tony clennell on sun 11 jul 10
Keba: I think our lives are like a three legged stool. Take away one
of the legs whether it be teaching, or retail or wholesale and our
livelihood is out of balance. To be honest I like the diversity. I
wouldn't want to make pots day in a day out without getting off our
little island and getting to do what most people do each day- travel
to work.
As I wrote in my blog yesterday I find myself pacin' the cage when I
am waiting for a good retail day to happen. It's better when I look
forward to a good day of making and retail happens without warning.
The biggest change I have found in our business is the lack of US
visitors. There have been so many road blocks put up between our
borders that it is certainly hurting the tourist business. I don't
think we have seen one US visitor this year. Correction Chris Campbell
and her sister visited us this weekend. There is a high Canadian
dollar, passports, 2 hour waits at the border for security, a higher
cost of living and on and on. I think too the US economy is not
starting up as fast as hoped and when the elephant rolls over the
mouse gets squished.
We mice have to move fast.
All the best,
Tony
--
http://sourcherrypottery.com
http://smokieclennell.blogspot.com
tony clennell on thu 29 jul 10
I forget who coined the my life is a 3 legged stool idea but it sure
applies to me. All these people on the list dearly want to call
themselves potters. When asked what I do I just answer I'm self
employed. That gets ya enuff sympathy without admitting to living
from the arts. I have 3 or more sources of income none of which on
their on would make us a living but combined we pay our bills. Acers
have done a remarkable job of selling our DVD's and royalties from
that help, we sell our pots from the front door and thru a couple of
galleries and I teach at Sheridan and some workshops . If one leg
falls off the chair we topple. So it's not the most secure perch to
exist on but in times like this it is diversification that has kept us
in the game.
The required passport is the last nail in the coffin of Niagara
Peninsula tourism. 1 in 7 Americans own a passport and for a family to
cross the river to Canada no thanx to 3 or $400 bucks in passports.
American visitors were our profit in this area. Just ain't seeing them
much anymore. Just had some Italians yesterday which was nice.
I wish the Canadian loonie would drop to $.65. They were the good ole
days. I don't see them coming back since our economy seems to have
weathered this storm better than my US friends. It sure has impacted
our business though! There has been no growth in retail since 9/11. I
have had to grow the teaching leg a little longer to compensate.
Off to work with another coffee in hand.
Cheers,
Tony
--
http://sourcherrypottery.com
http://smokieclennell.blogspot.com
Lis Allison on thu 29 jul 10
On July 29, 2010, Tony Clennell wrote:
>
> The required passport is the last nail in the coffin of Niagara
> Peninsula tourism.
You didn't mention two other big problems: the high price of gas and the
fact that Canada didn't support the US in the Desert Storm thing. We went
down as a Hostile Nation and they have not forgiven us.
Very few American tourists in the Ottawa area these days, too. Used to be
quite a few at a couple of outdoor sales I used to do, but no more.
My US wholesale customers have all dropped off too, shipping has become
too expensive for them.
Lis
--
Elisabeth Allison
Pine Ridge Studio
website: www.pine-ridge.ca
Pottery blog: www.studio-on-the-ridge.blogspot.com
Garden blog: www.garden-on-the-ridge.blogspot.com
John Post on thu 29 jul 10
> I wish the Canadian loonie would drop to $.65. They were the good ole
> days. I don't see them coming back since our economy seems to have
> weathered this storm better than my US friends.
Hey Tony,
You hit the nail on the head when it comes to going to Canada. I live
just north of Detroit and my wife, son and I used to vacation once or
twice a year at this wonderful little log cabin overlooking Lake
Huron. We would sneak away for a week or a weekend whenever we needed
some quiet time. Because it was such a nice place, it was pricey, but
the exchange rate made it affordable for us. Now that the exchange
rate isn't as good, we haven't gone in at least the last 5 years.
You've got my vote for a 65 cent loonie.
John Post
Sterling Heights, Michigan
:: cone 6 glaze website :: http://www.johnpost.us
:: elementary art website :: http://www.wemakeart.org
:: youtube channel :: http://www.youtube.com/user/MrPostArtTeacher
Taylor Hendrix on thu 29 jul 10
On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 8:36 AM, Lis Allison wrote:
... and the
> fact that Canada didn't support the US in the Desert Storm thing. We went
> down as a Hostile Nation and they have not forgiven us.
>
...
Highly unlikely. We forgave y'all for Alanis Morissette and rarely call Can=
ada
a bunch of whiny girls. (Just Tony now and again)
I say rock on Canada!. We love you Gordon!
Tay Tay in Rock Rock
Vince Pitelka on thu 29 jul 10
I just got back from teaching two workshops in British Columbia, one in
Burnaby, just east of Vancouver, and one in Kamloops, in the Interior, and
so this subject inspires me to write a bit about my own experience. A
frequent topic of conversation in the two workshops was how expensive
everything is in Canada, especially when you purchase anything from the
states. Canada has a land mass larger than the US, but only 30 million
people, with a very large infrastructure of roads and government to support=
.
