Lunenburg County Christmas Ornament Factory - First Kiln Unloading Part 2

Here are more pics from the first kiln unloading for my new "Lunenburg County Christmas Ornament Factory" label.   I'm taking a bunch of these to Jenny Jib in Lunenburg tomorrow, the sea animal ones for sure!

Here's a link to the post with the first bunch of photos from this firing.

And here's a link to the post that describes why I began to describe my studio as a 'factory'. 

Edit Nov 29th: I've been to see Jenny and am marking which ornaments of the super unique ornaments are now available at Jenny Jib, in historic Lunenburg, along with one each of the new doves, sheep, squirrels, chickens and foxes.  She also has a bunch of my smaller ornaments at $15 each as well as a few papier mache ornaments left.

I'll add in here that I found out about Jenny of Jenny Jib after I heard what what a great supporter of local art she is; it's true! she offers an extremely reasonable consignment rate and pays her artists each month.  Her shop has lots of great stuff including the beautiful paintings of Zehava Power, among some other great art. 

Cow - available at Jenny Jib $22

Christmas Hermit Crabs, with holly on their shells, at Jenny Jib, $22 each

Stoneware Dove, I have a few more but they were hard to photograph as a group

Stoneware Duck, earthenware Duckling

Stoneware Fish and Seahorse, at Jenny Jib $22 ea

Foxes! and an arctic fox, one of the new Red ones is at Jenny Jib

Earthenware horses. Love these ones. Now at Jenny Jib $22 ea

Stoneware Husky with one blue, one brown eye

Earthenware Blue Jays, 2 available at Jenny Jib $22 ea

An earthenware Christmas Lobster! I think this one went home with Jenny of Jenny Jib

Earthenware Meerkat, handpainted with commercial glazes

Stoneware moose, glazed with Randy's Red Gold

stoneware chickens and Rooster, glazed with Chun White

The suffolk sheep I used to make a lot of, unfortunately the black parts don't show up well on a Christmas tree, although the sheep are popular as figurines

stoneware squirrels glazed with light rust

new stoneware sheep!

chickens glazed with "Light Rust"

stoneware owls

earthenware mouse handpainted with Ginger glaze

Earthenware kitty

An earthenware Bulldog and Stoneware cocker spaniel glazed with "Bone"

Stoneware hens and rooster glazed with "Bone"

Stoneware Hens glazed with "Randy's Red Gold"

Blue jays

Bears with scarves, both of these ones are available at Jenny Jib $22 ea

A polar bear

This is actually a Halloween ornament bat I made last year, snuck into this batch of pics.  These might look good on a white Christmas tree though!

A deer family! next time I'll try the same glaze I use for the foxes and squirrels, might look a bit brighter on the tree.

Seals and a Christmas Shark, each of these are at Jenny Jib $22 ea

It occurred to me after I chose the "Lunenburg County Christmas Ornament Factory" name people might get excited that some new factory just opened up, and then be disappointed it's just me.  I do, however, think with some careful business planning, streamlining and me getting over my hangup about using molds, there could be potential here to grow a bigger business and create some jobs, you never know!  Meanwhile I've also started working on some papier mache ornaments, so there will be some posts about that coming up!

Lunenburg County Christmas Ornament Factory - First Kiln Unloading Part 1

So my firing of all those ornaments went pretty well, and I've decided to come up with a label.  Lunenburg County is the Christmas Tree Capital of the World so I figured why not include the name in a new brand, so, introducing:

"Lunenburg County Christmas Ornament Factory"

Here's the first pic, a Buff Orpington stoneware chicken, I'll add more pics to this post later!

 Ok, it's Nov 23 and I'm adding more pics.

I'm very excited about my new 'brand' which I launched today at Swoon Fine Art's 3rd annual Christmas Tree Ornament Party/Sale.  I didn't make it in for the sale, so I'm not sure if any of these have been sold yet but below are pics of ornaments I took there.  There was more in this firing though, so I'll take more pics within the new few days. 

Thanks to Evgenia Makogon for taking pics and making this photo-collage for me!  Evgenia was at Swoon on Friday too, dropping off some beautiful miniature paintings for the Ornament sale. 

Me under the tree of ornaments...

 And now a whole pile of pics I took yesterday morning; this isn't even everything that went to Swoon as there are also a few foxes and squirrels I took there.  The price point on these are $18 or $22.  I took the pics before putting on the wires and labels, part of my new campaign to photograph things before they sell and I forget what they look like Plus I'm so excited to see how my work will evolve over time. For some of these ornaments I photographed the fronts as well as the backs.

Bears, the blue scarfed one was supposed to reference one of the Sochi mascots but I didn't use quite the right colour...

Blue Jay

Donkey

Hens

Cardinal

Ermine

Duckling

Doves

Frog

Horses

Owl in Santa Hat, I really like this one!

Carved up Dove, I like how the carving turned out!

Little Christmas Rat (or mouse if rats gross you out)

White Rabbit and Squirrel

Pug

Yellow Horse

White Wolf

Unicorn! I love this one!

turtle

tiger cub

Sheep! this is a new design, I've made and sold a lot of suffolk sheep with black heads and legs, but I think these will show up better on the tree. the carving is new too!

