Wholesale Matters

NPR Holiday Craft Contest

Although this is targeted more to the DIY crafters than the fine craft crowd, it's worth noting that NPR is holding a holiday craft contest.  It's called, "Create a Menorah, A Kinara, an Ornament."

Here's the link to read the rules.

The two judges are Carla Sinclair of Craft magazine and Phillip Torrone of Make magazine (both published by O'Reilly Media). 

Craft Shows This Weekend

The first of another semi-regular feature, a quick run-down of some craft shows taking place over the weekend:

Chicago
One Of A Kind Show & Sale, Dec. 8-10, Merchandise Mart
This show features more than 400 artists, including some of our exhibitors. Stop by and see Baa Baa ZuZu, Davin and Kesler, Inc. , Elements/Jill Schwartz, Jes 'Irie' Wear, Kristin Lora Studios, Trippworx, and Mark Orr, among others!

Baltimore
Squidfire's Holiday Art Mart, Dec. 9, First Unitarian Church
Baltimore's first D.I.Y craft fair has two dozen exhibitors, including The Rosen Group's very own Claire Patterson, who will be selling her handbags.

Berkeley, Calif.
Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios, Dec. 9-10, 16-17
More than 100 professional artists open their studios to the public. Be sure to stop by the studios of J. Brooke Patterson, R. Strong Glass, and Lynne Meade.

Artist Showcase: Glass

This is the first of periodic postings featuring images of some of our exhibitors' work.

    

Buyers Market Opportunity

I just wanted to congratulate each of our brand new exhibitors on being accepted into the February Buyers Market of American Craft.  It’s a competitive marketplace and they should be very proud of their hard work.

As new exhibitors, the Buyers Market offers a cooperative mailing program opportunity to new exhibitors to help kick-start a wholesale career.  It is a convenient, targeted, inexpensive way to market their work before buyers even set foot on the show floor.

New exhibitors design and print their own postcard, and we tailor a mailing list from our database of craft retailers across the country.  The cooperative mailing program provides choices regarding how many and what type of retail locations to contact.  The Buyers Market processes the mailing for the artists, slipping postcards into the hands of retailers right before the show. This envelope, containing the innovative work of our new exhibitors, is often the first thing they open on the plane to Philly or in their hotel room to plan their buying trip.

Information about this program is included in the New Exhibitor Packet, but I wanted to make sure no one missed out on a great opportunity.  If you have any questions at all about this, please shoot me an email at kristenk@rosengrp.com or give me a call at 410.889.2933 ext.264.  I’d be happy to discuss it further with anyone. 

Shipping savings

There's a very useful post about packing artwork for shipping on the Artist, Emerging blog from yesterday.

Shipping to and from shows is often the most expensive aspect of doing a show, whether wholesale or retail. The past few months have been an education in freight for me, as I work with our show decorator to simplify the charges related to shipping and handling of materials to and from artists' booths (commonly known as drayage).

Some tips for saving money on freight:

- Explore all your options. It takes some time, but you should be aware of the cost difference between driving (gas, tolls, hotels on the road, parking, and labor to load and unload your car, depending on the venue), shipping with the show's freight provider, or using an outside carrier.

- Share storage. Two exhibitors at our show load both their booths into one crate, which then goes to storage until the next show. They split the monthly storage fee, and are only charged handling for one item instead of two.

- Get an accurate weight. Many artists are unpleasantly surprised when they are given a phone estimate for a shipment that they believe weighs "about 400 pounds," only to discover that it actually weighed 600 pounds. Provide your shipper detailed and accurate information about your shipment to avoid sticker shock.

- Combine resources. If you need to ship long distances (west coast to east, for example), inquire whether or not your shipper can consolidate shipping with other exhibitors in your vicinity. For our February show, our freight company will be calling each of our west coast exhibitors to see if they want to participate in a program that will pick up their freight from their studios, bring it to a central consolidation point (probably in Arizona), then combine all that freight onto one truck for the trip to Philadelphia. It requires some coordination and delicate timing on the part of your freight provider, but can save everyone money (and is definitely better for the environment than having ten separate trucks driving cross country).

A loose affiliation

I just finished printing and stuffing a mailing to craft guilds. The Buyers Market offers a complimentary 10 x 10 space to approved guilds to show the work of at least five of their members who haven't wholesaled before.

The program is ideally suited to those just getting started, and would be a great resource for a lot of the Do-It-Yourself craft groups out there, but right now all of them are loosely organized. I would love to see them take the extra step of getting non-profit status (which would make them eligible for grants, donations, not to mention fabulous programs like ours). But are the requirements for forming an official non-profit (board of directors, reports, tax filings) antithesis to the whole idea of these groups?

More information on forming a non-profit