Andersen Design Economic Evolution Discourse

As Corona Virus demands change, a transforming culture grant us permission to be who we never thought we would be. Photo by Mackenzie Andersen of  Pelican sculpture by Weston and Brenda Andersen for Andersen Desig n I awoke in the morning in an instance that dreaming becomes consciousness, a transition as elusive to detect as that precise moment when night becomes dawn. I was travelling in my dream on the main road out of town passing through the point where the Harbor becomes Boothbay. On the side of the road, I saw a sign that said “Learn Farm”, crafted on a wooden board painted with weathered white paint, and written in Times New Roman font. A frame around the words lent the sign traditionally old fashioned flair.  In dream word play, the message is its new but its old. Times, New Roman, correlating with to my concept of a twenty-first century cottage industry , a network of businesses in residence, pre-industrial culture resurrected for a world evolving toward sm...

 Preserving A Cultural Tradition and a Way of Life. Andersen's Studio's Vision of A Great American Ceramic Designer's craftsmen Network could revitalize communities which Gubernatorial hopeful Steve Woods suggests should have their populations relocated to urban areas. In 1952 Weston and Brenda Andersen moved to the coast of Maine to set up a ceramic design and slip-casting studio. They opened up shop in a two hundred year old barn on Southport Island on the Boothbay Peninsula. As soon as they opened their doors, and there after, collections began which have been handed down from one generation of Andersen collectors to the next. It was a grass roots collectible movement. No grand authority proclaimed that the Andersen work was the thing to collect. Andersen Stoneware became collectible through the inclinations of thousands of individual collectors acting on their own. Each collector made a personal discovery and iconic connection - not only of the Anderse...

ANDERSEN STUDIO'S KICKSTARTER PROJECT LAUNCHES CLICK HERE TO GO STRAIGHT TO OUR KICKSTARTER PROJECT!

Brenda started the tradition of using ceramics to express very personal art as shown in this mug designed by Weston and decorated by Brenda, circa early 1950's Weston and Brenda Andersen are recognized as an important historical figure in the ceramic and design fields. This weekend we were visiting with a New York antique dealer and historian, who came to us with a recommendation from Eva Zeisel's daughter, At the time of our first introduction, he was looking for industrial design drawings of the fifties era and he came to our house and purchased a group of drawings which Dad had done when a student at Pratt. On a day as I was taking photographs, Weston  engaged in an animated dialogue about the displays. But this time around the antique dealer was looking for pieces to display in the upcoming antique show at the pier in New York City scheduled for this November. It is an international antique show. Our dealer is going to have a display case ...

Greetings after a long break. I have completed my first animated video for our Kickstarter project. which I am currently publishing as a preview. I wanted to embed it here so that it instantly displays- which is supposedly as easy as inserting any other image- except one uses the video function- but alas, Blogger keeps rejecting my fla file. And so for the meantime , i have published it as a web page which you can view by clicking Andersen Studio's Preview of Our Upcoming Kickstarter Project. http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2Q2dX9/www.andersenstudio.com/Flash/Andersen_Studio_Kickstarter.html?sthash.Tt35slCX.qmqDOqCB.tupo I hope you will enjoy the video and SHARE it to help us spread the word around since the success of our project depends on the base that we are able to reach. Thanks for your support. Mackenzie

You may have noticed that I haven't posted here for a while. That is because in order to start the KickStarter project we have to include a video, which we have not worked with so I have been busy learning animation using Adobe Flash CS6, which may or may not be faster than learning to make a more movie style video- but being that I didn't know how to do either, I had to choose one or the other and I chose animation. I will get back to posting here but I need to keep my focus there for the moment. I hope to get back to writing this blog again soon. Meanwhile- more pictures of the classic designs we have created in over 60 years. These are production pieces that retain their market appeal over the decades and are the basis for both productivity and a brand identity foundational to an American marketing enterprise.

  Portfolio of images of stoneware baby seal by Andersen Studio Greetings World, I am starting today this journal of our first KickStarter Project. This is a process within a process.. At this stage in our history our ultimate goal is to transform our creative and unique family business into a form that can be carried on by others beyond our own family  so that  future generations of Americans can have the opportunity to participate in what we feel is a very rewarding occupation and lifestyle. I formulated my idea of how this can be done around about 2007, which you can read HERE and also learn about our history in the process. The link dated 2012 was written more recently in pursuit of the same vision. Both were written before I had heard about KickStarter . Kickstarter is a natural fit  for Andersen Studio as we are a small ceramic art, design and production studio operating in the private sector. Since we opened our gallery doors in 1952, our work...