StoryBook Ceramics - Heirloom Quality Hand Crafted Ceramics

The next electric car

2008-07-24T22:31:00.002-04:00

"Wrightspeed's X1 Prototype, clocked as the world's fastest electric car, accelerates from zero to 60 in three seconds, with a top speed of 112 miles per hour."

If I was to ever go Green, this would be my entry point. :-)

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Save Windows XP! The clock is ticking

2008-04-14T18:26:00.001-04:00

(Another off topic post, but important.....)You'd never confuse a Windows user with the passionate fans of Mac OS X or even the free Linux operating system. Unless it's someone running Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.

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MudPuppy Mold Company - Vintage Styled Molds and Bisque

2007-08-10T23:51:00.000-04:00

Been working on it for awhile now, but it's been slow going. We have SOOO much on our plate with StoryBook Ceramics...

So Let me now announce the official opening of MudPuppy Molds and Bisque.

MudPuppy Molds and Bisque

There.

So I'll be adding bisque just as fast as I can, and the molds side will grow enough to keep it from becoming completely stale. If I can get enough going on through the holidays, and can actually make some more masters for the molds, I'll start pushing harder this spring.

Is your favoriate Crafter site falling apart? Etsy seems to be!

2007-07-25T17:58:00.001-04:00

Account issues, censuring, privacy breaches, and snark! What is Etsy trying to promote these days? So much for the free speech crowd...

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Random Visions when thinking of Etsy

2007-06-24T14:59:00.000-04:00

Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure: "I meant to do that..."

Animal Farm: "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others."

Shiny Happy People: REM

The Urban Dictionary Definition: "AssClown"

The Barney Generation
"So let's all have a big group hug and repeat some positive affirmations while we work to "shine up" to our full, individual potentials in this non-hierarchical, empowering environment of mutual respect and..... (puke)

The BBS (Yes, I know I said that before....)
(Normal Person) "Hey, your search algorithm is completely hosed up."
(Groupie) "Shut up, Hater! All the enormous unexpected traffic has overworked the agerithim and a whole floor of engineers are working their tails off to put in a new one. Besides, Jared is so hot!"
(Normal Person) "Um... Yeah...

Amway: Creepy cult mentality where members buy and sell in their clique giving the erroneous impression of legitimate commerce.

Boo.com (Proving history always repeats itself) Wikipedia is your friend

The dot.com bubble - and bust - and why

Exalead, the innovative worldwide Web search engine

2007-06-12T13:36:00.000-04:00

Here's something fun I ran across...

What? Another search engine?

Well, yes, but it's kinda fun to play with. Create your account, and do some searches to see what I mean...

Exalead, the innovative worldwide Web search engine

Anafiel

Noteworthy Mention

2007-06-12T10:47:00.000-04:00

It's always neat to be mentioned by one of the collectors, especially when you do reproductions like we do. Traditionally, collectors hate reproductions, usually because they are sold as "vintage" to fool the unwary collector, and their quality is in the dumps.

So it's nice to see a reference to our webstore in an article that is NOT trashing repro artists such as ourselves. See the link "reproduction pottery cookie jars" for a link to us, and the context of the reference in the following article:

Collecting Cookie Jars: Searching For The Cookie Lady

I would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Deanna Dahlsad for the mention.

Anafiel

A Special thanks...

2007-06-11T02:11:00.000-04:00

...to everyone that attended our 25% Off Secret Sale! It was a huge success, and I just wanted to acknowledge your support.

Thanks again, and be looking for our next big event!

Kevin

Store Wide Sale - 25% OFF

2007-06-07T00:56:00.000-04:00

So..

Things are caught up in the shop, and things look good for a sale.

How about 25% off our entire inventory IF you sign up for our newsletter? Sound good? Ok, it's yours!

Stop by the site for the next three days, sign up for the newsletter, and get a coupon code for 25% off our pottery and ceramic items.

http://www.storybookceramics.com

Raku is COOL!!

2007-06-02T19:43:00.000-04:00

Of all the disciplines in pottery and ceramics, Raku HAS to be the COOLEST! I mean, really, where else can you play with fire and make art at the same time?

See Wiki here for a discription of Raku:
Raku Ware

I was prowling the net and stumbled upon the guy's site. This has GOT to be the coolest Raku on the planet. Check out the gallery. I want to be just like this guy when I grow up:
Awesome cool Raku

Illegal Chia Pet Dump found in New Mexico!

2007-05-31T13:52:00.000-04:00

Most people give little thought to what becomes of their Chia pets after the holiday season has become history

It's very sad that few Chia owners realize that the proper disposal of their Chia Pet is crucial in averting potential environmental disasters.

There are two localized outbreaks of what has now been dubbed "Wild Chia", which presently is spreading wildly along the I-40 corridor in New Mexico.

The actual Chia plant is not native on our globe, but was created artificially under laboratory conditions in an effort to promote the sale of clay pottery and sound activated electrical switches.

What happens when the Chia Pet plants are allowed to propagate in the wild is currently New Mexico's worst ecological nightmare this century.

