Two years Ago or Maybe Less

Two years ago or so I was trying to add comments to our blog on at least a weekly basis and failing badly. Then life happened and the Pot blog disappeared into limbo. Behold, the phoenix arises from the ashes once again and a new pot blog is born.

So let me see...what has happened in the last two years. A year ago we closed the studio and gallery on Jasper Avenue after the writing on the wall became so clear a blind person could read it. Art is a difficult item to sell when the economy is good. When the economy starts to slip it becomes much more difficult. Add to that the fact our location was less than prime, the building remained vacant of other ground floor tenants, we were being ignored by the media and the local Craft Council, and we just decided we didn't want to play anymore.

The past year has been a time of introspection and rebuilding. We have set up our studio in our basement. We have a home business licensed by the city. A MAJOR home business since we have stored some items in our garden shed! That meant that we had to apply for a development permit and the neighbours were contacted to see if they had any objections. If we had "forgotten" we were storing anything in the shed we could have skipped the development permit and bothering the neighbours and walked out with our license that day. As it was, we were honest so paid another $150 bucks and waited two weeks. Then we had to make sure our insurance company and our Landlord's insurance company were on the same page. Got that done too! Now we can legally do business again.

So...we just finished a wedding registry order for a couple in Ontario. A little over a kiln load of pots (in our 16 cu ft kiln). It's kind of a neat story...

When we started shipping pottery to the states years ago from sales on the Internet we learned every piece needed to be clearly marked with the country of origin so Cindy decided to use a rubber stamp which said Alberta, Canada and since we were going to stamp each piece anyway she added another stamp which says Out of the Fire Studio.

One of our retail outlets for a number of years has been The Kitchen Nook in Thunder Bay, Ontario. We have shipped several boxes of pots there over time. A young couple had purchased one of our tea pots a couple of years or more ago, and one day broke the lid. They lived in Kenora, and were not sure how they could fix the teapot. However, on the bottom of the pot, along with Cindy's signature of Clarke, was our stamp. To the computer, one Google search later, and we received a phone call, asking if it was possible to make a replacement lid. Since we have made several styles over the past ten years we asked if she could send the broken lid to us and a few days later it arrived. Cindy made a couple of possible replacements, and when we asked if they wanted to mail them out, we were told just to hang on to them as the couple was going to visit Edmonton in a few days and they would pick them up, and oh, by the way did we do wedding registries. Well, the rest as they say is history. The little $15 rubber stamp paid for itself that day to say the least. The Pots will be delivered this week, and this family will have our pottery collection in their home for years to come.

Sometimes it is hard to imagine just how many people we have touched with our pottery over the past ten years. For at least two of those years we were shipping over ten tons of pots per year to 50 retailers across Canada and online sales so quite probably we have had pots in thousands of homes . By now it could all be landfill but we would hope not!

Anyway, I've rambled a bit today but it is good to get the blog up and running again. With Facebook, and Clay Art, and Twitter, there are lots of outlets if one wants to be verbose. We'll see if I can keep this blog a little more current in the future.

So is once a month Enough?

There's a thought provoking title for you. What's he talking about anyway?....hm? Oh, how often I post, of course!
I started off with the best of intentions but when you are running madly off in all directions sometimes it just doesn't happen. Since early July many things have happened which I'll try to recap. In no particular order here we go.
I got in a little exchange with Tony on Clay Art which eventually led to the potters who are members of the forum getting a chance to discuss how to look at their potteries as businesses and whether a studio potter can actually make any money and still be considered a studio potter. Must say it's all good fun until someone loses their perspective and takes themselves a bit too seriously then it rapidly goes down hill from there.
We were selected by a private pottery collector to sell his small collection of Charles Hilton pottery from late 1969 and early 1970. Real historical pieces. Charles Hilton was an influential person in that period who helped raise the profile of pottery and clay culture during the 1970's and early 80's in Alberta. He currently resides in British Columbia and now works in wood.
We have a "really big show" planned for Thursday the 23rd here at the studio. We are going to start carrying the glass jewellery of Vancouver torch glass blower Braden Hammond and he will be here in the studio to demonstrate glass blowing. The 23rd is also the day painter Richard Dixon will unveil the first trail guide from his upcoming book of River Valley paintings. We are going to start the day on television with Lorraine Mansbridge as she will do four cut ins from the studio featuring Braden blowing glass, Richard talking about his project, and Cindy throwing pots. Always a good time. Then depending on the weather we will set up Braden's equipment and Cindy's wheel in front of the studio on the sidewalk and give demo's if any one is interested. In the evening we have planned a reception for a couple of hours featuring Braden and Richard. Since we start the morning around 5 am and finish up around 8:30pm it promises to be a long and "interesting" day.
I've been photographing as fast as I can and processing images to update and try and include everything on the web page so that has been an education as well. Glass and pottery are probably two of the hardest objects to get a really good picture of. Anyway I'm pleased with most of the results and that project looks as if it will never end. By the time I get done it will be time to start over.
Next weekend is the Alberta Gift Show so we have to make time for that. Not really looking for anything new but then you just never know. Can't afford not to go. Gift show time means some of our wholesale pottery buyers clients will visit plus we get to see some of our "Show Friends" who we only see twice a year so we look froward to that.
If we survive through August everyone promises our sales of everything art related will pick up and all will be fine, fine, fine. Fingers crossed.
Nothing too personal this time. We are getting a good response to our videos on YouTube and plan on John bringing a couple of cameras into the studio soon to shoot some new material. It will give him some practice with his new video editing equipment and be a good addition to the training in video he is getting at school. We promise the lighting will be better this time!
Anyway, that's all for now.
Later

