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Custom Mugs Tag

 

Estes Park, CO - Owned and operated Lois H. Smith - Stoneware by Deneen Pottery

We are now in our second year of working with the Baldpate Inn and we are just into the heart of the busy season. Thing are going well... Really well actually:

"HELP!  The mugs are flying off the shelves!  We can barely use them in the restaurant we have sold so many!!!   Can we get another order ASAP?  I think you have already sent all I had on my January Pack & Ship order."

"I guess I should have realized these would sell so great, but just didn't anticipate the demand" wrote Lois in a second email after her next order of 350 handmade custom mugs was approved.

The snow and cold is a distant memory, but the mornings are still starting out on the chilly side - Today it was 35º when dawn broke here at the pottery shop. Finding things that fit makes life more fulfilling, and definitely makes work more fun... Be it a perfect pair of sunglasses to protect your eyes as spring comes, or a perfect mug.

I've been waiting to find the next Innkeeper to interview and after hearing from Katherine Brown of Bloomsbury located in Camden, SC earlier this week I knew she would be perfect. In October of lat year we first talked about her property and our mugs and a few weeks later we combined a photograph of her property, and a drawing, by Randall Peterson, into this beautiful creation by Teena our Art Director.

At the start of the week I received a sorta tap-on-the-shoulder email that, more or less, hit me over the head and prompted me to see if Katherine would want to be the second official participant of  our Innkeeper Q&A. "Good morning Niles - this is where you can share a 'great laugh' with everyone at Deneen Pottery!  When we ordered mugs a few short months ago, it was primarily because I like them--I wanted to try them on our breakfast table. As it would never have occurred to me to buy a mug (with some logo) when I was traveling -- I rather dismissed when you said how well they sell.   OK - I need to place an order.   Quit laughing and tell me what you need." I don't mind being dismissed especially when I get to hear about it - That's why this statement is also on our testimonials page... It helps to look back at positive statements when you are having a rough day - And I figure if I keep stacking up the positive things that have been said, more will KNOW that we ARE the best at making Custom Stoneware Coffee Mugs!

Just before Thanksgiving Tammie, owner of The Coffee Cup located in Cameron, OK, was searching google for handmade mugs when she came across our website. "I looked at others but your product, professionalism, and website blew the others away."  Now we have her design ready for approval and we are eagerly looking forward to working on her first order of custom mugs!

This entry isn't really about our custom handmade mugs, instead it is on our mascot Olive. In May of last year my wife Annie gave me a long awaited Christmas present in the form of a Mini-GoldenDoodle who we named Olive. She arrived weighing just over 3 pounds but took up a lot of space in our hearts!

The breeders wrote our name on her belly.

Spring is finally in the air and I had a few minutes this morning to take pictures of the firing that took place yesterday. We fire the kiln 4-5 days a week, each glaze firing heats the stoneware inside up to about 2350º F and takes 24 hours to heat up and cool down. Like most commercial and handmade pottery we have 2 firings; bisque, and glaze. The bisque firing is the first and heats the our handmade stoneware up to 1600º F over the course of 12 hours. I'll take some pictures of the difference in air dry, bisque, glazed and then glaze fired in the next report. Now for the mug shots: Clay Corner Colonial Mugs - Burgundy

No early retirement for Peter Deneen. At the start of this year with all of the economic uncertainty we decided to head out to more bed and breakfast conferences in the hopes of attracting new customers. A few weeks back my dad attended the Illinois Innkeepers conference where he met many lovely people that had not heard of Deneen Pottery, and were unfamiliar with our hand made mugs. Peter Deneen at the Illinois Conference