Random iphone download blog...

Here's some random downloads from my year with an iphone ; it's a real mash-up of tradeshow sneaky pics, exhibitions  to family happenings and our home. I think you'll see that pots play a pretty big part in my everyday life!

 

Meeting Theo Paphitis and Social Media

We've had quite an exciting month here at Little Walton Bank, not only are we chasing orders like mad but we won a Twitter award from Theo Paphitis. If there are any other small businesses out there, you should have a go at #SBS @TheoPaphitis  . Every sunday night between 5.30 and 7.00 you must tweet your business and include #SBS @TheoPaphitis, Theo will then choose 6 of the best and RT (retweet) them. The PR this generates and the list of new followers is pretty impressive. Theo is a keen supporter of small businesses and decided to put on an event to help us out even more, so last Friday we put our lippy on and headed for Edgebaston Cricket ground to meet all our fellow #SBS winners and importantly to meet Theo. We had a great time, it was a very inspiring day and we now feel excited and energised. One of the key points for me was the fact that through social media small businesses can compete with larger organisations, in a way there is a more level playing field, which is good news for us. Theo has even developed  a website for the winners to help us even more, hopefully lots of buyers will use it and find our profile. So if you don't already follow us on Twitter or Facebook here are the links to help you out 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Little-Walton-Bank/274509429295655
@ltlewaltonbank
http://www.theopaphitissbs.com/

For all those who can't cope with too many words here are the pictures !

Theo's chrome car

Hayley about to give a mug to Theo

Thumbs up from Theo

Words of advice

Our official winners photo

FEB 2012 and alot has happened already!

January 2012 we launched our latest pattern at the HOME2012 show in London. The show was a great experience and we got to meet old and new customers, everyone was pleased to see us again and loved the new product. It was all a bit last minute as my prototypes were hot of the kiln the day before we set off to build the stand ! I hope you like the stand, we spent most of the Christmas holiday doing up the larder cupboard and searching for the right table.

HOME2012 stand

HOME2012 stand

SEEDWARE MUGS

A week after the show I spend an exciting day at Maison Ojet a trade show in Paris, I'm really hoping to show there in the Autumn as it's such a great event.

Then two weeks after that...phew !.... Little Walton Bank showed at a major international trade show in Frankfurt. We managed to exhibit with the ENGISH ECCENTRIX'S.... a group of like minded individuals that support ceramics that is Made In England, specifically stoke-on-trent.

not the greatest shot but......

I guess the big news is ....I have decided to give up my full time position as Design Manager at Denby Pottery to concentrate on my own Little Walton Bank. It's big news as I've worked there for 18years but I just haven't got enough hours in the day to keep everyone happy, including myself . Luckily for me Denby have decided to use me on a consultancy basis so I'll still be working with them and Burleigh Pottery in my capacity as a design consultant...it's time to be brave and show the world what I'm made of !

OH and I nearly forgot we won a @TheoPaphitis #sbs RT on twitter , so we'll be going to meet him in march with all the other #sbs winners......how cool is that ?!

If the rest of 2012 is as full on as January and Febuary we are in for an exciting year......

Pop-up Success

Well for the last 2 weeks we've been bitten by pop-up shop fever ! We decided to take our popular 'open studio' to the town last saturday. We managed to get an empty shop for the day, fill it with lots of lovely stuff and entice the shoppers of Ashbourne with our lovely wares.

 We'd like to thank the landlady and John Taylor who helped turn our dream into a reality. Lots of sales were made and we managed to raise £180 for charity, here are some pics to prove we did it !!!

British Ceramic Biennial

It's been all go at stoke this month, there's one more week left so if you haven't been and you love pots you must get yourselves down to the Spode Works before the BCB festival ends. The whole event has been a great experience and importantly is a massive showcase to tell the world that british ceramics in all it's many forms is alive and kicking. If you can't get there check out the website.   http://britishceramicsbiennial.com/

Little Walton Bank is showing on the open shelf section of the show and if I do say so myself it looks great !

Hopefully these shots will make you want to visit while you can, as you can see the setting of a recently closed factory is quite something, sad but at least it's being used in a positive way........

WIRKSWORTH FESTIVAL

All of us at Little walton Bank have had quite a weekend at Wirksworth Festival ...Graeme Reed ( patient husband ) showed his work and had a great time with lots of fab feedback. Little Pottery Co our hand thrown pottery showed for the first time and had a great reception and finally a little display of Little Walton Bank got lots of lovely interest.
We showed in our good friend Tom's house which was great for us, and the children proved to be superstars selling trail guides, home made lemonade and elderflower champagne...Tom giving them commission on every drink sold turned them into demon ( but charming ) sales people. The weather stayed good, we had one down pour and had to relocate the children to the car boot...all great fun.
Thankyou to everyone that visited our venue and passed on lots of fab feedback, here are some photo's to prove we had a ball !! And finally a big thankyou to Tom and his family who made us feel very welcome......

escaped chickens

Phew just back from running around the garden trying to catch a couple of escaped chickens, chickens seem to feature heavily in our life at the moment. We are looking after the neighbours and our persistent daughter is trying to make us get our own ! We've just dug up some 'early' potatoes and we are now wondering what to do with them all, it's proving to be a great summer here at Little Walton Bank, the house is nice and warm and the garden is full of veggies and fruit.

Ahh well back to real life and we've been busy for the last few months, fulfilling orders and getting new customers Being in charge of the paperwork has been another learning curve for me as I'm not the most organised person in the world !  I must say I'm looking forward to Hayley returning from maternity leave...I really miss her calm voice of reason and her brilliant approach to all of our new challenges. One of her first jobs will be to update the stockist list on the website as we've got lots of lovely new shops to add.

 Here's a photo from WHITE STUFF in Nottingham can you spot my mugs ????? They didn't have many left which made it even more exciting!

 And finally I've started working on the next pattern design, we will launch it in Spring so keep your eyes out. At the moment all I can say is it will feature seeds in some shape or form....I'm not being secretive it's just very early days !