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31st July 2010
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'A 12-week business plan course plus a two year wait to be registered - but I got there! I have always loved playing about with clay and glazes and I grew up building sawdust kilns in the garden to make 'Roman Pots' and progressing to City and Guilds examination as I grew older.In England I set up my own business selling my ceramics and when we moved to France I missed it terribly so started researching my own business over here, which involved a great deal of hard work and determination, including a 12 week course to build and evaluate my business plan and have it approved. Unlike the UK where it is possible to run a small business very easily, here in France it is far more complicated, especially if, like me, your work does not fall into a neat box as I make a variety of things! My first step was to sign on for work with the ANPE, obviously having just come to France I was not eligible for any benefits but by registering for work one has access to all sorts of help and free advice. I made an appointment and told them, in much fractured French that I was a potter and I was looking for work. Next, as I knew it was impossible to either set up a successful business or even explain in detail, to all the relevant organisations, what I wanted to do, without being able to communicate,I set about taking lessons to improve my French which was, to say the least, rudimentary and I spent weeks trying to get to grips with the language. Once I felt confident enough to make myself at least partially understood and sure I would be able to get a gist of what was being said to me, I spoke to the ANPE again about my project and they arranged for me to attend a 12-week course to look at the viability of my plans and how best to put them into fruition. This involved one morning a week with an advisor looking at my business plan, checking out my qualifications and previous experience, examining my CV, which naturally had to conform to French guidelines and was very different to the sort of thing I had on my English CV, as well as doing research between rendezvous. There was a lot of homework and it was rather heavy going. Even though I had run a similar business in a similar environment in the UK it was much harder to do the whole thing in French as I had to provide lots of information on estimated costs for everything and list my potential suppliers and clients to prove I had researched my market in depth. It was exhausting finding all the technical information on materials and sourcing suppliers in a foreign language! I also had to visit several potters and suppliers to discuss my project with them. In the end it was my previous experience and my realistic business plan that swung the venture my way and my project was approved. Waiting to get registered Once my plan had been given the go ahead in theory I had the task of getting someone to decide whether I came under the chambre de metier or chambre de commerce. It is really important to get registered as the right category; otherwise you can waste a lot of money for nothing. This stage took for ever as no one was quite sure what my work came under. There were times when I felt like giving up as no one seemed able to decide which box my work fitted in. The whole process took about two years all in all but finally I got there, and am now registered as both a sculptor and tiler. Now, though, I’m registered and have my own Atelier adjoining our house where my kiln, wheel, glazes and clays and all the messy trucs of a potter’s trade are housed as well as a studio inside the house where I do my designing and painting which means my work area remains dust free and I don’t feel isolated from family life. Later this year, I plan to incorporate a gallery into my Atelier to provide somewhere for customers to see my work displayed. I work mainly in tiles, although I also do a range of commemorative china to order and terracotta figures and buttons. All my tile designs are original and I hand paint them with colourful glazes on to high quality bisque ware and then fire to a high temperature for a durable gloss finish. Each piece is individual. I think for me the hardest part is reigning in my creativity as there is so much I want to do and just not enough hours in the day! I get very excited by the entire design process and love getting new commissions in to work on. My studio name came courtesy of one of the many officials to whom I dragged my portfolio for advice. She was, she said, rather bored and jaded with looking at uninspired business plans but when she looked at my photographs got very excited and told me they were 'Un Peu Loufoque', which means a little crazy, that, she assured me was, in the case of art and ceramics, a very good thing to be so the name stuck. It suits me rather well I think! Chickens, mermaids and everything in between!  Currently I am working mainly on commissions for panels but I also do individual tiles and I sell most of my tiles un-mounted but customers often have them framed and hung in their houses in the same way that one would hang a picture, that way they can take them away with them if they move! Others like to incorporate them into plain tile panels in their kitchens and bathrooms. Designs vary but chickens and mermaids are perennially popular as well as of course Breton scenes.As well as my stock designs I undertake individual commissions, I really love this part of my job. Clients approach me, often with only a vague idea of what they want, perhaps to match a colour scheme or theme in a particular room and we work very closely together to come up with ideas. A local shop stocks my figures and tiles and French customers seem fascinated with them - I have been asked several times by French customers whether they are a sort of jigsaw! Most of my commissions come via the internet so, after lengthy discussions about what sort of things the client likes, I come up with a variety of suggestions and email sketches which we whittle down to something that is just right. The whole design process is explained in detail on my website Un Peu Loufoque.com  Tile panels are a wonderful way to add an individual touch to a new kitchen or bathroom renovation, creating something which is unique. It’s lovely to know that you will never see anyone with the same kitchen or bathroom mural as you have. Commissions can vary greatly. One of my first was for a 100 tile panel (see left) to go behind an Aga and depicted the view from the client’s kitchen window across the hills and incorporated their family pets! Another was to copy 12 existing old Turkish tiles so that they could be used in a fire surround; matching the colours and achieving the same depth of shade was very taxing but well worth the effort. A favourite with customers is commemorative tile panels and plates commissioned for special occasions such as weddings, the birth of a child or other special event. A four tile panel framed and hung in the child’s bedroom is a lovely memento of a child’s birth and they tend to last longer than plates, bowls and porringers, although I do those as well, I know from experience toddlers have an endearing habit of throwing their bowls onto the floor when you least expect them to and porcelain doesn’t bounce very well! I think perhaps my most unusual commission has been a plate with an illustrated map showing all the local landmarks and historical event related to the area to commemorate the retirement of a chairwoman of a local organisation, although I also once had to do a portrait from nothing else but a description which was challenging to say the least! I am happy designing anything from a single 4” individual tile to a large multi tile panel. Distance is no object, I have shipped my work all over the place both within France and to the UK but I have shipped my work all over the world, the furthest afield being so far Thailand and Canada! If you would like to see further examples of my work, please see Un Peu Loufoque or email me at: enquiries@unpeuloufoque.com By Sarah Andrews SEE ALSO: Preparing a business plan Working in France Home Page Looking for a property in France? Use FrenchEntrée's Property Finders to help you find your property and to help you through the buying process 
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