a n d e r s e n   s t u d i o

  a n d e r s e n   d e s i g n

Introduction

Andersen Studio is a small ceramic studio that has been designing and crafting wild life sculptures and contemporary functional designs in Maine since 1952. Andersen Design is an S-corporation and is our production company.

Andersen Studio/Andersen Design is the oldest existing ceramic studio on the Boothbay Peninsula, which today is home to numerous potteries.

Our earliest forms have as much market appeal today as when first designed in the fifties and following decades.

 We Fregularly receive personal letters of appreciation from enthusiastic collectors. Many collections were started in the fifties (or later decades) and have passed from one generation to another. See our early pages

Andersen Design was established by Weston and Brenda Andersen. During recent years management has been shifting to two daughters, Elise Andersen, and Susan Mackenzie Andersen.

At this time as we shifting managerial responsibilities from one Andersen generation to the next, we are also looking to extend Andersen Design into a larger community. We need talented people, interested in taking over some of the primary responsibilities, which include production, office and organizational management.

This proposal is primarily focused on production because production is the backbone of this business but there are also retail and other marketing potentials that are contingent upon the former.

Our long-term vision is to continue Andersen Design through a larger community, shifting the role of production to others and turning our focus towards design and marketing.

This proposal is written as a general description in the interest of attracting talented people and investment capital

The Beginnings

 Andersen Design began in 1951 in Akron Ohio and was established in 1952 as Ceramics by Anderson on Southport Island, Maine.

Weston and Brenda started with a small production attached to their home and sold their products in a two hundred year old barn, which was situated along the roadside.  The interwoven relationship between design, production and marketing allowed unusual creative freedom.

The retail operation has since become Andersen Studio and Andersen Design is the production and wholesale company, both located, since 1958, in East Boothbay.

The Up-scaled 1980’s

Andersen Design prospered and grew to its largest capacity during the eighties. At that time we expanded our production to Portland Maine and had a staff of about twenty-five employees. We attended gift shows in New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Atlantic City and Atlanta, Georgia. We worked with sales representatives across the nation and advertised in Audubon, The New Yorker and Downeast. Our seagulls were featured on the cover of China, Glass and Tableware. We sold to department stores in Denmark and Japan and to museum shops, galleries and gift stores across the nation. In our own retail store we represented many distinguished artist-craftsmen in addition to our own work.

The Downscaled 90’s – 2000’s

During the nineties we downscaled, partly due to health considerations. Brenda passed away on Sept 11. 1994

TODAY

Weston is still mentally active but he has developed macular degeneration. Thanks to modern technology, Weston is able to read at a slow pace, and he continues with his sculpture, relying on touch and his remaining eyesight

Elise and myself (Susan Mackenzie) have been involved in just about every aspect of the business, which makes for a very complex level of responsibility but which also gives us a hands-on understanding of the entire business and the interwoven relationship of all the functions and responsibilities. We have been understaffed and overworked for the last decade, which has resulted in a lower organizational level than we desire, and also has left us with very little time to work on new creative ideas.

Our business is still a business in the home with a production shop in the basement and a retail store attached to our home. We also have a retail mail-order business and a website, www.andersenstudio.com, currently designed and maintained by Susan Mackenzie Andersen.

The Birth of an American Ceramic Company

Weston Neil Andersen was born and raised in Iowa farmland. He attended Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York and was enrolled in the school of Industrial Design, where he studied ceramic production design under the illustrious Eva Zeisel

Weston’s education was interrupted by the outbreak of World War Two. He joined the service and was shipped to London, where he met his wife, Brenda, an art student and photographer’s assistant.

After the war, Weston and Brenda returned to New York so that Weston could complete his education. They were well considered among the budding designers of that time, Weston’s egg-form vase received a young designers award from Living Magazine. The vase is still being produced today having retained its market appeal for well over fifty years.

Weston and Brenda moved their ceramic studio on the coast of Maine because it was an affordable start-up business. They selected the Boothbay Peninsula because they felt it had enough cultural diversity to support their business. It was, however a difficult struggle requiring years of dedicated perseverance prior to the prosperous years that culminated during the 1980’s.

The diversity of the Maine wildlife inspired the creation of the wildlife line of sculptures. As with the functional form line the market appeal of the wildlife sculpture has an enduring market appeal that has sustained through half a century of changing times, and developed a growing group of collectors.

Weston is an excellent teacher with a great deal of knowledge to pass on.  In his pre-Andersen Design days Weston was dean of the Art School at the Akron Art Institute, where he was responsible for hiring all the teachers. While in Akron Weston and Brenda started an Artist-designer association on their kitchen tables that continued on for many years after.

