Letters from the workshop

We send a newsletter. It is called Letters from the workshop. It goes out at most once a month, often less, and is the only thing we will email you unless you have placed an order or asked us a question. This is a short note on what’s in it and why we don’t send more.

What goes in a Letter

Three things, usually. One — what we drew that month. Either the new mug going up on the shop, or a sketch from a longer commission, with a paragraph on what we were trying to get right. Two — what we read or looked at. A book, an exhibition, an Admiralty chart we’d not seen before, a working boat we sat near at the harbour. Three — what’s next. The next mug going on the press, the next edition closing, the next thing we’re trying to learn how to draw.

No discounts. No "FLASH SALE — 24 HOURS ONLY." Occasionally — perhaps twice a year — a Letter will mention that there’s a discount code for newsletter subscribers, valid for a few weeks, no countdown clock. That is the entirety of the commercial pitch.

What doesn’t go in

Anything we’d be embarrassed to write under our own name. No "5 ways to use your mug this autumn." No SEO-optimised filler. No links to listicles. We treat the newsletter as the long form of the workshop conversation, not as a marketing channel that happens to be email-shaped.

What we do with your address

It sits in our mailing tool. We do not sell it. We do not rent it. We do not pass it to a third party other than the email-sending platform we use to send the letter. You can unsubscribe with one click at the bottom of any Letter, and we'd rather you did that than stay subscribed out of politeness. The whole point of a small newsletter is that the people on it actually want it.