Taxes really jack up the price of everything. I was amazed by how much mor=
e
expensive things often are in Canada, especially if you add border duties
for things shipped from the US. I drove somewhere around 1000 kilometers
while in Canada, so I really got to experience the price of gas. I limped
back across the border with an almost-empty tank so that I could fill up in
the US.
Regarding the reduced numbers of American tourists in Canada, it might not
be affecting BC as much as it does central and eastern Canada. There seeme=
d
to be abundant American tourists. While in the Interior I spent a day in
Wells Gray Provincial Park up the North Thompson River, and like every part
of BC I saw, it was incredibly beautiful, but every little parking area and
turnout was crammed with Cruise-America and Canada-Adventure rental motor
homes. This was on a Tuesday with scattered showers, and both American and
Canadian tourists were out in full force.
Certainly the overbearing presence of the Department of Homeland Security i=
n
border-crossing policies and the requirement of passports (I realized with
some panic a few days before leaving Tennessee in May that mine had expired=
,
but found out that I could get expedited renewal online, and had it sent to
my friend Michael McDowell, just south of the border in Washington, so it
was there waiting for me) has intimidated a lot of Americans. I think that
there is a general hesitation about border crossing among a lot of American=
s
now, and it fits in with the general climate of fear and paranoia being
spread so prolifically.
I have had no problem with my border crossings, and I would encourage more
Americans to cross into Canada for tourism and generally to just share our
North-American experience and get to know more Canadians, who in my
experience have always been wonderful. My crossings into Canada since 9-11
have never been a problem, and I have encountered nothing worse than
officious unpleasantness bordering on hostility from US border agents on th=
e
way back. On the way north in mid-July I absent-mindedly stayed on I-5 to
the main crossing onto Canada-99, rather than turning off for the truck
crossing. Once I was in queue it took about 45 minutes to get up to the
kiosk. When I handed my passport over to the agent I was holding the
paperwork for my workshops, and he asked to see it. He closed the window
and made a short phone call, and then handed me back my passport and
contracts and wished me a good time in Canada. On my way back from Kamloop=
s
a few days ago I came down the Fraser canyon (spectacular) from Lytton to
Hope (I had driven the section from Lilooet to Lytton a week earlier), and
crossed into the US at Sumas, and when I came to the border there were four
cars in front of me and I was through the whole thing in five minutes. On
that occasion the US border agent was actually NICE! That's a first in my
experience.
One note of interest - a good percentage of the 15 participants in my
workshop in Kamloops were experienced full-time or part-time potters from
the Interior of BC, and they explained that a large percentage of all the
potters in Canada live in BC, simply because it is so beautiful and so
pleasant, and because there seems to be a good market for their wares. I
have not spent time in central or eastern Canada, so I have no basis for
comparison, but I am certainly impressed with the people and scenery in BC.
Next summer I will be teaching a workshop at Metchosin, and it will be my
first visit to Vancouver Island. I am really looking forward to that.
- Vince
Vince Pitelka
Appalachian Center for Craft
Tennessee Tech University
vpitelka@dtccom.net; wpitelka@tntech.edu
http://iweb.tntech.edu/wpitelka
Lee Love on thu 29 jul 10
On Thu, Jul 29, 2010 at 8:36 AM, Lis Allison wrote:
> On July 29, 2010, Tony Clennell wrote:
>>
>> The required passport is the last nail in the coffin of Niagara
>> Peninsula tourism.
>
> You didn't mention two other big problems: the high price of gas and the
> fact that Canada didn't support the US in the Desert Storm thing.
Lis, you are wrong:
Not only was Canada an Ally in Desert Storm, they have suffered 149
deaths of their armed forces in Afghanistan.
See also: Operation FRICTION
Canada was one of the first nations to condemn Iraq's invasion of
Kuwait, and it quickly agreed to join the U.S.-led coalition. In
August 1990, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney committed the Canadian
Forces to deploy the destroyers HMCS Terra Nova and HMCS Athabaskan to
join the maritime interdiction force. The supply ship HMCS Protecteur
was also sent to aid the gathering coalition logistics forces in the
Persian Gulf. A fourth ship, HMCS Huron, arrived in-theater after
hostilities had ceased and visited Kuwait.
--
=3DA0Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
=3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi
Lee Love on thu 29 jul 10
Tony,
My friend Dick Cooter used to be in an Accross Boarders art crawl
the stretched from Thunderbay all the day to Duluth. He says the
Passport requirement killed this crawl.
When Jean got back from Japan last year, and we went up past
Grand Maris. I thought it'd be fun to go to Thunder Bay, like we did
as a part of our honeymoon trip. But we didn't have our passports, so
we couldn't.
They jacked up the price of a passport to $165.00 Too expensive for
an impulse trip to Canada.
--
=3DA0Lee, a Mashiko potter in Minneapolis
http://mingeisota.blogspot.com/
=3D93Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel
the artistry moving through and be silent.=3D94 --Rumi
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