With all these Mideke pieces being talked about, I decided that it would be a great time to do an article about Louis Mideke and his wife Jean, who was also a potter.

I grew up hearing about Mideke and what a fan of his work was my grandmother! She often bought pieces from his studio. They were friends and both had their businesses located off of Sunset Drive in Bellingham, Washington. I don’t think I ever met Louis but from what I have read about him, he was quite the character…just like my Grandmother!

I had moved back to Bellingham in 1993 to run my grandmother’s shop and one day in 1994 we got a phone call from Robin Reynolds, owner of The Good Earth Pottery in the Fairhaven area of Bellingham. Louis Mideke had passed away in 1989 and Jean in 1993. When the estate was closed in 1993, hundreds of pieces were found throughout the attic, house and grounds. A small selection was reserved for museum donations and the larger selection was purchased by Robin and sold at the Good Earth Pottery. After about a year of handling the pieces, Robin wanted to sell the entire collection.

Off went my Grandmother and I to see Robin. We ended up buying what remained, about 200 pieces. There was nothing that made my Grandmother happier than spending money–on stock for the store! As we packed up box after box, Robin mentioned that she had put together a packet of articles about Louis and Jean and that she had worked on it with Louis’s son Michael. Robin gave us this packet to hand out to anyone that purchased the Mideke pieces now located at Cheryl Leaf Antiques.

Line sketch of Louis Mideke done in 1958

When I decided to write this article, I searched all over my office for those papers. Couldn’t find them anywhere. How was I going to write this one? I got on Google, but couldn’t find much of anything about the Midekes. I decided to start cleaning my office–about time anyway—and there on a shelf was the pile of articles!!! Yippeeee!!!

I immediately tracked down Robin Reynolds who now lives in North Dakota and asked her permission to share all this wonderful information with you and she said, “Of course!” She said that we should also credit Michael Mideke with helping to draft the articles and the timeline. Robin is a very talented artist and now works with the clays in North Dakota. Check out her amazing web site here NDClay.com.

So here we go….Courtesy of Robin Reynolds and Michael Mideke

This first section was written by Robin Reynolds in 1993:

Jean Mideke 1911-1993

Louis Mideke 1908-1989

Many Whatcom County residents knew Jean and Louis Mideke as an extraordinary couple who made many valuable contributions to the art and life of our community. In 1981 Louis was honored as a “living treasure” by the Municipal Arts Commission in Bellingham, Washington as a potter whose work was characterized by his use of local materials; distinctive, utilitarian, and elegant.

Jean Mideke’s early work sculpting clay and jewelry fabrication culminated in a later period of lost-wax bronze birds and jewelry of exceptional quality. Perhaps less productive than Louis, Jean “subsidized” the pottery until her retirement from teaching in the mid-1960s. “Although Jean and Louis worked independently,” says their son, Michael, “they almost always worked cooperatively, constantly providing each other with critical and technical support.” The Midekes closed their Sunset Drive showroom in 1985 and announced the pottery was sold out.

I was an apprentice potter when I met the Midekes in 1980, not long before the eruption of Mt. St. Helens. The following years of “shop-talk”, exchange of St. Helens glaze formulas, and socializing seem balanced in my favor as I recall the combined effect of the Mideke’s sharp humor, opinions, and philosophic gems. Their generosity stands in contrast to Louie’s (as everyone called him) reputation for crustiness. In her Living Treasure Tribute speech, former Arts Commissioner, Marian Boylan related, “Louis is like a good loaf of sourdough bread; crusty on top and soft as a marshmallow inside….leavened by many years of hard work and mellowed by the gentleness of his temperament and soul.” Perhaps he was not unlike what he found true in pottery; that a round pot has many sides.

“Early in his career,” according to Michael Mideke, “Louis entered pieces in shows and won some honors, but this aspect of the “Art” business did not appeal to him. He felt pottery should be useful, beautiful to see and touch, and accessible to the people. As in everything he did, Louis was a self-educated potter. He gathered his inspiration from books and museums, grounding himself in a tradition that was predominantly oriental.”

Louis used local materials as both clay bodies and glaze ingredients for endless experimentation and record keeping. He also believed his pottery ought to be smooth enough to sit on the finest mahogany surface without scratching, according to his former student and friend, Bob Jeffcott, who also said Lou believed one pot in a thousand was museum quality.

Once he got started, pottery dominated the rest of Louis’ working life. But he was never exclusively a potter, since he continued to work in metal and wood. Louis’ health became increasingly fragile from the mid-1970s and during the 1980s arthritis began to hamper his wheel work. Eventually this, in conjunction with the demands of firing, became more than he could manage and pottery production ceased.

Perhaps understanding the Mideke legacy is better navigated in an answer given by Shoji Hamada, world-renowned potter, when he was asked how he felt when one of his pots was accidentally broken or otherwise lost. He replied, “What is important is not how you feel when you have or see the pot, it is in what remains when the pot is gone.”

1993 Robin Reynolds www.ndclay.com

Robin and I discussed Louis’ signatures and we think that the one with the tree was one of the earliest. Sorry, I don’t have a photo. Also remember that he didn’t always sign his wood or metal pieces.