Ceramics as a way of Life

Ceramics is an ancient craft with a historical tradition rooted in the beginnings of civilization. It is part art form and part science. Ceramics can be likened to the art and science of farming. The ceramic process begins with raw materials, which are, combined, formed and tended to produce a handcrafted product.

 At Andersen Design, we create our casting slip out of raw materials that are composed of particle structures that we cannot actually see but that we must understand and conceptualize in order to solve the various problems that arise. The materials with which we work interact with each other and with environmental conditions. A ceramic artisan must be focused within the process and consciously aware of changes, ready to make the proper adjustments.

Ceramic production depends on teamwork and collaboration. If a mistake is made in the making of the casting slip, it may not show up until the final firing and so good communication between each level of production is a must. A well-organized production has the rhythm and momentum of a dance.

Weston Andersen likes to describe the old farmers in Iowa, talking by the fence, and as they talked, they would pick up the soil from the ground and sift it through their fingers instinctually sampling the conditions of the soil.

The same sort of sensibility that is required in producing ceramics. It isn’t for everyone but for those who are attracted to it, it is meaningful to the senses, the intellect and spirit.

THE IDEA (in brief) This idea is conceived by Susan Mackenzie Andersen and represents my own thoughts. There are differences of opinion on some aspects and commonly held views as well. To make things simple, I describe this concept as simply my own vision , which is conceived of as a starting point for dialogue, rather than ideas set in stone.

The current line is large enough to accommodate three separate production facilities employing 6-8 people (not including maintenance) with each focusing on a portion of the line. If this can be successfully achieved, we will be free to develop an art and design studio bringing out new designs on a regular basis

Ceramic Economy

A ceramic production can offer a community, meaningful and interesting middle-income jobs that contribute not only to the economy but also to the quality of life.

Ceramic production work is a skill that continually develops and refines. We usually have to train our employees even if they come to us with an art school background. Our product is made with original recipes and decorative techniques that are fundamental to the unique character of our work. The training process can take up to two years and so we hope to find employees that will stay long enough to justify the investment. We look to the rooted local Maine community as a primary source of long-term employees.

One does not expect to become wealthy doing ceramics, but one can expect to sustain a middle class income. We would like to be able to offer our employees benefits such as health insurance, as we once did in the past.

Ceramic productions can be set up anywhere where there is an affordable labor market, which means, where there is affordable housing.

 Classic Design

Andersen Design’s line of production products has an enduring appeal. The designs from the 1950’s – 2005 continue to have a sustained market appeal. Our work has been collected and handed down from generation to generation and we receive frequent mail from enthusiastic collectors.

We are currently developing a working relationship with David Jaquay, a speaker on the antiques circuit, who will be representing our early work in the antiques market and has a plan for a collectable book on our work in the works.

Selling

We wholesale our product through stores and catalogs. Many of our accounts are museum stores. Our sandpiper has been a best seller in the Smithsonian Catalog for more than a quarter of a century. When the America House sold fine American crafts in a building situated across the street from The Museum of Modern Art in New York City, our large serving bowl with it’s hand painted brown tree pattern was the best seller. Our line has also been sold in Europe and Japan.

Andersen Design was in the New York Gift show since the late fifties to the early nineties, when the abundance of gift shows nation wide combined with escalating costs led to the decision to leave that market place. It was also during that time that, due to considerations of age and health Weston and Brenda decided to downsize the operations of Andersen Design.

We retail through our store in East Boothbay, Mail Order and our web site, www.andersenstudio.c

The Idea

We are now looking to expand to a similar size of business that we were in the eighties but with a new approach.

Andersen Design is considering the feasibility of establishing a number of smaller production facilities that would be partially autonomous, but also an inter-connected network with a united identity. Each production would produce a different portion of our line.

Organize

The first criterion is to attract the right people to manage each production facility. We feel that finding individuals, who process a real calling for the work, is so important that in the initial stages of new development, the type of production and business at each location should develop out of the character and interests of the key people.

We seek people with a long-term interest. However, we realize that there are no guarantees.  An advantage of multiple productions is that there would be a built-in backup team and fertile ground for cultivating new management, should such occasion arise.

Each production requires a key individual who takes the responsibility for overall production. In conjunction, there is a need for key co-ordinaters between productions. The co-ordinaters will be trained as backup and will have subsidiary teams that back them up. The co-ordinater teams can be trained to step in to any one of the autonomous us productions, when needed.

We would like to continue to operate our current production shifting the focus to production supporting a design studio, which will develop new designs and patterns and also create one of a kind work oriented to gallery presentation.

