A Letter From a Friend

 We recently received an email from one of our favorite people. She needs our help, and you can help too! Ready? Okay. Read on!

"Greeting from Afghanistan!

Hey Ladies  & Gentlemen! Remember me?  Amanda from Hearts of Clay, but now I’m Amanda from Afghanistan….well, temporarily anyhow. I think everyone knows that I sold my beloved PYOP for the fun & excitement of an 1-year, all expenses paid trip to the mountains of Afg, thanks to the great US Army.  Well, we are having a fun time here, as much as can be had.  But, the reason I am emailing…..

Once a week I volunteer at hospital here on base that treats sick & injured Afghan men, woman, and children.  Well, when I say volunteer, what I really mean is I go hang out with the kids, read, play school-yard games, and assist with a small literacy program.  You know, kinda what we do in our studios, but with armed guards, and no glazing afterwards.  These children have really touched my heart and I want to do everything I can to make a difference and make their world a little brighter. 

This is where I need your help.  I need used children’s shoes.  So I am asking you to consider having a shoe drive this summer at your studio.

FAQs:

Why used shoes? Over the 10 years, there have been several shoe drives such as the one I am trying to have, and new American shoes have been found their way to the market to get sold.  Used shoes won’t sell at the market, so the kids get to keep them.  Yes, this is a sad fact of their way of life.

Why Aug 4^th? Its my husband’s birthday. Other than that, no real reason, your studio can pick whatever date is convenient for you.  We will set aside a date approx 2 weeks after all the shipments come in to hand out the shoes,  and we will have pictures of the happy kids & their shoes!

Why do these children not have shoes?  Well, the Taliban is a fundamentalist Islamic group that, once they took over Afg, banned women from working outside the home.  So, when most the male members of the families died in the last 30 years of war, women have very little means to provide for their children.  Any money earned goes towards food. 

OK, I have shoes….where do I send them?

Amanda Kane

228^th TTSB

BAF

APO, AE 09354

Thank you so much for your help, and I hope you choice to take on this small project that will have a lasting impact on these children for years. "

 

 

Your Summer Camp Domination Station

 

 Now that summer is in full blast (just like your air conditioners, if your weather is anything like ours!) you may be looking for some tips and ideas to refresh your summer camp program.

You've probably hosted a few sessions by now, and are just now getting a feel for what works and what doesn't. Let's face it: hosting a group of kids every day of the week while keeping them interested and inspired isn't the easiest job. After five years of running the summer camp program with one of my close coworkers, I certainly understand how camp can be: even when you know what you're doing! Few studio tasks are as challenging and rewarding at the same time. We don't want your camp experience to just be “okay”, we want to see your programs flourish! 

So we thought we'd give you a few pointers, and would love to hear your feedback. What works for you? What doesn't?

We'll start with some ideas on how to gain interest for your camps. Tips won't be of any help if you don't have campers, now will they?

1. Print flyers explaining the program with prices and times.
2. Staple camp information to each customer receipt and make sure your employees are knowledgeable about your programs.
3. Offer two-for-one or sibling discounts when parents sign up two campers. Promote any specials you have in your email list!
4. Switch up your curriculum each week to encourage parents to sign up their children for multiple sessions.
5. Dedicate a shelf in your store to displaying the latest and greatest camp artwork. This will get the conversation going and raise interest in your programs!

Phew. Now that you've gotten them signed up, what are you going to do with them? Without further ado, we present:

OUR TESTED, TRIED, TRUE AND TOP TEN TRICKS TO ROCKING SUMMER CAMP.

