Shaldon Christmas Market

We're very excited to be having a stall at the first ever Shaldon Christmas Market on the evening of the 8th December. We'll be selling a range of our own artwork and christmas decorations, gift vouchers, plus the opportunity to do baby hand/footprints on decorations, hangers and mugs.

So, if you're looking for a unique Christmas present for those tricky-to-buy-for relatives or friends, pop along and see us!

Autumn Sale!

Yes, it's time for our very first out-of-season sale here at Seashore Ceramics.

Starting from Saturday 15th October, to help make space for our Christmas stock lots of fab items will be discounted, including:

• Cat animugs
• Train banks
• Winnie the Pooh banks
• Photo frames
• Cup & Saucer sets
• Football banks
• Flower mugs

That's only a small selection, so why not pop in to see if anything you've had your eye on painting is now in the sale? Hope to see you soon!

A little breather!

Apologies for the radio silence everyone - yes, we are still alive :)

We had a lovely summer season, with loads of fantastic visitors and some fabulous works of art going into the kiln. We're very excited that some of our summer visitors have even planned their October half-term visits already! We were also really thrilled at the local support we had throughout the summer - everyone has been so friendly and really made us feel at home in Teignmouth.

Now that the school term has started, we're taking the opportunity to have a little breather and sort our house out ready for the arrival of the newest member of our family, due in November - not long to go now, I'm sure anyone who has been into the shop recently will agree that I look fit to pop already!

We will still be open every weekend (with the exception of this coming Sunday 25th September), and most Thursdays and Fridays, plus any other agreed times for group and birthday bookings. If you'd like to check if we'll be open, please do get in touch - our contact details can be found on this page or at www.seashoreceramics.co.uk


If you'd like to book a party, don't forget we can also do an after-school slot, any time around 4-6 - just get in contact if you'd like to discuss options. There's still plenty of availability, but we are getting more bookings so do give us a shout if you're thinking of having a party with us.

Lastly, we're looking forward to Christmas and have already got some of our festive stock ready - but you'll just have to wait a little longer for that, the sun is still shining a little to much to bring it out... But it won't be long before we all start thinking about making Christmas presents for loved ones and creating some fun new decorations!

Our first mobile event

We've just come back from doing our first event as a mobile service - we had a stall at Shaldon Primary School's Summer Fete. And what fun we had! We learnt lots of new things, how to put a gazebo up being one, thanks to the good ol' British summer weather... But fortunately, it only extended to the occasional bit of drizzle, so everyone was able to continue outside.


We were thrilled to see some of our regulars, plus some of the Brownies we met last week, along with making some new friends - and we hope to see you all again soon in the shop to pick up your finished pottery! All the items should be ready for collection by Wednesday.

The new school wing - which was also officially opened today - looks fabulous, and we're hoping plenty more funds were raised with the fete - the raffle was certainly popular!

If anyone would like to book us for a similar event, just get in touch - we'll be at Chudleigh Primary School Fete next Friday (15th July) and others coming up over the summer, and we love getting out into the open air and meeting lots of new faces.

Time for a cold drink and a lie-down now...

We're back

Hello everyone

We had a lovely few days break in sunny North Devon - hopefully the weather was so good that we didn't miss out on too many customers, but our apologies if you popped by the shop to find it closed! Our two pups particularly enjoyed themselves...

Since we returned we're really excited to have had a few more group visits.

Firstly, 4th Teignmouth Brownies visited for an animal-painting session as a special summer treat. The girls came up with lots of interesting questions and really got stuck in - some fantastic creatures were painted (Crazy Rainbow Snail among many more!). Any Rainbows/Brownies/Guides packs booking a group session get a special discount at Seashore Ceramics, so if there are any interested pack leaders out there, do just get in contact.


