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West Company provides free business consulting and training
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Business Leaders Luncheons

West Company hosts Business Leaders Luncheons in Fort Bragg and Ukiah - featuring guest speaker presentations of interest to local businesses.

 

Jan Hoyman and Doug Browe launched the Hoyman-Browe Studio in 1984, knowing why they wanted to take their pottery making craft into a business. They wanted to be the village potters and within that concept to create place: a place that would hire locally; a place that would show young people that there is a different way to do a life; a place that would make a contribution to community that could be seen; a place that would keep the community alive.

 

And so, early in the journey, they transformed the façade of the old dairy on Ukiah’s Main Street with stucco, pottery, roses and wisteria. Suddenly a shabby part of the town had a beautiful place right in the middle of the block. They welcomed young people – more than 100 so far from as far away as Europe and as nearby as Redwood Valley – to become apprentices, gaining the experience of working in a studio. They hired workability students who would learn job skills and transition into the workplace. They established the Holiday Open Studio, an event that the Mendocino County community looks forward to every year. They diversified their base of operations to include wholesale, retail, shows, fairs, restaurants, and commissions for architectural installations. 

 

Key to the Hoyman-Browe Studio earthenware pottery is its relationship with food and the table and friends around the table. Their tableware graces family kitchens and professional dining rooms well beyond Main Street Ukiah, including The French Laundry restaurant in Yountville.  The original “Flower Garden” pattern of floral abundance was soon joined by ‘Talmage” design of pears and grapes. They are now just two of fourteen patterns featuring local flora and fauna. The line includes dinnerware, service pieces and complementary lamp bases, pitchers, vases, and planters.  Special orders are taken for garden walls, table tops and sinks.

 

Becoming the village potters, though not easy, came somewhat naturally to Doug and Jan.  What did not come as naturally was getting their financial matters out of the shoebox and into the world of accounting.  For that, they worked with West Company which they describe as a community resource for many local businesses.  “West Company helps to create economic power, establishing and growing locally owned businesses that circulate the dollars within the community we live in”, Doug declares.

 

According to Jan, the best and the hardest part of running a business is one in the same. “You are there doing your dream and you own it all and can’t get away from it”. The Ukiah community is all the better for the dreams of Doug and Jan, and the community has recognized that by awarding them the 2008 City of Ukiah Lifetime Achievement in the Arts. Twenty-four years after launch, the Hoyman-Browe Studio is proof of the economic and social power of local business owners who invest in the community.  Jan operates the studio, now co-housed with Grace’s on Main, a creative emporium of unique natural fiber, non-sweatshop produced clothing and jewelry, Hoyman-Browe earthenware, and Doug’s sculptural ceramics.  In 2007, Doug accepted the offer to become Head of the Mendocino College Ceramics Department.  Both Doug and Jan continue to make pottery and to cheer on the emergence of new studios and art galleries in Ukiah.  Village potters, indeed!