1. Schedule your camp with your other customers  in mind. It helps to have camp in either a time or place that will minimize it's impact on your other customers. Try starting camps an hour before you open in the morning, or host them in a private room or out of the way table. Whatever you can do to keep the group contained will benefit your other business tremendously.
2. Start the week by playing a few introductory games with the kids. If they feel more comfortable with you and the other campers, I guarantee it will make your job easier! When the kids can interact, they'll be more excited and involved with the projects. Go around the table and ask names, grades, and a funky fact. Don't forget to include yourself! (Campers love to hear that you're in "30^th grade" ;))
3. After getting to know the kids a little bit, you'll be able to give more personal and helpful instruction. But sometimes, two or four hands just isn't enough. Ask the campers who wants to be your “helper” for the day. Sounds crazy, but I promise you'll get some volunteers! The kids will feel special getting to go behind the counter to wash palettes and spray the table to clean up. This works really well when you're stretched to your limit!
4. Have a few small prizes for the kids. Sometimes, we'd offer a lollipop or a silly band to the best behaved camper that day. But my favorite game of all is “I Spy a Magic Scrap”. After messy cutting, painting, or mosaic projects, fix your eye on a single piece of paper or blob of paint. Then, tell the children that they have 2-3 minutes to clean up. Whoever cleans the spot you picked out gets a prize. Kids get really excited about this game and it will do wonders for the strenuous transitions between projects!
5. Try to avoid down time however possible. The last thing you need is a hyper group of kids running around the studio! Plan a few “filler” projects to do with the kids should one of your projects finish early, or if all the kids are working at different paces. Some of my go tos are: Origami Fortune Tellers  7-up (or 3-up, if you don't have many campers!) or Perler Bead projects  that you can make into magnets for an easy Make and Take on the last day of camp. We even painted a hang man and tic-tac-toe game on one of our 8'' tiles for campers to use with dry erase markers.
6. Engage with your parents, too. If you notice a child is having trouble, ask if the parents have any ideas. Open lines of communication will make the parents feel more at ease (and much more likely to spread the word about your fabulous program to friends)
7. Have your kids decorate their own camp bags on the first day. (Make sure their name is prominent and easy to read!) That way, as projects finish throughout the week, you can stuff them into their bags. On the last day, they'll have their projects all in one place and ready to go! Easy-peasy.
8. A fun project for the last day of camp: have your kids make thank you cards for their parents. I like to teach them how to make pop-up cards with messages inside. The parents will really appreciate the extra thought.
9. Make sure you have parents fill out basic information on their children, including doctor's numbers, emergency contacts and any allergies that they may have. You never want to be in a situation where you don't have this info!
10. And finally, the number one most important thing you can possibly know about managing summer camps: PLAN! Plan, plan, plan. NOTHING will replace forethought and insight into your campers' and studio's needs. Have a well thought out (but incredibly flexible!) schedule made up before the first day of camp. It's always a good idea to stay one step ahead of the camp. While the children work on one project, get started setting up for the other so you can quickly transition once they're finished. If possible, set the projects up at different tables so once the kids are done they can just switch over and leave clean up for later. Nothing creates chaos faster than rushing to catch up with the schedule. You can recycle the flow from week to week, and by the end of the summer, you'll be a time management pro and a camp counselor champion all in one!
    
    
    Woohoo! Now you've got ten more butt-kicking tools in your toolbox. The next time that first camper walks in your studio door--you'll be ready!
    
    
    
    

Ice Cream Party

We all stay really busy around here, so not everyone gets a chance to paint. We've got a fun new promotion coming up, so we took the opportunity to get everyone into the studio to paint, as well as have a little ice cream party!

Everyone chose their bowls, picked out some colors and went over techniques. Then the crew got to work! We had a blast painting together...it was really fun to see everyone's different styles come out, as well as our similarities!

Two weeks later, we got together and had an ice cream party to use our freshly fired bowls. It was delicious and a great way to break up a Friday.

Among the most popular tools were our
Paint dotters
Detail writers
Decorating wheels

Lots of people used bright, summery Duncan paints like 505, 302 and 511. The Really White Sprinkles were used as well, and they ended up looking a lot like the real thing!

This could be a great project for your summer camps. You could paint the bowls on the first day and have them fired in time for a little end of the week party!

Here are a few photos of our finished products. You can check out more on our Flickr.

Coffee For a Cause

When we heard that one of our customers is raising money for their adoption through an organization named Just Love Coffee, we jumped at the chance to spread the  word.

