Great First Open House, Two More To Go!

Saturday was a zoo—a marvelous, crazy, wonderful zoo. Our house was filled with people and there a was a line up the stairs in the studio to get books and pots. Some people were discouraged by the line and went back into the house to see if Lynnette would ring them up.  It was not my intention to have a long line and I'm sorry one formed and continued most of the day. It was a great success. I sold about 500 copies of the new book and lots of pots.
The open house will continue this Saturday and next (December 8, 15) from 10am -5pm at 1150 East 800 South in SLC. Tell your friends and come and take a tour of Niederbipp!
We wondered if anyone would be interested in touring the house since so many people have come through on the past two open houses in May and last December, but we had more people come through on Saturday than we have ever had before. Apparently people are telling their friends. Thank you. The more the merrier. If, however, you wan to avoid the crowd, the studio will be open all week. I had a dozen people stop by today and many more will be coming tomorrow. Just give me a call and come on over. 801-883-0146. IF you want to see the house, Lynnette says come on Saturday. She is busy making more candy after selling out in the first hour on Saturday.
I hope to see you sooner rather than later. You are going to love the new book, Borrowing Fire, and I think the heart rocks are holding out. I spent the summer collecting them in anticipation of these open houses. Every book purchased during the month of December from my studio will receive a free heart rock with the book. Come and get em, they're going fast.
I have been up late making pots to try and fill in the holes left after Saturday's open house. I hope to see you soon.
Cheers,  Ben

Bookends--Announcing "Borrowing Fire!"

Two years ago when I began writing this new book, the first funeral I attended as part of my research was for a 36 year-old classmate. The funeral was held at a huge church, and the crowd that filled it was even bigger. Over the next two years, I attended 57 other funerals and today I attended my 59th funeral. This one was for another classmate, a kid I grew up with, Brian Condie. He was actually two years younger than me, only 36 years old, the victim of colon cancer. He leaves behind a beautiful wife and two charming little girls. But boy, did he know how to live! In his short 36 years, he got it right. He knew how to laugh and how to love, and he knew how to live. The messages shared by his family and his clergy were inspiring. I laughed and I cried, knowing I would never see him again in mortality. The church was filled beyond capacity, and it just so happens that it was held at the same church where my research began two years ago. In the two years since I started all this, I have never been back to this church until today.

Just as I was leaving the church, I got a phone call. It was my printer. The cover of the book needed to be approved for printing. Some may see all of this as coincidental. I can't. Somewhere, there is a grand plan for all of this. I am grateful to be a player in this vast game of life.

So, we are on schedule for the new book to be delivered in time for the December 1st open house, here at the studio. I will write more about the open house later, but it will be held the first three Saturday's in December—December 1, 8, 15 from 10-5 each Saturday, at 1150 East 800 South in Salt Lake City. We will also be opening our home again for the home tour on those Saturdays. If those dates don't work for you, the studio will be open through Dec 21, everyday except Sunday. Pots and all of my books will be available for purchase, until I run out. You can call me to make sure I am around if you are coming outside of the scheduled open houses. 801-883-0146. The home tour will unfortunately only be available on the Saturdays. Last year we had more than a thousand people go through our home. If you want to avoid the crowd and are not interested in seeing our home, come during the week to get your pots and books.

Like the books in the Niederbipp Trilogy, "Borrowing Fire" is a book filled with hope. There is humor and elements of spirituality and philosophy, but it is a fun read. I was reading it to my kids the other night and after about a half hour, my son Isaac said, "Dad, this book is way better than your first one." I think everyone who has read this new book have enjoyed it at least as well as the Niederbipp books and many have said they liked this one even better.

Beginning next week, Borrowing Fire will be available for pre-order on Amazon.com. I will post a link as soon as it is available. During the holiday season and for the foreseeable future, the book will only be available from my studio and Amazon. Don't ask me why. I am trying to think up something smart, but nothing is coming to me.

So that's it for tonight, I will posting more soon. I need to finish my newsletter so it can get out by next week. If you would like to receive a copy via email, please click here, benbehunin@comcast.net and say "add me to your list."

I can't wait to share the new book with you. You're going to love it!

