If you take a sec and drop by our Face Book Page  then you can take a guess at how many mugs I was able to fit into one 7 cubic foot kiln.

Wait… a little background is due I suppose… Ever since we were little potters we have always wondered if we would ever fill a kiln completely with one specific item – mine of course being mugs.  At that point I was happy if I could make 10 at a time that at least looked similar.  Well fast-forward a couple years and here we are.  On Sunday night i loaded our first-ever completly-full-of-mugs kiln!  How about that?  To celebrate I put up a contest on our Face Book Fan Page where if you take a look at the pics supplied and took a guess at how many mugs were in there, you could win one of them !  This Saturday I’ll select the three folks who guessed the closest and I’ll mail them a mug for their troubles.

Take a guess, leave a guess, and let’s see if you can win yourself a mug

We hosted the Summerside PEI Katimavik crew this afternoon.  Fun and very creative bunch !

We Played in the Clay with the crew from Katimavik – Wellington PEI today !  Natalie and her bunch had a great time making among other things, a shoe !  Carley and Bentley of course got their share of attention

There are a great deal of benefits to snow days that other provincial governments would be wise to take note of.  First, with a heap of places closed there is far less traffic on the roads.  This of course makes it much easier for the road crews to clean everything up instead of navigating around cars and leaving huge-big piles of snow everywhere where huge-big piles of snow don’t really belong.  Then there is the mental health aspect of it all.  I mean come on… who doesn’t remember the anticipation of listening to the radio an hour before leaving for school and the incredible joy that came from either hearing your school bus on the cancelled list, or hearing your school is completely shut down ?  That was like a get-out-of-jail-free pass for kids.  We’d be into our snowsuits and headed out to play with our friends before the news announcing the blessed occasion was done.  So now we’re adults, but I still feel that little buzz when I think of it.  A whole day to hang out at home in my slippers – I don’t normally wear slippers, but slippers just seem to be something one should wear during a snow day – and do all those little chores that you never get a chance to do like watching 5 hours straight of HGTV or sorting out 100s of CDs and DVDs that have that amazing ability to mix themselves up when no one is looking.

Living in the country lends another aspect to a snow day that our city friends don’t get… silence.  It’s so silent outside on a snow day at our house that all you can hear is the odd crow cawing at my dog who seems to be too near to a speck that may or may not be a bug for the crow’s lunch. Yes, I know there are very few bugs out crawling around on a snow-covered field this time of year, but I won’t tell the crows that as they seem to enjoy poking about none-the-less.  Carley and I (Carley is our goofy Chocolate Lab) like to just walk around and find stuff to do outside in the snow, much like kids do on their fortunate days off.  We just don’t build snowmen and forts, all due of course in part to Carley’s lack of opposable thumbs which really reduces the amount she can help when building a fort.  However, she is always ready to entertain me by chasing her Frisbee at least 367 times an hour

I had to go into town yesterday – during the snow day – to go to the bank which of course was going to close down at noon.  Afterwards I decided to take the plunge and get myself some real snowshoes.  I’ve had snowshoes for many many years, but it wasn’t a sport to use them.  They were the big clunky cargo-carrying jobs the Army gives you to make your life miserable, not to mention to leave large bruises across each shin from falling face-first on their outrageously sharp ends.  Wait now… I never fell face-first on the actual snowshoes… Mostly my face landed very close to where my shoulders hit the show, driven forward of course by the 60-pound rucksack I was fortunate enough to carry, and equally propelled by the nasty weapon someone thought I should carry along as well.  So I bought some snowshoes and to make a long story slightly shorter, Carley and I have discovered how much fun it can be to trek out across the fields and along the wood lines, me huffing and puffing as I walk on top of a couple feet of snow and Carley running back and forth from wherever I’ve thrown her toy to wherever I happen to be.  Fun stuff.

Here’s a thought… why don’t you try a Snow Day of your own?  I bet you’ll love it !

Cheers !

Both shows went super well.  We met a lot of new friends, saw a lot of old friends, and all-in-all had a great time.  To all our new and returning clients – Thanks very much for your confidence in us and your interest in our product !  OK, I can’t miss mentioning a couple facts that we are really proud of… We were awarded the “Best Booth Award” in Charlottetown and the “Best New Product Award” in Halifax.  Pretty big deals in our humble opinions and both were something we had been shooting for so it was nice to close those loops.  Another awesome aspect of the Halifax show was that we bought ourselves a huge-big 16′ cube van to take the stress out of getting out inventory and displays from point A to point B.  What a difference   Finally and because we always bring a wheel to shows (to entertain me and keep me out of trouble) I got the chance to throw a bunch of one-of-a-kind pieces.

We got to talking during the drive back to PEI late last night (on the crappy slushy snowy windy roads) that there are as many methods that buyers use to decide on their orders as buyers themselves.  There were the folks who hit the booth early and hard and seemed to know exactly what they wanted the second they saw what was available.  15 minutes later and the order was done and done.  Then there was the buyer who would pass by a few times to get a glance, then swing in for a good chat before deciding on placing an order.  That sort was always fun as it gave us a chance to get to know the person behind the retailer and vice versa.  A third type of buyer was the one who would come by for a look, get our retailer’s information package, then come back the next day with a carefully crafted order that seemed so very precise, like they could see directly into the future and decided that they will need 38 goblets… not 36 and not 40.  Very very precise.  We gained one new client in Halifax (more than one, but that’s another story) who placed an order on Sunday, then came back and padded their order on Monday. In the end however we were more than happy to meet every single one no matter what the method.   

We also had 3 opportunities to attend seminars at ACTS.  Day one was an hour and a half on Intellectual Property, Copyright, and Trademark information delivered by Cécile Klein from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO).  Very interesting stuff that I had never considered before, especially with respect to copyright rights either registered or not, and the option of a simple intellectual property employee agreement just to keep the facts straight.  Day two’s seminar was about exporting to the New England States put on by Wendy Diltz and an extra bonus of a 4-person panel of gallery / shop owners that were able to both support Wendy’s advice and also offer different opinions.  Monday’s presentation was done by Jeff White of Kula Partners all about the ins and outs of social marketing and how it can help business grow.  I must admit that Jeff’s presentation is part of the reason I’m updating our blog.  Thanks for the insight Jeff.

So that’s about it.  We’ve had a busy couple weeks and we’re glad to be back home on PEI.

Cheers !    Darryl

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

I enjoyed a whole lot of good information sessions during the PEI Craft Forum today and part of it was about blogs and the usefulness of blogs in marketing Craft.  I figured I was probably a couple months behind on this thing but NOOOOOOOOO.  I haven’t made an entry since wayyyyyy back in the spring.  How about that?  Time flies like crazy I’d say.  Must be the clean PEI air.

Bad news is… I must run so I’ll have to catch everyone up very soon.  Until sometime during the weekend…