Art Materials Retailer Fall 2018 by Fahy-Williams Publishing

Fall 2018

For People Who Sell Art Supplies

What shoppers want NOW in this The Future of Art? issue PLUS: A store that has it all

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e r s p e c t i v e

Painting By Numbers by Kevin Fahy

already having a major effect on our economy. We spend a lot of time and energy worrying about American jobs that have migrated to other countries, but economists estimate that 80 to 90 percent of the jobs that have been lost in this country over the past several decades actually went to robots and other advances in technology. You may not think of the retail business suffering job losses from anything other than store closings, at least in terms of sales associates. It’s not like Americans are shopping that much in foreign stores, and not many retailers have fleets of robots patrolling the sales floor. (There have been some pilot programs.) Retail, however, includes such mass-market outlets as fast-food restaurants, gas stations and convenience stores. Those places have been quietly moving towards automation for a long time, and that process will probably accelerate now that a lot of states are pushing to increase the minimum wage. Sometimes the changes are not readily apparent to customers. When a voice at the drive-up window asks if you want fries with that, do you really know whether or not it is connected to a human? The changes are more obvious in many supermarkets and big-box department stores, which have combined self-service with technology to speed checkout, while at the same time reducing staff. At the Walmart in my town, there are very few employeecontinued on page 6

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Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) are often thought of as basically the same thing, probably because science fiction movies and TV shows have portrayed them as such for the past half-century or so. If I say, “robot,” you probably visualize a very smart machine that can both walk and talk. It may not look like us, but it likely has two legs, two arms and a head. Such things do exist, at least in a primitive fashion, but technically robotics and AI are two different fields. Robots are machines that mimic a physical human function, like an arm that applies welds on an auto assembly line. Artificial intelligence is the use of computing power to mimic human cognitive ability, like the IBM machine that plays chess. Lately there has been a great deal of speculation about the extent to which AI can go. Is there a point where computers will reach something akin to consciousness, and will start to feel genuine emotions? If so it seems logical that they might develop agendas of their own. That may sound silly to you, but it’s a serious matter to futurists such as Elon Musk and scientists such as the late Stephen Hawking. Both have said that AI is the greatest threat to the long-term survival of our species, and that we might want to rethink the whole idea of combining intelligence with mobility. It may be a while yet before they come for us, but robots are

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For People Who Sell Art Supplies

PUBLISHER J. Kevin Fahy kfahy@fwpi.com

EDITORIAL Tina Manzer, Director tmanzer@fwpi.com

ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Tim Braden tbraden@fwpi.com

ART Mark Stash Production Manager mstash@fwpi.com

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

Maia VanOrman Designer maia@fwpi.com

MARKETING DIRECTOR Amy Colburn amy@fwpi.com

Cody Brackett Designer cody@fwpi.com

EDITORIAL OFFICES PO Box 1080, 171 Reed St Geneva, NY 14456 800-344-0559, 315-789-0458 FAX: 315-789-4263

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“Perspective” from page 3

manned cash registers open these days. I have always thought that one of Walmart’s weaknesses was that you couldn’t find any sales help when you need it, and it would seem as though the self-checkout would only make that problem worse. I half expect the automated cashier to ask me if I found everything I was looking for. It’s hard to imagine this level of automation in an art supply store, let alone the idea of robot sales associates. The image of knowledgeable, human, customer assistance is so deeply entwined with my concept of the art materials retailer that I can’t see the industry without it. Then again, I couldn’t believe that self-driving cars was really going to be a thing, but it is. There are thousands of them on the roads already, and that is going to ramp up into the millions in just the next few years. The automakers have poured billions into development costs, so there will be no turning back. You can add cab drivers to the list of job casualties. Whether your employees go robot or not, there is a larger group in play that is even more critical to your business – your customers. There is a very real debate going on right now over the issue of artificial intelligence being used to create art. Last February, David Pogue wrote an article for Scientific American magazine entitled, “The Robotic Artist Problem.” In it he argued that the common notion that art would remain the “last bastion of human exclusivity” was not necessarily correct. In music and in painting, highly sophisticated programs have been developed and implemented, allowing computers to design original works in seconds. At Rutgers University, for example, the Art and Artificial

ArtMaterialsRetailer.com • Fall 2018

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

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Intelligence Laboratory, led by Ahmed Elgammal, has been generating paintings in large numbers. Team members select style, genre, colors, subjects, or whatever, click on “render,” and voilà. Pogue refers to the resulting canvases as “beautiful, polished, and appealing,” but is it art? I had a college professor who taught us that art was whatever an artist said it was, and an artist was whoever claimed to be one. It was simply up to the rest of us to determine whether or not the art was any good. Computers have not yet reached what most of us would call consciousness, so I’m not sure that they can declare themselves to be artists, but a lot of people don’t really care. There are businesses that buy artwork in bulk, and they are far more interested in cost than in provenance. The definition of art aside, Pogue asks the question he seems to find more relevant, which is how do we put a valuation on art that is generated by artificial intelligence. His answer, at least in part, is that value is determined by scarcity. The reason that the Mona Lisa would be more valuable than 100 exact copies is that there is only one original, so theoretically AI artwork could also be valuable so long as each piece is unique. There are a lot of holes in that argument. One of them is pointed out by an article in The New York Times from July 8th, “Do You Like ‘Dogs Playing Poker’? Science Would Like to Know Why.” It reports on a study completed this summer at Boston College which uses quantifiable data and statistical analysis in an effort to solve that old question of why we like what we like. The study determined that one of the primary factors was people’s belief that the artist leaves some essence of him or herself behind. I don’t know what sort of essence is left on an AI canvas, perhaps some echo of the original programmer. The researchers did discover one thing that I thought was pretty funny. Apparently people like an AI artwork better when they see a humanoid robot painting it. One question was not addressed by the study, and I think we should look into it. “How do robots buy art supplies?”

