Art Materials Retailer Spring 2018 by Fahy-Williams Publishing

The Digimag That Connects You to the Art Supply Industry

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Spring 2018

Living the

For People Who Sell Art Supplies

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Over the past 30 years, the Stigile family grew Quality Art Supply into a busy wholesale/retail business that operates in a giant warehouse

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e r s p e c t i v e

by Kevin Fahy

Higher Love

hen we took over the publication of this magazine in 1998, one of the decisions I needed to make was what to do with this space. I decided that I would write this column myself, much as I do for a couple of the other magazines that we publish. I’m not an artist, but I have worked in and around specialty retail for the past 40 years, so there were plenty of topics I could discuss that have some relevance to this industry. There were also topics that had no direct bearing on the business but were interesting to me, and that I thought would be of some interest to our readers. One of those was the high-end auction of paintings by Sotheby’s, Christie’s, et al., and what it said about art, culture, and commerce. Partly, of course, it was just the mind-boggling numbers. How could something that Picasso created in one day be worth a hundred million dollars? How could anything be worth that much? There was also the provenance of masterworks, which is often an integral part of their value. I love a good story, and great paintings seem to come with fascinating stories about the famous, infamous, or mysterious figures who had owned them, and how the artwork had come to change hands over the years. The more interesting facet to me, though, was the issue that is now called “branding,” which means that the market value of a painting

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has little to do with intrinsic merit and everything to do with name recognition. If someone in Arizona finds a paint-spattered canvas in his neighbor’s garage that resembles a Jackson Pollock, as happened last summer, it sets off an intense debate among forensic experts, art historians, critics and amateur sleuths about the authorship of the work. In the case of that painting, detectives discovered that the owner of the garage had long ago cleaned out the estate of his half-sister, a woman who had actually been friends with Pollock. It is now considered genuine, but the jury is still out on a much larger

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Pollock-like painting that turned up in a California garage sale a few years ago. That piece could be worth $50 million, or the $5 that somebody paid for it. The fact that it’s the same painting whether Pollock painted it or not apparently matters to exactly no one. At any rate, I stopped writing about the sale of masterworks because I ran out of things to say, and I think we all became numb to the prices. Once a number is unimaginable, it doesn’t really matter if you double it. So I hadn’t paid much attention to art auctions for the past decade or so, until a headline in The New York Times caught my

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attention this past November 15th. “Leonardo da Vinci Painting Sells for $450.3 Million, Shattering Auctions Highs.” Wait, what? continued on page 8

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Spring 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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For People Who Sell Art Supplies

Spring 2018 Volume 21 No.1

As the World Turns It’s back to Texas for Art Materials World. The annual tradeshow will be held in Dallas from Sunday, March 4 through Tuesday, March 6

Perspective

Fully Loaded

After coloring books, What’s Next?

Artful Behavior

Retailers Recommend Fabulous Products

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32 40 43 46 4

Higher Love by Kevin Fahy

The wide selection of products for sale in Quality Art Supply’s warehouse-style store thrills artists and teachers alike.

Profit-generating fads come and go fast, so retailers must always be on the lookout for what’s next. Here are two trends to watch.

Answering the question, “What are artists creating with your products?” are Legion Paper and ACTÍVA.

Identifying and reaching key audiences is the key to successful social media marketing. Using hashtags in your posts can help. Here are some tips.

New & True Products Industry News Business Notes Index of Advertisers

ArtMaterialsRetailer.com • Spring 2018

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A brand of Fahy-Williams Publishing Inc.

PUBLISHER J. Kevin Fahy kfahy@fwpi.com ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Tim Braden tbraden@fwpi.com

MARKETING DIRECTOR Amy Colburn amy@fwpi.com

Art Materials Retailer is celebrating its 20th year in print. Published quarterly, it is the only magazine designed specifically for fine-art supply retailers. Over the years, the brand has evolved to meet the changing needs of the industry and today, AMR presents interviews, how-to articles, and product information digitally and in print to its readers. At the same time, it provides an effective selection of advertising opportunities to art-product manufacturers and distributors.

SUBSCRIPTIONS Tricia McKenna trish@fwpi.com

ADVERTISING SALES Rhonda Trainor rhonda@fwpi.com

EDITORIAL Tina Manzer Director tmanzer@fwpi.com

E-NEWLETTER & ONLINE ADVERTISING Rick Kauder rkauder@fwpi.com

Rebecca Carlson Assistant Editor rebecca@fwpi.com

ABOUT FAHY-WILLIAMS Begun in 1984 with the acquisition of Educational Dealer magazine, Fahy-Williams publishes B-to-B magazines, enewsletters, directories and other promotional materials for a variety of trade associations and three overlapping retail markets – specialty toys, educational resources, and fine-art supplies. The company also produces two consumer publications: Life in the Finger Lakes, a regional lifestyle magazine, and The Decorative Painter, a how-to art & craft publication.

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2018 MAGAZINE DEADLINES

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March 30

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July 6

Buyers’ Guide

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“Perspective” from page 3

When I left off reading and writing about these things, the highest valuations were well into nine figures, but half a billion represents a whole new level of crazy. The previous record was $179 million, which was set by Christie’s in May 2015, for Picasso’s “Women of Algiers.” At first glance the number just didn’t make sense to me, especially considering that the big money in recent times has gone more toward French Impressionists and Abstract Expressionists than Renaissance masters. As I learned the details about “Salvator Mundi,” it was even more puzzling. First of all, we’re not at all certain that Leonardo painted it. As recently as 2005, it was sold at an estate sale for less than $10,000, because it was considered to be merely a copy of a lost Leonardo. Although a number of experts have since become convinced that it is a genuine work of the master, there are also some who believe it is not. Second, it’s in bad shape. It was painted on wood, which over the centuries has cracked and roughened. Efforts to clean and restore it have included some crude overpainting, and parts of the composition may differ from Leonardo’s creation, assuming he

painted it in the first place. Finally, it’s just not that good. Although Christie’s shamelessly marketed it as “the male Mona Lisa,” it lacks most of the qualities that have made that icon so popular. In spite of some appealing details, critics have generally found the painting to be rather dull, lifeless and uninspiring. So how does all that add up to half a billion? Well, if authentic, it is the only

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known work of da Vinci to be privately owned in the entire world, which made me wonder who would value that distinction so highly. The answer made the whole business seem stranger by half. A few days after the auction, press reports identified the buyer as a member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Bader. Because Bader himself

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“Perspective” from page 8

he was acting on behalf of his close friend, Crown Prince Mohammed. That would be a little awkward, because the crown prince is in the middle of what is supposed to be a crackdown on self-enrichment by the royal family. It later came out that Bader was actually an intermediary for the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism, which will exhibit the painting at the new Louvre Abu Dhabi.

