Dear Customer,

In anticipation of this year's Yunomi Invitational, we wanted to touch base and let you know of some important changes to the show this year. If, after reading this email you still have questions about the new procedure, please feel free to call us here at the gallery.

This year'sInvitational is bigger and better than ever, with more than 175 artists showing 3-5 cups each. Unlike years past, this time sales will be ONLINE ONLY, with no transactions occurring in our brick and mortar store.

The best way to prepare yourself for this change is to create or update your account with www.akardesign.com . What is a fast and easy process during a regular day will waste valuable time in the opening minutes of the show on March 28. If you need any assistance with this process again, please call the gallery.

When you visit the show page, you will also be greeted with a new format. Unlike past years, where all the artists appear on one very long page, this year one page will contain 30 artists. There will be an option to go to the "next page" appearing after the 30th artist. As always, an alphabet will appear at the top of each page, so you may skip directly to an artist by clicking the first letter of their last name.

Here's a helpful shopping hint: If there is an artist that you know you are interested in you can go directly to his/her artist page, rather than the Yunomi Show page. For example, if you really want a cup by Bob Briscoe, bring up his artist page in your browser (the easiest way to do this is by searching on Briscoe). At 10AM CST, refresh your browser and Bob's cups will be there. We also have some artists who submitted more than 5 cups. These 'extras' will automatically appear on both the artist page, and on the New Work page.

Finally, we need to announce an increase in our shipping costs. As gas prices have continued to rise, the cost of everything involved in getting pieces to our customers has also risen. Beginning on March 12, we will be increasing our minimum shipping charge to $8. Our general shipping charge will remain 10% of the purchase. We apologize for any inconvenience, but after holding the minimum at $6 for the last 5 years, we see no other alternative than this new increase.

We are very much looking forward to the Yunomi Invitational 2008, and we hope you are too.

Sincerely - AKAR