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by Tina Manzer “There is a store in Noe Valley in San Francisco that has, by far, the best merchandising of any store I’ve ever seen,” began an email I received from Lynn Sauter, a sales rep with SLS Arts. “It’s a small store in footprint but a very large store in surface coverage. Every inch offers products; all perfectly presented. The owners, David Eiland and his business partner Robert Ramsey, create ‘rooms’ within the space to sell the most diverse mix of products. They range from art supplies to watches and pens, and from kitchen accessories to games and eye ware. The common thread? Everything has great design.” We couldn’t wait to find out more. Here’s the story. Art Materials Retailer: Is Art Sake/Just for Fun/Scribbledoodles three stores in one? David Eiland: Actually, it has four main components: general gifts, stationery, fine art supply and toys. My business partner, Robert, opened it in 1987 as a gift-and-toy store called Just for Fun. We expanded first into personalized stationery. Greeting cards and stationery used to be overwhelmingly good, but now our custom stationery business is negligible – people simply don’t do parties they way they used to. We didn’t start the art supply business until 2004 when we opened a freestanding storefront across the street. In 2007 or ’08 we moved it into the Just for Fun space. We take up three storefronts here totaling 4,800 square feet. The two biggest departments driving our business are toys and art supplies. Sometimes toys are number one, sometimes art supplies are number one. I believe that by the end of this year, toys will be tops because of Christmas. Our fourth quarter is really good – about one-fifth our overall business.

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How many SKUs do you carry? I just looked it up: 85,679. That could be off by a couple of thousand up or down because greeting card companies, for instance, SKU by price point not design. There may be 100 titles of greeting cards under one SKU. By the same token, there may be whole categories that for some reason have not been purged from the computer. A good portion of merchandise – Christmas ornaments, for example – sits in our warehouse until the fourth quarter. Wow! In terms of art supplies, what sells best in Noe Valley? Our art business is quite diverse and quite good. It’s probably the most consistent department we have and the easiest to buy for. We got a boost when Flax closed in San Francisco a few months ago, but we’ve always done pretty well. Sketchbooks and sketchpads sell best overall, but our number-one medium – and I’m sure this is true for everybody – is acrylic. I would say our number two is watercolors. We do a really well with watercolor pencils of all kinds, from Cretacolor to

Caran d’Ache. People like the idea of being able to sketch anywhere they want in color – not just in black. Then later, they sit down with a water brush and maybe a glass of wine or a cocktail and color it out. We put together our own kits. It’s become a really big category.

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What toys sell best? Squishables. What art techniques are your customers into right now? My art supply business is pretty basic. It’s funny, because we’ve been talking up pouring; talking up alcohol inks and other things that are trending in the industry right now, but our customers are just not interested. Yes, we sell pouring medium and supplies, and they sell okay, but it’s not a huge craze. Our artist customers know exactly what they want. They work in a certain medium and always use the same specific products. Other people come in to be inspired. They want to see something different, and if they’re interested in finding out how a product works, I’ll clear a table and demo it right in the store, no problem. That’s how watercolor pencils became so popular around here. Fall 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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Are your customers hobbyists, professionals, students or all three? They are people who paint and/or craft and draw. Some people sell their work and others do it pretty much for themselves. Here’s a yardstick: when we had classes, every “beginner” class was full, every intermediate class was about three-quarters full, and advanced classes drew two or three people. There is a group of friends who have been our customers now for 31 years. Art was something they had never done until we started selling supplies. Then it became convenient for them to come here and learn to draw. Now they’re retired and come into the store every day to buy something new to try. Our children’s art department is right next to the LEGOs in the toy department. A lot of new craft kit companies have been doing well here for a couple of years. One is Kid Made Modern – we just got a new shipment from them yesterday. The neighborhood is full of families with both parents working in the tech industry. The shuttle buses stop in front of my store every day to take them to Silicon

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Valley. If it weren’t for the nannies, we wouldn’t have to open during the week until the afternoon. They keep us busy between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and late in the afternoon. That’s also when we see the “ladies who lunch” crowd. Ask any parent – the hardest person to buy for is someone between the ages of 12 and 16. But if a kid loves to draw at all, he will love a manga kit. We put some together that have everything he needs. Students who come in specifically for art supplies will wander around and buy other stuff, like the funky, irreverent socks by Blue Q, bags and backpacks, and novelty items from NPW from England. Funky/cool stuff is just one part of our mix. I have a whole kitchen/ housewares department that is very basic. I do not buy guitar-shaped spatulas, but I do have funny T-towels, along with traditional flour sack and terrycloth. We carry Kilner canning supplies from England. They do really great jars and bottles for storage. How’s retail, in general, where you are? There are vacant storefronts

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on our street now, but it was worse a few months ago. Most of them have been leased and are waiting for city approval – a slow process in San Francisco – and four buildings are under earthquake retrofit. So foot traffic is down overall,

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but our per-sale is up. Our store is good, we’re happy, but we’re not growing at the rate that we used to. I will never have another 1999 and 2000. The store will never make that much money again, but it was a boom time that ended in a bust. I would rather have slow and steady. Here’s what I say to the naysayers in our merchants’ association: when your business is down, you are always ready to blame

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Artful Behavior

“ Drawing people and capturing life is my passion.” by Tina Manzer Each of Wendy Layne’s photorealistic colored pencil drawings are born from her idea for the composition as a whole. Then she either stages the composition herself and takes photos, hires models to photograph, or goes out into public places to take pictures of “real” people (she requests model releases when possible). “Before I even begin drawing I study the photo and all of its intricacies to form a connection with the subject,” she explains. “My goal with each portrait is to capture the stories from the lines of the faces of the people that I draw. I want viewers to see the portraits and wonder who they are, what they do, and what they are thinking about. I want them to connect with my subjects. “I work on a variety of series simultaneously,”