Where Does the Time Go?

So, I know I wasn't sleeping that much but suddenly it's been three weeks since I posted. I'll try and do a quick synopsis. The Madonna left and a few people came in after the date looking for her, but the date we published was the date she had to go away. We made a trip to Prince George on the 24th and picked up our glass by Romanian glass blower Ion Tamaian. Absolutely beautiful pieces. We had ordered from pictures on disk which in some cases were not that good so seeing the final result was just like Christmas. Almost our entire order made it safely.
Get this...the glass was shipped by air from Romania to Vancouver, then by truck from Vancouver to Prince George all without mishap...then Joe Forklift in Prince George decided to play target practice with the fragile signs on the side of the crate and rammed it a total of three times! Six big holes in one crate. Broke one of our pieces, one for another client , and several pieces Iliana our importer had ordered for her self. Somehow "Whoops" doesn't quite cover that.
Anyway, we had a nice visit with Iliana and Russ , slept on the world's worst bed at the Ramada Inn, (you could count the springs in the mattress from the bruises they left on your body!), and made the very lengthy and boring drive back on Monday. Unpacked and set out the glass on Tuesday. Looks great and adds one more facet to the store. We also got some paintings (watercolours) in from our latest artist Jim Brager from Camrose Alberta. Nice work, check it on the web page.
Pottery sales have been good both from stock and orders, wholesale and retail so that's good . We have our first wedding registry we are setting up . I'm working to get it online. Bought some more advertising handouts today (well ordered them from the printer) Laura Watmough is going to have a booth at the Edmonton Capital Ex and we are advertising with her on one handout, our ad on one side and hers on the other. Having another printed for the tourist bureau downtown and at Gateway Park. Also advertising with Travel Alberta and their Holiday Card promotion. That one is free so well worth the price no matter what happens.
We have arranged with glass blower Braden Hammond to be here the 23rd of August and give demonstrations. Weather permitting he, Cindy, a painter or two, and possibly a sculptor will be giving demonstrations in front of the studio August 23rd. We are going to start carrying Braden's line of glass jewelry and this will be a good kickoff for that as Lorraine Mansbridge from Global Television will be here for the morning show. Should be a fun day.
Anyway, that brings us up to the present and beyond so should be good enough for now. 32 degrees today! Glad our air conditioning is finally not only installed but working as well!

