Zoo Ceramics has taken part in many trade shows over the last twenty years, from Birmingham International to Harrogate Home and Gift, the British Craft Trade Show, London Top Draw and the Torquay and Exeter Select shows.  As a result we have built up an extensive list of stockists in the United Kingdom and Europe and over those years have supplied hundreds of galleries and shops with our work.

Previously our trade show orders have kept us very busy and each show would generate six months to a years worth of work.  Our 2010 Harrogate Trade Show was way down on a normal year, but we had picked up several large orders to keep us busy.  Fortunately we were still selling lots of work at our own gallery, at craft shows and exhibitions and were being swamped with requests to join our pottery classes and to do corporate functions.

So the late summer of 2010 saw us continuing work on our DIY projects and busy making stock for our Harrogate orders and the Lincoln Christmas Market in December.  Then disaster struck and like the old saying goes it never rains but it pours and it started tipping bucket loads on us.

Disaster No1 - November 2010 -  three of our biggests orders from Harrogate cancelled at the same time due to the recession.

Disaster No 2  - December 2010 - It started to snow and it didn't stop.  When it got to two foot high, the whole of the United Kingdom ground to a halt and one of the biggest set backs for Lincolnshire was the cancellation of the Lincoln Christmas Market.  For those of you that do not know, this event is one of the biggest Christmas Markets in Europe and attracts over a quarter of a million visitors and we devote a large amount of our production time creating stock for this show.

Disaster No 3  - January 2011 - British Telecom engineers had erected a new communication pole outside our property and had inadvertently smashed through our sewerage pipe connection; resulting in a garden full of well, very bad stuff!  So we were left without a functioning toilet and washing facilities and a huge legal case that dragged on for a year, before they finally settled in our favour.  So far no official from British Telecom has given us an apology for taking up a year of our time. Thanks Guys!

So what do you do when you have a garden full of crap, a gallery full of building materials, because the snow had ground all building work to a halt and a workshop full of cancelled stock?