IT for more than 25 years. Four years ago, she decided to teach herself to draw with colored pencils. “I saw some time-lapse videos on Facebook and started practicing 40 hours a week on top of my 40-hour-a-week day job,” Wendy explains. “Within five months I created my first photorealistic pencil drawing called ‘Wisdom.’” Since then, she’s become a teacher and a demonstrator for art supply companies including Faber-Castell, and her work has been featured in books, magazines and exhibits across the country. She has won many awards. “Colored pencils allow me to capture details that are very difficult to capture in other mediums,” Wendy says. “They can be sharpened to a very fine point to allow

Wendy notes. “One series is called ‘Faces of Humanity’ in which I try to capture many cultures of people in all walks of life. Typically it is a portrait from the shoulders up; up close and depicting as many details as I can with colored pencils. I use only dry pencils – no solvents – and typically my pencils are Faber-Castell Polychromos.” Wendy didn’t become an artist until later in life, but has always loved everything art. “I was a young mother and did not have an opportunity to go to college to follow my passion,” she says. Instead, she raised her family and worked as a project manager in

“Sophie the Cow,” photo reference Michael Rieger, Polychromos hard pastel

“Teacher,” photo reference Nabiha Hajaig, colored pencil drawing

ArtMaterialsRetailer.com • Fall 2018

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“Traveling” is from Wendy’s series called “A Moment in Time.” The people are depicted in full-color realism and the background is depicted in grayscale, “discarding it as less important.” for very precise marks. I can zone in on the lettering of a bottle or the tiny details of a tattoo on a subject’s shoulder. In photorealism, the details are very important.” “I also love that they are portable,” she adds. “They are easy to take in a bag on vacation or to demonstrations.” Most of her pieces take anywhere from 20 to 100 hours to complete, depending on the size. Her favorite sizes are between 17 by 20 inches and 24 by 30 inches, and the paper she uses most often is Stonehenge White 250 gsm from Legion Paper. “The largest piece I have created is 4 by 6 feet using pastel and colored pencil and a roll of Stonehenge.” Wendy begins each piece by making small marks on the paper where the eyes are located, and simple lines to indicate the bottom of the chin and the top of the head. She refers to the original image on her iPad and starts by creating the pupil of an eye. She works outward to the skin around the eye and the connecting facial features. “If I get the eyes right, the viewers will connect with my work and all is well. If the eyes are not perfect, I don’t want to continue the rest of the piece,” she says. Sometimes she sprays a finished piece with Krylon Workable fixative, and sometimes she doesn’t – it depends on how many stray colors she’s used. Wendy frames her pieces using museum-quality acrylic for UV protection and ease of shipping. For more information about Polychromos colored pencils, visit fabercastell.com. Fall 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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Artist & Craftsman Supply in New Haven, Connecticut on Instagram (@artistcraftsman_newhaven) “Pearlescent Watercolors (4) from Finetec are different from ordinary palettes. They are perfect for adding a bit of sparkle to paintings, and look amazing in calligraphy projects. “We just started carrying Snazaroo face paints (5). These are so much fun for our youngest customers. We have every color of the rainbow in stock so that face design possibilities are endless.

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pencils, three point guards, and a long point sharpener. It’s a perfect item to suggest to customers who are looking for great quality gifts. “ResinTint (2) by Art Resin is also new to our store. These pigments are made for mixing into resin while still maintaining glossiness and translucency. For customers who create resin pours, the tints are flame-resistant and don’t pose risks while torching. “We love Angelus Acrylic Leather Paint (3). It’s used for painting on boots, jackets, shoes, and more. When the paint is properly applied, it won’t crack or rub off.”

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Manny’s Art Supplies in New Paltz, New York on Instagram (@mannysartsupplies) “Our customers have a ton of fun with Ironlak Spray Paints (7). There are so many colors to choose from! It can be used for both indoor and outdoor projects. “When the weather gets hot, watercolor products sell well for us. One Watercolor a Day (8) by Veronica Lawlor is the perfect activity book for anyone who loves to paint. It contains six weeks’ worth of exercises and watercolor painting ideas to help artists expand their skills. “Always stocked on our shelves

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Who are Today’s Shoppers and What do They Want? by Tina Manzer

“Consumers don’t care about your last mile problem or your Bezos-eats-your-lunch problem. They don’t lose sleep over the retail apocalypse,” wrote David Mattin in a report this July from TrendWatching. “However, their expectations for you never stand still. They want greater convenience, better value, excitement, meaning, status, relevance, authenticity, social connections and more.” But rather than talk about the

exactly what they want and need. “The cost of sequencing an entire human genome has fallen below $1,000,” notes the report. “Face recognition is now how people use their iPhones. Walmart has filed a patent for tech that will detect the emotional state of shoppers as they walk around the store. Yes, there are widespread privacy concerns, but never discount a consumer’s ability to want two things at once.”

obvious retail trends that will meet those demands in 2019 and beyond, like automated stores or “the march of offline to online brands,” the report discussed tactical trends, “trends you can use; trends that can fuel your next winning product, service, campaign, experience, platform, business model and more.” Here are a just a few.

