On January 5, 2014, I gave a PowerPoint presentation in the Pioneer Room of the First National Bank in Homestead about the history behind Mary Blakley Ceramics. It was sponsored by the Homestead Center for the Arts. Many people collect the work of Tom and Mary Blakley, but not everyone knows about the very important role that Tom played in the business. Many assume, erroneously, that any ceramic piece with an mb button on it was made by Mary Blakley. That is not necessarily the case and I created the presentation to give credit where credit is due. Tom was a cartoonist by trade and when the cartoon market changed in a direction that he didn’t care for in the early 1960s, he switched to creating cartoons in clay. He was a jokester and very much enjoyed making people laugh. His character plaques did that and people found his pelican plaques quite amusing also. I only have two pictures of his pelican plaques, so if there are any readers out there who have pictures to share of his pelicans, I would appreciate your contacting me.

Tom was the businessman behind the scenes. He did the marketing and created the greater portion of the output of Mary Blakley Ceramics while he was alive. He was the glaze technologist, tester and salesman. Mary was the master of glaze application – she is the one who put Tom’s glaze discoveries to work. Her mastery of color was unmatched in ceramic glaze application at the time. Tom was quiet and unassuming, while Mary was the outgoing and sociable person of the pair. They were soulmates and Tom’s death in 1984 was a devastating blow to Mary, from which she never really recovered.

You may download the presentation and view it by clicking on this link. If you are using Keynote for an Apple, select View>Show Presenter’s Notes to view the information associated with each slide. If you are using PowerPoint, I’ll leave it up to you to figure out how to view the notes – I’m not a Windows person.