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So “Salvator Mundi” will not be in private hands after all, but there is a great irony in its disposition. The painting is a portrait of Jesus, which will now be displayed at the cultural heart of the Arab world. Traditional Muslims believe that artworks should not depict human beings, and that it is blasphemous to depict a prophet. Islam considers Jesus to have been a prophet. I don’t know how the Louvre Abu Dhabi will address those issues, but I’m guessing that it won’t have much effect on most of us in this industry. Nonetheless, I do think that the sale of “Salvator Mundi” matters. I know it sounds silly, but the enormous valuation of paintings, from both old and modern masters, serves not only to validate the importance of fine art, but to encourage more people to learn to paint. The odds against any one of those people getting rich from selling his or her work are astronomical, but so are the odds of winning the lottery. The bigger the jackpot, though, the more people play. A better analogy might be sports. Millions of kids play basketball, for instance, mostly because it’s a great game. They don’t play because NBA stars are rich and famous, but neither are they living in a vacuum. When Steph Curry signs a $200 million contract, do you suppose that participation in the sport goes up? It does indeed.

latest FOR PEOPLE WHO SELL ART SUPPLIES 10

You can e-mail Kevin at kfahy@fwpi.com.

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FULLY

LOADED by Maria Bucci

n 1981, when Kira Stigile was a little girl, she used to climb up on a bucket to watch her mother Larene cut and stretch canvas. Larene’s little business in the family’s garage grew over the years to become Quality Art Supply Inc., a wholesale and retail business based in Garden City, Idaho, just north of Boise. Today, Kira is the boss. She “officially” joined the business 17 years ago, when she graduated from high school; just a year after the family lost Larene to leukemia. “We went through a difficult time then, but we had to pull ourselves together,” she says. “I had a lot to learn.” She managed to earn an Associate’s degree in accounting and took some art classes at the local community college, but the most valuable lessons came from her parents and from growing up in the business. Kira recalls the time her mother handed her a stack of software manuals and said, “Figure this out and tell me what I need to buy.”

Teachers “My mother and grandmother taught oil-painting classes, but they were frustrated with the quality of the pre-stretched artist canvases that were available at the time,” explains Kira. “My mother made her own, and sold them to her students and to other instructors around Boise.” By 1985, Quality Art was incorporated and Kira’s mother moved the business into a building owned by her husband Brett. She proved right away that she was a savvy businesswoman. “Her business was so successful that my dad sold his PVC pipe factory and went into business with her,” notes Kira. Together, Brett and Larene

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they can log in at any time to review specials, the status of an order, or to communicate with us.”

Word Travels Fast

fine-tuned and grew Quality Art’s manufacturing capacity, and later started wholesaling product to art stores, instructors, and galleries throughout the West. They focused on quality fine-art supplies. “The summer months could be very slow,” Kira remembers. “My grandmother was teaching in one of the local schools and she told my mom that most of the purchasing of school supplies was done in the summer.” Seeing an opportunity, the Stigiles built an inventory of art & craft products that would appeal to teachers and produced a catalog. Each spring, Kira’s grandfather and father called on schools and day-care centers across the region to show them that catalog. Quality Art quickly became known as a leading distributor of school art & craft supplies, like construction paper, pompoms, chenille stems, popsicle sticks and scissors. “That was important to us because it helped fill those gaps in the calendar when business was slower,” says Kira. “It offered a consistent source of revenue and kept us from having to lay off employees.” Recently, automation has made fulfillment more efficient. Orders are entered into the computer, and then they’re processed, pulled, and scanned as they go into a box or onto a pallet. Packing lists are generated and everything is processed through a streamlined shipping department. The school business remains important to Quality Art’s bottom line despite cuts to school arts-program budgets and changes in the way schools purchase supplies. The store’s reach has expanded beyond Idaho to school districts around the country, but “percent dollar wise, this portion of the business is not as big as it used to be for us, even though our customer base has grown each year,” reports Kira. To generate new school business, Quality Art offers workshops for teachers in a school district to show them new products or techniques. They continue to print a catalog for that market, but Kira relies more and more on the business’s website to showcase products. The site was completely redeveloped last year and as Kira reports, “It’s great. We can add or remove products at any time and update pricing. Each customer can create an account;

that a customer wants a special order of one tube of paint, we will ship that one tube of paint. It’s a level of customer service that we remain committed to. Our mission is to support small, local retailers. The Stigiles also cultivated relationships with art teachers, including Bob Ross instructors. “We still ship a lot of product into RV parks where snowbirds and retirees are learning to paint,” reports Kira. “It’s not uncommon for us to drop-ship a full pallet of canvases, paints, brushes, and other supplies into RV parks in Arizona and Florida, especially in the winter months.”

Managing Growth When Larene got sick, the business was in the middle of a growth spurt. Brett had just built a new 20,000-square-foot building for it, so when Kira’s younger sister Sheena graduated from high school, she also came on board. After many years, she left to start a family and a craft blog called The Keeper of the Cheerios Brett is semiretired now and lives in Hawaii. He returns to Idaho to help out when he’s needed, and still makes sales calls. “All the customers know my dad and I rely on him a lot.” Kira also relies on the expertise of a few dedicated employees. “We currently have 11 full-time people on the payroll. I make an effort to hire for the long term. Our manager Kathy Earnhart has worked for us for 15 years and handles everything when I cannot. She is my troubleshooter. Another employee, Yvonne Haroldson, who has been with us for 10 years, processes the majority of customer orders. She is the person most people talk to when they call.” Some employees have an art background, but many do not. “We make sure they are all familiar with the products we continued on page 16

Sales in-store have been rising, especially to teachers and daycare providers who buy in bulk, and even to individuals who come in off the street.

Spreading the word was important to Quality Art’s success and in many cases, its customers were the best evangelists. “Artists tend to hop around to different galleries and studios, and they tell people about the products they use and where to get them,” says Kira. Every Stigile family vacation included a visit to potential customers. “If we drove through a town in a nearby state and spotted an art supply store or an RV park, we’d stop in. My parents would explain who we were and show them what our business had to offer,” remembers Kira. Their informal networking paid off. Today, Quality Art serves hundreds of customers throughout the country who operate mom-and-pop businesses; mostly galleries and studios that have small retail operations. “Many of them are artists who sell to their students. This is a built-in customer base for us,” she explains.” “Most distributors will only sell entire packages to retail operators, but we’re unique – if one of our retailers calls to say

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stock, and with the entire operation really, so they can jump in as needed. Everyone wears a lot of hats. Whoever is pulling orders, for instance, can also box them up. When shipments come in, everyone helps to check in the products.” Today, Quality Art and its product mix are evolving. Although it still has capacity on-site to manufacture art canvases for instance, it does not. “We listen to our customers,” says Kira. “They let us know what the trends are and how we can fill their needs.” A large portion of sales comes from ready-made frames. “We are probably one of the largest suppliers of ready-made frames in the West,” says Kira. Gallery size and frames for plein air artists are the most popular. The frame market is not a new one for Quality Art. Kira’s parents used to drive to the factories in Mexico and haul back as much stock as they could fit into their fifth-wheel trailer.

The business operates in a 20,000-square-foot warehouse. “We have been dealing with the same company in Mexico for more than 20 years,” she adds. “They supply most of our standard stock items, but we also get product from China; mostly composite material rather than wood.”