“Culture Club”

“Deep Retail” “In the retail universe of 2018, data is gravity,” says Mattin. “It’s the fundamental force that draws retailers and consumers together. Deep retail is about discerning consumers’ deepest preferences via new forms of data.” Consumers with smartphones have been generating data for years – “likes,” searches, purchases, views and more. Retailers have studied that data to understand their customers better; consumers have learned to expect that they will use it to offer more personalized products and services. What’s more, as new forms of data collection appear – emotional data, eye tracking and DNA, for instance – consumers expect that retailers will use those, too, all for the purpose of giving customers

Culture Club is about how stores treat their employees. It will become an increasingly important part of the way consumers perceive stores. “Are you about speed, convenience and low prices or are you about an amazing, immersive, human experience?” asks Mattin. Stores that plan to “automate their staff away” may be able to redeem themselves by building a Culture Club. He offers Amazon’s Career Choice initiative as an example. The online giant pays up to $12,000 for an employee on hourly wages to study for new jobs in in-demand professions such has healthcare and IT. Stores on the “amazing experience” side of the equation – the ones that compete on creativity, curation, human connection, and other experiential examples – have to build a Culture Club to ensure that they can retain and cultivate the staff needed to provide all that. (Employee turnover in the retail industry is 5 percent per month, reports Bloomberg.) “Plenty of consumers will continue to prioritize low cost over everything else, including worker welfare,” says the report, “but in our

current environment, we are seeing rising numbers of consumers who see ethical choices as a key status play.”

Augmented Commerce (aka “A-Commerce”) By now, the hunting, negotiating, purchasing, delivery arrangements, etc. of shopping have become automated. “Consider the host of ‘we do the thinking for you’ subscription services: razors, cars music, food, and more,” says Mattin. “The subscription e-commerce market in the U.S. has grown more than 100 percent a year over the past five years,” says management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.” Some consumers, called “prosumers,” love it. These leading influencers and market drivers (along with half of the millennial generation!), would like their refrigerators to automatically order needed items, according to research by Havas, a global advertising and communications services group. One-third is looking forward to “anticipatory shipping” – receiving products companies think they want without having to place an order. “You don’t need technology to meet expectations,” writes Mattin. “Your flesh-and-blood staff may be great at recognizing when and where a shopper might need advice or want one of your products.”

“Practical Post Demographics” “Inclusive marketing is no longer enough,” states the report. “Time to reimagine everything you do around true diversity.” TrendWatching has talked about the post-demographic world for a while now. It’s where consumers are freer than ever to create and

ArtMaterialsRetailer.com • Season 2018

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celebrate the identities they choose – identities that go beyond what traditional demographics defined in the past. As a result, there is a demand for changing everything stores offer, from products and services to physical spaces and engagement processes. The goal is to cater to everyone, including groups that have been marginalized in the past, like the LGBTQ community, “plus-sized” people, and members of certain racial groups. “For far too long now, we – business, society, all of us – have overlooked marginalized groups when we think about human needs and wants. What about the needs of older consumers? What about those with disabilities?” asks Mattin. He cites data from market research firm Age of Majority that reveals that 86 percent of marketers overestimate how much consumers under the age of 35 spend, while 72 percent underestimate how much consumers 55 and older spend. The proof of post-consumer demographics is in the pudding – consider the success of this year’s movie “Black Panther,” the third highest-grossing movie of all time in the U.S. “Making a change and applying

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“5 Trends Reshaping the Future of Retail: 2019 and Beyond” was a quarterly report from TrendWatching, a market research firm with offices in London, Singapore, New York, Amsterdam, Sao Paolo and Lagos. To sign up for free enewsletters, visit trendwatching.com. David Mattin is the firm’s global head of trends and insights. A sought-after keynote speaker and widely published journalist, he speaks regularly at high-profile conferences around the world.

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Frame a Deckle Edge Watercolor From the blog of Crescent Cardboard When they’re ready to have their finished artwork framed, watercolor artists who use handmade paper often like to keep the paper’s beautiful deckle edge visible, rather than covering it up with the mat. Kevin Pietro, owner of The Great Frame Up in Shaumburg, Illinois, explains how to do that. When framing a piece created on thin paper, it’s easy to show the deckle by creating a “sandwich.” Here’s how.

The Deckle Debate Deckle edges are so beloved that some artists (and printmakers and brides who want deckle-edged invitations) will faux-deckle straight-edged paper with special tools, scissors, wet-paper hand-tearing techniques and more. Others show rough edges no love at all. “When I was in school we were told to cut off the deckle edge,” said an artist on expressobeans.com, a forum for art collectors. “My thoughts exactly,” agreed another. Early book printers considered the deckle a defect and trimmed it off before binding. Later, “it became the fashion to admire the deckle

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edge for its own sake,” notes theartofthebookblogspot.com. Not only was it decorative, it became a status symbol over time, especially in regard to books. “It transformed from a cost-cutting measure, in which leaving it in place was cheaper than removing it, into a sign that a book was made from more expensive paper or using a more refined method,” says The Economist magazine. The term comes from the equipment used to make paper – a mould and a deckle, which are dragged together through pulp. Before it is removed, the open frame of the deckle creates the shape of the sheet.

• Center the watercolor on a piece of conservation matboard that is already cut to the size to fit the frame.

• Run a line of ATG tape near the outer edges of the matboard and approximately 3/4-inch away from the outside edge of the art.

• Center a sheet of acrylic cut to the same size as the matboard on top of the watercolor and matboard. The pressure and static of the acrylic against the art and matboard backing will hold the art in place.

• Cut a top mat that is 1/2-inch away from the deckled art edge, which will also hide the ATG tape while showing off the deckle edge. • Add UV glass or acrylic and the chosen frame.

Here’s another way that’s effective if the deckle-edge watercolor is created on thicker paper.

• Dry-mount the piece to a sheet of conservation matboard or mounting board that is approximately 1/4” smaller than the art.

• Cut the mat window opening approximately 1/2 to 3/4-inch larger than the art dimensions.

