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Introducing the newly created Andersen Design website. I It is in its bare bones state today but that will be changing over time.
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Alpha & Omega the Becoming of Andersen Ceramics into The Great American Ceramic Artists Designers Craftsmen Network
Andersen Design is the wholesale and production entity for Andersen Ceramics. Andersen Studio is our retail and design entity.
Andersen Ceramics is a family business which was established by my parents , Weston & Brenda Andersen in 1952.- well actually it started in Ohio in 1951 but my parents knew they couldn’t keep doing production in the Levitt style home which Dad had acquired with a veteran’s loan and so they moved to Maine in 1952 to become the first ceramic enterprise on the Boothbay Peninsula – soon to have a cluster industry sprout up around the area, which still exists today.
- The Great American Ceramic Artist’s Designer’s Craftsmen Network should include multifarious sizes and types of production including state of the art facilities but my romantic heart loves the small independent intimate production that one might find attached to a home, perhaps because I grew up in just such a home business thus the imagery I created is about that style of living and working
For many years now I have been promoting the idea of evolving what our family built into what I call The Great American Ceramic Artists Designer’s Craftsmen Network. This AndersenDesign.Biz website is dedicated to that effort, which, if successful will mean that we can work with other American ceramic slip casting enterprises to produce the Andersen line of collectible ceramics. “Spreading the engaging work process around” as said about wealth, and we think an engaging work is a form of wealth in its own right.
At one time we had a large production studio in Portland, Maine but, as things go in family’s businesses, it came to pass that when my parents grew tired of the long travel distance between Portland and Boothbay, the production facility was transferred to another party that did not continue it for long and the entire production ended up in our small space intended to be our design studio.
So we need to solve the problems engendered by a much too small production space. To that end, for some time I have been trying to figure out how to create crowd-funding magic. My latest effort is this video but I have decided to put the project in this video on the back burner for now and focus on the mug project, which I have also discussed in this video:
Since I published this video , there have been many wholesale requests for the mugs. The problem is that we have only one mold of each mug. I have been the primary person producing mugs out of our singular molds and that is why I including them in my own project.
With only one mug mold, it does not make sense to wholesale mugs but the wholesale interest in the mugs makes a crowd funding project to make rubber molds of our mugs into perfect sense.
Andersen Studio has a large and layered line of classic designs. Since I have been promoting the concept of the Great American Ceramic Artists Designer’s Craftsmen Network, I have consistently focused on producing rubber molds of our line as the natural starting point. This is because the production of rubber molds make the production of working molds easy and affordable. Fresh molds make every aspect of production go more smoothly and smooth production makes for happier customers and a better profit margin.
I am today announcing a Crowd-funding Project which we are running on this website. The project is to have a rubber mold and production molds produced of our wide Gingerbread Style Mug:
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I am starting this crowd-funding project today but I have not figured out what a standard crowd funding platform does for us in return for taking a percentage of the profits. We have to promote the project and build the support base ourselves. All the crowd funding platform does is give us a listing. Our support base is our collectors, the people we have done business with over the years, and people we hope we can work with and do business with in the future. For a company like ours it is hard to make the distinction between doing a crowd-funder, which entails rewards in exchange for contributions, and making sales, They are virtually the same thing except for a subtle distinction in the terms of agreement. The agreement is that you are agreeing to advance us the funds needed to put this mug into production with an outside production company which will produce a rubber mold and probably some of the production molds as well and who knows from there on in.I am managing this project separately from Andersen Studio Retail as the proceeds of this project are dedicated to the successful completion of a rubber mold and 6-12 production molds. That’s why I created a special website for the Andersen Design mold making crowd-funder. We have a vast line of designs which all need to have rubber molds made. Collectively, it might cost between 40-50 thousand dollars, but for now I am launching each mold project separately.
The Goal is $2000.00 The project will last through November 30th
You can make a contribution by clicking on the crowd funding link in the Top Menu- or Right Here
If the project gathers enough steam over the next couple of days, I hope to initiate it next week , making it possible to deliver some mugs by Christmas on a first come first serve basis BUT as this is a crowd-funder, no specific delivery date is specified as there are too many unknowns in the process at this point. During the time that the production mold is being made, I will not have a mold with which to work.
The stimate I am working with is three weeks delivery time for the molds to get to us. Once we have multiple new production molds that makes our production time considerably faster. I am hoping to be working with six to 12 production molds at one time. I estimate two weeks from the time we have the new production molds to the first shipments going out. There may be an additional two weeks added to the estimated time if a plaster positive of the mug needs to be created before the mold making process can be initiated and I don’t know for sure that our project can get on the production scheduled of the outside contractor immediately so those are the terms of a crowd-funder- a lot of unknowns in the process.
In return for advance payment on the mugs, I am offering these prices:
Our Standard shipping price is $12.00-in the USA- whatever is ordered – up to a dozen mugs
Single Mugs are at the standard price of $40.00 but you can also order seconds at $20.00
4 Mugs are offered at a 10% discount $36 x 4=$144.00 + 12.00 shipping =$156.00
8 mugs are offered at a 20% discount $32,00 x 8 =$256.00 +12=$268.00
12 mugs are offered at a 25% discount S30.00 x1 2=360 +12.00= 372.00
By participating in this crowd funder you will be helping our company to become a more robust organization with a better capacity to serve our customers.
Please click on the Crowd-Funder link Here or in the menu at the top of the page to contribute to our Gingerbread Mug Mold Making Crowd-funder.
Thanks You for Supporting Our Evolution ! And Merry Christmas!
Mackenzie Andersen