Something For Everyone Last year, traditional retail sales – brick-and-mortar and online combined – accounted for about 30 percent of Quality Art’s total revenue, and in-store sales continue to grow. Merchandising displays take up more floor space than ever before, and another register was added. “We’ve

built a regional reputation among the kinds of customers who buy in bulk, like teachers and daycare providers, but we also have individual rack items for customers who come in off the street,” explains Kira. “Some of our regular customers call us ‘the Costco of art supplies.’” To help generate sales among local artists, art classes for adults are offered two or three times a week in the building’s small classroom. “Nationally known artists have lead some of our classes, including Bill Blackman [oil painter, “Seascape Art”] and Gary Jenkins [“The Beauty of Oil Painting” television series],” states Kira. The Stigiles have supported community art projects and festivals for years as participants, sponsors, and donors. Boise has a growing urban art movement as evidenced by the murals in Freak Alley downtown, the largest outdoor gallery in the Northwest; the strong watercolor scene, and a variety of art and culture festivals. Each month the downtown galleries host an evening open house that pulls people in from around the area. “We work with a lot of local artists and try to support their efforts to get people excited about art,” says Kira. Other avenues of opportunity include a contract with the U.S. Forestry Service to provide pallets of orange tempera paint. (It’s applied to the rotors of helicopters during fire season.) Kira looks for similar open doors all the time. “There is a lot to keep track of and things change constantly, especially with technology and the move to digital retail,” she says. “We are having discussions now about how it fits into our business, and how to stay on top of all the new products, techniques, and services that customers are interested in. It keeps us on our toes.”

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After coloring books

What’s Next? Two hot trends present new opportunities for art stores by Tina Manzer

The artwork of scientist Hunter Cole, Ph.D, a biology professor at Loyola University, was recently highlighted by the Chicago Tribune. She makes art using bioluminescent bacteria, and even developed a course called “Biology through Art” where she helps students craft artistic endeavors in a biology lab. Bioluminescent bacteria produces its own light. Hunter dips a paintbrush in a liquid culture and then paints it onto a Petri dish. “I then photograph the drawings as the bacteria grow and die, calling attention to our own mortality,” she told the Tribune. “I also photograph people and objects using the light to

create works with symbolic meaning.” Her time-lapse video, which features the bacteria growing and dying, is accompanied by a musical score based on the protein sequences in the bacteria. “I want the viewers to see beauty, meaning and most of all, the power of combining art and science.” The newspaper article is just one example of the kind of buzz generated today by the science/art intersect. “Linkages between art and science are proliferating, and fast,” writes Johanna Kieniewicz, on her blog At the Interface: where art and science meet. “There’s something in the air.” With an undergraduate degree in fine art and her PhD in earth and planetary science, Kieniewicz’s blog features stories on the expanding interaction between science and (mostly visual) art and culture. “From artists working in labs, to scientists working in art museums, this blog explores how science can inspire great art and vice versa.” She’s not the only one talking about it. Clot Magazine, founded in 2014, is an online platform dedicated to art and science explorations. Its goal is to collect, display, broadcast and

promote the crossover of art, science and technology. It features stories on “developing and transgressive art movements,” and studies their creators and their lines of work to spot trends “and publish compelling conversations with talented and inspiring innovators.” For example, the magazine covers the annual Biofabricate summit, a meeting of global design, biology, and technology leaders in New York City. “From the exhibitions of synthetic leather and upcycled ocean plastic shoes to panels on symbiosis and biostrategy, the lessons and conversations shared expand the working frontier of biofabrication,” says Clot’s article. “Science and scientific ideas have long inspired art and artists, from Leonardo DaVinci and Picasso, to Turner and Kandinsky,” writes Kieniewicz. “In harnessing the scientific zeitgeist of their times to the making of their art, they showed how scientific ideas can inspire great art. “Science offers a range of new media and methods for artistic exploration,” she continues. “Whoever said that the tools of an artist were limited to the paintbrush, pencil, or chisel? Good artists, particularly those who are conceptually rigorous, will choose the medium that is most suitable for the questions that they are interested in exploring.”

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o you stock rocks Everyone loves surprises and that’s the idea behind the painted rock phenomenon. The popular practice of decorating flat rocks with colorful images, patterns and sayings – and then placing them at random places for strangers to happen upon – has created a whole new market of artists. “Hi I’m a 68-year-old stone paint fanatic,” reads a fan of the painted rock-art images on colormadehappy.com. “I love it so much because of the million different things you can paint on them, and for every age group. My grandkids have started already and they are only 8, 9 and 10 years old.” Rock decorators also love sharing, both the art they create and tips on creating it. Most, if not all, are members of “rock groups” on Facebook where they can post the rocks they’ve hidden – or found – and exchange rock-art ideas. There are many groups, big and small; a grassroots movement in communities around the world. For example, there is the 918 Rock group near Tulsa (that’s the area code), and 901 Rocks in Memphis. The Whidbey Island Rock group boasts nearly 27,000 members and new ones join up every day. In the northernmost city in New Zealand, there is Whangārei Rocks. People of all ages enjoy the painting, hiding, and hunting. Kids, especially, love to make, collect and trade them. Samantha Sarles, the artist behind Color Made Happy, says the images of her rock doodles are among the most popular on her Instagram page. “The first question I’m asked is ‘Where do you get such smooth rocks?’” Not everyone lives near a beach like Sam does, so she directs fans to the garden centers at Home Depot and Lowes, plus Michaels, Walmart, The Dollar Store and Amazon. For decorating rocks, she recommends these tools. • Acrylic paint for the base color. • The Uni-Ball Signo Gel Pen in white for clean, white designs • The Moonlight Series Gelly Roll Pens from Sakura for bright, detailed designs. “Be sure they are the ‘bold’ point. The tip is actually quite small.” • Extra-fine Uni Posca paint pens to create a smooth, paint-like effect. “The paint markers by Artistro are another great option.” • For children, OOLY’s Neon Liquid Chalk Pens • To seal, Rust-oleum’s Triple Thick Glaze Gloss, or Design Master Clear Finish Matte

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Artful Behavior

Flower Power with Stonehenge Paper by Kevin Woodson I love paper. I love the way it showcases paintings of flowers, my subject of choice. Paper and watercolor work together to capture the ephemeral nature of a flower. Paper translates into cultures around the world and allows me to be present with my subject and viewers in a way no other medium offers. Everything is affected by paper choice: level of brightness, saturation, dimensionality – not to mention how it performs in the field and studio. My paintings are done without pencil, face to face with the flower in the garden – in plein air – on paper that I have saturated with as much water as possible. The elements, whether they are roasting sunlight or a thick and wet fog, affect the painting so I need a paper that reacts consistently with my paints (primarily Daniel Smith) to minimize

separation and spreading. I also need it to allow me to control the density of the paint I put in the paper. The paper I select must have three qualities. First is resilience; enough to take the stress I put on it in the field. Second is dependability; enough to experiment and push bounds. And third is consistence; enough to express my vision in complete collections. I’ve chosen Stonehenge to create my current body of work. Stonehenge is consistent across a wide range of conditions. It accepts the color I put on the page in plein air and back in the studio, and it meets the high quality standards I’ve come to expect from a global paper leader. As I go forward with Stonehenge, I’ll produce several collections of flowers using the paper to explore a contemporary