Big fat Great White Christmas Shark.

My Christmas Wish For Big Box Stores, or "How to Put the 'Canadian' Back into Canadian Tire"

Ok, one more photo-less post but to make up for it the next post will be all photos, as my low-fire ornaments turned out well, and I'll soon be unloading my glazed stoneware ornaments.

This post is for the owners and managers of Big Box stores.

In my last two posts I listed off a bunch of reasons why people should buy local craft, now based on those reasons, I'm going to describe a small way I think you Big Box managing people could help the local economy.

When I moved to Regina in 2005, I remember going to a Canadian Tire store looking for Christmas stuff, and being surprised that pretty much all of it was made in China.  Why? I guess we've become used to the idea that in order to profit, stores need to flip cheap goods, and to get cheap goods, these goods need to be made in offshore factories.  I remember saying "isn't this Canadian Tire? why is all the Christmas stuff made in China? Do they even celebrate Christmas?".  This post is directed at a number of big box stores, but I think it can be summed up by my alternate title: 'How to Put the 'Canadian' Back into Canadian Tire'.

Well, to throw out a word from my previous career in Science, I have a 2-part Hypothesis to test.  My hypothesis is this: 1. Locally made craft is cheaper than people think, and, 2. given the choice, a lot of consumers would prefer to buy locally made craft if were made readily available to them.

As consumers I think a lot of us have become addicted and dependent on the convenience of big box store shopping.  These stores tend to be open long hours, have easy parking, lots of staff, and be located in centres where people go to get groceries and other things they need.  Now, as a craftsperson so far I've done what every other craftsperson does and look for stores specializing in local art and craft to sell my wares.  While I love the venues I support, if I want to make a full-time living with my ornaments and figurines it has occurred to me I'll soon be out-producing what these stores are able to sell.  

I also believe art is for everyone.  This is a concept I've heard thrown around in the community art events I've helped with, and I know a few artists who now specialize in making giant parade puppets, lanterns, and installations.  Sometimes I've felt like a bit of a sell-out for not devoting myself to this full time as well, but I've realized that my passion lies in tackling the "art is for everyone" idea from a different angle.  My angle is that anyone should be able to afford a little bit of locally handmade art in their home.  This is why I love to make hand sculpted figurines and ornaments at prices that are competitive with mass produced objects from foreign factories.  For awhile I've felt like I'm in some sort of trade war with China, and my ornaments and figurines are like my little soldiers.  Now I would love to send these soldiers into a big box store, and let them fight it out with Chinese made ornaments for market share.

My Christmas wish to Big Box stores is this:

Please, please, please (yes I'm begging) please let me show you some samples of my more "productiony" ornaments for this Christmas season, the ones that I can make relatively quickly.  We could agree on a price point that we think customers would go for, and hopefully a consignment rate that pleases us both.  I've designed my little animal ornaments to either stand on their cute little feet, or sit on their cute little bottoms, so all I would require is some shelf space.  In most big box stores I've visited, there is always a bit of room.  I would bring these ornaments to you, you just need to price them and hopefully sell them.  That's it.  It'd be a win/win.  No dealing with ordering stock from afar, and having to cope with leftover stock that doesn't sell.  I could take away or swap out unsold pieces. I'd even assume responsibility for any theft or damage.

And think about it, oh Big Box owner, you would have the honour of being at the leading edge of the "Localartista" revolution (Localartista = maker and/or purveyor of local art and craft, I made up that word this week).  Think how thrilled your customers would be that you're presenting them with opportunities to put something locally made on their Christmas Tree.  After all, Lunenburg County is the "Christmas Tree Capital of the World" (according to the sign I saw on the highway) so wouldn't it be great to make it easier for people to put Lunenburg County Christmas Ornaments on their trees? I think your customers would pick up on the fun energy I try to sculpt into my pieces.  I think they would find the foreign made objects dull and cheerless by comparison.  And really, what is the worst that could happen? You try out a product that doesn't sell? At least with me you wouldn't be gambling any dough. Plus any dough we both make stays right in our local economy, it isn't sent offshore.  With your help one day I'll even hopefully be able to hire an assistant at my ornament factory, and this province does need more jobs!

Ok Big Box owner/manager, you can stop reading now as the rest of this post is to pacify the shops that I currently work with so they don't chuck all my stuff out in the street.

If any owners of more traditional craft venues read this post and think "what the hell are you doing, taking more of our business away from us" my argument is, nah. I don't think I am.  I think there are already people who will and do go out of their way to support small galleries and craft shops.  The good galleries/shops have built up loyal cliental by offering unique products and friendly service.  I think local small store shoppers are already hooked, and I  don't think any of these customers will suddenly stop buying my products from these shops because I have some ornaments in a Big Box store.  There is something magical about walking into a store or gallery that has mainly local art and craft, that would be difficult to replicate in a Big Box store where people are also going in to buy fishing rods, nails, toasters and swiffer refills. 

