It's Snowing!!!

As much as it surely is dangerous, and slippery, and freezing cold outside, there is no doubt the view from our studio window is currently, quite beautiful!

Here in the South of England we have had more snow recently than I can recall for many years, I measured 15cm in our car park this morning! Our Road is eerily quiet, cars have been abandon due to gridlocked traffic, our staff have had all sorts of problems trying to get to and from work, and couriers are not collecting or delivering to, or from this area. Thankfully this happens at a time when our business seasonally slows down anyway.

The trees surrounding us are heavily laden with snow. As you may be able to see from the picture, the weight of the snow is bringing down branches and trees, and on our large oak tree behind our warehouse, a 30 foot long branch has fallen, thankfully during the night, and conveniently avoiding any structures or stock! Falling trees also caused our power to be off all day on Tuesday, so apologies to anyone who may have been expecting a reply to an email yesterday or had a phone call unanswered. Today we back to normal, however, all shipments out will be delayed due to the road conditions, please call us for an update.

An additional problem to all this has been that sadly the snow we have is the 'wrong kind' of snow for building snowmen! My attempts with my Children last night concluded with not a 'Snow-Man', but a long pile of snow that we fashioned into what resembled...... a 'Snow-Basking-Shark'!

Merry Christmas to all our customers. Many Thanks for choosing Hobby Ceramicraft in 2009, we are currently working hard on new developments that we hope will boost your studios in 2010, do, watch this space!

Best Wishes

Matt & Jane

A Merry Little Christmas

These items are part of our new economy range of Party Bisque. Tree is 14.5cm tall, ornaments are 8 to 8.5cm tall. Sold in cases of 12. All are decorated with Stroke and Coat colours then Clear glazed and fired to cone06 (1000C). From Right to left;

PB96 Round Snowman, 1 coat of SC31 all over and then wiped off leaving colour in the detail. Apply one and two coats SC77, SC76, SC75, SC74, SC15 to appropirate areas.

PB100 Reindeer in hat, 1 coat of SC34 all over then wiped off with a damp sponge leaving colour in detail. Apply colours as a wash SC74 to Hat, SC73 to jacket, SC85 to gloves and scarf, SC51 to body, SC16 to trim.

PB101 Santa in Hat, SC73 to hat & coat, SC35 to beard, SC25 gloves, SC74 to candy cane, SC15 to boots and eyes.

PB31 Tree with opening for tealight, 1 coat of SC8 all over tree then wipe off using a damp sponge leaving colour in detail. Add water to SC26 to make a wash of colour and apply all over tree. SC74 three coats to base, sponge SC15 on MAT103 to create pattern on base.

PB97 Round Santa, SC37 beard, SC20 face, SC87 Ruby Slippers to hat and coat, SC80 Gloves, SC8 to tree and holly. Once dipped SG302 snowfall was painted in trim.

PB95 Round Reindeer, 1 coat of SC34 all over and removed with damp sponge leaving colour in detail. Add a little water to the colours to apply a wash to each area. SC51 antlers, SC37 nose, SC25 body, SC74 scarf, SC24 bell, SC85 Gloves.

PB99 Snowman in hat, 1 coat of SC31 all over and then removed with damp sponge. SC76, SC77 SC74 , SC75 , SC15 to detail.

PB33 Tree Dish, 17cm Long. 3 coats of S2728 to centre and 3 coats of SP274 to edges and back. No clear glaze is used.

PB98 Traditional Santa, 8cm Tall. SC8 to tree and wipe off, SC41 to beard and wipe off, SC73 to coat & hat, SC24 to star, bell and buckle, SC20 to face, SC15 eyes, belt and boots, Gloves SC41

Order quick, whilst stocks last. 01189 326153 order@hobbyceramicraft.co.uk

Delivery Times

We are experiencing a high volume of orders and are not able to turn orders around as quickly as we would like. Please make it clear on your order if you need items urgently when you need them. You might also like to phone and check all is progressing well with your order.
We hope to return to normal soon, thank you for your patience's.

