Patricia's Pots is located in Brighton, Michigan. We have been decorating and marketing flower pots, tin-ware, and unique terra cotta pieces since 1997.

If you prefer to order the old-fashioned way, give me a call on the phone at: 810-225-8233.

For more information about us, (if you're interested), read the article below from the Michigan Retailer's Association Newsletter and web site.

MICHIGAN RETAILER'S FEATURED  INTERNET MERCHANT

October 2000

Patricia Ann Petrat –Trish to her friends and family, has crafted a full-time business out of painting and decorating original designs, on terracotta flower pots.

Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Trish was always interested in art as a student at school and craft projects at home. Her mother ran a neighborhood craft club from their home in Detroit.  Neighborhood children could bring common household items to the club, where they would craft them into useful, decorative items. Trish also looked forward to the monthly craft kits that arrived by mail; a subscription her mother purchased for her during her early teen years.

In fact, her passion for terracotta started four years ago with a craft kit for a decoupage flowerpot that she and her daughter purchased through a magazine. Filling requests for similar pots mushroomed into a full-time job.

"My sister wanted a flower pot, and then her boss wanted one, and it just took-off from there," she said.

Trish now participates in 15 to 18 craft shows per year in southeast Michigan and features more than 100 products on her web site. She has turned flowerpots into candleholders, bird baths and Christmas ornaments.

She produces her beautiful floral designs in a tiny studio - actually half of her laundry room - at her home in a quiet subdivision just outside Brighton. The room is decorated with photographs of her children and prints of favorite art by van Gogh and Mary Engelbreit.

It takes approximately half an hour to create a finished pot, plus drying time in between the various coats of paint. Trish has made as many as 90 to 100 pots in a week, "but I don’t recommend it," she said.

Trish’s daughter, also named Patricia, created the original drawings for decoupage art used on some of the flowerpots. Trish’s son, Michael, also assists occasionally with craft projects that involve woodworking.

Control over her schedule is the biggest advantage of running her own business, Trish said. "It's important for me to be here when my son comes home from school, and this business allows me to do that," she said.

Many of the customers on her web site hail from the East Coast. Other visitors, closer to home, search her out at craft shows and buy in person.

One development surprised her: Several gift stores in other states found her site and asked to buy pots to sell at their stores. Trish now makes a selection of her wares available at wholesale.

Trish credits her success on the Internet and at craft shows to her attention to common-sense marketing details that many other crafters overlook. The background in sales and marketing that she and her husband gained in previous jobs has helped.

For instance, she puts her business name and phone number on every piece of pottery she sells. It sounds obvious, but she's seen vendors who don’t provide a way to contact them on the information they give out with a purchase.

That one step has brought her plenty of repeat orders and business from people who received her products as a gift. For Trish, the 50 pots one woman bought as favors for a bridal shower are "50 potential sales leads going out."

The same holds true with promoting her Internet site. Trish puts her web site address on everything - her business cards, her bags, show schedule, the care sheet she includes with every sale, the thank-you cards she sends with a shipped order. She continually updates her listing on popular search engines.

"Advertising your web site is so easy. It's virtually cost-free to incorporate your web site address on the materials you are already using. It's a very basic form of marketing, but people don't think about it," she said.

Trish said she'll keep up her homegrown business as long as it's still rewarding and fun. Nothing irks her more than being stuck at a craft show next to a burned-out, jaded crafter who complains about everything from the weather to the show's organizers.

"If you're not passionate about it, you shouldn't do it," she said.

by Rachel Whitaker for Michigan Retailer Magazine

• Patricia's Pots transforms ordinary terra cotta flower pots into unique, useful decorative home and work place accessories.
• Our hand painted flower pots are carefully crafted one at a time!
• The inside of all our flower pots, are glazed and fired. With proper care, your flower pot will last for many years. You can plant directly into our flower pots without a liner.
• On the outside, all our pots are sanded, painted, decorated and then sealed with an acrylic sealer for protection and longer life. The finish on our product is superior.
• How do we decorate them? Some of our designs are created with a technique called block printing. We use a combination of patterns we cut ourselves and some that are pre-cut. Our pre-cut blocks are by Plaid. An acrylic glaze is brushed onto the foam block, and then pressed onto the surface of the pot. The transparent quality of the glaze is similar in appearance to a watercolor painting. Detail work is then done by hand to add depth.
• Our pots are decorated all around, not just on one side.
• The flower pots are also signed, and numbered.
• Each pot is delivered with complete care instructions and suggested uses.

If you are at a loss for a unique gift, Patricia's Pots are great for that as well! Our 4" candle, available in many patterns, tied with a chiffon ribbon, makes an especially nice gift at a very affordable $12.00!

Also a super value at $23.00, (for anyone that likes to dig in the dirt), our Gardener's Diggin' in the Dirt Gift Pot includes; all natural herbal soap, a nail brush and other gardening items, all in a beautifully decorated flower pot, tied with a bow, ready to give! For details and to order these, and other gift items, be sure to visit our Gift Pots and Candles page.

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Copyright © 1997-2008 - Patricia Petrat - Patricia's Pots - All rights reserved.