We then hosted our first Baby Shower this weekend which, being parents-to-be ourselves, was particularly exciting! After an early morning baking, icing cakes and creating home-made bunting, we were ready for our guests:


The fab idea of chief organiser Hannah was to paint an alphabet of ceramic letters for the baby's nursery, so we ordered these in - I'm really pleased we did as I can imagine many more fun uses for the remaining letters in future.

Some beautiful letters were painted by the group, all in colours to co-ordinate with the nursery, and we can't wait to see how they look all fired up and framed together! Thanks to all the ladies who came and to Hannah for organising it - hopefully it will be our first of many :)


We're back to our normal opening hours now, so we'll be open every day apart from Tuesdays for the future. Roll on summer holidays!

Hooray, hooray, it's a holi-holiday!

We're going to be on holiday for a couple of days next week - Tuesday and Wednesday, but from next week we'll be settling into more regular opening hours, closing only on Tuesdays. Thanks for your patience while we found our routine!

We have (website) Lift-Off!

We're indescribably excited to finally launch our brand-spanking new website: www.seashoreceramics.co.uk. On there you can find lots of info about our location, children's party packages, gifts and commissions, and we'll keep it updated with all the latest news too.

There's still a few little bugs to iron out, but we'll have those sorted soon. Huge thanks to Alex for all his amazing website enabling and big love of course to my other half Kev for slaving away over the design for the last few months, most of which was done in the small hours of the morning. Hard-working boys!

If you have any comments, queries or suggestions, please do drop us a line at info@seashoreceramics.co.uk.

Countdown to Father's Day

If you're hoping to make a gift for Father's Day, don't worry - you still have time! Pop in sometime this week and as long as your item is finished by 12 on Friday, we'll be able to turn it round ready for collection on Sunday afternoon. Go on, make Dad a present he'll always treasure!

Opening times this week

This week (w/c 6th June) we'll be open:
Monday from 12pm
Tuesday: closed
Wednesday: 11 - 5.30
Thursday: closed
Friday: 11 - 5.30
Saturday: 10 - 5.30
Sunday: 10 - 5.30

We're without internet access at the moment, but as soon as its back up can't wait to post some lovely pics!
Don't forget, we only take 3-4 days to turn things round ready for collection, so you have plenty of time left if you're thinking of making a Fathers Day gift.

Half Term is here!

Don't forget everyone, we are open every day this Half Term week, including Bank Holiday Monday, 10 - 5.30

The weather's looking pretty dicey out there, so come in and shelter from the wind and rain with a hot drink and make a fab unique gift for Fathers Day!

The Daleks Have Landed!

Get ready to hide behind your sofa, because we have some very exciting new stock in at Seashore Ceramics!



Yes, the Daleks have invaded...and they're ready to be painted!

We have limited stock of these fantastic official BBC merchandise figurines, so come along and paint one soon. Each Dalek comes with weapon fittings and a certificate of authenticity to prove it really is the real deal.

We can think of more than a few Dads (and a few Mums too!) for whom this would make the perfect present, so bring your sonic paintbrushes and snap yours up before they disappear...

Ooh, lovely new stock

We've ordered in plenty of great new pottery ready for the Half Term break, and made sure there's lots more fun things for boys to paint, especially with Father's Day coming up.

There are mini cars for those automobile addicts out there, a fantastic fighter jet, and the pirates have thoroughly invaded the shop with a treasure chest box, pirate parrot, and also a few items which didn't make it into the photo - a skull-and-crossbones cup and mini pirate ship.



We've also got some great hangers for football (or rugby!) fans to paint up in their favourite team colours:



Don't worry though girls, you haven't been left out. The beaded heart plaque has been so popular that we're also now stocking a flower and oval version, and we have a gorgeous moon fairy figurine, a fairy box (perfect for Tooth Fairy time!) and a cute heart mug in, all ready for painting.



We've also gone animal-crazy, with a whole Noah's Ark full of creatures. Geckos, sock monkeys, tortoises - as you can see, we have plenty of samples to be painting up!



