a BIG oops

Usually things run pretty smoothly around here. We're busy, I rarely take a break for more than a few hours. Work happens everyday and the biggest problem we have is selling more and keeping stocked and remembering to get to bed by midnight. (1:20AM).

Today was a slow day for me. I sent out some packages from yesterday. No sales today at all, but suddenly around 5PM I got emails and phone calls from customers.

I had screwed up. I put the labels on the wrong packages. So Ohio's purchase went to Virginia...Virginia went to Ohio.

The worst part was knowing I had screwed up. The best part is they were exceptionally gracious about it. To solve the problem they will be relabeling the boxes and shipping to each other. I will pay the shipping. As a gesture of goodwill I also refunded their original shipping charges. They'll probably also get a nice fat coupon soon for a percentage off.

How would you have handled it?

Penn Mo Firebrick to Rich Inc, Clay Supplier moving

For the last 5 years or so my clay supplier has been John Fulton of Penn Mo Firebrick in Harrisburg, PA.

He won me over with very personalized service, providing me with both Miller and Standard Ceramics clays and he was close enough I could pick up some tools and a pallet of clay and glaze supplies in the back of my pickup while running back and forth from either the PA Renaissance Faire or dropping work off with one of my associates who would take the pieces out to various shows and conventions.


A couple weeks ago I got a call from John saying he was going to be moving the business and operating under new ownership, Rich Inc, they specialize in refractory and furnace supplies and now clay and pottery supplies and  operate out of Bernville PA. They're almost done with the move and I'll be picking up my first ton of clay from them next Friday. If anyone in eastern PA is looking for supplies, this is the man to call. He'll hook you up and get you what you need.

John Fulton Sales Rep (610) 488-1052 
You can also email  him  jfulton.rich_inc@comcast.net

Unfortunately they don't have a website yet, but they are friendly and helpful and the call won't be as painful as you might think :)

Electricity at Shows and Events.

Many of the shows we attend as merchants give us a long selling day. Many are  private events and we camp with or behind our booth. One thing always gets us some special attention. While everyone else is burning noisy propane lanterns or wee battery powered fluorescent lights, we have bright lights that make the pieces easy to see. I got the secret from my friend Kerry of Firehorse Pottery, but I'm constantly being asked about it.

We have a regular car battery that we picked up for $69 two years ago (2009) a 750watt Power inverter (mine even has a USB port), a power strip, and extension cord and at home, a 2amp slow trickle car battery charger. Typically we go to an event, use the inverter to first power the 110 volt plug-in high powered air mattress pump, then set it up for lights, computer and cell phone charging. Typically we get 3 evenings of light using 2 full spectrum fluorescent lights that burn about 38 Watts each, a few hours of laptop charging, and nearly unlimited cell phone charging. Some of the events we do are over a week long though and we plan on picking up a second battery later this year to help carry us through the long shows.

Kerry uses a Marine Deep Cycle battery, which will apparently last longer, but I found it too heavy to manage. I'd rather have 2 lighter batteries.

When it's all over, we go home and slow charge the battery to get it ready for the next event. It's really nice and over time it's less expensive and more convenient than running extension cords and purchasing electric from the campground.