06.16.00 -- ELPC Convention -- Tours and Auctions

The following images were taken at Homer Laughlin. Dave Conley showed us how and where new Fiesta is made. My interests in dinnerware lie outside production methods, but I'll try to relay most of what we saw and how it was explained. The 2nd image shows a caster making pedestal mugs. A "slip" or wet clay is poured into molds and after a certain amount of time after the clay has set, the excess is poured out. The pedestal mugs are then removed from the cast mold. The next picture shows an automatic casting machine. At one end, slip is poured into molds and it goes through a conveyer belt. The next image shows Dave Conely explaining how the automatic caster works.

The thrid image is highlighted with red arrows. The top row has molds with slip which travel to the end and then are brought down to travel back to where molds are loaded. At the blue arrow, the molds are flipped so that excess slip can be poured out. You can see how molds are brought down at the very end of the machine for the return trip in the next two images.

After the molds were brought back to the beginning, the pieces (in this case disc pitchers) were removed, and the molds were loaded up to start the process all over. The first picture in the row above shows a worker removing the seam lines left from the cast molds of disc pitchers. The next three image shows cast pieces which have been trimmed. The last pic shows a circular kiln moving at a very slow rate. In person it looked stationary, but we were told that it is always in motion bringing pieces in and out of the kiln

Above are plates being made by a jigger. These were on a conveyer belt running along the ceiling. They would then come down to workers who would remove the items from the one piece mold. The last three images show more jiggered items -- plates and bowls. Basically any piece of circular Fiesta can be made with a jigger.

More HLC tour photos -- from left to right: a spray glaze machine, oval bowls hot off the "ram press," the Knowles China Company which is in HLC's backyard. Dave Conley explained why Knowles was located so close to HLC: the Aarons had ownership in both companies. The last image shows pyrometric cones. These deform at certain rates in the kiln and can be used to measure and control temperature.

If you are interested in seeing more HLC plant tour photos and how Fiesta is made, be sure to check out this site: HLC Plant Tour


Later in the evening there were auctions at the country club, both silent and live. I'd never attended a silent auction before. If you're wondering what its like, its basically eBay in three hours! All the images above are from the silent auction. Each piece or grouping has a piece of paper in front. If you want to bid, you write in your amount and you bidder's number. Someone can come along and out bid you so you have to keep checking the items you're interested in. After several hours, warnings are given that time will be running out. The papers are then collected and the auction is over. Like I said, its really no different than eBay except you get to inspect the piece first hand and the duration of the auction is much shorter. Oh, and yes, there were reserves!

There was a a good sampling of area pottery's wares available for the live auction. The only piece I was interested in was a Knowles Yorktown shape teapot with the names of employees hand written on the body. Apparently it was a wedding gift for a co-worker. The lid was badly damaged and I thought I might be able to get it for a good price. After the bidding exceeded $70.00, I gave up!

There was a couple pieces of Lu-Ray (a pink chocolate cup realized a hefty price) as well as a Fiesta red juice pitcher. There was also lots of decaled vintage HLC which, in my opinion, went for very low prices. I'm not sure how many pieces were auctioned off, but it was done very quickly and professionally.
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