From Civil Service to talented handmade ceramics making

Ceramics have become a vital part of decorative item as people strive to make their homes look appealing. Gloria Asare, the founder of a ceramic label, Glo Asa Universe Company Limited is one of such people and shares her story with Ama Amankwah Baafi




In a bid to satisfy her growing interest in using ceramics to make items that are useful and thoughtful, Madam Asare quit work as a civil servant. Not only does she design her own products at the Glo Asa workshop located in Kasoa but also does flowering.

She initially produced to sell on the local market until her brother suggested she tried exporting. That was when she registered her company in the year 2000, went through the export school and subsequently developed her company profile.

Ceramics are a class of materials made of non-metallic substances such as clay. Potters make ceramic items by molding, heating and then cooling to form objects such as pots.



THE BRAIN BEHIND THE BUSINESS

She told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS that it was challenging to start a business but she took inspiration from other business women who had made a career from doing things that they loved. “I loved designing so I actually wanted to go into clothing and boutique but I realised that when I started my house, anything I put there concerning flowers or pots people admired it. Sometimes I ended up selling them,” she recalled.

People encouraged her to go into ceramics so she decided to use the land she had acquired at Kasoa to work, due to disturbances from land guards. Now she has her own ceramic designs, also makes her own flowers and tries to introduce clients to what each pot can be used for, whether on the veranda, at the dining room, on the table, etc and employs 10 permanent staff but adds 20 more when she gets orders.

Doing her own business gives her the opportunity to work flexibly and hard hence she is able to concentrate on it without too many other responsibilities. “My designs are really different, the creative technique that I use to make them always interests people and I hope everyone who chooses one feels that they have something out of the ordinary.”

Her target market

Madam Asare has found her designs to appeal to people interested in owning things that really stand out. She has seasonal designs but sometimes repeats a design when people like them.

She chooses the events she attends carefully in order to find her target market and trade fairs in Nigeria are key events for her, as Nigeria is her biggest market. She also markets her products in Europe and America.

“I put a lot of energy into marketing my products. You can make beautiful things but no one can buy them if they do not know about them. Attending local and international fairs really make a difference to my marketing opportunities. People get in touch with me after such fairs to make orders.”

She also recognised that Europe and America have specific colour trend for each year and so she takes it into consideration when making ceramics, particularly when painting the ceramic. For such markets, she also decorates her ceramics with beads.

Time used in producing depends on the pot size and design. She said she washes the clay, mould it into ball to get it starchy, after which she starts moulding. It should also be allowed to dry well to ensure durability before designing starts or else they begin to crack.

She dismissed claims that ceramics are expensive to be purchased for interior decoration, but said the cost varies depending on the quality and size. According to her, there are many ways of making a selection of ceramic pots and vases, depending on the wall paint colour; size of the room; and the design on the vase may also match with the type of flowers placed in it.

However, she cautioned that if one wishes to place ceramic pots in the garden, then the quality of the pots would certainly matter because these pots need to be highly durable and weather resistant.



SUCCESSES AND CHALLENGES

Though she has no awards yet, she is happy she has made significant investments. She now lives in her own house at a good location. Her products are highly appreciated outside Ghana and she has moved all the way to far away Calabar in Nigeria to market her products and can also be found on Google map.

Breakage is her major challenge. Cumbersome border controls make it difficult for her to honour an order. “Transporting my products within West Africa is difficult. At each point they offload all goods on board and because they not professionals, most of my products due to its delicate nature get broken. In fact, it is painful to lose a pot,” she complained.

Access to credit facilities is also difficult. She told the GRAPHIC BUSINESS she has not trained many Ghanaians yet because most of the youth see ceramic making as a difficult venture and so prefer flower arrangement. Yet, people in countries like Nigeria show interest to the extent that some non-governmental organisations contract her to teach the youth. Even at the recent trade fair in Lagos, five people approached her to showing interest to follow her to Ghana to train in ceramics.

She believes the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) is doing so much to support people in the creative sector, unlike their fellows in other countries who do not have that opportunity to get their goods freighted to any fair destination and stands secured for them.

Periodically, she undertakes training programmes to upgrade her skills and knowledge.



FUTURE PLANS

She hopes to put up an ultra modern showroom on her eight plots of land at Kasoa, where one can find anything ceramic. Above all, she will be working hard to move her business forward and hope to enjoy the challenges this will bring. She also has plans to further her education.

Hobbies

She enjoys cooking good food, taking good wine and having people around to converse with. She also loves to play lap top games.

Her advice to other women who aim to start their own businesses

She advised that they should be organised, work out their business plan before they begin, although things never go entirely to plan, they need to have things to aim for in order to succeed.

“There are poorly designed, poorly crafted, and unoriginal products in the market. If you want to create a product that has value, there are no shortcuts. So do not rush it. Take your time to make something original and you will feel rewarded even before your stuff starts selling,” she said. GB