But that's not all...watch out next weekend for news of some very exciting new visitors coming to Seashore Ceramics ready for Father's Day - I won't give much more away, other than to say "Get your sonic screwdrivers at the ready"...

We'll be open every day for Half Term from Thursday 26th May, so pop in and, have a look at our new arrivals and maybe be the first to paint them!

New stock coming soon

We've spent the last few days putting together another big stock order, so watch out soon for some exciting new items to be painted, along with more of your existing favourites such as cupcake boxes and sea turtles. We realised we didn't have quite enough things for boys, so we've made sure to get plenty of really fun items for all those car, truck and football fans out there, plus more pirate pottery! I'll be sure to post some pictures as soon as they arrive.

Back to School

We're taking a few days out to catch up on some paperwork, but we'll be open again on Thursday for anyone who wants to pick up their finished items, and then open again all weekend. We're also cooking up some great promotions and ideas - keep an eye on our Facebook page and this blog for news. I'm also going to brave the scary new world of Twitter, watch out...

We've also been enjoying doing some commissions and more samples - I particularly enjoyed painting up the pirate plaque!




We've had a great first few weeks and so much fun, thanks to everyone for all their support and keep spreading the word! If anyone has a photo of themselves with (or even using) their finished item, we'd love to see it - just send it in to info[at]seashoreceramics.co.uk and we'll post it on our Hall of Fame gallery on our Facebook page.

We're also going to start using our Facebook page to let you know when your items are ready for collection, in the happy event they're ready before the time we promised. I'll post on our wall when items are ready for collection, with the docket number (you can find this in the top right-hand corner of the slip we give you). Then you'll know for sure if your items are waiting for you!

Party Time

We've had lots of interest over the last week or so in the possibility of having childrens parties at our shop, so K and I have put our heads together and come up with a list of exciting party options. If you'd like more information, just drop us an email - info[at]seashoreceramics.co.uk!

Happy Easter!

Hello and Happy Easter everyone!

I'm thrilled to say the last few days have really picked up in the shop - we've met so many lovely people, and it's great to see friends who have dropped by too.

My artistic skills were challenged today with a request to draw a stegosaurus - fortunately years spent entertaining my brothers with the aid of a pen and paper came back to me and I managed to draw a passable dino!

We've also had our first commission, which is very exciting - K will be working on a footprint plate over the next week. The pressure is on!

Easter Fun!

We will be open over the Easter period from 10-5 each day, so if you get sick of eating chocolate eggs (hmm...), come and pay us a visit and take advantage of our special easter offer:

Paint any two of our selected Easter items (Bunny Trinket Box, Chick Egg-Cup, Flower Mug) and paint a standard egg cup...for free!

The offer lasts until the end of Easter Monday, so pop in and get painting!

First week

So, we've nearly been open a whole week, and what can I say?

Well, firstly the support we've received from local people has been absolutely fantastic. From thumbs-ups from taxi drivers, to the sheer amount of people who have taken away handfuls of flyers to distribute among their friends, I'm almost a little tearful at how lovely people have been.

Business has been pretty slow, a steady trickle of customers, but that's only to be expected with the amazing hot weather, and we hear from our contacts running other studios that trade is much the same with them. The up-side is having been able to get our flyers out to many, many more people than might have been in Teignmouth had the weather not been so good - the sea-front is absolutely heaving every day!

We're hoping that Thursday's article in The Western Morning News might help generate wider interest too - here we are, looking like a pair of Blue Peter presenters!


Here's a link to the article online. Many thanks to Liz Parks at the WMN for picking up on the press release I sent, it's great to have that kind of interest.

Next steps? Well, we want to try and get our flyers into one of those companies who distribute them to the stands you see in pubs, hotels, etc. Yet another scary new form of marketing to get my head round...

Then there's still work to be done on the outside of the shop, and our window display. Incidentally, it makes me very happy that we have to clean the front window of the shop fairly often due to all the small people who press their faces up against it, looking at our display!

