Welcome to the fourth installment of my feature on dragons at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival!  (If you missed any of the earlier posts, you can see them here.)  Let me offer you some refreshment in one of these fantastic pieces of drinkware by John Coiner Pottery while I tell you about the shop…

John Coiner Pottery doesn’t have much of a web presence, as I’ll explain, but they have an enormous space out at Fest with shelves upon shelves of wares and beautiful signage, including this great dragon sign.

Here’s another of their great signs advertising their ‘Dragon Flagons.’  As you can see, they have Pilsners (the tall glasses) and Tankards (the mugs with a handle) on display, with a variety of different designs, or even no design at all.

I love the colors on these pilsner cups with a wonderful abstract dragon design.  It reminds me of the designs I’m using for the Neeka Story artwork — which, I’m happy to report, I’ve actually written a bit more on this week!  Forcing myself to write fiction any time I blog is going okay, so far!

Here is a set with the design called ‘Dragon Mother.’  I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of this design, which is why you won’t see a close-up of it here.  I know they were going for something to evoke Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons, from Game of Thrones… but to me, it’s just a bit creepy.  Let me know what you think in the comments, if you can zoom in enough to see it!

In that photo above you can see the third style of mug they have, one with a narrower top, and also the cork mug-stoppers they sell to save your drink from unwanted insect visitors.  Below is yet another mug type with a dragon handle.

Those three are seen on this set of shelves that include drinking horns, “stand & cork included,” which is pretty important if you want to display you purchase when not in use!  They also have fancy glassware, pottery chili bowls, and even wine decantors [sic] (also with corks).

Here’s a close up of another of their designs called Dragon & Castle on a pilsner cup, and the colorful pentacle and Celtic braid design on a tankard.

These pilsners and tankards have the image of the Dragon and Castle from the image above, in the usual frontpiece style, as well as their more intricate round brass medallion style. Fancy!

And here are some more pilsners with the Standing Dragon from the first image.

I like how their frontpieces can be round or hexagonal or all sorts of shapes, even with the same design inside, and the colors and patterns on the pottery are never exactly the same from piece to piece either, so you can be confident your mug is one of a kind!

Then there was a section of shelves with these very different styles called the “John Coiner Studio Series.”  I love the dragon claws and the swirls and Celtic knotwork — and talk about one of a kind!  And as you can see, these come in all shapes and sizes as well!  Check out the giant tankards!

Here’s a dragon on a Studio Series pilsner — this is the one I almost bought for myself!  Maybe next year!

And then one last picture of lots of cups, this time showcasing some of their less-than-period designs.  Starting in the top left corner, you can see the red Targaryen dragon from Game of Thrones, the Assassin’s Creed symbol, a “Minnesota’n” wordplay, the Prince symbol (a native Minnesotan, R.I.P.), and the Triforce from The Legend of Zelda!

“Crafting and selling fine hand made pottery at Renaissance Festivals since 1971,” the good folks at John Coiner Pottery told me they don’t do web, phone, or email sales because they have to keep up with all of their in-person sales, so go find them at the Renaissance Festivals in Apache Junction, AZ in February and March, Larkspur, CO in June and July, our gathering in Shakopee, MN in August and September, and this very weekend in Plantersville, TX in October and November!

Next up, I have photos from a lovely booth called Kitsune Art Glass.  I didn’t have a chance to meet Cynn, the artist, on the day I visited, but she writes on her Facebook page:

Kitsune is the Japanese word for fox. … The more tails a kitsune has… the older, wise, and more powerful it is.  After growing nine tails I knew it was time to explore what I wanted to do, not what I had to do.  Welcome to my happy place.

According to her posts, she got her permanent booth at Fest in 2017, and it is definitely a happy place!  These flowers above and below have metal rods for stems and glass petals — I can’t tell the difference in my photos which are indoor-only and which were made to plant in your outdoor garden, but I know they make both kinds!

This beautiful black flower is definitely an indoor-only type; I love the sparkly detail!  While I didn’t see any dragons in the booth, I imagine this could definitely be part of a happy dragon’s hoard. 🙂

Then I just have to share one more design from Kitsune Art Glass — while I haven’t seen this in person, this large suncatcher was posted on her Facebook page as a “commission piece for a dear friend” in 2014, and it just blows me away!

As you might already know, this is a phrase written in Circular Gallifreyan, the language of the Doctor’s home planet in Doctor Who!  This design reads, “I love you,” and I want this in my house very much!  Here are a few more close up photos from her Facebook.

 

You can find Kitsune Art Glass at art fairs, Pride fest, and of course the Renaissance Festival, and visit her Facebook page to see lots more photos and find out more.

So that’s it, another Fest post in the books, cutting it close but on time this week!  Next week are the November birthstones, and then some Thanksgiving art, so stay tuned for those!

And now I’m off to write some fiction, as promised!  Thank you as always for reading, take care, and stay creative!

Image credits:
Almost all the photos in the post were taken by me at the Minnesota Renaissance Festival in Shakopee, Minnesota (just south of Minneapolis) on Saturday, September 29;
+ except the few photos indicated that are from Kitsune Art Glass’s Facebook page