• Since the art will be lifted by the mounting board, attach spacers under the mat to raise it slightly higher than the elevated artwork. To do this, cut foam-core to the same outer dimensions as the mat and with an opening about 1/2-inch narrower than the mat. • Attach to the back of the mat using ATG tape.

The art with its deckle edges is on top of a gray mat, Crescent Cardboard’s RagMat Museum New Castle #1123, and is underneath Crescent’s RagMat Museum 8-ply White #2268. The 8-ply mat is cut so that it keeps the glass from hitting the artwork when looking at it sideways, but doesn’t cover the deckle edges.

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new true 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

R&F Handmade Paints’ solvent-free lines include classic wax-based Encaustic Paints and linseed-oil based Pigment Sticks handmade in Kingston, New York from high-quality pigments. They’re skillfully milled in small, carefully-controlled batches. rfpaints.com, 800-206-8088

Painting with alcohol inks on YUPO synthetic paper is a great activity for any age and every artistic level. The NEW Piñata Class Pack from Jacquard, recommended for up to 30 individuals, contains everything needed for a fun and creative group activity. 800-442-0455, jacquardproducts.com

The Pro 410 ATG Tape from Protapes is used for framing and mounting displays, such as signs, covers, posters, and nameplates. It features quick stick, good adhesion, short- and high-term temperature resistance, and chemical resistance. 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

Xiem Interchangeable Sculptor’s Wire Tools, available in several sizes, are designed for artists at every level. They can customize their favorite wire-tool tips for their specific needs to make the job more enjoyable and efficient. xiemtoolsusa.com

ArtMaterialsRetailer.com • Fall 2018

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Faber-Castell’s Pitt Artist Pens are an India ink formula that does not bleed through paper, and is odorless, archival and permanent when dry. Our 60 vibrant colors are color matched across other products like Polychromos Color Pencils and Albrecht Durer Watercolor Pencils, so they are perfect for mixed-media art. fabercastell.com

Now drying rack shelves can be raised, kept in place, and lowered with ease thanks to the spring loaded feature! See AMEP for wall mount and floor/ table models. 1-800-289-9299 x240

Stonehenge Aqua Coldpress Heavy is a little bigger and brawnier than its Coldpress sibling. It’s a heartily textured, all-natural paper designed with maximum versatility. It can handle myriad techniques, and has the heft to handle whatever the plein air watercolorist throws at it. Available in blocks, sizes 9 by 12, 10 by 14, 12 by 16. legionpaper.com

A.W.T.’s Small Format Accu-Glide One-man Squeegee Unit is an inexpensive but high-quality solution to screen print short runs, prototypes and test runs. Standard models come complete with everything you need to start printing right away – except for the ink, the frame, and your ideas! 773-777-7100 sales@awtworldtrade.com

Metal is better! Bob Ross paint in metal tubes – instead of plastic – will gradually become

available. Metal is superior because it’s collapsible to inhibit trapped air inside, so the paint remains pliable (not clumpy) for a longer life. Be gentle – use wringers to harvest paint from metal tubes. info@bobross.com

Fall 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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new true The Techne artist & drafting lamp was designed for easy mounting on any type of easel, drafting table, drawing board or workbench. The fully flexible arm allows a 3600 shade rotation. Combined with the 3200 head-flip system, it lets artists position the light exactly where they want it for close-up precision and attention to detail. daylightcompany.com

Strathmore 400 Series Recycled Sketch pads are popular with artists. The 60lb (89gsm) sketch paper has a fine tooth surface ideal for experimentation, practicing and perfecting techniques, and preliminary drawing. It comes in a range of pad sizes, including a NEW, small, 3- by 9-inch strathmoreartist.com

Premier Metal Art Trays by Studio Designs are available in a 42-, 36-, or 24-inch configurations. Features include a tough powder-coated finish; removable foam inserts (also sold separately) for pencils, markers, paints and even a cell phone; and swivel wire-mesh cups for tools or damp paint brushes. sales@studiodesigns.com studiodesigns.com

The electric Waxmelter Palette from Witzend Workshop heats crayons, candles, paraffin, soy wax or beeswax for encaustic art projects. It maintains its heat (140 degrees) all day without burning. The palette features 11 removable cups plus a “Squeeze Pen” for application (intended for adult use). Made in the USA. No minimum orders! sandy@twisteezwire.com waxmeltingtools.com

Produced by the next generation of master craftsmen, B&B Artigiana, these hand-forged sculpting rasps are the benchmark for stone, wood, and plaster carvers worldwide. Crafted to rigorous standards, and with particular attention to innovative design, the rasps range from 6 to 12 inches in length. Rasps that offer the right variation of shapes, sizes and coarseness of the teeth are among the most valuable tools a sculptor can own. 772-210-6124, fax: 844-287-5044

ArtMaterialsRetailer.com • Fall 2018

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More colors, more fun with the new STAEDTLER Triplus

Fineliner set of 48 colors, featuring comfortable triangular barrels and a 0.3 mm line width. Great for writing, sketching and drawing. They can be left uncapped for days without drying up. Made in Germany. staedtler.us.