According to a report recently published in the ECOLOGICAL TIMES by renowned botanist Alex Mendelsohn of the Maine Institute, the problem is immense.

"Unless something is done immediately, nearly all the red-rock formations in New Mexico will be covered with Chia Pet plants in five years" warns Mendelsohn.

"The natural landscape of New Mexico is ideal habitat for Chia Pet plants and closely resembles the clay pottery they were designed to thrive on" he adds.

Chia Pet plants have few known natural enemies, most of which are too busy fishing to assist in the New Mexico disaster.

Without anything to check the spread of these plants, they will cover the state in a short time and ultimately destroy all life on earth.

PROPER CHIA PET DISPOSAL

To properly dispose of your Chia Pet, you should contact the Chia Disposal Hotline at 1-800-555-3344. You should NEVER discard Chia Pet plants in the trash, flush down the toilet or incinerate them yourself.

squirrels with lightsabers [PICS]

2007-05-31T00:33:00.001-04:00

YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE THE CHOSEN ONE!

...a little off topic, but I HAD to share!
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Return of the blog...

2007-05-19T22:32:00.000-04:00

OK, I've been slack.

So many things going on, so little time...but it's been fun!

Wow, the etsy experience was a disaster. A bunch of kids running a site for hobby crafters. The serious sellers are quickly getting frustrated and looking for greener pastures. We left, but not before we voiced our opinion, and being banned from their forums.

That's right. Banned.

Oh well. :-) Again, it was fun.

So I'm back, and posting regularly in the eCrater forums, and at PSU, and I was offered a board at Totally Shameless Self Indulgent Forum, so things haven't been all that bad.

I'll try to continue the story of the Jensen experience later this week. I really want to get that story out there, it needs to be told!

Oh, stop by the Company Blog to see some updated info on eBay's take on fake vintage cookie jars. Interesting stuff

storybook

Enter Roger Jensen

2006-06-03T16:14:00.000-04:00

So we move to the country, and supplement our residual income by combing flea markets for neat finds to sell on eBay. One day, while standing in the line at the Post Office, this guy comes in with an armload of boxes. Well, as I was doing the same thing, I thought he might also be posting eBay items. So I ask him about it. Kinda nosey that way, I am....

No, he says, I run a pottery company. "Like pots and things made on one of those wheel things?" I ask. He said that he makes mostly cookie jars. Humm... I think I may find a little part time work here.

"Hey, could you use some part time help?"

He asks me if I can use an Air Brush. Yes, I said. (I was an automotive painter in a past life...before computers took over my life in the early 90's)

In about 3 weeks, I was his production manager, and my wife was acting as his business consultant. You have to understand, this guy was a total moron, but it seemed that he had been doing pottery long enough and had enough contacts that we might be able to use his past business venues to help him put out an acceptable product and gain an acceptable margin. He hardly made a dime on his pottery due to his poor business practices and spending habits.

The other thing we had to deal with was that he based his product line on other companies’ products. Defunct companies, vintage items. He even marked his items to mimic the original. He had originally told me he was the McCoy Pottery Company, so I didn't think anything about this until my wife did a little checking, and found that this guy was the scourge of the cookie jar collectors’ genre.

We tried for three months to turn this guy around and make his company something legitimate. We even enlisted the help of the President of The McCoy Pottery Collectors Society, Chiquita Prestwood.

See her complete article about that effort HERE

So what happened? I'll post that in the next topic.

Ancient History 101

2006-05-30T20:01:00.000-04:00

So, a little history.

I'm a retired network engineer. Took an early retirement, due to the tech crash in 2000. I worked for a CLEC in Daytona Beach when it all came tumbling down, so I moved to South Carolina to be with my Life's Partner, Michelle.

Michelle was a Software Engineer that suffered the same tech crunch, so we decided to bow out gracefully and pursue a simpler way of life. We bought a home in the country...in a little town of 987 people. Having a household of 6 children at that time, our kids accounted for a full 1% of the total school population. :-)

So we put together a small heard of goats, chickens and rabbits running freely around the yard , and a full 1 acre garden in the side yard.

We were living large!

Then ceramics entered our lives.

Want to hear more?

We Hate Fakes Too

2006-05-30T02:27:00.000-04:00

We Hate Fakes Too: "Because We Hate Fakes too....
Welcome to the new StoryBook Ceramics 'We hate fakes too...' blog. "

I guess it's important to get a feel for the company before you get to know me, because a lot of what I am these days ARE the company, or vise versa. Humm..

StoryBook Ceramics History

2006-05-29T19:52:00.000-04:00

Storybook Ceramics is a small, but active, art pottery studio dedicated to recreating the beauty and memories of American Pottery from the early 1900's. This blog will be for the use of one of the creators of StoryBook, Kevin Reffitt

I think that sharing a little of our background and our vision will help us keep focus, and may even contribute in our artistic growth.

See our store at StoryBook Ceramics and our forum at StoryBook Ceramics Forum

We also have an "Official" company blog at StoryBook Ceramics Blog