All Fired Up!

04/15/2026

We are about to enter a new chapter in our lives as retirement is looming in the near future.
While we would have loved to continue on indefinitely, age and health issues have crept up and we are faced with the inevitable realization that our time has come.

We will continue on for a few more months to fill our current orders that are already in house, but unfortunately will not be able to take on any additional orders.
Having said that, there is still an outside possibility that the switchplate part of the business will continue on in some fashion under new ownership, but details have not been finalized.

Wishing you all the best, and thanks for 42 years!
All Fired Up!

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01/20/2023

Quite a number of years ago…
My brother-in-law Alf had absentmindedly doodled a little cat. Unbeknownst to him, I took that doodle, translated it into a switch plate design, glazed it and then fired it.
“Alf’s Cat” we called it. And then I took that one-off sample to the craft show and put it out for sale.
As it turns out, Crosby, Stills and Nash were in town for some concerts and David Crosby and his family came to that craft show and bought the Alf’s Cat switch plate.
Now that we had a good story to tell, we just had to officially add it to the catalogue!
R.I.P. David Crosby

06/10/2022

The supply chain fiasco has hit pretty much everyone, including us.
Clay. Glazes. Raw materials. Packaging. Clock parts.
Everything takes forever to get. And everything is more expensive when we can get it.
So, sorry about this, but we are forced to increase prices across the board, for the first time in about five years. Still less than the rate of inflation.
Expect to pay $2-$5 more per item at your local retailer by this summer.

02/19/2022

For the first time in 20 + years, we’re not at the wholesale show in Philadelphia (not counting last year when it was cancelled!)

But we’re still open and still accepting orders…albeit with about a sixty day lead time since we’ve never been busier!
Who knew that a pandemic would help our sales?🤔

10/24/2021

Hey! Just realized that today is the first time I haven’t been in the shop since August 23.
Not really a day off, since I had to mow the lawn!
Still, didn’t have to unload or load a kiln, so there’s that.

10/22/2021

This week's shipment: Two skids. Seventy-two boxes. 1560 lbs.
And that was just orders from July!
Now, on to August.

05/12/2021

Five months later...we are still swamped with orders. What the hell is going on?

We used to be able to ship orders in 2-4 weeks. Now it’s 6-8 weeks.

And sometime in the next few months we have to give the staff some vacation time. And maybe even take a few days off ourselves!
And then what will be the shipping time?

01/03/2021

Okay, here’s the plan:
We take a couple of weeks off to recharge, come back and start to build inventory for when it gets busy again.

Here’s where that plan went awry: we’re already inundated with orders and we haven’t even come back yet!

12/22/2020

We’re now closed for the holidays, a welcome break after a crazy, and surprisingly busy, year!

Stay safe everyone. And have a merry Christmas🎅🏻 and a happy new year🎉

07/17/2020

Sent to us by a customer.
How fabulous is this?!

06/25/2020

A sad day for the AFU team as one of our co-founders, Teresa Beal (left), has officially retired as of today, after 37 years.
Now it’s just Lynne Carson (right) who remains from the original group of owners.