Cheers,  Ben

Book Signings Begin Again on Friday

Well, I feel like I am getting ready to get back in the saddle. Costco has invited me to do four book signings this month, the first of which is on Friday, October 12, at the Murray Costco from 2-5pm.
 Next week on October 18th, I will be at the SLC Costco from 2-5pm and October 19th at the Bountiful Costco from 2-5. October 26th, I will be a the Sandy Costco from 2-5.
I will not have my new book with me at that time as layout and design for Borrowing Fire has begun, but the book will not be complete and available until Dec 1. These book signings are only for the first three books in the Niederbipp Trilogy. If you need an extra copy for gifts for Christmas, come to Costco. Or if you just want to stop by and graze on the free samples, I would be happy to see you.
I came out to studio a two weeks ago and started my work in the clay again after some weeks of spending all my time writing. For several weeks I had been thinking about what I thought would be my next book, but on the day I began working in the studio again, another idea for a book opened in my head and I had to get a notebook and write down the new ideas that came to me. After trying to avoid it because of the work I need to get done in the the studio, I am beginning today with my the new book. The title will likely be "The Ten Jewels." I won't say what it is about or when to expect it, but today will be the first day to work on it. I hope after Christmas to be able to dedicate a lot of time to the project.
I am working on developing more faith. I am trying to remember to consider the lilies. Looking back on my life, I see the hand of God over and over again as answers have come and my needs and wants have been provided for. But sometimes, at the crossroads, it is hard for me to let go and believe. I have learned again and again that God rarely wants what we're naturally willing to give Him. He wants our best—the best of who and what we are. He doesn't want our weaknesses; He wants our strengths, our talents, our desires, our very best. It would be so much easier to give Him something other than my talent and time with pottery. Pottery, after all, has been my passion. It has provided for me and my family for more than seventeen years. It is the best of who I am and what I have chosen to do with my time. It is hard to imagine giving up that passion when it's what I know the best, especially when I am making the best work of my life. But I know I cannot dedicate my time to writing the books I feel compelled to write and continue to make pottery like I have in the past and like I have been trying very recently to do again. I have so many ideas I may never get to in pottery. I will likely lose all sorts of potential sales to galleries and individuals—I suppose I already have, but somehow it will be worth it. I have been reminded that I need to leave my nets and do something more. And when I remember the lilies, I know I have nothing to fear. God has always taken care of my and my family, even when I couldn't see how it would happen. Sorry about the personal thoughts, but I didn't know where else to write it and it needed to come out somewhere where I would be accountable for it.
I will write again soon. For now, I need to get writing.

Design Begins Tonight

After a long month of editing and making artwork for the book, the layout and design is finally starting. My buddy, Bert Compton, who designed my other books is working on this one as well. The new book is called,
Borrowing Fire: 
Rewriting the Eulogy For a Boy Named Wolf. 

If all goes as we plan, it will be available on December 1.
I am excited about this one. Everyone who has read it likes this one even more than the Niederbipp Trilogy. I am really happy about that. It is hard to start something new after so many of you have expressed strong feelings about the Isaac books. It is nice to be moving on to the next story, and I have already begun working on the next book after this one. This is hard for me to believe as I never in a million years imagined I would write even one book. I will be writing more about it in the coming months as we prepare for its release, but it is exciting to be moving on to the next step.
I should mention that I received word last week that Costco will be selling the Niederbipp Trilogy again starting this month in Utah. I am not sure if they will be in all of the stores, but I know for sure at the Bountiful, Murray, Sandy and Lehi stores. I will be signing a few times this month and next and will post those dates tomorrow or the next day. If you want to spread Niederbipp this Christmas season, you are always welcome to come and pick them up from me at the studio, or if it's more convenient, your local Costco might have them too. Anyway, thanks for reading and I hope to see you on or after Dec 1 to show off the next book!

Borrowing Fire: Rewriting the Eulogy for a Boy Named Wolf

Well, after two years of intermittent writing and research sending me to 58 funerals for strangers, I have finished the writing portion of this project and am knee deep in editing with plans to begin layout and design on or before October 1 to have the book ready for my December 1, 2012 open house and studio sale.

