Gear Patrol: Great Expectations

May 15, 2020 • Lindsey Zinno

THIS COFFEE MUG SELLS OUT EVERY TIME IT GOES ON SALE

Just before noon on an ordinary Tuesday, a few hundred coffee mugs sit on a steel rack in East Fork’s Asheville, North Carolina, factory-studio. The mugs were made the week prior, are priced at $36 each and in a few minutes’ time will be entirely sold out.

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Press

Architectural Digest: Trends That Defined the 2010s

Architectural Digest: Trends That Defined the 2010s

Apartment Therapy: The Mug With a Serious Cult Following is Back

Apartment Therapy: The Mug With a Serious Cult Following is Back

Gear Patrol: Great Expectations

Gear Patrol: Great Expectations

Business of Home: East Fork is quietly challenging the direct-to-consumer playbook

Business of Home: East Fork is quietly challenging the direct-to-consumer playbook

People Magazine: Samin's Picks 2019 Holiday Gift Guide

People Magazine: Samin's Picks 2019 Holiday Gift Guide

"I reach for this bowl at literally every meal."
The New York Times: Home & Design 2019 Gift Guide

The New York Times: Home & Design 2019 Gift Guide

"A ceramics outfit and a coffee roaster teamed up to produce a gift set featuring a limited-edition mug perfect for pour-over coffee. Beans included."

Courier: One Mug at a Time

Courier: One Mug at a Time

"But what East Fork actually doing is attempting to blend the advances in repeatability and manufacturing process with the age-old potter’s concern about how to make a ‘good pot’."

Atlanta Magazine: First Look

Atlanta Magazine: First Look

"If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at recreating a Bacchanalia-style meal at home, you can be one step closer thanks to the opening of East Fork in Westside Provisions District."

Architectural Digest: East Fork is Redefining Sustainable Business One Bowl at a Time

Architectural Digest: East Fork is Redefining Sustainable Business One Bowl at a Time

"In keeping with East Fork's elegantly easy aesthetic, the new 1,700-square-foot store, designed by Karie Reinerston and Rob Maddox of Shelter Design Studio in Asheville, is a welcoming, airy, light-filled space where patrons are encouraged to arrange and rearrange dinnerware sets and tabletop accessories to help visualize how they might look in their own homes."

Surface: Kin of Kilns

Surface: Kin of Kilns

"As the founders of East Fork Pottery, Alex; his wife, Connie Matisse; and John Vigeland have garnered cult status for their old-school approach to contemporary stoneware."

Dwell: Clear Your Cabinet—This Mug Is About to Become Your Morning Staple

Dwell: Clear Your Cabinet—This Mug Is About to Become Your Morning Staple

"If you’re looking to overhaul your kitchenware—or simply searching for the perfect daily cup—The Mug by East Fork is a solid place to start."

Capital at Play: Progress & Change

Capital at Play: Progress & Change

"They could make art accessible by adapting it to the everyday and offering it at a price point that didn’t make millennials balk, all while maintaining their dedication to craft."

The New York Times: Shopping Guide

The New York Times: Shopping Guide

"A good coffee mug is going to enhance your whole experience," said Emily Davis, the director of education at Counter Culture Coffee, in Atlanta. "When you have the right mug, you're getting everything: the warmth, the aromatics, the nuances of flavor."

Sight Unseen: 6 Insiders on the Best Design Moments of 2018

Sight Unseen: 6 Insiders on the Best Design Moments of 2018

"I’m looking forward to designers and business leaders getting bored of peeking over everyone’s proverbial shoulder (via social media) and doing a big turn inward. I think the result is going to be so fresh, funky and real. A lot less #authentic and a lot more honest.” 

House Beautiful: Living Color

House Beautiful: Living Color

“A cult brand with fans around the world.”
Monocle: Manufacturing—All Fired Up

Monocle: Manufacturing—All Fired Up

“Building a pottery brand with lofty ambitions from scratch sounds like a tricky task. But East Fork is doing just that - and hoping to help revitalize the once-powerful US tableware industry while they’re at it.”
Remodelista: A Ceramics and Kitchenware Company to Watch: East Fork, the Heath of the East

Remodelista: A Ceramics and Kitchenware Company to Watch: East Fork, the Heath of the East

“We’re calling it now: this is the new company to watch on the Eastern Seaboard."
Cool Hunting: Pottery With Personality From Asheville's East Fork

Cool Hunting: Pottery With Personality From Asheville's East Fork

“Their style is evident; it’s a visual signature. Functionally, they have a firm grasp on the way their wares will be used. It’s easy to resonate with - and the products are certainly very easy appreciate.”

Surface Mag: This Hand-Thrown Vase Exemplifies Why Ceramics Are Cool

Surface Mag: This Hand-Thrown Vase Exemplifies Why Ceramics Are Cool

“Wonderfully imperfect and personal. It’s almost a privilege to cradle something so intimate in your hands.”
Lonny: A Matisse-Made Ceramic Collection Is Here

Lonny: A Matisse-Made Ceramic Collection Is Here

“A beautiful interpretation of tableware."
Vogue: An Insider's Guide to Asheville, the Arts-Filled City Where Pottery is Thriving

Vogue: An Insider's Guide to Asheville, the Arts-Filled City Where Pottery is Thriving

"Amongst the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains in Asheville, North Carolina, an eclectic community of artists—specifically, ceramic artists—are making the city a destination for one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted home décor."
Wall Street Journal: Creative Brief—Potter's Zeal

Wall Street Journal: Creative Brief—Potter's Zeal

"Matisse, the great grandson of the painter, started the pottery in 2009 and now runs it with his wife and friend, creating stoneware in subtle colors."

Mother: Connie Matisse of East Fork Pottery Opens Up Her Asheville Home

Mother: Connie Matisse of East Fork Pottery Opens Up Her Asheville Home

"In the 10 years we’ve been together, we’ve built several workshops, a barn, a timber-framed kiln shed, two stores, a 15,000 square foot ceramics manufacturing facility and office space, and had a couple of kids—but at the expense of tending our own garden, so to speak."

Fast Company: The Quiet Radicalism of Henri Matisse's Grandson

Fast Company: The Quiet Radicalism of Henri Matisse's Grandson

“All of East Fork’s work is designed and made in the United States. In this sense, East Fork is part of a small manufacturing revival in the United States–one that has emerged less from a sense of patriotism than a quiet determination to develop and distribute high-quality products as efficiently as possible."