Capitalization

Capital investment is needed in order to move in new directions. We look towards grants as part of the capitalization. State grants for small businesses require town sponsorship and so are likely to be one of the determining factors in the location of the productions. Ideally we would like one production to be located near the Boothbay Peninsula, where we will continue to operate with other productions located in close enough proximity that travel between the productions is relatively easy.

The Gift Shows helped us to develop our wholesale market. An increased production capacity will enable us to focus on developing our retail mail order business by justifying advertising in national magazines and web search engines.

Our complete line of designs and decorative patterns is larger than we can present in a single catalog. The entire line has never been documented in its entirety. The line has many different dimensions of interests and so it is possible to organize it into several different lines that can each be target marketed. And new designs are also being developed.

Summation

Andersen Design’s strength is its line of designs, established market appeal, and our many collectors. In this we can say that we are unusual, but we also have many difficulties and challenging problems to solve. The business has the potential to grow in many different directions utilizing the skills of many kinds of professionals but the seed from which everything grows (following design), are well functioning ceramic operations producing a fine quality American craft.

And an extra special mention that we need to find excellent office management!

Andersen Design and The Creative Economy.

The ideas in this proposal have been incubating over a period of years but they have recently been given fresh impetus by the buzz that is gathering around Governor Baldacci’s Creative Economy initiative.

 We look upon the “The Creative Economy” movement as a response to the growing loss of the American jobs to countries with much lower labor costs due to the absence of labor rights laws that are characteristic of developed democracies. It was recently reported that Maine has lost more jobs to China than any other state in the Union. The loss of jobs to China is not only due cheap labor but also to the Chinese government’s subsidization of business and an artificial lowering of the sales price, in violation of trade agreements between governments, which is known strategy aimed at driving out the competition out of business, which is then often followed by a return to higher prices.

Andersen Ceramics was established in 1952 during the golden era of the middle class - a time when time the distribution of wealth within the United States formed a bell curve, so that the largest portion of the population shared the largest portion of wealth. In the world of design, plastics were the new technology. Andersen Design responded to plastics with a line of contemporary forms crafted by hand using the age-old technology of ceramic slip casting.  The vision was to create hand crafted products affordable to the middle class.

A little research has brought to our attention that there is a Fair Trade Federation Web Site, which at first glance, appears to be oriented toward importing crafts from underdeveloped countries under the principles of Fair trade Standards that are defined on the Fair Trade Federation’s Web Site.

Potentially, Andersen Design’s participation in the global economy could involve designing a line of products to be produced in another culture utilizing the cultural traditions of that place. Since our own product uses a decorative technique that has more in common with the Orient than with Europe, we can visualize a mutual collaboration on a product line, which would reflect collaboration between the historical traditions of the native culture and Andersen Design classic yet unique style. However, at this stage we are most interested in ways in which we can maintain our production in the United States. Although production overseas offers lower labor costs and need not be exploitive to the labor classes of overseas cultures, we also realize that there is also an element of political instability to consider. And philosophically, we prefer to be part of the American Craft tradition that is grounded in the principles of The United States Constitution, a system of checks and balances of various factions, intended to function as a self-governing process.

Andersen Design and The Creative Economy… continued

Cultural diversity must by definition include both new technologies and the old. Andersen Design uses an ancient craft tradition to express unique and contemporary design. In a world confronting a war against civilization, the combination of the traditional and the contemporary is not only an important design concept but also an important social concept. A societythat maintains a balance of old and new technology offers a better spectrum of opportunity for all.

Keeping up with advancing technology is an economic necessity. Maintaining connections with historical traditions is vital to the human psyche. The technology used by Andersen Design is ancient and draws on natural sensibilities. We can train people who do not have the resources for the higher education required to master some of the modern technological jobs. The primary requirement is that the worker is alive in his senses

The Creative Economy movement in Maine, places emphasis on small to medium sized business and on creativity, innovation and diversity. To that end we feel it is important to articulate a business paradigm in which success is measured not only by bottom line profit margins but also by the influence the business activity has on larger human ideals inclusive of democratic principles and environmental concerns and the distribution of wealth.

A few days ago there were some Texan’s in our showroom. I said that our product is still made in America and they said, “not just made in America but made in Maine”. This is a comment that we frequently hear. Our product is identified with a place, and that place is Maine. The Andersen Design tradition is a reflection of the time and place in which we are “embedded” (to use the contemporary jargon). We do not want to lose our identification with Maine, but as we grow we would like to expand on that tradition of reflecting the time and place of our surrounding environment.

Conclusion

The ideas here are a starting point for conversation that we hope will grow to become a collaboration. It is the people that come together to form the collaboration that will determine what actually manifests.

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Last Update: 05/08/2006 Web Author: Mackenzie Andersen Copyright ©2001 by andersen studio - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED