Years ago, back in the dark distant past, I had a customer who collected anything to do with pigs. She was a regular buyer of piggy banks, but one day she came in and said "Could you make me a piggy-lamp?".
So I did. Whilst it was sitting on the shelf awaiting firing, several other people saw it and asked for one. So they went into limited production. My mother kept one, and eventually my brother claimed it.
He recently took these pictures and sent them to me.
So I did. Whilst it was sitting on the shelf awaiting firing, several other people saw it and asked for one. So they went into limited production. My mother kept one, and eventually my brother claimed it.
He recently took these pictures and sent them to me.
Why's the sticker still on it? I really don't know, I peel stickers OFF!, but the sticker says, alongside a nice little mediaeval style image of a woodcarver, "Produced by a Member of the Guild of Master Craftsmen".The guild claimed it only accepted real MASTER craftsmen as members, but in reality, it took cash, with few questions, in return for membership. I expected to have to prove my worth in a selection process. But the guy who interviewed me knew NOTHING about pottery.
I paid up, and I was in.
However, my customers loved the logo and stickers, because it reassured them that this stuff was really good, it must be, because it's got this sticker, see, that says it was made by a member of......
(Logo used for illustrative purposes only)
( I was entitled to use it, at the time the pot was made, but allowed my membership to lapse, long ago.)
I always felt a little guilty about it, knowing that the Guild had not screened me enough to be a guarantee of anything. But undeniably, membership of it was worthwhile, it sold pots.( I was entitled to use it, at the time the pot was made, but allowed my membership to lapse, long ago.)
Maybe I'll start an international Guild Of Master Potbloggers. Send me a bunch of money and you can join.
Disclaimer:My comments refer to the Guild as it was in 1986, or thereabouts. It may be a very different organisation today, it still exists and has a website, Here.
SOUB! A piggy lamp!
ReplyDeleteok soubriquet, how much money will i be sending you to become part of the IGOMP? i hope there's not screening because i'd probably get all nervous and fail. i might actually get some stickers made up though... that's a pretty good idea. there's a local organization called "kentucky crafted" and they have stickers. not sure what effect it has but i see them quite often.
ReplyDeleteWe americans have no bones about this kind of thing. Cash talks. For instance, we dumped aristocracy for a capitalist perspective on leadership - If ya got the cash, you can run for office. It may have been more idealistic and pragmatic over 200 years ago however.
ReplyDeleteGary: I heard the voice, and it said, verily, it did say "Light up your pig".And so it came to pass that the pig was enlightened.The nasty square lampshade is none of my doing.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking, looking at that pig.... of turning it into an elephant... with a trunk, and big ears, and a howdah on its back.And a victorian steampunk expedition... With top hats. And floozies. The full frivolity has yet to happen.
Lordy, where's my glaze notebook when I neeed it I had a great glaze, Lois, my favourite gallery owner called it "nipple pink", I really need it for nude pigs..............................................................
Jim, I think we should invent a guild. A virtual guild.
ReplyDeleteI have, I think, a logo.........
Oh yes. I do...
Membership by invitation.
We could call it the mud handed gang....
Stickers saying "Kentucky Crafted"?
Doesn't that only apply to things you whittle, on the porch, whilst sipping whiskey, in your rocking chair. And shooting things?
Reverend Nonsequitur, I wonder, given your first name, were you perhaps conceived in a night of wild passion, in the Essex town of Barking, and named for it?
ReplyDelete(Barking is to be found just to the east of London, North-east of the Isle of Dogs).
"One of the great early works of Anglo-Latin scholarship, the De Laude Virginitatis ("In Praise of Virginity"), a double (prose and verse) work in the complex Latin style taught at the Canterbury School of Adrian of Canterbury praising Christian martyrdom and spiritual virginity, was dedicated by its author Saint Aldhelm (d. 709) to the ladies of Barking."
I thought the leadership of the United States was open to simple folk from log cabins. Where's the money thing come into it. Are you implying that the presidentacy can be BOUGHT? Oh my god, Reverend, my faith in humanity is rocked by that thought.
E Pluribus Unum?
I think I will cut out the middle man and simply steal your sticker. Thank you.
ReplyDelete