This book has been a lot of fun. I have shared it with a few close friends and they all like it even better than the Niederbipp trilogy, which is humbling and exciting. I will be posting more in the coming weeks as we continue to make progress, but I just wanted to send this out and say we are getting very close now and I am really excited to share this with you. It has been an inspiring experience to write this book and I think this will be a book you will want to share with everyone you know and love. It would be a great Christmas Gift, but a fine gift for all occasions, filled with lessons of life, hope, love and grace.

Look for more information coming soon, but plan on attending the book launch, December 1, 8 and 15th.  Each of these dates will correspond with my annual Christmas Studio Sale and , back by popular demand, our house tour, where we will open our home to anyone who wants to see what we have done. We remodeled last year, adding on to our home and finishing it with 500 square feet of hand made tiles.  Most of this was completed last year, but I am still working on projects and hope to have it all wrapped up in the next two months.

Thanks for you patience.

Electric Boat on Lake Windemere, July 

Ben

Sometimes it's hard to share a river...

Happy Independence Day! I hope it was swell for you.
We spent the morning at a pancake breakfast at the church, which, for the past 10 years has been followed by a water fight. It is kind of an unusual water fight as the line is generally drawn between my self and my posse of two or three brave souls who wield our water-filled fire extinguishers against the rest of the kids in the neighborhood who are all poor-sports and gang up on the kids who look more like adults—namely us. It was awesome. There is something utterly refreshing about a water fight, especially in July, and today was all that.
We spent the afternoon with family on the Weber River, floating on anything that floats from Hennefer to Taggart, or about 7 miles as the crow flies. For the most part, it was also a refreshing experience, but for the first time in my life, I found myself feeling that it is hard to share a river. It was a strange mix of folks on the river today. Most of them were under thirty, had at least one visible tattoo, had at least one visible piercing, had at least one visible beer in their hand and were very visibly drunk. I found myself wondering if it was a frat party as at least 80% of the folks on the river fit this description.  Am I getting old?  Is it wrong for me to be offended by the exercise of free speech that leaves my children and myself feeling violated, like we were recreating in a polluted river. And lets face it, it was polluted heavily today. With the majority of the folks drinking beer as they floated down the river, I didn't see even one person carrying a tote bag for their empty cans. Instead, those cans went into the river I love.
I have floated this river a few times before, and in those cases, I had the river mostly to myself. It was beautiful. Birds of prey were soaring overhead, deer danced on the banks, trout played in the water. But when you have a gazillion people on the river, the magic of that place cannot be seen. It's hard to share a river with those who don't appreciate it the same way I do. I missed the solitude. I missed the silence. I missed the magic. We had a wonderful time despite the distractions, and we will certainly go again, but next time, I hope those who share the river with me might be more sober, more considerate, more thoughtful.
Have you ever come across a Sprite can or a Coke can in the wilderness? I haven't. But since the time I was a child, I have picked up and packed out hundreds of beer cans left by insensitive travelers who must have been enjoying themselves so much that they forgot that we share the wilderness with everyone, and most of us like not finding other people's garbage in the places we love the most.
I know it's not my river. I know people have every right to dress the way they do and express themselves the way they want, but tonight I am appalled by the growing disrespect and degradation of society. It is hard to share a river with those who don't care for it and love it and respect it enough to leave it better than they found it.

I don't know, maybe I have been reading too much Terry Tempest Williams.

On a positive note, I have been writing—abundantly—and I plan to have the next book done in December, just in time for Christmas.

Niederbipp Goes Full Circle

I received an interesting phone call from Tiengen, Germany last week. My friend Irene Meier, the woman with whom I apprenticed for four months 17 years ago was on the line to tell me that a woman had come into her pottery shop that day with my book in her hand, asking if she knew me.  For those of you who may not be aware, the town I describe as Niederbipp is actually the town of Tiengen, Germany. Niederbipp just had a better name. This woman had been in my shop a few weeks ago, visiting from Seattle and told me she was on her way to Switzerland and was planning on stopping by the real Niederbipp. I suggested she would have more fun going to Tiengen. Anyway, she spent the evening with Irene and her husband Sven. They had dinner together, walked around the town and Irene even took her to the crying tree on the banks of the Rhein.  It is a beautiful place and I would highly recommend visiting it if you are in the Switzerland/Southern Germany area. Stop by the pottery on Zubergasse and you will meet Irene. She may offer you some tea and you can sit down and talk about life and art. It was fun to see that the world is still flat, and not very big.

