In February of 1998 our lives were changed forever by El Niño. Eye of the Day was in its infancy, just two and a half years old and we became a statistic as the worst damaged business in Santa Barbara County. The federal government declared a disaster area and we lost nearly everything. But…what we didn’t know was that our journey was about to take us on a brilliant detour.

From its inception, the Eye of the Day plan was to sell pottery, fountains, statuary and other garden products. There were a lot of nurseries but not many focusing on accouterments for the garden. We began by selling wine barrel planters, Mexican pottery, American made concrete fountains, benches, bird baths and lots of colorful pots. At Christmas we sold only the Noble Fir. But then the forces of nature randomly decided to take us out.

There is a saying that when a door closes a window opens; I was looking for a window and it turned out to be FEMA. With a new FEMA loan and a lot of help from friends, Eye of the Day quickly found a new home in a bigger market, picked ourselves up off the very wet pavement and began again.

After we opened our doors in our new (and current) location in the small beach town of Carpinteria, we sensed a great opportunity to grow in a way that the pre-disaster Eye of the Day would not have been able to fulfill. Our business model was limited and we needed to think bigger, so we decided that the gift shows in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Atlanta just didn’t provide what we needed anymore. It makes me laugh when I remember how quickly my wife, Suzi, agreed that we needed to go to Paris and check out the gift show there. We didn’t realize at the time just how prescient we were.

The first day of the show was the ultimate shopping experience but only if you were buying at least ten of everything. Included was an area for outdoor garden decor and when we walked into Francesco del Re’s booth, I knew I had found something special:  the finest handmade terracotta pottery on planet Earth. His containers were classics and many were models of forms and shapes still in service after hundreds of years, including pots or “vasi”, urns and amphorae adorning villas and palaces throughout Europe. Francesco’s display screamed CLASSIC ITALIAN TERRACOTTA to me. I vowed right then that Eye of the Day would sell Francesco del Re, just as soon as I figured out how I could afford a container.

The following year we returned to Europe, this time to Italy. Something drives me to wander and explore and I knew Francesco del Re was somewhere around Florence and I knew I would find him. I scoured the small, famous hill town of Impruneta, walking into some fabulous artisan workshops. No one knew who and where FDR was, but I learned later that in Italy, few are willing to promote someone else and everyone in that famous commune was challenged by him. The hunt was on. I didn’t travel in order to give up. It was hard work, but over our excellent lunch in Greve, the proprietor of the restaurant told me how to find the factory. By the way, we selected the restaurant for lunch because there was a pair of classic Francesco del Re Vaso Lessona urns at the front door.

I have returned to the FDR factory every year for the last sixteen years. This May I flew there for three days to help load a forty-foot container and to see Signora Elettra Brancollini, Francesco’s partner and sculptor. Sadly, our friend Signore del Re passed away two years ago, but his classics will live on for centuries in our gardens.

A Buyer’s Experience in Greece, Italy and France

Traveling from Rome to Athens is not at all stressful – fifteen minutes from the hotel to the airport, an easy check-in and a flight just a bit longer than Los Angeles to San Francisco.  The things that Rome and Athens share are lots of cars, noise, pollution and graffiti.  But they also share great food, tons of visual stimulation, and great history lessons with every step you take.

 I just want to walk by the Foro Romano time and time again or around the Plaka and look up at the Acropolis, especially at night.  Both cities look better at night when they light their past and allow the present to be hidden by darkness.  In Rome,  you walk by shop windows with merchandise you would never turn your head for at home, but the Italians really know how to dress a window.  And don’t even get me started on the great artichokes in Rome or the feta and yogurt in Greece.

As the buyer for Eye of the Day – Garden Design Center, taking care of business is quite an adventure. For three days we drove from suburb to suburb outside the center of Athens visiting shops, reclamation yards and places that you couldn’t say were either, looking for old garden accessories and singular items to be made into fountains.  We decided to call off our visit to the gypsy camp in Athens when we learned that it was too dangerous.  I know when to listen to good advice.  We did meet with the gypsy the next morning  in the center of the city and we bought most of his old copper pots for a bargain price.  Prices aren’t as low as I would like, but the Greeks and Italians are having a hard time dealing with their new economic reality.  One sector of business that seems to be booming is the spray paint business.  My sidekick, Joe Kalina has visited Athens dozens of times over the last thirty years and said sadly “It looks like a war zone these days”.

Now it is our job to load the truck onto the ferry for an overnight cruise to Ancona, Italy, from which we will drive to the Rocco factory in Siena and load the fifty exquisite old and antique Pithari that Kostas has found for us over the last two years.  Then we will be back in Rome the next day on our way to Paris for the Maison et Objet to see our French vendors and maybe find something new. The new items we are buying are expected back in United States in time for our 14th Annual “Getting Ready for Spring” sale which features major discounts on nearly every line and runs for almost a whole month from Feb. 13th to March 17th.