Oh, not forgetting the small issue of our sadly-neglected website too. We've been having some problems accessing our info@...address recently, but I've managed to divert it so we should be able to pick up any messages sent there now.

It sounds like the amazing weather is set to continue over the bank holiday weekend, so I'll look on the bright side and get flyering!

Open for Business

So, after nine thousand trips to local DIY stores (I will be happy if I never see the inside of Trago Mills again, although somehow I doubt that will happen), countless late and sleepless nights and one black eye, we are open!

We had our first full day of trading today - admittedly it was a little slow, but we haven't done a scrap of marketing yet, so it's not surprising really, and the weather was glorious, so people weren't really in the mood. The plus side of that factor is that the sea-front was heaving with people, so we took the opportunity to dish out flyers and get the word out there. We're relying on the notoriously changeable Devon weather to help us out!

Our first customers were absolutely lovely and their two little girls seemed to enjoy themselves painting their butterfly plaque and Little Mermaid figurine. We've also had lots of people dropping by saying they're going to return later in the week and having a good look around the shop - I'm glad we spent all that time painting up samples now.

I failed on the picture front last time, so here's a small selection of how things are looking.

Outside of the shop (paintwork still needs re-touching, but all in due course)

(Why yes, that is the bunting from our wedding...)

Our window display, a work-in-progress really:


The inside of the shop: (colourful, eh?)


Our rainbow dolphins to show people what the colours they'll be painting with turn out like when they've been glazed and fired:

(It took a loooong time to paint all these up, but they do appeal to my love of rainbows!)

And finally, a couple more finished sample pieces just for luck:


We'd really love to see anyone who fancies dropping by and saying hello, even if it's just for a nosey and a cup of tea, so don't be shy!

Finally!

We received our planning permission from the council, meaning....

YES, WE CAN ACTUALLY OPEN THE SHOP!

We're a little excited about this, can you tell?

There's so much to report on in addition to that - sadly I seem to have mislaid my camera, so no pics I'm afraid.

1) We designed our flyer and the printed copies arrived today. Today's news means we can actually go and start giving them out to Tourist Information Centres and local holiday camps

2) The shop has come on such a lot since our last post. We really are ready to open now, and it feels like all our hard work has paid off - the place is unrecognisable from how it was when we found it. Hopefully we'll get some pics with K's camera tomorrow!

3) We've had such a lot of interest from people walking past the shop and some really lovely comments. It was so sad having to turn customers away, but we're looking forward to opening the door tomorrow and welcoming people in.

4) Very excitingly, we have the Western Morning News coming next week to do a story. I think the last time I was in the paper it was in the Express and Echo when my mum opened her dance school, funny how things come full circle.

In brief: HOORAY!

The final countdown

It's been another hectic few weeks, but we're nearly there!

The main reason we haven't been able to open yet is that we're still waiting for our planning permission to be granted by the council, but the less said about that the better...

In the meantime, we're just putting the final touches to the shop.



Starting to look less like a bombsite, huh?

We did our first firing, which was frankly terrifying - watching the kiln climb up to 1000 degrees. But amazingly, it's so quiet and barely makes more heat on the outside than a small radiator.

We certainly learnt some lessons with our first firing, particularly with the dipping glaze part, where we got it slightly too thick in some places, but a couple of you-tube videos later and having diluted the glaze a bit further, we tried another round of dipping and firing and things came out beautifully.

The Disney shelf is looking a lot more colourful these days anyway!



More fun was had this week when we had a session of baby footprint painting practice, with a friend from school and her gorgeous tot.



Hopefully the first of many sessions to come!

Not just shelves

Yes, we finally have shelves!



This might not seem particularly exciting to the outside world, but it means that we can finally get some of that stock out of boxes and up on display. Then come the difficult decisions...for example, Disney princesses with the girly stuff, or the Disney stuff? It's a hard life.




