STILLMEADOW POTTERY: A Brush with Hollywood!
Most extended family members remember Jim and Gail’s pottery business spanning 3 decades and actually may still be using some of their signature stoneware. But I’ll bet that they didn’t know that the Ralph’s family business got it’s name from one of Gail’s favorite author’s, Gladys Taber, who wrote a series of novels about the joy of country living that took place at her Stillmeadow farm. Jim began the business producing clay flower pots with various cottage facades and was soon reproducing hand thrown antique American crock and churn stoneware on his pottery wheel. His first “official” sale of clay pottery was made in 1974 at a Concord (CA) Craft Faire. In 1978 Jim and Gail moved from the Bay Area to 5 acres of rolling foothills in El Dorado, a gold rush era town just outside of Placerville, where they began the creation of a California Craftsman style home. Jim built a studio barn outfitted with the equipment and kilns required to handle a large scale pottery business. Jim and Gail could be found at “Apple Hill” during Fall weekends beginning in 1985 producing and selling apple themed spongeware and their truck and packed trailer could be found at country folk art shows throughout the year. Jim’s Stillmeadow pottery evolved into western and cowboy themed dinnerware that was popular in homes, on ranches and dude ranches, and in restaurants across the country. Pottery from Stillmeadow was sold in Walter Knott’s Calico Ghost Town and in Yosemite National Park gift shops. Stillmeadow western dinnerware emblazoned with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans designs became available at The Roy Rogers Museum gift shop in California’s Apple Valley and later in Missouri at their new museum in Branson. With the national exposure, set designers ordered “lodge” style dinnerware for the film The Edge, a film starring Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin (and Bart the Bear). Hopkins can be seen sitting on the porch sipping coffee from a Stillmeadow mug and other of Jim’s pottery and western themed decorative items can be spotted around the cabin. Unfortunately the films big dinner scene ended up on the “cutting room floor” and didn’t make it into the final film. Set designers also reached out for Stillmeadow lodge pottery for Deadly Whispers, a made-for-TV movie starring Tony Danza that was shot near in nearby Placerville. Jim’s dinnerware can be seen in interior cabin shots. It was during a craft show at Gene Autry’s Melody Ranch studio and back lot in Santa Clarita that Jim and Gail made friends with Don Edwards, cowboy singer, stuntman, actor and Western Music Hall of Fame inductee. Edwards appeared in Robert Redford’s The Horse Whisperer. Hollywood came to El dorado when an independent production company working nearby spotted Jim and Gail’s foothill property and with a cast and crew of 13 spent a day shooting a critical scene of the female lead burying her victim behind the Stillmeadow barn! Jim and Gail sold the business in 2006, however countless pieces of Stillmeadow pottery still exist in homes across the country and can be seen 24/7 on DVD’s and on streaming services. Stillmeadow Pottery’s brush with Hollywood! (3/4/21)
