For any request...

I won't be uploading this blog for quite some time.

For any request please write a letter and send it by post to:
La poterie, 2 rue du Lavoir, 36170 St Civran, France.

Good bye for now.
f r a n k i e

46. PLANNING THE HOLIDAY SEASON 2010

Taking stock: I have a pottery studio about 70m2 in size equiped with one single potter's wheel and a 3 meter long cement workbench. There's no kiln in the studio at this stage. There are a few hundred kilograms of red earthenware clay. Tools. Shelves. It is a pleasant place to work with a 3 bedroom house attached. Situated on the main village square.

The plan: For July and August, and by extension from May to October, I plan to welcome european hobby potters to come and enjoy a week's holiday in my house and pottery studio. The offer is a holiday pack all inclusive with hours in the pottery studio, accomodation in a private room, a kitchen and bathroom to share, entertainment such as a folk singing evening, a barbecue, attending theatre plays in the area, visiting one tourist site such as an old castle or a museum, a bike ride, or anything that may be spontaneously thought of and organised. The aim is to provide for a stressless enjoyable environment with pottery making as a theme, but not as a structured course.

Advertising: A static webpage in French, English and German will be launched and published in due course. There will be no other type of advertising. The number of people per week at the same time will be just three. Filling up means, 3 people by 4 weeks, i.e. 12 hobby potters to welcome per month.

Staff: At this stage there is no staff to do the job and I'm working on trying to convince people to come and help me. I have a few people in mind to help organise the barbecues and to play guitar for the folk singing evenings. But I badly need someone who would share attendance in the studio with me. I can only attend for half the time. It has to be a proper potter or an experienced hobby potter. It is not a job offer as such. It is an invitation to come and stay for free for a month or longer, using all facilities and being in-charge of the pottery studio for half a day for 6 days in exchange of free accomodation.  It concerns someone who is a bit adventurous and curious. And due to immigration difficulties it has to be someone with a European passport and some knowledge of French and/or English or German.

This is the plan for the summer 2010. I really want to launch my pottery studio again. I am convinced that there is business to do with it welcoming tourists in the area. Come and join!

Anyone interested in coming to help can write a comment here or send an e-mail to the email address stated in my profile.

Happy New Year 2010

Happy New Year 2010 to all friendly potters!

45. Back to work

End of April 2009 : Half of the pottery studio is now in working order. I am breaking chunks of dry clay with a heavy hammer to soak them in a large bin in order to be able to use that clay again. Then I spread that mud on a plastic sheet on my work bench and wait for a few days until it has the right consistency. I knead this stuff into balls ready to use on the potter's wheel.

With 2.2 kg of red clay I threw the top part of a fruit bowl and with 0.9 kg I threw the foot of the fruit bowl. The next day I put the two parts together and spread a cover coat of white clay in the inside of the fruit bowl. A day later again, with the tip of a wooden tool, I carved a phrase taken from 'Alice In Wonderland'. Scratching the white cover coat, it made the red clay appear in the writing. That's it.

Now it is drying on a shelf until further notice, i.e. when it looks and feels very dry. It would then need to be 'bisque' fired but since I don't have a kiln any more... don't know what I'll do!!

44. WORKSHOP REVIVAL

April 2009 : Workshop revival... perhaps... I'm thinking about it. Slowly sorting out the mess in the barn that used to be my pottery studio. But yes, I am thinking about opening up again.

I could, for instance, offer a week package with 6 afternoons work on the potter's wheel, plus accomodation in a guest bedroom in the house attached to the studio. Or, let people choose how long they want to stay and break it up as:

€20,- for a half day work, morning or afternoon, in the pottery studio

€30,- for a night's accomodation in the house

___

€50,- per day all told, except for food expenses.

It means a comfortable and pleasant holiday in a quiet village at a minimum expense:

250 Euros for 5 days

300 Euros for 6 days

500 Euros for 10 days

This would cover 'work on the potter's wheel', i.e. access to the studio to work on the wheel, for half a day only, mornings or afternoons as best suited. I would be there to guide and give advice, but not to teach or coach as such. Potteries made in the workshop would not be fired. The hobby potter would be free to either destroy them before leaving, or take them away in their 'green' state, or leave them behind. This offer is for hobby potters who already have some basic knowledge of work on the potter's wheel and wish to spend time practising, as well as spend a quiet holiday in the countryside.

It would also cover 'accomodation', i.e. access to the house to sleep in a self contained double bedroom downstairs with access to the bathroom upstairs, as well as access to the kitchen to prepare meals if needed. Restaurants can be found within 10 km.

I could only take one hobby potter at a time since I now have one single potter's wheel. The fees would be payable on arrival. It would not cover food cost. Accomodation for a partner would be an extra 20 euros per day.

There's a new business registration system on offer by the government in France at the moment. It is called 'auto entreprise' and it is done direct on internet. I'll try that. Maybe.

43. A French garage sale

The 15th August in France is a long public holiday. A lot of people are holidaying at that time and the summer season is at a peak. Garage sales, called 'brocante' in French, pop up everywhere.

In August 2008, last year, I decided to have a stall with my last potteries at the 'brocante' in the nearby village of St Benoît-du-Sault. It was free of charge. All you had to do was to put your name on a list and say how many meters you needed for your stall. The lady at the tourist office had mentioned you had to be there at 7.30 am at the latest when someone would assign places for stalls.

When I got up, my clock said 7.30 but I soon found out from the radio that it was 10 to 9. Nearly gave up the idea of going at all. My motivation was rather low. I eventually drove to St Benoît and after some time looking for the man in-charge, I was told to squeeze in between two other stalls. It turned out to be a great opportunity!