The organization lets families set up accounts which donate a portion of the proceeds to their fund. Just yesterday, we bought the "African Skies" and "Hello Sunshine" blend. We're excited about the new treat, but more importantly, we're excited that our simple purchase is going toward the Roberts' adoption fund.

You can help too! For the same price as your normal grocery store coffee, you can visit the site, do a little shopping, and enter "Roberts" in the beneficiary line. Voila! Within minutes you'll have fresh coffee beans on the way and at the same time, be helping this sweet family.


We truly believe that communities are capable of wonderful things when they work together. Why not use our crafty crew to benefit people in need? Here are a few ideas to spread the word even further:

1. Repost this blog or our Facebook status to your site

2. Buy some bags for your Dad, Grandpa or Hubby this weekend

3. Order a few items from the site to sell in your studio

4. Post a link to Just Love Coffee on your studio website

We like win-win situations, who doesn't? It's pretty simple. Buy beans, help a family. Thanks for your help. We're so grateful for the opportunity to support others.

Studio Spotlight: Paint Yourself Silly

Paint Yourself Silly: Lincoln, NE
http://www.paintyourselfsilly.net/


If your business is named Paint Yourself Silly, you must have a great sense of fun. So I was pretty enthused about the opportunity to road trip through Nebraska and Kansas with Jenn Bassen.

The adventure began with a visit to Jenn’s 11-year-old studio at the Haymarket in downtown Lincoln. The studio is bursting with life, color and inspiration in even the tiniest places. It’s one of those places that you can go to every day and something new pops out at you each time. The staff, which could be affectionately called the Silly team, is sensational. They make you feel welcome and any friend of Jenn’s is a friend of theirs too.

As I admired the painted pieces around the studio and I jokingly insinuated that I would love to have a particular piece. Generously and without a second thought, Jenn handed me the piece and pronounced it mine. That lovely piece created by Jenn herself, is now in my home and is a constant reminder of Jenn’s creative spirit.

No stranger to the entrepreneurial lifestyle, Jenn and her husband Trevor opened Canine Consultants & Pet Supply in 1991; a company which provides dog training and retails pet food and supplies. So opening another business wasn’t a stretch.

Jenn has always loved art. She studied it in college and has had the pleasure of always being surrounded by talented people. When her brother was in college he made a mug for her -- that simple gift inspired a new business venture. Jenn thought it would be cool to have a place where people could create art and have access to art supplies. Having read about pottery she bought a kiln and started experimenting. At the time, she had not heard of the paint-your-own pottery concept but had learned that bisque shapes were available and were ready to paint.

When a studio called Creative Clayworks opened Jenn told the owner that she would love to buy the business if they decided to sell. In the meantime, Jenn hosted painting parties in her house and ultimately decided that she could open a studio on her own and run it the way she saw it. Thanks to Jenn’s drive (and one banker that could see the validity of Jenn’s dream) allowed her to move forward with her desire to make art accessible to many people. Seven years after receiving the hand-made mug from her brother, Jenn opened Paint Yourself Silly. Seven years later, she opened her second studio in the Pioneer Woods area in Lincoln.

One of the things I admire about Jenn is that she can be inspired by others, but remains true to her own vision of how things can be. She is always open to new ideas and has a realistic yet unique view of things. Jenn is brave enough to put her own twist on her approach to life, relationships and to her business. That takes courage.

The Paint Yourself Silly studios focus on fired arts – primarily paint-your-own pottery, finished ware and glass fusing. They do a lot of custom work and anything that Jenn creates is for sale.

Jenn loves that the fired arts they provide in her studios appeal to different types of people. While painting is certainly the most popular choice, she notes that customers that have a more detailed approach to creativity seem to prefer glass fusing since it is a more precise art than painting. As Jenn says, “It might look like spray painted macaroni when you put it in the kiln, but it comes out awesome.”

It is Jenn’s hope that everyone has a strong sense of welcome and belonging when they come to her studios. She is personal and playful and enjoys making others happy and comfortable. When in one of the studios, one cannot help but feeling that Paint Yourself Silly is where they belong at that very moment. She loves having a place where people can come to create, celebrate and even play hooky!

