Bulletin E-Edition:
more photosMug Revolution owner Owen Dearing molds a mug on a potter’s wheel while his dog, Kelty, keeps watch Wednesday at his home studio in Bend.
Melissa Jansson / The Bulletin
Drink, drink revolution
Bend man has turned his passion for pottery into an online business
By Kimberly Bowker / The Bulletin
Published: November 20. 2007 4:00AM PSTPottery runs in Owen Dearing’s blood. Generations ago, his great-grandfather made a living as a potter in Ukraine and Dearing’s mother worked as a full-time potter around the house when he was growing up. Now, in the 21st century, Dearing has incorporated technology into the family legacy.
Mug Revolution, an online business based in Bend, sells 16-ounce ceramic mugs designed and made by Dearing. Mugs can be customized with a name, business logo or even the paw print of a beloved pet. Each mug, which takes 20 to 30 minutes to make by hand, costs between $15 and $20. Custom mugs can take four to six weeks for delivery.
More than two years ago, Dearing was able to combine his occupation in graphic design with his passion for pottery into a business. Dearing took a printing class in high school and later served as a printer, print-education teacher and supervisor of district printing services for 17 years in the public school system, 12 of those in the Bend-La Pine school district. He currently works as a press operator at Pronto Print in Bend.
The idea for an online business that only sells mugs occurred when Dearing received a phone call almost seven years ago from Oxygen, the cable network co-founded by Oprah Winfrey. The network had discovered the Web page for Dearing’s previous business, which sold multiple types of ceramic dishes, and requested 200 mugs for a Time-Warner conference occurring in two weeks. Dearing could not fill the order, but the call stimulated the creation of Mug Revolution in 2005.
Local and national corporations have ordered mugs as promotional items for events or clients. Each mug displays the company’s logo, which is applied by a detailed stamp handcrafted by Dearing. Clients include the Rotary Club of Bend, the Pentecostal Assemblies of the World, Land Shark bicycles in Medford, DeSalvo Custom Cycles in Ashland, Actronix Inc. in Arkansas and Bensonwood Timber Frame Homes in New Hampshire. Mugs also were given as prizes and gifts for volunteers at the High Desert Omnium running event held last August in Bend and are occasionally made for weddings.
Recently, Dearing expanded his services to include mugs with a pet’s paw print. As the holidays approach, family members are sneaking dogs and cats into Dearing’s studio to get a paw imprint in time for a holiday gift, said Dearing.
“The paw-print mugs are taking on a life of their own,” he said.
Other plans for expansion include soup mugs, 12-ounce mugs, a new black color glaze and possibly other items to fit the hand.
“I will make anything that has a handle, maybe some sort of food vessel,” Dearing said. “The next obvious one is a beer stein, right?”
Dearing has received online mug orders from customers in Texas, Florida, New York, New Mexico and New Hampshire.
“With what I’m doing online, there’s a way to connect with a whole different audience,” Dearing said. There were 1,131 unique visitors on the Mug Revolution Web site from Oct. 15 to Nov. 15, he said.
“No way would 1,000 people see my mugs in a gallery,” he added.
While technology allows Dearing to connect his handmade products to a wide audience, he doesn’t want his work to be anonymous.
“I want somebody who buys the piece from me to feel connected to another human being,” he said.
Q: Why did you decide to name your business Mug Revolution?
A: It came from the fact that the pottery wheel spins around. I do a lot of cycling as well, and the revolution of the pedals and wheels may have had something to do with it.
Q: How does your product stand out in the midst of other companies that provide promotional items for businesses?
A: A lot of promotional items are not handmade, and a lot of companies may not realize that most of the promotional items they buy do not do what they want them to do, mainly to provide a customer a reminder of their company. However, there is a cost to consider. It’s easier on the budget dollar-wise for smaller companies to get promotional mugs from us for their key clients than it would be for a large company. Looking at it that way, promotional mugs from Mug Revolution are very inexpensive ways to promote your company. Of course, if you can afford it, a promotional iPod touch will definitely have your customer remembering you way better that a handmade mug.
Q: Is there a strong market for handmade pottery in Central Oregon?
A: There are a lot of wonderful art galleries in Central Oregon and there are fantastic potters locally serving that market. I would say that there is a strong market not only here but in other areas all over the country. Mug Revolution is targeting a very specific part of the handmade pottery market. By getting out of galleries and going online we want to offer a gallery-quality handmade mug at a price that is the same or lower than a person would pay in a gallery whether in Bend or New York City. As far as the market goes here or other locations, I think a lot of it has to do with disposable income. Higher incomes in a given area seem to be good for the creative and artistic culture of any that area.
Q: What are your advertising strategies?
A: Since Mug Revolution is an online-based company, we spend a lot of time finding compatible Web sites and trading links, as well as in learning how to optimize individual Web pages on the site so that our products can be found by what are called “organic searches.” That is, someone types in something like “handmade coffee mug” into Google, and they find Mug Revolution on the first page of search results. I figure that everyone drinks a hot beverage out of a mug and there must be a need for 200 million mugs at any given time in the U.S., so eventually my customers will find me. I get a lot of business from word of mouth. Another thing I do a lot of is to find good blog sites that review coffee-related products.
Q: Why do you sign the bottom of each mug?
A: Just a little thing to let people know that a real person interacted with a lump of clay and turned it into a usable object. I just want to make something that is truly handmade in an age of what seems to be an increasingly impersonal factory environment. I sign the mug as a way to silently say, “This is a handcrafted mug.”
Kimberly Bowker can be reached at 617-7815 or at kbowker@bendbulletin.com.
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