It seems a real surprise to me when I consider the fact that October is nearing the end and November is right around the corner. What ever happened to June?

We’ve had a temporary visitor at the Studio over the past few days – well OK, a couple visitors, but we won’t count the mouse that is trying to find a warm place to stay during the chilly PEI winter. Yup, Joy from the Wellington PEI Katimivik Group has been staying with us this week and it’s been a blast. Joy is from Korea but has been living in Toronto for a few years and has been loving life on the Island. We found out last night that she is a big fan of Lobster Feeds as we had a great meal of lobster, potatoes (Craig’s from North Tryon) and corn from somewhere here on PEI. For a small woman she sure can pack away the groceries ! She’s going to treat us to a Korean supper tomorrow night so we’re looking forward to it.

We’ve been putting Joy to work at the studio too. The group did a workshop with us a couple weeks ago and (conveniently) all their pieces needed to be sanded, cleaned, waxed, and glazed. So, she’s got all the responsability to ensure her friends’ pieces turn out well. Big pressure ! I’m pretty certain everything will come out well. Elly and everyone else has been keeping an eye on her so far and it all looks good.

Speaking of new additions… We are hopefully finally going to welcome a new member to the ROTB Team soon. Yup, Angel Kelly will be coming on board very soon and we’re looking forward to having her in the studio. She’s only one of the changes… we’ve recently pried another 400 square feet from our Landlord so we’ll be planning a major reorganization very soon that will include a partnership with ACOA, but we’ll wait and see if they want to support us. Very exciting times !

We were pretty sad to hear the news about Best Of PEI shutting its two locations down in Charlottetown. They were great customers but I guess business is business. I’m not going to try and speculate what caused it as that would take someone with WAAAAAYYYY more business savvy than I to figure that one out. We just keep our heads down and try to keep everything on an even keel. Working out very well to this point so I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

OK, keep checking back from time to time for new posts… Cheers !

We were very fortunate to add 2 team mates to our bunch in the early summer.  Jacqui Green was chiefly a hand-builder and Nancy Lavigueur who toiled away at the wheel and helped with my struggling french.  Sadly though we couldn’t convince them to give up on their academic careers and choose a life in clay. Jacqui went back to Queens University in Kingston to continue with her sciency degree thingy and Nancy returned to Quebec City to finish her 3rd year of Ceramic Arts.  We’ve got our fingers crossed that Nancy will come back next year.  Oh and there’s the part where I retired from the Military after 20 years to become a fulltime potter (and full-time live-at-home husband).  I’ve joined 721 Comm Regiment on a part-time basis to keep my fingers in the pie – when they’re not in the clay that is. Mmmmmmm pie

What else?  Well, we’ve pretty well managed to catch up on all our orders and even find ourselves with some inventory – which is pretty handy and we are moving into the Christmas order and sale season.  I’ll update our schedule (yes, another update) very soon, but it looks like we’ll be back to the Three Oaks Christmas Sale in Summerside for the third year, and a couple others too here on PEI but you’ll have to forgive me because I can’t recall when and where they are !!!  Give me a break… it’s not even 5 AM yet.  I promise I’ll update the schedule link.

Oh I almost forgot… we had the Katimavik troops out again for a workshop in exchange for some work around the house.  The Wellington Crew with Natalie came by and helped plant a heap of shrubberies and help me erect a movable-type garage riggins.  We’re also fortunate enough to be hosting Joy for a week starting today.  I’ll admit it though… I can’t remember which one Joy was.  My bad.  Do people still say “my bad” anymore?

So that’s about it for this installment.  Back into the studio on Monday - or should I take a day off ? Anyhoo, until next time clay fans