Moonlight Painting, Calla Lilies for Purim, Gardens at Lake Merritt 2017

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vision of this classic subject. In planning my next body of work, I’ve experimented with all the major paper mills and tested the degree to which the papers support my demands. Stonehenge holds up best to the task. My plein air experiences consist of extremes of temperature and weather – from the swampy tropical heat of Taiwan’s rural Lotus gardens to the freezing coastal rain-fog of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. I’ve gotten excellent results while working out in the field and in my studio. Whether I find myself painting on small or large sheets, I’m able to continue working in high-stress conditions with Stonehenge for days and weeks at a time. The paint I put into a painting looks like paint: granulating, blending, and spreading on the paper in a very authentic way. I don’t have to worry about wearing the paper out, over or under-saturation, or poorly-expressed colors. Stonehenge allows me to focus on the aspects of the painting I want to emphasize. It allows me to concentrate on elements not commonly expressed in plein air flower paintings, such as dynamic shadows, isolated colors, and nontraditional compositions. I am now in the phase of modifying my approach and focusing my vision in paint to produce the next body of work. Stonehenge allows me to simultaneously try new things, while creating works that are sellable. legionpaper.com Kevin Woodson (kevinwoodson.com) grew up in Illinois in the 1970s. His earliest memory is of venturing into his mother’s flower garden where the zinnias towered over him. He has painted flowers exclusively since 2005. Under the guidance of world-class floral designer Matt Matsuyama, he has been painting close-ups of flowers in plein air as if the blooms were subjects sitting for their portraits.

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Artful Behavior

We ask, “ What are artists creating with your products?”

continued from page 16

Great Pumpkin using CelluClay

Fourteen years ago, illustrator and graphic designer Johanna Parker channeled her love of the “tactile arts” into a sculpting business. The result has been a world of whimsical folk-art characters created using CelluClay, a low-cost recycled-paper medium from ACTÍVA. In addition to creating a limited number of one-of-a-kind sculptures that are highly sought-after by collectors, Johanna Parker Design also produces licensed collections for the gift and surface-design industry. The Christmas, spring-Easter, Valentine’s Day and Halloween themes are known for their warm, vintage-folk-art appeal. Johanna’s skill (and joy) in working with papier-mâché is at the root of the Colorado-based enterprise she started after working six years as art director at Denver’s NBC News. “I truly missed the serenity of the tactile arts,” she told ACTÍVA Products in an interview last fall, “so I pulled out an old bag of CelluClay and stared defining my style. I was determined to make Halloween and holiday collectible art that captured imaginations and hearts.” Here is an excerpt of her conversation with ACTÍVA. The full transcript can be found at activaproducts.com under “Artist Spotlight.”

How were you introduced to

your craft?

Johanna: I was encouraged by my artist mother to draw, paint and try various mediums. I tagged along with her to art fairs and holiday bazaars where she sold her cloth dolls, and I began to make my own goods right alongside her. Between painting on wooden cutouts, hand-stitching mini pillows and illustrating scenes, I recall her bringing home a bag of instant papier-mâché. I started sculpting primitive ornaments, figurines and doll heads for cloth bodies, and I was hooked.

Tell us about your sculpting process.

CelluClay mixes easily and molds quickly. It can be sanded, sawed, nailed and waterproofed. It adheres to most surfaces and can be combined with a variety of materials. ACTÍVA, established in 1959, is the largest worldwide producer of instant papier-mâché.

ACTÍVA:

I use CelluClay through and through. Each piece starts with the leftover CelluClay remnants from a previously dried batch. After a day of sculpting, the remaining bits are formed into rough balls or oblong shapes to later become the basis for a new sculpt. My process is one of many layers in order to achieve a smooth yet aged appearance. JP, my husband and business partner, lightly sands each piece between layers to help achieve this look. I love CelluClay because it dries with its own unique characteristics. Its lovely texture emphasizes the various hues of paint that I apply to the surface. Base coats of color fill

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the tiny pits, which will later provide more interest as more layers of paint are applied. I have a bowl of warm water always at hand to keep the material pliable as I sculpt, and to clean my tools as I go. The process is a labor of love from the initial layers of CelluClay to the painted details and the various vintage crepe paper adornments and glass glittered trims.

What would you like CelluClay customers to know about the medium? With years of experience working with the medium, my advice is to apply patience and find your own style. Today, our folk art leans toward a more refined look which is certainly achievable. However, to glance back at my older sculpts will unveil a more primitive look. A decade ago, I was only using my fingers to form the material, and the layering and sanding process was one I had not yet discovered. Johanna cites her October 31 birthday, along with Debbie Thibault’s folk-art sculptures and Mary Engelbreit’s drawings, as inspiration for her work.

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3 Callie Dunn from The Art Stash in La Mesa, California “The Tombow Fudenosuke

and the other hard, artists can easily switch to create fine, medium or bold strokes. “New to our store are the

has been the most popular product in our store recently. They’re perfect for beginners learning calligraphy because they are shorter than other pens. Tombow’s Dual Brush Pens (2) are also popular. With a tip at each end, one a soft brush

Princeton Aspen Synthetic Brushes (3). Unlike other

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brushes, the ferrules are painted matte black to prevent light from reflecting onto the painting surface. “We just started carrying Amsterdam Acrylic Inks (4).

They come in 46 different colors – really a phenomenal selection. The inks are highly pigmented and are waterproof once they dry. “Pentel Pocket Brush Pens (5), another new product for us, are ideal for creating broad lines. They are perfect tools for illustrators. “Artists can never go wrong using a glass palette for any type

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7 pentalic.com

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of paint, so we make sure we’re never out of New Wave Posh Glass Palettes (6). They are available in gray, white, and clear, and come in three sizes: 9 by 12 inches, 12 by 16 inches, and 16 by 20 inches.”

10 ooly.com

Jennifer Allen from Paper & Ink Arts Ltd. in Nashville, Tennessee “We always keep Pentalic Nature Sketch Journals (7) in stock at the store. They feature multimedia paper – it works with almost any medium – so they’re incredibly versatile. “Ecoline Brush Pen Markers (8) have been growing in popularity. The pens produce bright colors and can be used for illustration and lettering work. They have the same range of colors as the Royal Talens Ecoline Liquid Watercolors (9), which also have been selling really well. Both products can be used simultaneously. The possibilities are endless. “Kids love the 6-Click Multi-Color Pens from Ooly (10). They’re a blast from the past – you could say they’re making a comeback! With six different colored inks to choose from – blue, green, yellow, red, purple and black – they’re six pens in one.”

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As the

It’s back to Texas for Art Materials World, this year in Dallas. The annual convention for dealers and suppliers of fine art materials will be held Sunday, March 4 through Tuesday, March 6, and will showcase products from more than 150 exhibitors, including 15 companies brand new to the show. The event will be held in conjunction with CAMEX for the third year in a row. The annual buying expo for college stores attracts nearly 1,800 qualified buyers from close to 1,000 campus stores located in the U.S., Canada and beyond. They’ll travel to Texas to see what 500 or so CAMEX exhibitors have to offer in more than 90 product categories targeted

to college students, faculty and staff, and parents and alumni. Among the exhibitors of art materials there will be notebook, sketchbook and journal companies like Moleskine, Piccadilly, Hartley & Marks and Exaclair; tool companies Acco Brands, FPC Corp., and Alvin & Company; and a variety of pen, pencil and coloring tool companies. All registered attendees for Art Materials World and CAMEX will have unlimited access to both tradeshow floors located in separate halls of the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center downtown.