One of her favorite things about the industry is, “Knowing all these wonderful, creative, capable people.” How cool that we are in an industry of people that truly care about each other’s success and are willing to share their ideas and experiences with their colleagues? When Jenn began developing relationships with other studio owners she thought “these are my people.” She even traveled to Vietnam with a friend that she met through CCSA (Contemporary Ceramic Studios Association) to spend time with children in an orphanage. We are in a truly unique industry when we can forge relationships like that.

To Jenn, Silly’s (as she calls it) is not just a business, it’s personal. The studios are as much a part of her life as her family and she values her relationship with her employees. Her approachable style allows her employees to talk to her about anything; she likes to think that no subject is taboo. She enjoys the flexibility that owning her own studio provides and thanks to fantastic employees, she has been able to work behind the scenes more in the past few years.

Paint Yourself Silly is an active force in the community. They work on projects with schools, museums and the zoo and they donate time, energy and goods wherever possible. Like many studios Jenn allows WIPs (works in progress) to be stored in her studio. True to the Silly way of doing things there is a slight twist. Jenn washes the paint off the pieces, fires them and then hosts a painting event for at risk/ underprivileged kids.

One of my favorite questions in the studio spotlight is “tell me something unique about you.” Jenn’s answer…Roller Derby! Jenn is a member of the No Coast Derby Girls and loves it! On a recent trip to Bisque Imports she even brought her skates! She is a truly unique individual and lets others be unique too. She embraces the fact that there are so many types of people in the world and the fact that she gets to enjoy them each day.

If more people subscribed to Jenn’s joyful attitude and ability to put a twist on what she says to ensure it comes out in the nicest possible way, we would surely live with a little more happiness and a better quality of life. A phrase that Jenn spoke reminded me of something my grandmother always told me, “Remember to be kind.” What a great way to live!

I spent a lot of time with Jenn during our road trip through Nebraska and Kansas -- we talked a lot. One of the points that Jenn brought up really stands out to me. She said, “I think if you have boundless energy for things you love to do, if you love something it tends to flourish. People sense that.”

That sentiment is so true and is why I like to say -- do what you love, love what you do.

To learn more about Jenn and Paint Yourself Silly, visit http://www.paintyourselfsilly.net/

Cheers!

Come together...

Good morning, everyone!

Just wanted to drop by and let you know that we're going to be making a few changes in the BI Blogosphere. From now on, all Glass Bits and Studio Spotlights blogs are going to be posted here. So The Dirt will officially be Bisque Imports' one and only blog, your source for all things AWESOME.

We'll have several contributors: Chris, the Glass Guru; Crista, bringing you Studio Spotlights; and me, filling in everything in between! Plus a whole lot of new ideas, tips, techniques and tidbits to inspire and educate you. One big happy family.

We hope you'll leave our little corner of the internet with a smile on your face and a fresh idea in your head. Here's to new adventures!

Talk soon,
Kelci

Hello, hello!

Hey Everyone!

I'm Kelci and I'm officially the newest member of the Bisque Imports crew. I'm so excited to get started here. I've worked at a pottery studio in Charlotte for the last six or so years, so it's really fun to get to see another side of the industry while expanding on my background and passion.

Creativity and innovation are a huge part of my life, so I'm incredibly fortunate to be working in this industry, surrounded by people that share my passion! I can't wait to get to know each one of you personally. Here's a bit about me:

I'm Texas born, North Carolina and Pennsylvania raised, a Gamecock fan, a travel enthusiast, vegetarian, double jointed, family oriented, a mustard lover and a ketchup hater, and extremely loyal, determined, glass-half-full and goofy. Who are you? I'd love to know!

In the upcoming months, check back for some new things happening here on the blog. We've got a lot of fun changes happening, and I can't wait to share them with you! Get ready for loads more fun content, ideas, and general awesomeness from your friends at BI.

Talk soon,
Kelci