With the Beetle compressor’s powerful ability in a small body, artists can work on their airbrush projects in the comfort of their living rooms. Worried about the noise a compressor makes? Fret no more – the Beetle runs at only 40 decibels! A space- and energy-saving smart-stop airbrush holder is built in. Available now! sparmaxair.com

Sakura has expanded its Koi Creative Art Colors (CAC) Watercolor sets with Metallics, Fluorescents, and Pearlescents. Vibrant fluorescent hues are perfect for adding a pop of color that glows beautifully under a black light. The metallic and pearlescent shades are ideal for adding shimmer. sakuraofamerica.com/water-color-cac

EnkaustiKolors sets provide a wide range of professional quality, ready-to-use encaustic paints in an array of color themes including Landscape, Earth, Tonal Grays, Primaries, Shimmer, Warm, Cool and Fluorescent. They are created by Enkaustikos for mixed-media artists and instructors (retail $12.99, dealer cost $5.85, no minimums). encausticpaints.com

Flexcut’s Palm Tools are perfect for carving small projects such as wood, linoleum blocks, melons, foam, and soap. Flexcut offers 52 different blade profiles, from chisels and gouges to V- and U-shapes. Sizes vary from 1mm to 7/8-inch widths. All blades are made of high-quality, heat treated steel for maximum performance. 800-524-9077, flexcut.com

Use Dina Wakley Media Pouring Medium to achieve marbled and flow effects when mixed with acrylic paints. Pouring Medium is non-cracking and dries to a satin finish. Use with Dina Wakley Media Cell Creator to create isolated variations of color in pours. Pour over canvas, wood panels and more. rangerink.com Fall 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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new true PLUS Clay is the perfect all-natural air-dry clay for your customers. The new 1.1-pound size easily fits on your store’s shelves. Nontoxic and gluten-free, it’s available in three colors. A wonderful product for creating all types of arts and crafts! Contact us for wholesale pricing information. 1-800-883-3899, activaproducts.com

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NEW Artist Series Shrink Film – 12 unique preprinted designs from three popular artists: Gina Kim, Julie Fan-Fei Balzer, and Marlene Meijer-van Niekerk. Available in 8.5 by 11-inch packs of four sheets: two pre-printed of the same style and two clear (for tracing); and assortment packs of four individual designs from each artist selection. Design, cut out and bake to create home décor, card embellishments, jewelry and more! grafixarts.com

medium, available in six colors, is a rock-hard, weather resistant sealer that dries to a low luster matte finish. It’s formulated to use on air dry clay, canvas, ceramics, fabric, leather, masonite, gourds, papier mache, wood, and more. It’s quick-drying, nontoxic, water-based and made in the USA. 206-271-6460

The Ultimate Rinse Cup is a brand new companion for water or plastic-based painters. It combines functionality from all over the Paint Puck product line into one complete package. Great for classroom workstations, art studios, and individual use. Designed to make the artistic process more enjoyable and efficient. 1-800-883-3899

With the brand-new Moroccan trivet kit, you can customize a square trivet with an assortment of colored glass. Use the stencil, included, to create a fun and colorful design. It comes with rubber feet to ensure that the cement does not scratch surfaces. milestonesproducts.com The 5x7 Pocket Box from Guerilla Painter is small and popular; a great pochade box for those who like to travel light. The lid holds two panels and adjusts to any position over a full 180° for the most comfortable angle for painting. The box features a slide-out palette, storage space in the bottom, and a front-carrying handle. guerillapainter.com

ArtMaterialsRetailer.com • Fall 2018

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Industrial Beauty by Tina Manzer A photograph of a machine that paint-dips red/blue markup pencils appeared on the cover of Amtrak’s classy new magazine The National this summer. The cover story showcased products made in the USA, and had this to say about the machine’s employer: “One of the industry’s last American manufacturers, the family-owned General Pencil Company has been making top-of-the line pencils in Jersey City, New Jersey, since 1889. Those include their

classic cedarwood-and-graphite Draughting Pencil, a favorite of architects, which retains its tip shape longer than almost any other instrument of its kind.” General Pencil must be a really special company to warrant such glowing public praise. Of course here in the art supply arena, we know that it is. But without the photographs of Christopher Payne, no one would know how beautiful the manufacture of pencils could be.

Payne, based in New York

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General Pencil’s founder Edward Weissenborn was an inventor and machinist. He acquired 28 patents for improved machinery and processes for making 360 different kinds of pencils. Today, General’s pencil-making process is still defined by those patents, on machines that date back to that time.

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City, was trained as an architect. His specialties are architectural photography “and the large format documentation of America’s industrial heritage. He is fascinated by design, assembly, and the built form,” says chrispaynephoto.com. His books include New York’s Forgotten Substations: The Power Behind the Subway, which offers rare and dramatic views of the behemoth machines hidden behind modest facades in New York City; Asylum: Inside the Closed World of State Mental Hospitals, the result of a seven-year survey of America’s shuttered state mental institutions; and North Brother Island: The Last Unknown Place In New York City, a location that has served as a quarantined hospital, a temporary home for World War

II veterans, and a juvenile drug treatment center. Payne has also photographed many factories including the Airbus manufacturing facility in Mobile Alabama; the Steinway piano factory in Astoria, New York; Annin Flagmakers in South Boston, Virginia; and General Pencil. Some are commissioned projects and others, like General Pencil, are personal. He visited the factory dozens of times to take pictures. In January, his General Pencil photos first appeared as a photo essay in The New York Times Magazine, along with an article by Sam Anderson. “Inside One of America’s Last Pencil Factories” was an ode to the factory and its products. “Pencils eschew digital jujitsu,” wrote Anderson. “They

are pure analog, absolute presence. They help to rescue us from oblivion.” (He also noted that one worker named Maria matches the color of her shirt and nail polish to the shade of the pastel cores being manufactured each week.)

Amtrak’s onboard magazine The National is published bi-monthly by Ink, a world leader in travel media. Founded in London in 1994, Ink has a staff of more than 250 people in six offices around the globe. It is the media partner to more than 21 airlines and travel groups, and produces content in 10 languages.

