I’m a sucker for a good business revival story–especially ones that include elements of serendipity and happenstance (those are the best kind). One of my favorites is the Heath Ceramics story where design consultants Robin Petravic and Catherine Bailey just happened to pass the factory for the ceramics company (founded by pioneer ceramicist Edith Heath) while wandering through their new neighborhood. (They had just bought a house in Sausalito.) They decided to walk into the factory and learned that the company was in need of attention, mainly because Edith Heath was ill. They formed this fantastic dream to buy the company. And they did in 2003.
Another one of my favorites is the Ohio Knitting Mills story. A couple years ago, while sculptor Steven Tatar was looking for scrap metal near his studio (in an industrial area of Cleveland), he stumbled across the recently closed Ohio Knitting Mills factory, one of largest producers of knitwear in the US. By accident, he met the factory-owner’s son and discovered that the factory still had thousands of never-worn samples of sweaters, capes, vests, shirts, skirts, dresses, and jackets (produced from 1947 to 1974). With access to the vault of virgin vintage and a mission to honor the legacy of the mill, Tatar opened a shop in Brooklyn in 2006.
So I was pleased when my friend Susan Harkavy (a PR consultant) introduced me to her client’s product called the Teco Art Pottery Collection. Husband/wife partners Bryan and Lisa Kelly, along with Lisa’s brother Eric O’Malley, founded Prairie Arts in 2005 (in Wheaton, Illinois). After Eric had duplicated a Wright light grille for use in his home, it later occurred to the trio that they could create a business reviving decorative accessories designed by Wright. Starting with art screens, they soon added Teco pottery to their offerings in 2007. Teco was a line of vases produced by the American Terra Cotta & Ceramics Company from 1899-1920. The designers for the vases included Fritz Albert, William Mundie, and, of course, Frank Lloyd Wright.
It just goes to show that sometimes the best business ideas are literally in your hands or just around the corner. (Though I must note that the Ohio Knitting Mills store closed earlier this year…but hey, it did make a good story, right?)