The Buyers Market Experience

February - in a nutshell: prepped for the Buyers Market of American Craft wholesale show in Philadelphia. That's pretty much it.  Worked on creating a shared space with artist-friend-supertalent Christine Street of Chocolate and Steel. Designing a space based on our common banner colors and personal styles took some time - parallel, as it were, with creating new Moda di Magno designs.

I am very pleased with the way the booth turned out. Will we make a few changes before we bring the show to the August Buyers Market in Baltimore? Yes, a few minor things. We were gifted with a consultation from a long-time exhibitor at the BMAC who shared some tips and tricks to make our booth even better.

Creating new designs - well... that alternated between flashes of creativity that I could barely keep up with; ideas on scraps of paper, post-its, edges of newspapers, OMG I HAVE TO GET TO THE BENCH RIGHT NOW - and moments of staring at a notebook, starting a piece and then (thank you metal clay) rolling it up and putting it back in the package. Yech, blech, blah. With no pressure except the pressure from within - creating work that you want to share with the world (let alone the wholesale buyers of some pretty fancy places) can be a painful experience.

Artist, judge, warrior for your craft, it can be difficult to remember that order. Staying free in your mind when designing, in your hands when trying to execute that design and being prepared to stand up and explain what it is you've created (and why it is right for someone's customer) can knock you for a loop. Trying to do all of this while maintaining a normal life - tougher still. Trying to balance family, work, fulfilling orders and all the other things we do can make you feel like a trainwreck, but with a lot of help from beloved husband I pulled it together.

Communicating (sometimes in-artfully) with beloved husband about what I needed help with, what I needed opinions on (and thank God for talent in the family) what I needed photographed (everything. And for both of us.) Tom not only helped review the master plan for the trip to Philly, as a neutral party, he made recommendations about lighting the booth, he converted light fixtures for us, he drove me to not-near-our-house IKEA (twice) and he prepped the Magnomobile to depart day early to beat SNOWPOCALYPSE, part deux (the second blizzard to hit Philly in a week.) Oh yeah - and he drove me to Philly and helped us set up the booth. That's a good man.

While we were in Philly we rolled with the craziness. The fact that we were only one of two artists in row 400 to get to our booth on set up day was pretty scary. The lovely and talented Paul Dannecker managed to get in early and was quite kind to Christine and me, giving us a 'BMAC pep talk' and tips to survive the show. We worked a little MacGyver action in the evenings - generally building things out of foamcore and gluestick and reviewing what was working and what we could optimize.

We were blessed with really delightful people in our row - Donnabeth Mitchell, Eric Nelson, Ricky Bernstein and Deirdre Olson (and Jeff) were our nearest and dearest for the show. I am grateful for their humor and help. I got to meet some of my Internets peeps, Twitter friends and a blog crush. I got to meet Danielle Miller (a show veteran whose work I admire) I met Meghan Riley and Rose Braunstein and Kendra Roberts and Lauren Henry and Jill Italiano  and Annette Martinsen Kapfer and gloriously tall Kristen Stein and so many other lovely, talented and fabulous peeps.

I became part of the C.R.A.F.T. organization by virtue of winning the 2010 Craft Design Challenge at the BMAC. I also won $250 to spend on the show floor, so I sought out a Massachusetts artisan and selected Beehive Kitchenware. This Fall River, MA company is a gem and one of my favorite kitchen items (ever) is my coffee scoop that I use every day. With several weddings this year - everybody's getting goodies from my score at Beehive!

I'll write more soon - but this is a good start. H9FE85AAWSXH

Buyers Market of American Craft - the wrap up! (PT. 1)

Wowza - what a week in Philly! It's taken me a couple of days to catch up, compose my thoughts and find the time to sit and write it down!  I have more photos to post in a set, but I shot them in camera raw and need to process them (I'll try to get to it this weekend.)

For the Etsy Metal Clay team - here is the 10 x 15 booth that Christine Street and I created.  Not bad given she's in Los Angeles and I'm here in Boston and we are using Google video chat and email to make our plans! Thanks IKEA for all kinds of ways to create a nice space on a budget.

Diane and Maddis Sulg of Maddi's Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina visited us and we are very happy to send new work to their fabulous gallery!  Our conversation aboard the Moshulu last year (coupled with our entire team wishing them good luck at the Niche Awards) was still in their minds as they walked our aisle and spoke to other artists. (More on our aisle-mates tomorrow!)

Wendy Rosen, Arts Advocate (and all around swell lady) giving a pep talk to several artist-friends/exhibitors and giving all of us a big push on FindAmericanMade.com - she forced us to empty our wallets and stamp Find American Made on all our money. I'm guessing it's probably defacing government property - but what Wendy asks SHALL BE DONE!

Tired, feeling goofy and giddy and happy that we survived SNOWPOCALYPSE - here we are as Charlie's Angels? Crafty Angels? Overtired Crazies?

Buyers Market of American Craft - Day 3

Super tired, but super awesome few days in Philadelphia!  I'll write more when I get back to Boston - including a list of stores where you can go in and ask for Moda di Magno!

Short version of Philly - blizzard, arrive a day early (before a flake flew,) have a lot of great food, meet super talented artists, build booth in a row of really nice people, have more great food, make plans for world domination on the last day of the show tomorrow, pack up and get out of dodge before the snow flies!

BTW - started today with a great kick in the pants - won the C.R.A.F.T. Design Challenge by creating a small space display with 5 stunning artisan pieces and some display props. Many thanks to CRAFT for a year's membership and $250 toward the purchase of artisan work at the BMAC.  I'll be talking about CRAFT more in upcoming days as they are one of the sponsors of American Craft Week (October 1 - 10, 2010) a week-long celebration of handmade art from the US.

Some snaps:

Diane and Maddis Sulg of Maddi's Gallery in Charlotte, North Carolina stopped by the booth to place a re-order with me and Christine Street!  So awesome to see and visit with the 2009 Niche Retailers of the Year.  I'm sending a whole lot of gorgeous rings to your way NC!

Christine Street of Chocolate and Steel with Diane Sulg of Maddi's Gallery.

Wendy Rosen, Art Advocate imparting words of wisdom and advice to Rose Braunstein of My Friend Roze, Kendra Roberts of Kendra Studio Jewelry, Lauren Henry of Lauren Henry, Christine Street of Chocolate and Steel, and Jill Italiano of Jill Italiano (holla tweet lady!)

Buyers Market of American Craft - Booth #422 Moda di Magno

I am seven days away from the Buyers Market of American Craft in Philadelphia. New gems made, currently being photographed by the amazing (and patient and awesomely awesome) Thomas Magno. Show furniture ready, line list nearly there, comfy shoes at the ready. Freaking out? Yup, a little. But I'm really looking forward to sharing the new stuff before I go. Now off to sleep (before 2am!)  In other news - the new website launched - take a peek at www.LoriMagno.com