What I do think will happen, though, is that more of the public will realize, huh, handmade local craft isn't as expensive as I thought.  I do think there are legions of people, who, due to being busy with family, shiftwork, overwork, general shyness to enter a small independently run store, just aren't going to shop at galleries.  These people just feel more comfortable in malls and Big Box stores and possibly assume that galleries are full of expensive things they can't afford.  But, maybe if  my ornament/soldiers become popular, and I continue to promote my work at other venues, these formerly Big-Box/Mall shopping only people might finally venture into a gallery or craft shop to see what they're all about.  My ornaments would be like cheerful ambassadors welcoming new people into the world of local art and craft.  It'd be a win/win.  And most certainly any Big Box store taking on my work isn't going to be losing sales to art galleries, as they sell so much other stuff that people need.  I think Big Box stores are more suited to carrying large amounts of low-priced works, and in my experience, galleries would rather be selling the more one-of-a-kind show stopping stuff anyways, as these pieces fetch a higher price and are better able to help the indie business owner pay bills than my lower priced trinkets.  The more unique pieces are also the pieces that gallery fans are craving.

 Having a few lines of products at Big Box stores would also help me pay my bills, assuming my items sell well and provide me with some steadier income to hedge against slow times at the smaller shops. Truth be told, my dream is to come up with lines of products that have the mass appeal of Beanie Babies and My Little Ponies with the one-of-a-kind uniqueness and collectability of Faberge Eggs.  Having outlets for my productiony stuff would also allow me some creative freedom to split my time between making for the Big Box and taking a risk on making more unique pieces for the smaller shops that I love to support.

So my hunch is that my Big Box plan sounds like a win/win/win/win/win for me, customers, the Big Box, galleries and the local economy.  Maybe I'm wrong! But, definitely an experiment worth trying, eh? 

A New Word for the English Language, and 3 more reasons for buying local craft

Well this will be a photo-less post, I loaded my bisque kiln early this morning and have over one hundred ornaments out baking in my shed.  I'll have some posts of some of the finished ornaments later this week.

Meanwhile I've been thinking a lot about how to market and where to sell my ornaments.  This will be the topic of a post in the near future, but it occurred to me that getting local art and craft into big box stores might be a good thing, and could be done in a way to benefit artists while also drawing more traffic to independently run venues.  (so please don't be alarmed, locally run venues, if you see me tweeting about how I'd love to sell my Kevin O'Leary Christmas Tree Heads at Canadian Tire).   But more about all this when I write the post which I think will be called "How to put the Canadian back into Canadian Tire" or something similar.

Step one in forming that plan was to come up with a label for artists trying to get their work seen by as many people as possible, while giving all stores an opportunity to replace stuff from foreign factories with locally made items.  So I came up with a word.  First I thought of "Localista" but that's already been thought up and is used mostly by people promoting local food.  So that led me to my new word:

"Localartista" which I'll define as artists and craftspeople who make and promote local art and craft.  Take that, China, we're gunning for you!

I googled it and checked for hashtags on twitter, I think I can claim "Localartista" as my new made up word. I'll possibly come up with a better word for this revolution I'd like help start, but for now it'll do.

Now on to more reasons for buying local art and craft, I had come up with 7 reasons so far.

Here are 3 more:

#8 - Child Care.  Now I don't have kids which is for the best seeing as I can barely look after myself.  But one thing I've noticed is a lot of artists and crafters do, and by selling their work it allows them to work from home.  This means their kids also stay home with them and aren't shuttled around to daycares.  I don't know how the daycare system works but I imagine this also frees up space in daycares, while saving artist-parents money on child care costs.  In some cases I suppose there are artists who can also care for elders while working at home.  In the case of artists raising kids, the ones I've met get their kids right involved in their business.  This means parent/child quality time, and the kids learn art and business skills, while having their own imaginations and creative spirits nurtured.  I think that's nice!

#9 - Environmental health.  With the exception of the times I occasionally dump out small amounts of dirty glaze water on my lawn I would say my ornament factory is pretty environmentally friendly.  Not sure if the same can be said about foreign factories.  Unlike work from foreign factories, my work doesn't need to be shipped for thousands of kilometers on a giant tanker and packed up in various packing supplies.  Rather, my work gets driven a relatively short distance, and I'm cheap so I do errands on the same trip.  Instead of styrofoam my packing materials of choice is newspapers which I've read, or for larger objects I'll wrap them in towels and just lay them in the car.  By staying home working all the time I'm also using my car less as now the only commuting I need to do is to drop off stock or pick up supplies.  This means less time on the road, and I'm reducing my carbon footprint.  It also leads me to:

#10 - Savings in Health Care.  By staying home more, and traveling less there's less chance of me ending up in a traffic accident.  By spending my working life doing something that I love and is stress-relieving, I'm also hopefully preventing disease in my body which will save Canadian taxpayers oodles of money.

That's all for today, as usual finishing off underglazing and loading my kiln took way longer than I thought so I'm a bit tired!  Looking forward to seeing how my low fire ornaments turn out!