Let the Games Begin The show kicks off on Saturday evening, March 3, with

continued on page 30

by Tina Manzer

a Welcome Reception at the Hyatt Regency Dallas. The reception will include the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Awards – to Mark Golden, CEO of Golden Artist Colors in New Berlin, New York; and to Allen Shefts, owner of Jerry’s Artist Outlet in West Orange, New Jersey. The exhibit hall opens the following morning at 9, and the second annual Cornhole Tournament gets underway at noon. “Just find a partner and enter,” suggests NAMTA. The entry fee is $25 per team, and teams must register at the NAMTA booth by 10 a.m. The funds benefit the new NAMTA Art Advocacy Grant Program. In the exhibit hall, manufacturers will begin presenting product demos at 1 p.m. at NAMTA’s booth/theater/ classroom. First up is Danny Ink from Grex Airbrush with a demo of his company’s simple system of four core airbrushes plus a comprehensive line of accessories. Afterwards, Rebecca and David Zak, cofounders ArtResin, will demonstrate how easy it is to measure, mix, pour and spread the

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Information is current as of February 9, 2018.

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continued from page 28

epoxy resin for a flawless finish. The nontoxic clear coat protects and enhances artwork. Next, mixed-media artist Celia Buchanan will demonstrate reverse painting using Marabu’s Creative Colours. Her project includes collage, mixed-media and pours – all wrapped up in a reverse-painted glass object. The demos continue at 9 a.m. on Monday with Connie Cook from Crescent Cardboard, who will discuss the benefits of using pre-mounted art boards. At 11 a.m., Kyle Richardson and Kirk Gillespie from Royal Talens North America will discuss the strategy for Rembrandt, Amsterdam, Van Gogh and other Royal Talens brands, followed by tips on how retailers can compete with Amazon. (Hint: it’s through partnerships with Royal Talens and its distributors SLS and MacPhersons.) On Monday afternoon at 1, artist Tom Jones will demonstrate watercolor painting using MaimeriBlu, Canson Heritage Paper, and Robert Simmons Brushes. Jacquard’s innovative new products – YouCan metallic Piñata colors, Spirit paper, and basic dyes – will be demoed by Alex Preston at 2. He points out, “Our new products have a lot of crossover appeal to nontraditional customers

to attract new, creative people into your store.” In addition to the scheduled educational presentations at the NAMTA theater, many exhibitors will run demos and special contests at their booths.

Fancy fancy NAMTA’s President’s Reception will take place on Sunday from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The venue is Union Station, accessible from the Hyatt Regency by a covered walkway on the lower level. The railroad station was completed in 1916 as a masterpiece of Beaux-Arts Classicism, explains unionstationdallas.com. The building is rich, lavish, and heavily ornamented, and combines Greek and Roman models with Renaissance forms. The Beaux Arts style is characterized by order, symmetry, elaborate ornamentation and grandiosity – the ceilings of Union Station are 48-feet high! All attendees and exhibitors of Art Materials World are invited to attend. Tickets are $50 per person and include heavy hors d’oeuvres, beverages and entertainment.

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new & true Zebra’s Mildliner

features a mild color for a clean presentation. It has a double-ended chisel and bullet tip, and water-based ink that is water resistant and translucent. It doesn’t bleed through and is AP certified nontoxic. 800-247-7170, zebrapen.com

The fashion-inspired Metallic Sketch Strathmore have a metallic printed chipboard backing and heavy-duty wire binding. strathmoreartist.com journals by

R&F Pigment Sticks are hand-milled to a lipstick-like consistency for fluidity, subtlety and durability. Available in 38ml, 100ml and 188ml sticks. 845-331-3112

Highly absorbent Aquarelle Canson Heritage Watercolor Paper is made of 100-percent cotton. It has an excellent texture and remains at peak saturation longer. The innovative sizing ensures uniform washes without the buildup of pigments. en.canson.com/watercolour/heritage

UGlu 600 Dash Sheets feature 20mil, rubber-based transparent adhesive mounting squares in size 1/2 by 5/8-inch, 160 Dashes per envelope. Good for mounting, scrapbooking, temporary holding and framing. protapes.com

New non-drying modeling clays from Chavant are smooth and not sticky. Clayette, a tan color, has soft, medium and hard firmness. Meltable Monu-Melt is dark gray with soft, medium and hard firmness. Spray Touché is meltable Le Beau Touché. It’s gray-green with medium firmness, and is smooth and tacky. chavant.com 32

The Fluting Tool Set from Xiem Tools USA is a quick and easy way to make concave surface textures on clay. Three interchangeable titanium blades in different sizes give artists superior cutting edge retention plus the flexibility to create without size limitations. xiemtoolsusa.com 626-460-3380

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Enkaustikos has created four new beautifully

Gelly Roll continues to be a customer favorite since Sakura invented gel ink more than 30 years

packaged sets: an Earth, Wind and Fire set for the landscape painter; a Let’s Face It set for the portrait artist; a Some Like It Hot set with an exciting range of primary, secondary and tertiary colors; and a specially formulated microcrystalline-based portrait set for internationally known encaustic artist Lora Murphy. All sets feature their highly pigmented Wax Snaps. encausticpaints.com

ago. Ice Cream Smooth gel pens add shimmer, pearl and shine. Gelly Roll Metallic pens come in 14 shiny colors that look stunning on dark papers. The Stardust pen line features 13 colors that let users write in sparkly glitter. sakuraofamerica.com

Jacquard has introduced The Sneaker Series: eight new Neopaque and Airbrush Colors requested most frequently by professional sneaker artists. They are easily displayed with a rack tier add-on. 800-442-0455, jacquardproducts.com

High-quality Midwest Products Plywood is cut with precision. The smooth surface and variety of sizes and thicknesses lends itself to a wide range of applications. The thickness and cross lamination of plies prevents warping when introduced to moisture. 800-348-3497

The Everyday Easel from Imagination International is the first contemporary easel of its kind. Revolutionary and elegant, the easel offers a magnetic face, 90° of rotation, and simple two-step movement. Artists have the freedom to adjust it to meet their exact needs. Magnetic clamps allow angled canvas movement. everydayeasel.com

Paper Connection’s authentic Yuzen Paper features Japanese kimono patterns silk-screened onto mulberry paper, size 24 by 36 inches and all acid-free. More than 100 patterns are in stock in the company’s U.S. warehouse. (Five sheet minimum order per pattern) 1-401-454-1436 contactus@paperconnection.com Spring 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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new & true The DC-motor Beetle compressor from Sparmax

is the most powerful in the market for its size. Incorporating a patented Smart-Stop feature, the compressor automatically stops when the airbrush is placed into the airbrush holder, and starts again when the airbrush is removed. sparmaxair.com

