A Vision becomes a Process

Early One of AKinf Fish Platter by Brenda Andersen - circa 1952-1968? on slipcast form designed by Weston neil Andersen

An Open Leter sent to Andersen Studio's Email Followers:
A lot has happened since I last wrote. This story begins back in the 1980’s when Joe Randall worked for our production studio in Portland, Maine. It was there that Joe was introduced to the fascinating process of production ceramics, the same process that my father was introduced to by the illustrious Eva Zeisel, when he studied industrial design at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York, before and after World War II.


Joe was so inspired by the production process that he went on to study ceramics at Alfred University. He has since been involved in the ceramic business but we had lost contact with him.

My sister Elise volunteers her “service’ to the local land trust- (Yes – this is even before being promoted by our presidential family to do so). Elise helps to organize the Boothbay Region Boat Festival, which takes place at the shipyards around the bend from us in August. Last August I saw a slip-cast ceramic whale by a young artist, both different and similar to our work, similar enough so to say that the influence is there. I asked my sister about the work and she told me than she had put the young designer in contact with Joe.

When I saw the competition for a small business grant that the Juice Conference is offering, I formulated an idea for the grant and wrote to Joe for an estimate on doing molds. A few years back, Joe had done a block mold for us when we had a large order of baby penguins for the Smithsonian catalog.

After I had composed my introduction and contacted Joe, I learned that the grant process was an America Idol style oral run-off- and so did not pursue it, but none the less a process had been set in motion, merging with the larger process that began in the 1940’s when Eva Zeisel taught her land mark class in slip-cast ceramic production and a young man by the name of Weston Neil Andersen was a student.

When I called Joe I asked to have the block mold for the baby penguin, which I had never seen. The block mold makes the production of production molds very easy. I am interested in having block molds made of all our small sculptures, which was the basis of the grant proposal. Joe was planning a trip our way and said that he would stop by and deliver the block mold.

Last night Joe stopped by and we had a most interesting and inspiring meeting. It seems that Elise’s introduction of the young designer had set yet another stage of this decades long process in motion. Joe’s is a man fascinated by the mold making process and the design and management of a ceramic production shop. He does not want to do the actual production work but to be involved as a manager who oversees the process on a weekly basis. He has a colleague in New Hampshire who wants to set up a production shop and is ready to go but it hinges on the young designer, who wants only to design and market. The designer is going to the Atlanta and Rosen Shows with his own work and hoping to bring back enough orders to justify the financing of the project. Joe has another long-time associate who is their financing specialist.

Meanwhile, we have been side tracked this year with large projects not specifically related to our field. This has competed with our time and energy for focusing on sales- but the opportunities have been knocking on our door unsolicited. We are currently in the preliminary negotiation phase with three different enterprises that promise to yield quantity orders. We are also experiencing calls from former retailers with whom we had lost contact. The classical success of our line is a draw in these difficult times. Our line has retained its marketability for over half a century through out many fluctuations of the economy.

I was amazed to be sitting in the room listening to someone else as inspired and focused on the entire process – from design- to production – to sales and financing of a ceramic production enterprise. As I have written in my VISION statement, this enterprise hinges on love of the work and appreciation of the life style, and Joe clearly has that love and understanding. He was speaking about associates with whom he had a substantial history of dealings. We, ourselves, are a part of that chain of connections. Here I was listening to someone describe the emerging manifestation of the concepts expressed in my VISION statement, written a number of years ago. - And we are the link that can make the collaboration whole- not only because we can supplement orders should the young designer fall short of his goal and add to orders if he doesn’t- but because we have been involved in every aspect of the process for years-and we would like to have more time to focus on design, ceramic art and marketing – which is complementary to the project that is currently formulating.

It is formulating during a time when congress is discussing bills that may drastically alter the way business is to be done. If worse comes to worse and bills are passed that cripple the American economy with the highest taxes we have ever seen while simultaneously skyrocketing the cost of energy for every American -there is a back up plan. We would then look for a different nation in which to produce our medium priced line, while focusing on an upper end Art line here. Joe has experience dealing with overseas productions. Andersen Design has been recognized for art and design through our history and so we are poised to make this kind of transition. If best comes to best and taxes are left alone or even reduced and the Cap N Tax is defeated we can do both a medium priced line and develop a higher priced line in this country.

Andersen Design will be finishing the bisque ware in our own studio- at least initially. Our glazes are all of our own invention and are part of what distinguishes our work, only one other company has ever produced a line with our glazes and that is because a former employee stole the recipes from us. That company has since gone out of business. We also love the process and look forward to an opportunity to devote more of our own time and energy to that process. We expect to be developing more one of a kind work, which complements production work and often generates ideas for more production pieces.

In order to make this really work, we need to build a new ceramic finishing production here. This will provide interesting Maine Jobs- while the bisque ware production will provide interesting New Hampshire jobs. We will need to find financing for the new facility and possibly other costs.

As a small business we have always slipped between the cracks of establishment financiers. We are a genuine grassroots collectible because our work became a collectible by way of ordinary people deciding to collect Andersen stoneware. There was never any effort or collaborations with outside organizations to promote the collectiblity of Andersen stoneware- it was just the people's choice. By joining this network of ceramic production entrepreneurs, we can reduce the burden on us and that will allow us to improve our customer service as well as focus more on the ceramic process. We have not historically found great support through established channels- our business success is from the grass roots and so I have decided to spread our cause through our own grass roots. Thank You Grass Roots! We Love you!



Sincerely,

Susan Mackenzie Andersen;

http://www.andersenstudio.com/

Andersen Studio to be in the Pembrok Elementary School Economic Fair on May 21, 2009

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