They're Stylin'...

Catch the excitement from Duncan as they release 30 New Dynamic pieces of bisque.

Have you noticed that Duncan bisque is a little whiter and more refined? The new Harmony line and the Asian line are awesome with this refined look.

There are designs for all age groups with this release. The new Vase line is stunning, very unique designs and just in time for Easter and Mother's Day. The mug and bowl is soooo very different and should cause some interesting comments from your customers.

Check out the groovy continuation of the Divas, fantastic for the "Girl Tween" market. They didn't forget the "Boy Tween" market either with the "Hot Shot Soccer Ball and animals.

How would you promote these new items....any sharing????

ABUNDANCE OF BISQUE?

Believe us, this bisque abundance will continue to grow big time! We hope you are as excited as we are when each company releases new bisque products. Express Bisque, Duncan, Gare and Mayco all bring out approximately 2 new releases each year.

January/February and August/September are usually the new release dates. We feature these new releases in groupings in our Let’s Talk so that you have time to really study each piece to plan promotions and positioning in your studio.

New Bisque Releases create excitement for your customer. It also gives you the opportunity to give your studio a whole new look. If you look around at large Retailers you will see they are continually moving products around to give the store a refreshing look to entice more sales. Changing it up!

As the bisque line continues to grow your pre-planning of SPO items will become even more critical. We are almost at 1000 pieces of bisque and from and from all indications, the selection is growing at a phenominal rate.

We appreciate all your wonderful comments about our web site shopping cart. As bisque becomes more abundant you will just love shopping on line as it will give you the opportunity to compare size, pricing, pieces per box and design. We are going to work hard to keep earning great comments from you as we will continually tweak the bisque for ease of purchasing.

We would like you to share with us your top 10 to 15 core items that you would like us to stock for your studio. We want to ensure we have these movers in stock for you. So please take the time to email or let us know your core items. These items will also change as new products come out. This 10 to 15 gives us a start.

SPO’s are your personalized studio design items and we look forward to ordering these on a timely basis. We expect SPO’s to grow as the bisque line grows. Please note that in the very near future we will be ordering SPO’s to arrive in 5 to 10 business days upon ordering.

Managing bisque in your studio is critical to your profit and we are very aware of this fact. So please keep giving us your comments so we may continue to ‘change it up’!

What Business Are We In?

Our industry, years ago, was referred to as a hobby industry. People would gather in homes and studios and enjoy each other’s company while decorating ceramics. The industry has thrived and grown as the element of perfection in learning all aspects came to great artistic heights.

With new technology and consumer products abundant in stores our industry has again adopted to what? Many say we give our customers an experience. Some say it’s fun, social or whatever spin.

We recently came across a book called Maverick’s At Work. This is a hugely entertaining book on business. It explains various techniques used in marketing today with companies such as Starbucks, Nike, Cranium and many more. Here’s a little story from this book!

“It’s tempting to answer all of these questions with just one word: Starbucks.
Seattle’s espresso empire is one of the true entrepreneurial miracles of the last two decades – more than an iconic brand, more than a growth company, it’s a destination and an institution that has become a recognizable piece of the American Landscape, a so-called third place between home and work where people meet, think, relax, listen to music, check e-mail, and, by the way, happily spend $4.50 for a latte. By conceiving of his core products not as a caffeine delivery system but as a rich, consistent, and distinctive experience, that embraces how the stores look, what they sell, who works there, even the exotic language customers speak to place order. Starbucks is serving something that connects with customers, not just something to drink, and 25 million of us visit each week to buy whatever it is that the company is selling”

What you do think? What business are we in today?..

Crystal Glazes

What happened to the Ashtray? When we first opened Ceramic Arts in 1974 the “ashtray” was the hottest item to decorate. We would cast various shapes and sizes. The most popular was the Zodiac Ashtry.

As you know the colour companies, Duncan, Gare & Mayco have various categories in the colour lines. There are 2 sections. Fired and Non Fired. In the fired section there is a category of crystals or crystallites. Everyone would apply 3 coats of these crystals on their ashtrays to co-ordinate with colours in the home. What made painting exciting for consumers using these glazes is the "lumps" (Crystals) When fired in the kiln the lumps burst making each piece amazingly unique.

Needless to say when the kiln was opening everyone would be fascinated to see how the ashtray turned out.

We tell this little story because we again have become fascinated with Crystals. We have been watching the sales these past few months and wanted to ensure this was happening before we brought it to everyone’s attention. Crystals are becoming hot again!!!

Duncan Crystals are called Crystal Glazes
Gare Crystals are called Crystal Glazes
Mayco Crystals are called Crystallites Glazes

We would love you to share your stories on the Crystal Glazes you have found exciting and now selling in your studio.

We invite you to join in with your stories..

We heard from may studios that our Candles were tooooo expensive. So, we decided to go to the greatest Retailer who "always has the best price" to check out it out. Wal Mart! We are now competitive with a far superior product.

We were pleased to see that we now have a better price (our new price) and that we did incorrectly price the Candle in last week Let's Talk.

We just love the feedback. It made us re look and check this out further. Sometimes we do work too quickly and yup... we make mistakes. We also put up our Blog, however, it did not work correctly. We did receive feedback have also fixed it. Technology... sometimes we love it and sometimes we really, really, get ticked off! To put it politely.

Yes, we have the benefit of price now. However, the really great news is we now have the benefit of natural Soy Candles that may be Personalized with the Bisque Wraps. Noooo Boooody has this feature.

We invite you to just light one in your studio... then you will know what we are talking about. Sell the personalization... this is hot!

Thanks again for the feedback.

This is our First Post

Welcome to http://ceramicartsca.blogspot.com/

This week we are launching our new Candle line. When we met the owners of June Cleaver Candles we loved their enthusiasm and ideas. Here’s their story.Angi and Debi co-owners of June Cleaver Candles are a couple of gals who decided to start up their own Soy Candle Business. A few years ago they had a retail store that sold Yankee Candles and were the top selling store in their region. So they fully understand retail and what their customers desire when purchasing candles.

They put a cute spin on naming their Candles “June Cleaver”. A name that was popular back in the 50’s television shows. This show depicted family, friends, loving, comfort all the things we all want in our lives today. Thus June Cleaver Candle Company was started.

They knew the consumer wanted no carcinogens in the candles and they knew the best sellers. Sense of smell as you know is a powerful enticement and these candles have it big time.

They also loved the ceramic industry thus coming up with a beautiful combination of Candles wrapped in Bisque. This company has quite a few collections of Candles such as Holiday, Everyday and Spring smells. Since it is a little late to bring out the holiday collections, we decided to start with the Everyday Collection of favorite scents.

We are really excited going forth with this company as they are going to be introducing dynamic new ideas in the spring with bisque wraps. Right now we are starting with Oval, Rectangular Bisque wraps.

Comment below and let us know what you think!