The Triplus broadliner 338 from Steadtler is an extra broad, extra smooth 0.8 mm

Stonehenge Aqua

fineliner available in 20 brilliant colors. It can be left uncapped for days without drying up. The Ergonomic triangular shape is comfortable for artists. steadtler.us

is an extraordinary watercolor paper. Wet-on-wet or wet-on-dry, it has a wonderful crispness that anchors beautiful work across every task and technique. Blending is effortless; lifting is no longer a chore. Bright colors dry bright. Blocks or sheets, it is flat paper that dries flat. Coldpress or hotpress. legionpaper.com

The Techne artist & drafting lamp from Daylight Company easily mounts on any type of Specialty Racks from A.W.T. World Trade are an efficient solution to drying and storage needs. Featuring all-steel construction, a rust-resistant, powder-coated finish, and a variety of shelving options, A.W.T. specialty racks are available in a wide range of models. 773-777-7100, sales@awt-gpi.com

easel, drafting table or work bench. The fully flexible arm allows a 360° shade rotation and combines with a 320° head-flip system so you can position the light exactly where you want it for close-up precision to detail. daylightcompany.com/techne.html

Tom Norton’s Walnut Drawing Ink is intensely pigmented and water-soluble. Artists use it to create beautiful warm browns using watercolor techniques such as layering, light washes, and lifting. Its premium imported, lightfast pigment will not fade. It’s acid free so it will not damage your paper like inks made from walnut husks. tomnortonwalnutink.com

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Sculpture House Armatures provide internal frameworks for modeling with materials that do not support their own bulk. With three types to choose from, these aluminum wire armatures are non-staining, non-corrosive, pliable and lightweight. 772-210-6124 sculpturehouse.com

TAG the Art Game is a collaborative game in which players take turns adding designs to create an abstract piece of art. It’s fun for any number of players at any artistic level. amep.com

The Shadebuddy Umbrella Kit provides shade without putting an easel at risk of a wind gust. The angle can be adjusted for maximum shade. It has wind-vents, a nonreflective black lining, and reflective silver outer shell. The foot pedal makes it easy to push into the ground. guerillapainter.com

Mix InstaMold Temporary Mold-Making Compound with water to create flexible molds in any shape. They reproduce the finest details and are reusable for multiple castings with Activa’s ArtPlaster or PermaStone products. activaproducts.com

The Waxmelter Batik Pen from Witzend Workshop is a fantastic electric tool for drawing with melted wax of all kinds, even old wax crayons. Just drop small chips of wax in the funnel to draw on cloth, paper, wood, canvas, and even eggs! It includes two removable valves that prevent dripping. 203-393-2397 sandy@twisteezwire.com waxmeltingtools.com

GOLDEN’s Acrylic Explorer 14 Set is a renamed and re-packaged version of its A-Z Acrylic Workshop in a Box. The product content of the set is unchanged, but the new HDPE box, made with 70-percent post-consumer recycled plastic, allows customers to see the contents. goldenpaints.com

Spring 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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new & true Annoucing Grafix Artist Series Shrink Film available

March 1 with designs created by three popular industry artists: Gina Kim, Julie Fan-Fei Balzer, and Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk. Just fill in with permanent markers or inks, cut out, and shrink to create one-of-a-kind jewelry, buttons, gift tags, zipper pulls, and ornaments. grafixarts.com

The Treasure Chest of Color by Caran d’Ache includes 422 of the most beautiful colored pencils in a wooden, ebony-colored case. Among the pencils are 30 exclusive and unpublished Supracolor Soft shades. 704-644-1427, creativeartmaterials.com

A match to the ever successful Cretacolor Black Box Set, the “Skull” special edition Black & White Set features

25 pieces including Nero and charcoal sketching materials, white chalk pencils and sticks for creating values and shading. They are also a great base for pastels. savoirfaire.com

Flexcut’s Spoon Carvin’ Jack makes it easy to handcraft spoons and bowls from every kind of wood. It has both a shallow and a deep hook knife to form the hollows and a straight blade for shaping and carving fine details. The handle is made of rugged aerospace aluminum. flexcut.com

Ranger has released six new colors of Tim Holtz Alcohol Inks and two new colors of Mixatives. The fast-drying, acid-free and fade-resistant dye inks are specially formulated to create gorgeous backgrounds and vivid pops of color on non-porous surfaces. shop.rangerink.com/ collections/tim-holtzalcohol-ink

Scene-A-Rama Theme Kits make it fun and easy for kids to build their very own dioramas! These kits are perfect for school or camp projects. Kits come with 12 full-color printed themes and everything kids need to complete a fast and mess-free project. scenearama.woodlandscenics.com/show/category/ThemeKits

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by Rebecca Carlson

ocial media just keeps on growing. Most social networking sites and apps are at the top of their all-time-high user numbers. Every day, people send more than 500 million Tweets, upload 95 million photos and videos on Instagram, and “like” 4.5 billion posts on Facebook, according to digital marketing guru Jeff Bullas. Savvy marketers are taking advantage of the power of social media to increase brand awareness, generate leads, and promote their products or services, he notes. In fact, more than 97 percent of marketers are using social media marketing. But unlike traditional marketing in which you bombard prospects with sales messages, social media is a two-way process, Bullas points out. It won’t be successful unless you identify and connect with key audiences in a meaningful way, and you can’t do that without building meaningful relationships with your network first. Hashtags help you do that, and right now they dominate social media. A pound sign in front of a word or phrase – no spaces or punctuation please – makes it a clickable link to all the other posts by all the other people who hashtagged the same word or phrase. Originally a Twitter function only, today it is integrated into other social media platforms including Facebook and Instagram; even Linkedin. The purpose of tagged posts is to organize topics into categories so that other social media users can easily find

and follow specific topics. As a result, a single hashtag (like #oilpainting) can make your art materials store go viral. But the key to hashtag marketing is understanding how it works on each social media platform, because each one’s algorithms are different. Here are some tips.

It all began with Twitter It isn’t the greatest place to use branded hashtags, but it’s perfect for using trending ones. “Use the Twitter Worldwide Trends section and the ‘Discover’ tab to see what hashtags are currently popular,” suggests Lifewire. com, a website that offers practical advice for living with technology. On a desktop, trending hashtgs show up on the bottom left of your screen. On your mobile device, they show up under the “Search” button of the app. Those trending hashtags are often fleeting, so the goal is to get involved in different conversations all the time. It gives your followers new content to read on a regular basis, and maintains your active feed. The platform that thrives on live news is perfect for letting your followers in on the action when you attend a trade show like Art Materials World. Include the event hashtag in your tweets, or create a new one while you talk about the media, tools, and techniques you see or experience. Just make sure that you participate or add something new to the conversation. It’s a great

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Instagram: fueled by photos If you scroll through Instagram, you’ll notice that it’s rare to find a photo that isn’t accompanied by a hashtag. The “Search” button on the app lets you search by tag and also suggests others while it shows you how many posts it’s been applied to. It’s a great way to find out what tags are popular so they can be attributed to your own posts. When you write a caption for a photo, there’s no limit on the number of characters, but there is on the number of hashtags – 30 per caption – and you want to use them all. They’re still annoying, though, so the trick is to hide them so they don’t take up your followers’ newsfeeds or take away from your photo. Instead of applying them in the caption, apply them in the comments section. Comments don’t show up until the post is clicked on. Just share your image and comment on it, including all your tags. Intagram is the best platform for using a brand hashtag. “Think of a brand hashtag as your signature,” says real-time hashtag tracker Keyhole.com. “Unique to your business, it should be a concise and relevant slogan you include when sharing original content.” Encourage your customers to

share photos and experiences at your store by including your unique hashtag. You’ll not only get to see awesome feedback from familiar faces, you’ll also attract new people.”