We also have our sign up. This makes things start to feel very real indeed. We need to find a matching shade of outdoor paint to cover up the knackered existing turquoise paintwork soon.



You might have noticed I missed doing my usual update last weekend. That's because it was super-hectic, in a good way. We invited some friends round to do a test run - trying out the paints, brushes, bisque etc. I'm so glad we did it, not only because it was great fun, but it really helped us see what we needed to provide, particularly in terms of wet-wipes, aprons and such.

It was fantastic to see how much the kids (and possibly the grown-ups too!) enjoyed choosing and painting the pieces, and we're really grateful to them all for coming along.




What's left to do then? What's not left to do! Create a website, put more shelves up, put together a window display, deal with a mountain of paperwork, fix the tablecloths to the tables, relocate the coffee machine...well, if I go on any more, I'll start to feel dizzy.


Not to mention painting up about 40 more samples.

We are still waiting to hear whether we've been granted planning permission for our change of use on the property (apparently there are 'quite a few applications ahead of us in the queue'), which considering how much we have yet to do, isn't the biggest disaster in the world!  And the good news is that I finished up in my 9-5 job on Friday, and am looking forward to dedicating myself to the shop full-time.


Yay!

Exciting progress

Lots of exciting things have happened in the last week.

Firstly, we took delivery of our first big order from one of the suppliers we're using for bisque and other equipment. Not only does this mean that we now have a stonking great kiln in the back of the shop:

(Check out that control panel! The manual is about the size of the Yellow Pages...)
 But we've also been able to start painting up samples for the shop! Here's a sample of our handiwork - we've started with the kids stuff which is basically like fun colouring-in, and are just moving on to decorating bowls, plates and mugs having got used to the techniques, which brushes to use, etc. You'll notice the colours look very pale and dull - this is part of the fun of ceramics painting, as when glazed and fired they'll be transformed to bright, glossy colours.

(Yes, poor Snow White does look a little goggle-eyed... I still need a little practice doing eyes!)

The shop itself is a hive of chaos activity at the moment.


The sign arrived this week, and just needs to be installed on the shop-front - quite a tricky job which may well test K's fear of heights!

Enormous, isn't it?

The walls are now painted, with a lovely purple colour in the front window area and back section:


And, possibly (sadly) the most exciting thing to me, we got our tablecloths - polkadot vinyl, to bring a another splash of colour to the place.

Now I just have to work out a way of taping them to the tables...

Aaand finally, the holding page is up on our website! We still need to do the proper site, but it's great to have something, anything there. You can find it at www.seashoreceramics.co.uk, but it's pretty hard to find through a google search at the moment as I haven't done any of the techie stuff which needs doing behind the scenes yet.

I think that's quite enough for one week... We should hear by the 26th if our planning permission has gone though, so keep your fingers crossed for that, and with any luck we should be able to open in April. Time to start recruiting some customers!

The Delivery is Nigh

Hurrah! We finally placed our first big stock order of bisque and equipment, among which is the kiln - very exciting. It took a lot of work, and much weighing-up of the merits of mega-monster T-Rex figurines vs. Princess Cupcake trinket boxes and the like.

As you can see from this picture, yes, colour-coded spreadsheets did get involved.

Once the stock arrives tomorrow, we'll be able to get started painting up samples for the shop - I can't quite describe how much I'm looking forward to this part of the job!

A slightly less enjoyable, but equally important part of the process has been absorbing as much knowledge about running a small business as possible. We've also been getting some great advice from friends and family, and my Devon Libraries card has been working flat out giving me access to some very nerdy business books, whilst K is doing the sensible thing and tracking down a good accountant.


Makes for exciting bus reading though...(well, when compared to my Pass Your Driving Theory Test book anyway.)

Hopefully over the next week we'll have some sample pieces painted up ready to show you. If anyone has any ideas for designs, I'd love to hear them!

