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Business & Tech

Made on Cape Cod: Jobi Pottery

Jobi Pottery is a Truro cottage industry that has been making slip mode pottery for over 50 years.

In 1953 Joe Colliano and Bill Hastings combined their talents and their first names to create a unique brand of handmade and hand painted pottery, which they sold out of a converted hot dog stand located near the Cape Cod Highland Lighthouse.

Colliano and Hastings moved their shop to North Truro and eventually sold the business to the Locke family, who ran Truro Crafters until it closed in 2002.

This is when current owner Susan Kurtzman, who was the Curator at the Truro Historical Society Museum at that time, thought losing an original Truro cottage industry would be terrible, so she took what she called “a leap of faith” and bought the business.

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Kurtzman, who has a degree in ceramic design from the University of California at Berkeley, had spent most of her career in advertising. When the opportunity to take over Jobi arose she saw it as her chance “to get back to doing something creative,” and she knew she “could revive it because [she] really loved all the old 1950s shapes and designs.”

As the Curator at the Truro Historical Society Museum, she was fortunate to meet Colliano, who taught her how to draw the Jobi signature fish - three strokes per fish, and then a dot for the eye.

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Kurtzman says that one of her favorite things to do now is to paint on the pottery with the original Jobi designs, to which she has stayed true. But she has also evolved her own styles, colors and patterns, and incorporated them into the brand.

Along with four other staff, Kurtzman uses the original mid-century casting molds to create slip mode pottery.

The molds are filled with liquid clay, or slip. Slip is usually the consistency of heavy cream. Rows of molds are poured at a time and then set out to dry. The molds draw moisture from the slip and the pinch pot is created. The excess slip is poured out, and the piece is shaped by hand. It then dries, is painted by hand, glazed and then fired in the kiln.

Kurtzman says her “favorite thing is opening up the still warm glaze kiln and seeing the freshly fired pieces. It's a surprise and a delight every time.”

The Jobi pinch pot is their most popular item. It's a small little bowl, pinched into its irregular shape by hand. Jobi likes to say that no two are the same.

Jobi also produces sushi plates, mugs, vases, trivets, bowls, pitchers, teapots, bread trays, and even clocks.

In addition to the signature fish, vintage Jobi features pussy willows, gulls, blueberries. The Lockes added lighthouses and seagulls to the mix.

As for Kurtzman, she says she tries to add at least one new design a season, and “is very much into color…always wanting to keep things fresh and fun.”

This allows Kurtzman to appeal to new customers drawn to the contemporary retro look, as well to those customers who have been collecting Jobi pottery since the first fish pinch pot was created.

You can find Jobi Pottery at The Little Beach Gallery in Hyannis, the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, M. Brann and Co. in Mashpee Commons, Weekend in Orleans, Highland House Museum in Truro and Picnic Fashion in Chatham.

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