New Christmas Bisque

Just arrived, click picture for a closer look:

Well Done Zyllah and all at Crazy Glaze!

Zyllah and her team at Crazy Glaze in Godmanchester have raised over £1600 for Breast Cancer Care. They have just completed three busy ladies nights, doing Boob Prints! Each print was turned into a piece of art, from chocolate muffins to wheels of racing cars.
50% of her studio fee and 50% of the piece prices was donated to Breast Cancer Care. Zyllah feels that if her customers are brave enough to have their breast painted then she needed to be generous with her donation. Some customers have been very brave and are auctioning their pieces off to raise even more money for the cause, others will keep and give to partners at Christmas.
If you are in the area, all pieces will on display in her shop window until the 14th November. The event was held in her studio. Topless male waiters made sure everyone had a drink as well as selling raffle tickets for prizes, donated by other local businesses. Customers could also buy Pink Ceramic Ribbons that Zyllah had made using our A922 awareness ribbon.

Zyllah is happy to share her experience with other studios wanting to do a similar event, drop Jane an email and she will put you in touch.

Ceramic Pudsey Bear

Exactly one month to go!!! If you have not placed your order of Pudsey Bears just yet, don't leave it too long, the demand is due to explode the closer we get to the Appeal date of 20 November 2009.

Pudsey-Bear is a huge success story for BBC Children in Need. He has almost 100% brand recognition with the public, and as a marketing tool for the charity, they don’t come any better!

Pudsey Bear attracts a whole new group of customers who may not have considered 'Pottery Painting' before,

If you sell these pieces in your studio, your marketing will get a wonderful boost in the run up to the appeal, in November, by having none other than BBC Children in Need promoting, and giving air time to the cause!

GREAT PR FOR YOUR STUDIO

These pieces do not compete with any other item you sell, Pudsey Bear is unique, people who decorate him will not do so, 'instead' of painting something else, in fact it is likely to be the introduction of 'Pottery Painting' to new people, that can lead to future sales, party bookings, etc.

The P.R. you will get out of hosting a 'Pottery Painting Pudsey Bear Party', can be very significant, via word of mouth, local press and even in some cases on TV!

TIME TO PARTY

The best way to sell these is to have an event! Go into a school, have a 'Pudsey Bear' day in the studio, go into local businesses, contact local leisure centres, kids play areas, toddler groups, brownies, and either travel to them, or arrange for them to come to you, to decorate one of these items.

We donate 25p to the BBC Children in Need Appeal when you buy one, then when you sell it in your studio you must agree to donate a minimum of 50p per piece from your sales price. You can donate as much as you wish above the 50p, in some cases a few studios last year donated 100% of the money taken to the appeal.

OUR COMPLETE SUPPORT

Hobby Ceramicraft totally stand by the wonderful value of this experience, both for the studio and for the painter. It is so engaging seeing a young child decorating "their" Pudsey Bear, taking ownership of that piece in such a rewarding way.

We love everything about Pudsey Bear, not only what we can do for him, but also what he can do for the small businesses we supply. I hope you choose to do something with him in your studio this year, start planning now!!

Read more and get access to some great resources to help you on the Hobby Ceramicraft Website on our Pudsey pages : here!

Best Wishes

Matt - The one on the left!

New Italian Money Boxes

Just arrived in stock, these hand-thrown, 22cm tall bisque money boxes were a special request from a super studio who buys similar pieces already painted from a giftware wholesaler, paints on the side individual messages with non-fired paints and re-sells in her shop.

These bisque pieces will be a fraction of the cost, and can be decorated either with non-fired colours, or as you would do normally with your standard fired colours and glazes.

Traditional Italian Money boxes have no 'bung' in the bottom, so you cannot touch your money until the whole piece is fully loaded with cash. The top is then cracked off, or carefully smashed. Hopefully this will then require the customer to return to your studio to get another!