Wednesday, 27 April 2011
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!
Saturday, 23 April 2011
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!
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!
Friday, 22 April 2011
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!
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!
Thursday, 21 April 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, 17 April 2011
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!
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!
Friday, 15 April 2011
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!
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!
Sunday, 10 April 2011
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!
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!
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