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Facebook hashtags present a challenge Using hashtags on Facebook to successfully reach consumers is daunting. Users’ accounts are private, so a post from a business, even if the business’s account is public, won’t show up on consumers’ feeds – unless the consumer is following the business already. Facebook hashtags work better for business-to-business connections because business accounts are public. If you can’t go to a tradeshow, for instance, you can look up a specific hashtag on Facebook that was created for that event to see what others are talking about. Hashtags on Facebook don’t really help bring more users to your posts, says Lifewire.com. Instead, try experimenting with general tags that are tailored to your industry. Examples

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include #artsupplies, #artstores, and #smallartbusiness. If you decide to use hashtags on Facebook, use only a few for each post. They can divert attention away from your original message, and using too many starts to resemble spam. The sheer volume of conversation on social media is so big that becoming part of it feels like an insurmountable task. By the same token, its ever-growing size can provide businesses like yours with more exposure and brand awareness than any other traditional marketing tool out there, says Jeff Bullas. Take advantage of its power, because expanding your reach to your customers and potential customers will be the key to successful retailing in the years to come.

opportunity to tell your customers about the new products you’ll soon be stocking. Using hashtags is also a good way to find more customers, future business partners or employees, because they are all interested in the same topics you are. Last year, the platform doubled its original character count from 140 to 280 per tweet, so you might be tempted to add more hashtags, but don’t. Overuse can be annoying, so the rule of thumb is to stick to only two or three per tweet.

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n d u s t r y

At Creativation in January, the tradeshow and conference of the Association For Creative Industries (AFCI), the BowVy Cutter, invented by Karyn Ranzau from Little Pink Ladybug, was named the winner of The Ultimate Pitch. The competition sponsored by The Michaels Companies had a top prize of $10,000. The handheld, cordless, hot-filament cutting tool with interchangeable tips was named the Top Creative Innovation of 2018. In one step, the cutter creates a decorative “V” cut and then seals the ends of most ribbon and polyester fabric. “We want to showcase innovation and provide a platform for entrepreneurs to launch their ideas and products in our industry,” says Mark Hill, AFCI’s president and chief executive officer. “Creativation’s Ultimate Pitch and Innovations Center provide life-changing opportunities for creative entrepreneurs to gain exposure. Thousands of retailers, distributors, manufacturers, marketing companies and influencers attend Creativation each year.” The Ultimate Pitch was judged by executives from major retail and manufacturing brands. The judges for the Ultimate Pitch included executives from The Michaels Companies, JOANN, the Home Shopping Network, Crayola, and Walmart.com/Jet.com. Among the other finalists chosen from a pool of 12 entrepreneurs were these. • Yee Wong, inventor of the DIY Frame Art Drawing Pad, a patent-pending sketchbook upgrade that turns flat paper into a 3-D framed piece of art ready for display.

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• Marlene Tabibian, inventor of Flex Knit, a patented, flexible and ergonomic straight knitting needle that helps knitters bend with resiliency at the wrist level to improve comfort. • Sofia Magnusson and Marielle Jensen, inventors of The Folklore Company, a website where visitors can design

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a personal cross-stitch pattern in an easy, unique, and modern way. The Ultimate Pitch was hosted by actress Kerry Cahill who plays “Dianne” on “The Walking Dead.” She is an advocate for Help Heal Veterans, an organization that provides free therapeutic craft kits to U.S. veterans. Kerry was recently named the national spokesperson for AmVets.

Encaustic manufacturer R&F Handmade Paints based in Kingston, New York, is celebrating its 30th anniversary. On January 15, 1988, founder Richard Frumess walked into New York Central Art Supply in downtown Manhattan and sold the company’s first order. Since then, R&F has become well-known for its encaustic paints and pigment sticks. It pioneered commercial production and helped revive interest in a medium that dates back to 100 A.D. In 2011, we interviewed Richard for an article in Art Materials Retailer. Here are some of the highlights. In the early 1980s, Richard was an artist who worked at Torch’s, a small art-supply store in New York City. Joseph and Pauline Torch, its owners, had developed a beeswax-and-damar recipe for encaustic in the 1940s, but hadn’t made or sold

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was higher and more consistent than what artists were making in their studios. The company also promoted the artists who were using it by holding exhibits juried by prominent gallerists, artists and curators. Richard collaborated with authors writing books on encaustics and with museums and galleries that hosted encaustic exhibits. R&F provided technical support to end users over the phone, online, and in lectures at schools and conferences. In 1995 it began holding workshops, the first-ever regular, year-round workshops on encaustics. They remain the largest and best-known. Today, R&F products are used by artists in every discipline

the product in years. Using their original formulas, Richard began “mass producing” it in his kitchen. He would melt the resin and wax in a pot in his oven, stir in the pigment, and then pour the different colored mixtures into muffin tins to harden. At the time, it was the only commercial encaustic available. R&F was born. The first four stores to stock its products were New York Central, Pearl Paint, Meininger’s in Denver and Sennelier in Paris. It was an “exotic” medium then, said Richard, and it wasn’t taught in art schools, “except occasionally as part of a materials course.” But R&F helped increase awareness and build the market by making sure that the quality

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“Industry News” from page 41

and especially for mixed media. “Encaustic is a collaborative medium,” Richard explained. “It attracts photographers, sculptors, ceramicists, papermakers,

bookmakers and printmakers. Our Pigment Sticks bridge drawing and painting.” At the end of the 2011 interview, Richard noted that he

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loved everything about his job, from going to conferences and giving talks to promoting the paints and meeting the artists who use them. “I love our relationships with the retailers, I love doing R&D work, and I love developing complex color mixes,” he told us. “I love it all.”

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Raincrow Art Post, opened in Claremore, Oklahoma in January. It is the brainchild of owner Kellie Van, a child welfare worker who wanted “to surround myself with art.” “I am an artist myself,” she explained to the Claremore Daily Progress. “I have an art degree I haven’t been using. But last spring, I won some awards in the Cherokee Heritage Center’s Trail of Tears Art Show. One was ‘first place emerging artist.’ I thought, ‘Well, I’m not emerging very well if I’m not in art all the time.’” She has big plans for her new venture. “My goal is to support

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working artists while also inspiring myself,” she said. “There’s space reserved where I will have a gallery; hopefully by this summer. In the back, I’ll have a classroom for those who have the talent to teach.” She has also earmarked shelf space to sell the work of her artist

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thing grandmother who came here on the Trail of Tears was a Raincrow.” Local artist Michele Moseley Bradsher wrote, “Claremore has desperately needed this store for a long time. Quality paper by the sheet is hard to find without a drive to Tulsa, but Raincrow has lots of varieties in stock.”