Fall 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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n d u s t r y

e w s

50 YEARS In May, Jerry’s Artarama stores across the country hosted a 1968-themed party to celebrate the chain’s 50 years of serving artists. The throwback-themed festivities – free family fun, refreshments, entertainment, and the largest sale in store history – were designed to raise money and collect products for local high school art departments. “Communities rallied to support the cause in solidarity with the teachers, students, and families who are increasingly strained with the financial responsibilities of education,” says a statement on jerrysretailstores.com. “We feel that art is for everybody, and each brush, tube of paint, or pad of paper donated will improve the emotional wellbeing of students in our community,”

explains Dave Dembitsky, manager of Jerry’s Virginia Beach location. In 1968, the late Jerry Goldstein and his wife Arline opened the first store in Great Neck, New York. It became an integral part of the artist community throughout Long Island. Today, there are Jerry’s stores in Deerfield Beach, Miami, and West Palm Beach, Florida; Houston, Austin, and San Antonio, Texas; Tempe, Arizona; Lawrenceville, New Jersey; Nashville, Tennessee; New York City; Norwalk, Connecticut; Providence, Rhode Island; and Raleigh, North Carolina. In an era when many retailers are closing their doors, a store’s 50th anniversary is no small feat. Management thanks the stores’ customers for their longevity. New file for Cody.pdf

In August, the Paint Spot in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada reported that its Instagram account had been hacked. “Someone was able to log in and reset our recovery email to their email address,” said the store’s blog. “No warning. Our email login no longer existed. None of us could access our Instagram account nor reset the password.”As a result, the store is now @paintspot.ca. instead of @thepaintspot. “We say good-bye to years of history, video tutorials and other cool stuff,” including 3,000 followers, 4,000 artists, 890 posts and 1,000 hours of social media, said the post. “Lesson learned. Everyone should change to a two-factor authentication. Watch your emails closely. If you ever get that warning message, ‘Changes have been made to your account,’ and it was not you, then respond and take action immediately.”

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In August, an exhibit at The Art Store in Charleston, West Virginia, raised funds for the REACH Program, a local non-profit that provides professional, compassionate care to survivors of sexual violence. Called “Everything’s Fine,” it features the ceramic sculpture installations of Allora McCullough from Huntington, West Virginia. Her life-sized human and animal figures provide subtle narratives that encourage discussion of uncomfortable topics. The travelling exhibit was designed to create awareness and to raise funds for women’s shelters all over the country. One hundred porcelain cups are for sale; one in every four glazed red to represent the statistic that one in four girls will be sexually abused before their 18th birthday. Allora is a ceramics technician and adjunct lecturer at Marshall University. The Art Store, founded in 1972, is a gallery that also offers custom framing.

Creativity for Kids Hide & Seek Rock Painting Kit from Faber-Castell USA won this year’s Best Toy

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Award in the Arts and Craft Category at Learning Express Toys’ Annual Convention in Kingsport, Tennessee. Faber-Castell has won this award for two consecutive years. The Hide & Seek Rock Painting Kit was developed as a way to spread positivity and kindness. It includes rocks, water-resistant paint and transfer designs. In addition to Creativity for Kids, Faber-Castell also offers children’s brand Premium Children’s Art Products (greatartstartshere.com). For more information, visit fabercastell.com. Learning Express Toys is a franchisor of educational toy stores with more than 100 locations across the country. Each one is locally owned and operated.

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u s i n e s s

o t e s

The Next Chapter for Story In May Macy’s acquired New York City-based concept shop Story. Its founder, Rachel Shechtman, became the department store chain’s “brand experience officer.” Story’s space in the city’s Chelsea Neighborhood changes its product themes – and its retail look – every few months. A number of the items sold there come from local retailers and artists. The shop continues to operate as usual. “Bringing Rachel’s perspective to the table will help create more enriched and engaging in-store experiences and brand activations,” Macy’s CEO Jeff Gennette said in a statement. “We are committed to growth in 2018, and this is one important step along the way.” “Story represents the future of retail – curation, editorial storytelling, interactive events and displays ... and will help amplify Macy’s instagrammable moments and help connect with Millennial shoppers,” wrote analyst Oliver Chen from accounting and consulting firm Cohen & Co.

Its current story theme, its 41st, is “Out of Office.” Among the products on sale right now are floats from Funboy; swimwear from Solid and Striped, Chubbies, and Onia; bottled beverages from Dirty Lemon; pastel basket totes from London’s Sun Jellies; flip flops from Tidal and sunglasses from local company Carla Colour. “Many retailers today are looking to activate unprofitable square footage, and partnering with outside brands is one way to attract shoppers and differentiate the store’s merchandise mix,” noted an MSNBC report.

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Fall 2018 • ArtMaterialsRetailer.com

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“Business Notes” continued from page 33

can support the local economy. To download the kit for free, visit ilsr.org/local-business-city-policy-guide/.

Toolkit Helps Indie Businesses Lobby Policymakers

Locally owned businesses are “engines of opportunity,” creating jobs and providing pathways to the middle class for local residents, says ILSR. In many cases, however, local policies create conditions that favor large corporations and make it harder for independent businesses to compete.

The new “Local Policy Action Toolkit” is available from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) and the Advocates for Independent Business coalition. The toolkit offers independent business owners concrete tips for engaging with their elected officials and advocating for policies that

One way independent businesses can help make public policy work better for local economies is to meet with local officials to help build the mindset that independent businesses matter, and that local policy must level an otherwise uneven playing field.

The 17-page toolkit contains a stand-alone guide “Local Policy Matters: How to Grow Independent Businesses in Your City,” directed at local policymakers. It makes a clear case for why local, independent businesses matter to a city’s well-being and vitality. The featured policy platform outlines policies local governments can use, and contains on-the-ground stories of communities that have implemented these policies to support independent businesses. The toolkit also contains a two-page handout showcasing the value of locally owned businesses to their communities, plus “9 Policies Your City Can Adopt to Grow Independent Businesses,” an outline of common challenges faced by independent businesses

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and a corresponding set of proven solutions. The toolkit was purposefully designed to be flexible. A local business owner can easily print and leave specific sections of the guide behind for their elected officials to consider in greater detail. “The more public officials hear from local, independent businesses, the more the perspectives of these businesses will be represented in decision-making and public policy,” states the ILRS. “Policies that are informed by and actively support new and growing locally owned businesses can strengthen the local economy and make communities more prosperous, equitable, and dynamic.

