We are pleased to have been invited by the sixth grade students at Pembroke Elementary School to be represented in their economic fair. It is a fair that focuses on Maine history and jobs in Maine and we are pleased to be recognized in both categories by the students at Pembroke Elementary School. We think an economic fair at the elementary school level is an excellent idea.
The Fair is to be held on May 21st and the products donated will go toward funding a trip to the state capital for the students.
Following is the letter we sent to the student that invited us>:
LETTER TO A SIXTH GRADER
Thank you for your letter. We are very interested in being represented in the Maine Economic Fair that your school is presenting.
I am the second generation of the Andersen family and we do not have a generation following us to continue the Andersen Design enterprise. I have a dream of finding others who will continue the enterprise that my family has started. Due to the unique nature of our enterprise this is not an easy thing to do. I have published a vision statement on my website expressing my personal ideas about a direction in which Andersen Design might evolve through the participation of a larger community. I am including that vision statement with the package that I am sending to you.
My parents were Designer-Craftsmen who started Andersen Design with the philosophical intent to create well designed, hand made products affordable to the middle class. That was during the Golden Age of the Middle Class, circa United States 1952. At that time the distribution of wealth in this country took the form of a Bell Curve with the largest number of people sharing the greatest amount of wealth. You may have heard on the news that we have gone off that course since then.
It took many years for this business to get off the ground and we were poor when I was growing up, but, to tell you the truth, although we often didn’t have money for things, I didn’t take much notice of being poor, for we lived in natural surroundings on Southport Island, Maine and my parents had carved out their own independent life style which can be described as the merging of art, business and the middle class work ethic.
You ask what made us successful and of course it is first of all what you have expressed yourself, that we created a product of classic appeal that can be affordably crafted by hand. People started collecting our work, of their own accord from the beginning and passing those collections down from generation to generation. The slip-cast method allowed us to develop both a wholesale and a retail business, which gets us through the seasons.
My parents presented their line at the New York Gift Show. The New York Gift Show is a wholesale gift show where people who create products display them and people that sell products come in search of merchandise. It was the decision to participate in the New York Gift Show that launched Andersen Design in the national market.
However after many years there came to be so many gift shows in so many locations and the cost of doing the shows went up while the numbers of buyers attending the shows was diluted by the number of shows that had come into being. In the early nineties, we decided that it was not worth the money and expense to continue doing the show. In truth, we made a mistake at that point, in that we didn’t substitute doing the Gift Show with another form of marketing, but we were going through some family difficulties and that is what happened and as a result our wholesale business decreased with some people even believing that we had gone out of business.
Today we are going through some struggles but the demand for our product remains strong. Even with the economic recession that hit last fall, our retail sales increased over the same period of the year previous. In this way our business is very successful. We have a product line that has sustained its marketability for over fifty years- and we a small enough production that we have never saturated our market. Also our price point is moderate while our quality is unique and valued – and so- because of those factors, when the economy shifts, we are somewhat like a bicycle in a traffic jam. There are many paths that we can take and many markets in which we can sell. We sell in museum stores, catalogs, department stores, retail galleries, and of course on the web. -and last but not least in our own retail gallery.
Because we use the slip-cast method we can recreate our line in endless ways. We have our established way of decorating our products from which stores and individuals can order, and we also finish our products in many unique ways as one of kind creations. This is a work intensive lifestyle but it is a very rewarding life style. Like a farmer we create our product from the raw materials of the earth that we mix together using our own unique recipes to make our body, glazes, and decorating colors.
Ceramics is a merging of art and science. My father always emphasizes measuring everything exactly, but between you and me, when it comes to measurements- I have a remarkably reliable intuition- and I use that as well.
This is mindful work in which one must retain an aware connection to everything in the environment, especially since we do not have a climate controlled environment as many larger factories do. That means that as the seasons change we have to make adjustments in our processes.
If you want to run your own business, having a good book keeper and office manager is crucial and you also need to have good marketing skills. This is a wonderful creative endeavor but we have to wear all the hats- or work with others who wear those hats well. It is an orchestration to keep all the different aspects of a business in tune with one another.
That said- the number one key to the success of Andersen Design is perseverance, which also requires a great deal of faith to get through the difficult times. My parents persevered where many would have given up and we do the same when we encounter difficult periods.
I hope this introduction will help you with your project. I realize there is little time before the fair and so I am keeping it short but feel free to write or call or email to asks further questions.We will be sending you some products for your fair via UPS
Sincerely,Mackenzie Andersen, Andersen Design
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