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customers. “Raincrow” is a family name, Kellie explains. “My great-some-

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u s i n e s s

o t e s

American Craft Council Lists 2017 Creative Highlights The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities are still going strong despite threats from the current administration, reports the American Craft Council. Though $5 million under budget, the NEA received funding for FY2018 and the NEH announced that it would award emergency funds for cultural institutions impacted by Hurricane Harvey. An article in the council’s January enewsletter called “The Year in Craft 2017,” also pointed to the groundbreaking statement made by French President Emmanuel Macron to facilitate the restitution of African artifacts from French museums. In other 2017 news, Etsy Studio launched early in the year. Soon after, the company cut approximately 15 percent of its workforce. The television series Craft in America continued on PBS in 2017 with “Nature,” “Borders,” and “Neighbors.” “Making It,” another TV craft show, was announced by NBC. It is hosted by Amy Poehler and Nick Offerman. Amy Sedaris’s “At Home,” showcasing her love of entertaining, crafts, and cooking, premiered in October on TruTV. Exciting discoveries about craft and the brain were revealed last year, including research into how humans have been wired to create collaboratively, how creatives think differently, and how traditional textile techniques are being used to knit artificial muscles. Art became more readily available when the Metropolitan Museum of Art provided unrestricted use of more than 375,000 images housed in its digital collection. Google added a contemporary art digital collection as well. A new database cataloged the entire collection of the Museum of Contemporary Craft, which closed in 2016. “The start of the year was tough for many in the arts, but the continued movements surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion are powerful to see,” the council wrote. “From the Pussyhat Project and the Women’s March to Ai Weiwei’s continued advocacy for refugees and immigrants to major museums taking a stand in support of transgender individuals, the work has begun.”

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The Art of Retail: Dos and Don’ts for Selling More Upselling, or selling a more expensive version of the product a customer is considering; and cross-selling, selling add-on purchases that complement the customer’s primary purchase, are easy to do once you know how. Rieva Lesonsky, CEO of GrowBiz Media, a company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses, offered these tips in an article for Small Business Trends. Do have a good, better, best version of products for upselling. Do cross-sell the accessories or related products that work with the primary products you carry, like brush holders, brush soap, aprons, water basins, magnifiers, erasers, sharpeners, rulers, etc. Educate employees about your products. The more they know about your inventory and how items complement or relate to each other, the better they’ll be at making smart suggestions. Don’t jump right in with suggestions. Instead, ask questions to understand the customer’s needs. If she asks for colored pencils, for example, ask what she’s creating and what price she has in mind. The answers will help you tailor a cross-sell or upsell. Ask, “How important is the piece of art you’re making? Is it for a special gift, an exhibit or a commission?” Is the customer motivated by discounts? “We’re having a special today only – if

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“Business Notes” continued from page 43

you buy these oils you get a free palette knife. Is the customer on a tight budget? “To get the colors you want you could mix using paint from these three tubes rather than buying a set of six tubes.” Do focus on benefits, not features. Don’t fake it. Your interest and concern for the customer and his success in creating art must be genuine, or he’ll know you’re just trying to sell him more products. Do make it simple. Particularly when cross-selling, the purchase process needs to be seamless. If a customer is buying $300 worth of canvas, don’t keep her waiting for hours as you search in the

stockroom for gesso and a brush. Have ancillary products stocked and ready to go. Don’t wait until checkout. Upselling and cross-selling should start on the sales floor. Once they’re at the point-of-sale counter, most customers just want to pay and get out of the store. You’ll have more success by approaching customers while they are browsing, touching or examining merchandise. Do know when to say when. If you’re really listening to customers, you can tell when you’ve crossed the line from “consultative selling” to “pushy salesperson.” If you’ve attempted the upsell/cross-sell twice and it doesn’t work, let it go.

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Don’t show disappointment. Keep the same friendly and helpful demeanor no matter what. Take customers to the checkout and thank them for their business.

Does Your Store Give Shoppers What They Want? “Consumers’ choices in terms of where, how and why they buy are redefining retail and creating a new playbook for the industry,” said the National Retail Federation recently. To find out exactly what is on the minds of today’s shoppers, the federation conducts research each quarter called “Consumer View” that examines consumer attitudes and experiences. Here are

some of the highlights of the Fall 2017 and Winter 2017/2018 results. • Nearly six in 10 respondents said they were interested in special events and experiences hosted by retailers. The most popular events offered the ability to try out products, exclusive access to sales, demonstrations, and product tutorials. • Consumers are more likely to visit a retailer because they are looking for something specific rather than just to browse. “This is particularly true for bricks-and-mortar, where 73 percent of shoppers say that they typically visit with a particular purchase in mind.” • Nearly 60 percent said the ability to easily find what they want is one of the most important

factors in selecting a retailer. Customers said they were also attracted to good customer service and a streamlined checkout process. • Only 21 percent of consumers are primarily online shoppers who purchase more than half of their items online. The majority (79 percent) typically buy half or less of the items they need online. • Younger consumers can be convinced to visit stores more frequently when they’re offered the chance to have a new experience or pick up items they order online. NRF’s Fall consumer view revealed that half of Millennial/Gen Z respondents are shopping in stores more than they were a year ago.

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Tell our advertisers you saw their products in Art Materials Retailer magazine! Page

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Bob Ross Inc.

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Creative Art Materials Ltd

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Daylight Company

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Dixon Ticonderoga Company

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Pro Tapes & Specialties Inc.

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R&F Handmade Paints

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Ranger Industries

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Royal & Langnickel Brush Mfg., Inc.

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QVC Provides Shopping Inspiration In January, after completing a $2.1 billion purchase of its rival, the Home Shopping Network, QVC Group became the third largest e-commerce retailer in North America, according to Internet Retailer. It trails only Amazon and Walmart among companies selling products in multiple categories. QVC outlived a direct assault by Amazon in 2016, when the Seattle giant launched an online show called “Style Code Live.” Just like it had done with food delivery, travel and online payments, Amazon recreated the home shopping channel’s entire approach, complete with bubbly salespeople and products available for purchase on Amazon… but it failed. Last May, a little more than a year after introducing it, “Style Code Live,” was canceled, reports Bloomberg news. “The retreat proved that QVC’s formula – unscripted hosts demonstrating products to an audience of mostly women on live television – isn’t as easy as it looks.” What happens behind the scenes is “a complex ballet to make things go smoothly,” explains the Bloomberg story. “There are no Teleprompters or scripts. QVC hosts improvise, fielding calls and social media questions from viewers in real time. The channel features 770 products each week on the air in the U.S., and the average shopper spends more than $1,200 a year on the network’s products.” Not that QVC has been immune to the struggles of retail and cable television – it had four straight quarters of sales declines before posting an increase last quarter, said the Bloomberg article. But the executives running the channel believe that QVC will survive because it does something that Amazon can’t: “You’re not going to be inspired by Amazon,” QVC Chief Executive Officer Mike George said in an interview. “Shopping should be joyful. It should be inspirational. That’s what we can do.”

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