AI Enables New Try-BeforeYou-Buy Capabilities Ukraine-based inkHunter offers an augmented reality app that lets users preview tattoos. The company’s 8-million users can upload a design or select one from Inkhunter’s library and, via augmented reality, see how it will look on their skin. The virtual image is accurate, stable, and moves with the viewer’s body, “InkHunter lets you try on

temporary tattoos that look and feel like real ink,” reports U.S. app-building company Jasoren. “It not only shows you what a chosen design will look like on your body, but also lets you see what will happen to your tattoo in a few years – when the lines get blurred.” Other filters that InkHunter uses include skin structure, saturation, and skin crop. The app is free to download, but sells tattoo designs uploaded by tattoo artists. By clicking “follow,” a user is transferred to the artist’s page on Instagram. Just recently, inkHunter expanded its business model to let users take the logical next step – from following tattoo artists to actually scheduling appointments with them using the app.

When Only The Best Will Do!

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“Business Notes” continued from page 35

What a Difference a Demo Can Make

ACCU-GLIDE

•

Home Depot sells Dremel tools, including 3-D printers. “If we weren’t running this machine, people would think this was a microwave oven,” says Jack Longo, a hardware sales associate at a Home Depot in Annapolis, Maryland. “By keeping it building something, they realize it is a 3-D printer,” he explained to The Washington Post recently. So Dremel sends Jack spools of plastic filament to be used for in-store demonstrations – mainly to make chess pieces, dinosaurs, frogs and other children’s toys. But it will build anything you program into it, notes Jack. He had heard about E-NABLE, an online community that connects volunteers with 3-D printers to people in need of prostheses. With permission from Dremel and his store manager, he downloaded the additional technology required, made a test prosthetic, and sent it to E-NABLE for their review. That was 18 months ago. Since then, he has donated about 120 prosthetics to children and adults with missing hands and limbs. Most of the donations are sent directly to E-NABLE, but one local recipient, a five-year-old boy born without one hand, recently received his prosthesis right in the store. He was sent home with a chip containing the hand’s 3-D specs. Larger versions can be printed as Bradley grows. “The printed prostheses drew customer enthusiasm – and sales,” said the article. “Customers bought 43 of the printers in six months.”

New for Back-to-School On store shelves this year for kids going back to school is a host of creative products that innovate, reports CNBC. Among them are smart reusable notebooks and invisible ink, as well as washi tape, and scented pencils in “bacon” and “pickle.” Scott Bayles, vice president of stationery for Walmart, thinks the artsy new products come from the practice of adults using creative expression to relieve stress (remember adult coloring books?). It’s trickling down now to kids, he told CNBC. Among the innovations are the Rocketbook Wave and the Pilot FriXion pen. The Rocketbook is a smart reusable notebook that works like a regular notebook, but when the pages are full, their contents can be scanned using an app and sent to the cloud. The notes written with the FriXion pen can be erased with heat. You can put the Rocketbook in the microwave or use the eraser to create friction. “The ink actually becomes invisible when exposed to heat above about 140°F,” explains Interesting Things of the Day (itotd.com). “The ink reappears when exposed to cold temperatures – below 14°F.”

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“Soup to Nuts” from page 11 INNOVATIVE QUALITY TOOLS FOR ARTISTS SINCE 2009

Pottery, Sculpture, & Craft Tools

the Amazons, the tech world, and many other factors. If you’re going to play the blame game, you probably should close your store. I cannot abide the retailers who complain that there’s no foot traffic. Make the most of the foot traffic you do have! You can make it work. Become creative and make changes. Make your store visually exciting, a tactile experience. Make people want to touch it, pick it up, and find out more about it. If you have a fun, exciting, vibrant store, people are going to want to shop in it.

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Do you have specific merchandising tips you can share? Sure, but remember: I’m not a boutique retailer. I’m a push-and-shove merchandiser. I use every square inch of ceiling, wall and floor for product. I can’t afford to put just nine things on a table just because it’s pretty. Not at city rents. So here is my advice.

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• Make your displays make sense. For instance, people should be able to consider their choices of canvas, sketchpads and pencils all in one place. That way, you won’t be running people back and forth comparing items. If they ask you a question, you can stand right there and explain why you like this one versus that one, and so on. • Be extensive in all the categories you carry. When I spot something that will work. I won’t buy just one. I’ll look for every product in that category and create a big department. • Use every square inch of space. Don’t let shoppers look at a blank wall or a half-empty shelf. I don’t want to have two clocks on a 4-foot shelf, I want 20 clocks and they should all be different! • Same with readymade frames. Our frame wall features 60 or so different styles. Each of them has a number on the back. Customers bring the frame to the register, tell me how many they want, and I retrieve them from the back room. That way we have space to show them our total selection. The broader the better.

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Legion Paper Corp.

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Milestones

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NAMTA

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Paint Puck

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Pro Tapes & Specialties Inc.

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R&F Handmade Paints

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Ranger Industries

rangerink.com

Royal & Langnickel Brush Mfg., Inc.

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Sakura of America

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Sculpture House

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Sparmax (Ding Hwa Co. Ltd)

sparmaxair.com

STAEDTLER

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Strathmore Artist Paper

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Studio Designs

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Witzend Workshop LLC

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Xiem Tools USA

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