Later

Slow to get started but picking up speed

When we first put the sculpture of the Madonna in the studio we thought no one would ever come in to see her. Then last weekend we were in the 24 Newspaper for the weekend, on Tuesday we were on the front page of the Edmonton journal culture section, and last night CityTV put us in the Your City segment at 6:30 and 11:00 with three promos at 8,9 and ten. Traffic has built steadily with people now coming just to see the sculpture. Reaction still runs the gamut from "Huh?" to reverence.
It has accomplished the objective though in that more people now know where we are and what we have to show and that translates into more sales. We do have some really cool stuff.
Last day of regular classes for John and Kaileigh today so they were excited. For K of course it is the last day of public school for ever. exams are next week, she has only two to write, and then she is officially finished with high school. John has his summer planned already as he is in the new band that will be playing at the Edmonton Eskimos home games this year and he wants a job plus he has a one week jazz band camp so he'll be back in school before he realizes he is out.
Pottery wise this has been a good week as people are realizing where we are and what we do. Cindy even potted for the store this week instead of just for wholesale orders so that's a good sign.
Kids from one of the High Schools (Ross Shepard) here in the city got together with the Police and painted a bunch of graffiti marked walls in our back alley. Looks good, just hope it stays that way.
Our new furnace is in and works fine...unfortunately we don't need the furnace part as much as the air conditioner and that part hasn't been installed yet......I'm betting it will be November, just in time for Christmas shopping! Lights in the store heat it up to 25 degrees or more and when we prop the front door open the street noise is so loud you can't hear....yeah i know, whine whine whine!
Anyway, the weekend is here and the weather so far is not looking to bad. Hopefully a lot of families will take dad out to buy art tomorrow or Sunday!

Fingers crossed................................later, Jim

Yes, we are open Sunday!

We decided three weeks ago to try opening Sunday afternoons and seeing if anyone walked through the door. The push for Sunday openings was made by the assistant set director for "Christmas in Wonderland" a movie currently being shot here in the city. She said it was the only day she had off and thought this was probably true of many others as well so....I'm sitting here with time to blog! Speaking of the movie though, the residential scenes were shot just ten blocks from here and we are represented in those scenes by a few dozen of our beeswax candles and a winter scene painted by Bob McLean of two horses and a haywagon in front of a snowcovered barn. Supposedly the painting was hung in the living room and the candles play a big part in one scene. We'll have to wait until November when it hits theatres to see for sure.

Speaking of Sunday and things religious....our showing of the bronze bust of the Madonna della Pieta by Michelangelo has been educational for us at least. Only a handful of people have actually come in to see it. It has been featured on the website now for close to a week, rates prominently in Google search, and yet of the 600 hits on our website only one person has looked at the page with the slide show. (thanks Mom) Yesterday we had good traffic through the store and it was interesting to see peoples reactions to the bust. They ranged from the sculptor who asked permission to touch where master sculptor had created such art from stone, to those people who were only looking for "real art" and couldn't be bothered to waste more than a passing glance. Another class in marketing 101.

We should find out in the next couple of days when we can go to Prince George to pick up our Romanian Glass shipment, work by Ion Tamaian. Another gamble. Is there a market for high end art glass in Edmonton? Stay tuned.

Phoenician glass has proved to be very popular. The amber shade and swirling, organic appearance is unlike anything anyone else is showing and is really a touch with antiquity as the process predates glass blowing and the region of the middle east where the glass is made is agreed upon by most historians to be where glass was discovered thousands of years ago.

Pottery has proved to be popular this week so our idea of bringing the studio downtown seems to be a good thing. With tourist season just around the corner we hope to be one of those destination spots we are always hearing about. I'll let you know.

IM'd with my son Torrey in Iraq yesterday. Said they had a rocket attack for a wake up. Several casualties but no U.S. among them which is a good thing. Counting the days until he is out of there.

And on that cheerful note I'll go for now.

Phase Two

For those who used to read the Potblog we are back. For those of you who are new....we are still back...for the first time! Out of the Fire Studio has been in existence since 1997 in one iteration or another, and recently we moved to this location and opened up a store front, or "gallery". we were strictly wholesale potters for a number of years and then last year we decided we were not, physically, going to be able to push another ten tons of clay through the place in a year, so...we changed our focus a bit. While we still are a working pottery, we are now much more. Not only do we sell our stoneware pottery but we have original paintings by Alberta artists, stone sculpture from Zimbabwe Africa, hand blown glass from Romania, Phoenician hand spun glass, Alberta beeswax candles (as long as we have bees!....that's another story) , and we have pottery by Junici Tanaka from Maple Ridge BC and will shortly have pottery by Lilach Lotan, a renowned ceramicist from British Columbia as well. In early July we expect to have a large glass display arrive from Romania from glassblower Ion Tamian. As an added treat we currently have a Vatican authorized casting of Michelangelo's Madonna della Pieta in bronze loaned to us by a friend. Mari Sasano who writes for the Edmonton Journal called it an"ecletic collection" and our rule of thumb is if we like it it goes in the store. We are also working on aproject with artist Richard Dixon and I'll write more about that later. For now...gotta get to work. Later.