A small hurdle

Things have been fairly quiet on the shop front this weekend. Why? Well, aside from borderline RSI due to excessive flat-pack construction (I just can't help myself), we hit a minor obstacle on our route to opening Seashore Ceramics.

It doesn't bear going into at length, but we discovered we'd have to apply for change of use planning permission on the property we're renting, from standard retail use to 'mixed use'. This meant some very stressful filling-out of some very cryptic forms late one night this week, and a whole day of chasing round different council departments, bits of information and photocopiers for K, so that we could get the application in as soon as humanly possible. By the sounds of it, the whole affair was a bit like that John Cleese film 'Clockwork', but set in the print shops of Newton Abbot.

We're really hoping that our request is going to be approved - in theory it shouldn't be a problem, but they can't guarantee anything, and the wait is up to 8 weeks before we know. Personally, I think they'd be mad to turn it down - a fun, creative, tourist-friendly business is surely just what the area needs, rather than just having a temporary 'fell off the back of a lorry' shop fill the space, or worse, leaving it empty - but then, I'm going to be biased, aren't I!

So, we'd been hoping to open for Mother's Day (first weekend in April), and still plan to if permission comes through earlier. If it takes the full 8 weeks, but as long as we actually get permission, we should still be able to open in time for the Easter holidays. And in the meantime, having taken our metaphorical feet of the gas slightly has given us time to do more work on getting our website and stock ordering set up.

I think things are going to be just fine, it's just a matter of trying to ignore the slight cloud of uncertainty which hangs over us for the near future!

Flatpack fest

It feels like a lot has changed in the shop in just a week.

The walls are almost painted, and the new flooring is down - the whole place looks so much brighter and cleaner! (OK, so it wouldn't have been hard, but still...)

K and his brother have been working hard: laying lino, painting walls and building a wall at the back of the room for the kiln to hide behind.


Or me!

We also took delivery of our tables and chairs, which arrived in such a number of boxes that the delivery man actually called me up to check I hadn't mistakenly added an extra nought onto my order.

NB: the following pictures may only be exciting to other similarly disturbed types like me who love putting flat-pack up...

Oooh, boxes!

Mmm, pieces o' pine!

Instructions read in full, pieces categorised, and armed with my tiny allen key, the fun commenced. Before long we had our first table and chairs.


The great thing about having done this is that we've been able confirm how many tables will fit in the shop. Having previously worried that we might not even fit eight tables in, it looks as if they'll fit comfortably - with possibly room for even more.



The To-Do list is still as long as both my arms (and one of my legs) put together, but with the help of a lick of paint and a little furniture, it must be said that it really feels like the shop is starting to come together!

Half a small forest

We just placed a whopping order for our shop furniture. After much to-ing and fro-ing, humming and hawing and running down every furniture supplier the internet had to offer, we went with a very plain set of tables and chairs from Homebase...

(photo brazenly swiped from their website)

...ten of them. Yes, ten. These pine babies will arrive unassembled, so I'm anticipating an orgy of flat-pack this weekend - which is good, because I have an unhealthy love of putting this stuff together. (If the business ever falls through, I am available for hire for all your flat-pack needs!)

They fall into the 'sturdy and inoffensive' category, which is what we wanted given that the main focus of the shop is to be the products themselves. Initially we'll probably only have space for eight, but wanted to get two extra in case we expand in future, and it'll be good to have the back-up of extra chairs in case things get busy.

The process of ordering them online was strangely stressful - whilst I know why the anti-fraud measures many banks have introduced in the last few years need to be there, they now mean I dread placing any orders over the internet, particularly large and costly ones using soon-to-expire discount codes. There's something mindblowingly frustrating about being at the mercy of a tiny little text box on a small glowing screen.

Meanwhile, K is making progress getting our signage sorted out, and we're moving closer to being able to place our first big stock order. There are so many things we need, and a couple of very competitive suppliers, which makes the whole process pretty complicated. Lucky then that my talents don't stop at furniture assembly, but extend to writing complex price comparison spreadsheets....