New Year News and Hope!

New Medium Publication Hand Made Makers of The World

In exploring Medium, I have found that it is a place that has much to offer but what it doesn't have is a strong publication representing the hand made artist designer community. This is unsurprising because as the world evolves, large forces have also excluded many things valued in the past to paint the world in digital brush strokes. This phenomena is evident in my economic development research from Marco Rubio's, American Investment in the Twenty First Century, which identifies a global world divided into high value (high tech) and low value (inclusive of most hand made objects not sold in upper end markets) economies, to Boothbay's local economic development council

To correct this deficiency, I created my own Medium Publication: Designer Craftsmen of America and the World Please contact me if you would like to be part of this publication, which is seeking collaborators.

In a world moving toward collectivisation Medium is the evolution of media toward individualization, One can find advise on Medium on just about anything in a world where we are all experts in the experience of living. The medium of Medium, in the McCluhan sense is the internet.

As a representative of an entrepreneurial family business in a home with a unique history, I find that there is little advice from conventional sources which suits our individual situation. In a venue like Medium it is possible that I can find advice that is relevant from others who have carved their own pathways. I can also give advice to others, which advice of the moment is to take a Medium subscription for $5,00 a month and start exploring the world of individualized media on your own. You will find much that is of no interest, but you can tailor your own home page to deliver what is valuable for your unique path.

Vintage Prototype of the Antarctic Seal in extremely rare natural brown, circa 1960's

A Special End of the Year Request to help is reach our goal:

In the last week of the year we have a goal to raise $5000,00 in sales which will enable us to get better financing to begin a project of working with other studios to produce some of our moderately priced items, 

Wide Gingerbread Mug with brown tree decorated by Elise Isabel Andersen

There is now a brown slip available on the commercial market which very much resembles the signature brown slip Dad designed in midcentury, which you see on the Antarctic Seal above, The availability of a commercial facsimile to our hand crafted brown slip, makes it more possible to work with other studios using their bodies to produce some of our original designs, such as the mugs,and small birds. This is also consistent with my vision of reinventing Andersen Design production as a network of small independently own slip-casting studios.

We will consider all reasonable offers on our vintage work which can be gifted to a museum as a tax deductible contribution, The Farnsworth Museum in Rockland, Maine has expressed an interest in the Andersen history. Andersen work has been sold throughout our history in Museum Stores such as the American Museum of Natural History in NYC and the Brooklyn Museum in NYC, Our large Salad Bowl in the Brown Tree patter was the number one seller in the America House, a high end crafts store which was located across the street from the Museum of Modern Art in NYC.

We hope to put together a more official collectors reference with a list of Museums who are interested in contributions in 2020.

Meanwhile...

Medium is a social media venue that offers contributors an opportunity to earn money quantified by reader interest.

Consequently, there are many articles written about how to make money on Medium. The popular advice is to publish every day. There are many articles about the burn out effect some experience from trying to meet the highly demanding publishing quota, entailed in such advice. Take it or leave it.

I decided to leave it and publish a post derived from the independent research into Maine economic central management which I have pursued for the last ten years,

I though it would be easy to quickly put together a post since much of the story was already composed and would only need reconfiguring. This, of course, turned out to be untrue. It took me quite some time to put together the article and when it was done it took me quite some more time to recover from the task. I closed down my involvement from Medium for a while after finishing the story. I was taken by surprise by my reaction but upon reflection, I realised that it is because this is a difficult history to be reporting about. It is a story about the University of Maine. One would like to think of the University as something that exists purely as a public benefit, but the facts recorded in the statutes and congressional documents reveals something else.

James Madison by Gilbert Stuart

The diversity in the faculties of men, from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to an uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government.
James Madison Federalist Paper #10

I chose to publish my post in the Medium Publication that I like the best Discourse and Dialogue, although this publication does not have the high number of followers that other publications have,

How The Morrill Act gave birth to Public Ownership of Private Intellectual Property in the USA. 

This turned out to be a good decision. My history of the The Morrill Act and the founding of the University of Maine to its contemporary evolution, was chosen for Medium's prime History category where it will get the most exposure and will also be used in Medium apps and emails.

So by rejecting the mainstream for the niche publication, I ended up in the big stream. My advice is aim for quality not quantity and follow the meaning not the money.

One of the best parts of Medium is to discover that the people who follow one are also the ones one likes to follow. Here are some that I enjoy:

Richie Crowley: A human, sharing their intimate moments with a spirit of alliance. Now that you’re here, I invite you to feel, something: 

It is true that I like following Richie Crowley because he is uplifting. He makes me feel abundant and inspires as a blogger. Richard Crowley has great clarity in his approach to life and is very wholesome. I enjoyed his recommendations on subscriptions to keep, and will be trying some  of those subscriptions  myself. 

Alexia Carroll, 
It is impossible to be unhappy on a bicycle

Written with imperfect grammar and yet it is perfect. As with Richard Crowley, the writer makes me feel something, and it is uplifting.

Ali Kayaspor
Math Teacher. Mathematics. Soccer player. 
The Stunning Beauty of Islamic Geometric Patterns 

stunningly beautiful. Also uplifting.


I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and will have a Great New Year!

Mackenzie