On my right was a man, a former HRD from Paris, trying to sell old attick stuff for his in-laws. We had a long chat about psychology, sociology and anthropology. He did sell a number of items, from fancy lamp shades to large procelain platters, in between reading his book and talking to his neighbours.

On my left was a group of sisters, brothers and in-laws from Paris and the south of France, also trying to get rid of family stuff to enable them to buy brand new furniture for their family house in the area. They had a painting on hessian that I quite fancied. It was priced at €50,- I asked them to keep it for me, that I'll buy it off them as soon as I sell €50,- worth of my pots... ha ha!

In the morning there was quite a crowd looking and buying. English and Dutch as well as French could be heard. My neighbour attracted customers. For my part I sold one pot to a lady who seemed to really want the thing. She came twice for it, hesitating, and finally buying for the full amount of... €6,- I was happy to let it go, even at that price, because I saw she loved the pot.

There was a lull at lunch time and in the afternoon people walking past the stalls did not seem to be interested to buy. My left neighbours kept the painting for me and at the end of the day, around 5pm, they agreed to give it to me in exchange of some of my pots. I really enjoyed giving them my last pots and I was thrilled to leave with the large painting. They also gave me a number of cowboy shirts that their father used to wear when he was painting.

At one stage the man on my right kindly offered to take a photo of me in front of my stall with my own camera. I showed him where to press for the photo and he did. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the video button was still on (a hard one to press off on this particular camera) and therefore he took a clip rather than a still photo.

Back home at night I worked with my computer on all the little videos I had taken during the day to produce this two and a half minute clip:

A FRENCH GARAGE SALE

42. A Growing Delight: SAINT-BENOIT du Sault.....

In May this year 2009 my blogger friend, Alice, came to visit me. I was thrilled and so happy to have Australian visitors to show around. With her husband we toured some of the highlights of this Berry native province of mine. Back home Alice published her photos of the area. Here's the link to her post:

A Growing Delight: SAINT-BENOIT du Sault.....

41. My whereabouts

October 2008
Since my last post I have received messages from friendly potters as to my whereabouts. Nice to know some people care.

I have moved to Germany where I shall no doubt meet nice potters.

I'll update this blog as soon as I am properly settled and can afford an internet connection.

Cheerio! f r a n k i e

November 2008
After a month in Germany I drove back to my lonesome village in the middle of France. Thinking of re-opening my pottery studio for next June, July and August...

Cheerio! f r a n k i e

March 2009

No, my pottery workshop will not reopen. I am looking for a tenant for the house and workshop. Get in touch if you are interested!

40. FAILURE

The story of life is how to cope with failure. I'm aware of that. It is not getting easier to cope with failure as you get older. I've found that out.

They say that in order to succeed, you have to be on the right spot at the right time. Well then, I was on the wrong spot at the wrong time. That rural village in the middle of France in the first few years of the 21st century was the wrong place at the wrong time. True.

I can take some of the blame too. I'm pretty hopeless in business... can't stand accounting and paper work, can't bare having to spend time at other things than my actual job, namely being in the workshop preparing clay, throwing pots, showing someone how to do it, trimming half dried pots, firing the kiln, mixing glazes and applying them onto bisques and firing again. Another problem with me also is that I love doing all that for its own sake, whether I get paid or not. I realize that to make money in any entreprise, the main drive must be to want to earn the money... So, I will call it a day. The pottery studio is defunct. It has no more function. It is closed.

I have sold the kiln.

Around me in the area, there has been a number of other 'eccentric' people venturing into new activities too. In the street just below me was a young English family with two young teenage daughters and a grandfather. They bought a property, worked steadily at renovating it with the intention to offer self-contained accommodation to tourists they would entice to come for a rest in this quiet rural place. They never made it either. After a few years they had to go back to England and leave their dreams behind. Further up, a Belgian couple bought a manor house and renovated it to be able to welcome groups of artists from Belgium who would want to rehearse or create whatever in a quiet place. They ended up selling and left too.

Lost opportunities. Miscarried business. The point is that there has not been any wealth created. Therefore there will not be any wealth to be 'shared'. Creating, generating wealth is Act 1. When a business venture fails, the country gets poorer by one notch.

The moral of the story????...

39. Pause PUBLICITE

Ce qui suit n'a rien à voir avec ce qui précède... Comme tous les grands médias de nos jours, voici ma pause pub!

Une machine à remonter le temps... si, si, ça existe!

Un jour de l'an 2003 une dame se prénommant Françoise m'a mis dans les mains une longue liste de noms. En la lisant assidûment j'ai rencontré mes ancêtres jusque dans les années 1500 portant le même patronyme que moi. Je n'en revenais pas. Ce privilège de connaître intimement ses ancêtres était réservé aux familles de la noblesse d'antan. Ce privilège de savoir qu'on a un lien de parenté avec un brillant inconnu m'est désormais réservé.

Cette généalogiste a changé ma vie. Elle a travaillé d'arrache-pied toutes ses années pour arriver à la somme des connaissances sur la saga de ma famille paternelle. Cette étude hautement documentée de 250 pages est maintenant sous presse. J'ai hâte d'avoir enfin le livre en main.

FRANCOISE ROUET, géniale généalogiste devant l'éternel, attend vos commandes et vos travaux de généalogie coincés dans un tiroir. On peut laisser un message à l'adresse e-mail suivante: fr.rouet.genealogie(at)gmail(dot)com