 I am writing, or pretending to, but I am busy trying to get ready for the Utah Arts Festival which begins on the 21st. I have a lot to do between now and then--many, many pots to fire. I had to rebuild the kiln door after Mother's Day--it got a little too hot and melted, but the kiln is firing well again and I am happy to report there will be lots of new pots and designs at the festival--if all goes as planned. Wish me luck.  Maybe I will see you there.  June 21-24 at Library Square, downtown SLC

You can't write a novel in an afternoon!

I've told myself that a few dozen times over the past year, and yet I still want to believe it. You can read a novel in an afternoon--either a short novel or a long afternoon, but writing takes time. It takes sweat and tears and a whole lot of effort. I used to joke that GoodReads, the website where everyone and their dog can review a book and give their two bits should really be called, "Disgruntled English Majors." I seems everyone who doesn't write has fairly strong opinions about those who do, especially those who write something that gets published. I guess I cant really claim to have gotten anything published since I self-published, but the difficulties in writing can be no less real, regardless of how the book comes to be.

I was excited to get back to writing as soon as the Mother's Day Open House was over. We had nearly a thousand people go through out home over the weekend and I was bushed after that. My kiln had some problems during the final firing before the open house which resulted in part of the door melting and leaving it very difficult to open. I spent a day and a half making the necessary repairs and then dedicated the rest of the week to writing.  Or so I thought. Writing, at least for me requires several consecutive hours of relative silence. Sometimes that is difficult to find. Okay, so maybe that is always difficult to find. I realized I am out of practice and the magic doesn't always happen exactly when I want or need it to happen. I made some progress, but it was slow. It is a little better this week, but if I am not distracted by people dropping by or phone calls, I am distracted by the fact that I have an art festival coming up in a month and I need to replenish my supply of pots. I am behind on orders, too. And I don't care that I'm behind on orders which is both liberating and disappointing. I am distracted--maybe that is the best way to put it. Distracted, feeling like I have returned to my nets after knowing I am supposed to be doing something else. Faith is tough, at least for me, and patience is even harder.

That being said, I am more excited about this story than I have ever been. I know all writers draw on their personal experiences, but I am a little surprised by how autobiographical this book is becoming. Some of it involves dark pieces of history from my younger years and family drama that is still going on. It has made me pensive and moody and somedays has made me want to avoid delving deeper. And yet I know I need to plow on. I feel strongly that this book will help others, offer hope and grace and love, and give people courage to plow forward. I am still hoping to have the book ready for Christmas, but if I don't make some substantial progress in the next few months, I will have to postpone it again.  I hate to do that.

I am not sure why other people write, but I will tell you honestly that I write because I have to--because the voices won't leave me alone--because the story haunts me until I let it out. It is never easy. It seems to always be expensive, and it takes way longer than I think it should.

So, I am off to write. I fed my fears by making pots this morning. Now I can feed my faith, by writing.

Mother's Day Open House This Weekend

It's hard to believe I haven't been here to update the blog in over a month. I should have done this sooner and I am sorry if you missed it because of my lack of communication, but tomorrow begins my

Mother's Day Studio Open House and Home Tour

May 10-12

10am-5pm each day

1150 East 800 South

Salt Lake City, Utah

We have been busy getting the house ready and I have been crazy busy making pots. I just finished my fifth firing of the week and I am bushed. Because of the requests, we are opening our home again for a tour. We refinished our home last year, moving back in just before the holidays. Projects have continued since then and will continue after this open house too. Come and see the 500 square feet of handmade tile scattered throughout our home and take a piece of pottery home for the mom in your life. I will also have the books available and a lot of forget-me-not ware. I hope to see you soon.

Virtual Home Tour

Ben Behunin, Potter / Author, The House That Built Me

A friend of mine came over the other day to film the house and I thought I would pass it on to all of you who aren't in the area. For those of you who are in the Salt Lake City area, we will be having another studio sale/ home tour on May 10, 11, 12. Put it on your calendar. More info will follow soon, but I thought this might be of some interest. Cheers, Ben