remember, patience is a virtue.

Ordering Information

Bur Oak maintains a Gallery that showcases works that have previously been done. At this time, Bur Oak does not accept payments via Credit Card, although we do accept money orders in U.S. dollars and wire payments. Those in the Minneappolis area please visit Century Studios to see some of our available pieces.

Bur Oak is happy to accept customized orders as long as the piece retains a retail appeal. For example, you may request a bird similar to that of Bird 2 from our Gallery, or a face pot with a certain type of expression. This, while customizing it to your taste, will still appeal to our general buying public - should in fact the piece not meet your expectations.

No deposits for orders are required and the customer has no obligation to purchase the piece after it's been fired. Because of the nature of wood firing we cannot guarantee size or color of a piece which is why Ed and Laura do not want to obligate anyone to purchase a piece that does not meet their expectations at the end of the process. By maintaining a general retail appeal, Ed and Laura can offer the piece to other interested collectors.

For custom orders that would not have a retail appeal, please contact us at sales@buroakpottery.com to discuss the order further.

A note to Concerned Martin Collectors and Enthusiasts

Ed and Laura in no way intend nor have a desire to have a negative impact on the Martin Art market. They do understand that the art pottery market can be manipulated by dishonesty, but there are things that Ed and Laura are doing to try to prevent their pieces from being passed off as authentic Martin in the secondary market. All bur Oak pieces are marked with the Bur Oak name, each piece is signed by the artist. The Birds in particular are being prominently marked. The top of the base has always been marked with the Bur Oak name, the date and signed by the artist. Beginning in May 2004, in response to concern from Martin collectors, Ed has begun to mark the birds in 3 separate places. He will continue to mark the top of the base, in addition he will be marking the inside bottom rim of the base as well as the inside rim of the head of the bird. Also, the clay that Bur Oak uses is a significantly darker color than that used by the Martin Brothers Pottery.