Wednesday, October 25, 2006

monkeying around again

OK, showed you this piece when I was making it, now it has been glaze fired with its monkeys, and it's little brothers on the bowl and cup. Detail isn't terrific here, but you get the idea. The thing is, we have a special exhibit starting Nov 1 at a place called 'Smart Monkey Cafe', and so I made some monkeys for the first time in a year, to go on pots. I hadn't made them peeling bananas before, but heck, its cute. Apparently, and this is important around a place like Ithaca, monkeys given an organic banana and a regular store banana will always eat the organic. And they eat the organic banana, peel and all. If they are only offered a regular banana, they peel it first. What exactly are they smelling from those pesticides and whatnot? Anyway, that is the premise behind Smart Monkey Cafe, and more on that exhibit when we get it hung, but my pieces look good. Our traveling show goes to Starbucks this winter, and no matter what you think of them, Starbucks is a place that should be able to sell my work, therefore I can buy groceries and catfood.

5 comments:

Susan as Herself said...

Having worked at Starbucks, I can say that your pieces will do well there, I think. I used to do merchandising for them, and that specialty/seasonal ceramic stuff always sold. Especially at holiday time. I packed up more "mug and coffee" gift boxes than I can count. And canisters did OK also. Hope it's a good thing for you!

gary rith said...

Well, some people love them, some give them a bad rap. My feeling is this: they sell (usually) a good product, have pleasant stores and nice bathrooms. I would go there before any other chain, ever. BUT, and you see it here in Ithaca, when you have genuine local coffee shops and teashops, and they weasel in and try to squeeze out the local guys, that is just plain mean. Ithaca doesn't seem to suffer too much from having one now, and we have millions of good little cafes, therefore I wanna make money from them. Ithaca's is in a new downtown hotel, so you can guess that folks roll out of bed and downstairs first...
We also have an exhibit at Gimme Coffee in the spring, a local chain of TWO shops and they roast their beans there, and dang, the way their place smells, holy cats! Fully caffeinated air! Yum!

Anonymous said...

Starbucks stinks; I have to hold my breath walking by.

gary rith said...

But cm, everybody knows you are prejudiced against coffee, so your opinon DOESN'T COUNT.

Anonymous said...

I have heard about Smart Monkey. It's funkey yet sophisticated atmosphere and should therefore bring in plenty of interested buyers. Market towards those who may be repeat customers, such as the ones who are more likely to be buying coffee at a LOCAL store rather than a CHAIN. It is also great to be supporting organic products and local business. But either way your products should sell, good-luck.