Then came the MIDEKE block stamp as shown here on the base of my favorite Mideke vase.

Cross vase and signature.

Then came the Mideke script signature as shown here.

His real autograph!

Chronological Notes–Robin Reynolds and Michael Mideke

Louis Mideke

1908 Born in Grandview, Washington to a farming family.

1923-1940 Keeps a diary, honing his skills as a writer. Photography another active pursuit in Washington and later in Alaska. The surviving snapshots reveal a sensitive eye and a solid sense of design.

Circa 1927 Comes to Bellingham. Meets the Hibners. Works Northwest jobs: mills, fields, sheep ranches, steamers and forest fire fighting. Dreamed of Alaska and announced a determination to be his own man.

1929-1930 Heads North. Later to call these his “energetic years.” Homesteads in SW Alaska, a year on Glacier Bay, runs the length of the Yukon River in a rowboat, works for the Lammers Exploration Company, and dredges gold around the Arctic Circle. Comes south winters and gravitates to Bellingham and his ten year correspondence and courtship of Jean Hibner.

1938 Marries Jean Hibner.

1938-1940 They go north. Jean working as cook for a small mining camp where Louis was foreman.

WWII Bremerton, WA. Works as a shipbuilder; instructor-welder.

1943 Son, Michael, born.

1947 Family moves to Bellingham. Louis was still off on occasional expeditions with Lammers, but they grew shorter and more local–Wyoming, Idaho, California and British Colombia.

1948 Buys the Sunset Drive property. Louis immediately sets to work improving the place and putting in a garden. But “work” was no fun and money scarce, and in the evenings he whittled whimsical things by the fireplace.

1950 Gets his hands in clay and once he got started, pottery dominated the rest of Louis’ working life. His work in metal and wood continues, and from time to time his excursions into metal left the wheel briefly idle. First studio in the laundry room.

My metal mideke lamp.

1951 Wins the L.T. Butler award for excellence at the Northwest Craftsmen’s Show in Portland Oregon.

Peter Volkous invites him to work in Montana at the Archie Bray Foundation, but unthinkable for the solitary worker to join the “Wildman” at the Bray scene.

Beginning with commercial clays, he quickly shifted to local clays…from natural inclination and to save money. This step dictated the development of locally based glazes.

1953 Converts an elderly chicken house into a studio. Fires wares in a small electric kiln.

1954 Sales shop open for business.

Wins Clay Purchase Award, Henry Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle. Northwest Craftsmen’s Exhibition.

Continues to work with local materials. Midrange electric firing vitrified clay bodies.

1964 Meets Bob Jeffcott and uses trapline clay from Jeffcott’s tile plant near Everson, WA.

1965 High fire, reduction kiln (gas) installed at Jeffcott’s allowing him to work in porcelain and stoneware. Although commercial clay bodies, local materials continued to play a significant role in his work. Commercial bodies allowed him more time making pots than he’d previously spent processing local clays.

1967 Moved kiln to the backyard at Sunset Drive.

Mid 1970s His health increasingly fragile.

1974 Retrospective show at the Whatcom Museum of History and Art in Bellingham, WA.

1981 Designated a “living treasure” by the Municipal Arts Commission, Bellingham, WA.

Arthritis hampers his wheel work.

1985 Business at Sunset Drive closes in March

1989 Dies, survived by wife, Jean, son, and two grandchildren.

1993 Jean dies, survived by her son, one sister, and two grandchildren.

Here is another piece of Mideke that my mom

sold on eBay.

This next interesting quote comes from an article written by Mary Kay Becker for “Northwest Passage” in November of 1971….

“Though his work has been exhibited and sold from coast to coast, you might live a long time in Whatcom County without knowing of him. “I don’t beat a very big drum,” he told us. A small sign almost hidden by shrubbery marks the location of his home and backyard workshop (open Wednesday thru Saturdays) at 1906 E. Sunset Drive. Visitors interested in high quality pottery can there observe the process as well as the product.

Hanging on the wall as you go in is a handmade poster, sent to Mideke by a “fancier” in Greenwich Village and inscribed with a quotation from Hawthorn: “Men are earthen jugs with spirits in them.” Here, in the front of the shop, the finished pots are for sale – a few shelves of pitchers, bowls, cups and jugs. In back is the work area where squarish lumps of grey Washington clay the unfired beginnings of the pots emerge whirling and wet. Under the guidance of Mideke’s hands and tools, necks are narrowed, lips flare out, and eccentric contours are smoothed into symmetry. Fingers as well as eyes find a feast here.

Mideke’s setup includes three wheels, a large and a small kiln, and row upon row of glass jars containing the materials from which he compounds his own glazes, experimenting frequently find new effects. An old favorite is the crackle pattern produced by shrinking of the glaze around the pot during firing, the basics techniques for which were perfected by the Chinese a thousand years ago……

His own total production he estimates in the neighborhood of 100,000 –”more than there’s room for in Whatcom County, I guess”. Outlets in Seattle and Berkeley have spread his pottery far and wide. Some he has seen reappear in second-hand stores, and once his signature was found on some shards of pottery that washed up on the beach.”

Wouldn’t Louis Mideke be surprised at how well his pottery is still selling and that it is being traded worldwide (mostly due to eBay)!