michael wendt on fri 13 oct 00
Karen raised an issue we all face every day. Lewiston is a small town of =
28,000 and is not terribly receptive to pottery, but we have a lot of =
tourists who are. One thing I found very helpful was to print on the =
bottom of my pots with a rubber stamp my name, phone number and the date =
of manufacture. This gives strangers the confidence to buy my work =
because if anything goes wrong, they can call me. I honor a long =
warranty period and I have never been sorry because people like the fact =
that the work is dated so they can assess durability, but guess what, =
when they need a gift, my number is at hand and it is like rolling a =
snowball. The ball starts small, but grows bit by bit until I have =
people with dinnerware sets 20 years old for which I still make =
replacements and new service pieces.
The ink is Van Son magnetic ink used on checks available at your local =
printer. I use a steel plate to roll out a small dab with a brayer and =
then use a standard mounted rubber stamp to transfer to the pots. If you =
fire it to cone 10 it sinks into the clay and never comes off. Might =
work at cone 6 too! It also works unfired but wears off in time.
see a sample print at www.wendtpottery.com on the custom work page
If you want more marketing ideas, let me know. By the way, the power =
screen picture some of you wanted to see is now on =
http://users.lewiston.com/wendtpot
Michael Wendt
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