About Cazzaramics
I've always been an arty crafty person, and after taking my daughter to a Ceramic Cafe for her 10th birthday in 2001, I thought I'd like to look into further.
At the beginnning of 2004, I found a place via a magazine article which taught ceramic painting, hobbyceramicraft in Heckfield, Hampshire. There I learnt how to come up with great designs, how to glaze the finished bits, & also how to use a kiln safely. They even taught us how to run ceramic painting as a small business. It was great fun, & I continue to learn to this day with new ideas & techniques which that company provide. I decided there & then that I would look into the possiblity of running a 'spare time' mobile business, targeting Elderly, Disadvantaged & Disability groups.
I took home my knowledge, & my family thought it was great fun. I'd invested in a small kiln & starter pack, which is wired into a normal cooker type ring main in my outhouse.
The kiln
My daughter soon was inviting her friends round to do some, I thought perhaps I should give it a shot as a mobile business since I was working full time & couldn't possibly give up that job not knowing if ceramic painting parties would take off.
At home, experimenting with new bits of pottery
I decided to set up a stall at the local village green in 'Strawberry Fayre' in 2004 armed with homemade leaflets & business cards & launch 'Cazzaramics' to see how it went.
The launch 2004, windy but sunny. At the end, a huge gust of wind blew down the display board, breaking most of the items on it!
Well, it was so popular, I think I almost run out of leaflets, & people had so much fun painting on the day, I couldn't have hoped for a better start. I had booking enquiries, people were leaving me their details for me to contact them, it was great!
As it seemed so successful for a first time, I went ahead & put some of my own money into buying more stock, & registered it as a proper business. My full time job was under threat of redundancy (still is to this day) so I could fall back on this, but in the meantime I just keep it ticking over as a 'spare-time' hobby.
Where did the name come from? Well my nickname at my 'proper' job was 'Cazza' & I told my manager at the time about it & he suggested adding ceramics on the end, so 'Cazzaramics' it became. (Thank you Andrew!)
To everyone who has used my service, a big thank you, I've enjoyed all the parties & events so far, just wish I could spend more time on it (one day.......)
Carole. Owner of Cazzaramics.