How long will it take to ship my order? It can take up to 4 weeks. I make all of my items from scratch, starting with mixing the ceramic slip I use to cast my pottery, and making my glaze from raw materials. Pieces are formed by slip-casting, using liquid clay in plaster molds. Once formed, this greenware must dry for many days before firing. Dry greenware then gets fired and becomes bisque. The bisque pieces are glazed and allowed to dry for several days. Once dry, the glazed bisque is fired and then I finally have something I can decorate. Once I apply my decals and allow to dry overnight, I fire again and then finished items that either get shipped off to fill an order or become part of my inventory. But because my studio is small, I an unable to stock every finished piece for each shape, dog breed and coat color within dog breeds. And as you can see from the process above, there is a lot of drying time and firing - each firing takes many hours to finish, and then the kiln needs to cool overnight before it is able to be opened.
Why don't I see which items you have in stock? My website platform doesn't allow me to track inventory and, at the same time, allow back-ordering of out of stock items. But, as mentioned above, I have very little stock on hand so it is safe to assume that I wouldn't have the item(s) you want to order on hand.
Can I have two different dogs or dog colors on the same item? Yes, you can, as long as the item has two sides (sugar bowl, creamer, mug, salt and pepper shakers). These can be two different breeds, or two different coat colors of the same breed. To order an item like this, put the item in your shopping cart with one of the dog breeds you want on it. Then, in the "notes" section during checkout, tell me what dog breed/coat color you want for the second side. For example, if say you wanted a corgi/golden retriever sugar bowl. Select the Corgi color you want from the sugar bowl page. Then, at check out, write a note that saying that you would like a Golden Retriever on the other side of the sugar bowl. Keep in mind that the dog design within the floral pattern are sized relative to the floral pattern so that the white space around the dog design is even, i.e. the dogs are not sized relative to each other as they would appear in real life. In the example above, although a Corgi is much shorter than a Golden Retriever, it would be similarly sized on the sugar bowl. But because the two dogs are on opposite sides of the item, it really doesn't matter.
Can you add my dog's name to an item? No, I am no longer doing this because it has caused problems in the past. There isn't a lot of white space around the dog to add a name to. This means I would have to shrink the dog, and the dogs are already small enough. Also, trying to center the name under the feet is challenging because the feet are usually placed symmetrically. So even if the name is centered, visually it appears out of whack. Also, occasionally defects occur during the decoration firing and I end up with seconds that I either donate or sell. It's hard to do this when the item has another dog's name on it.
I don't see my dog's breed on the list. Can you add it? Possibly, but it depends on what else is going on. Customer request is often how I add new dog breeds to my line-up. However, this can take some time, and I usually don't do any artwork during the busy Holiday months. The artwork is the part of my production that takes me the longest - I wish it didn't but it does. Once I get a design done, test-firing must be done to check color, which adds more time to the process.
My dog is a mixed breed - do you make custom designs? No, not at this time. As mentioned above, new dog designs take me a while. So I concentrate on designs that might appeal to a broader range of customers.
Is your pottery made in the US or purchased elsewhere? I make my own pottery start to finish. The majority of the materials are sourced from the US (the ingredients in the stoneware and glaze). The wine stopper corks are bought from a US company but originate in Portugal. And my decal materials are bought from Germany because there isn't a US company that provides them.