www.Rusticwood.com has new floor lamp with pack basket. Nice!

Today I'm preparing confirmations for some 40 Buyer Day vendors. Most of them should be going out by Monday, Jan. 30. I enjoy looking at what's new in the submitted w/s catalogs and brochures. As usual Steve and Marilyn of www.Rusticwood.com have been busy developing new product lines. Marilyn now offers silhouette lampshades. Photos of product look great - can't wait to see them live at Buyer Days.

Congratulations to Rob Igoe Jr.

Since October 2005 Rob has become the owner of North Country Books (www.northcountrybooks.com) which is located in Utica, NY. Rob has plans in the works which may be of interest to regional artisans who wish to expand their w/s markets. Check in with him at Buyer Days, April 6 and 7, at the City Center in Saratoga Springs.

www.harrywirtz.com exchanges links with www.adknccrafts.com and www.adirondack.org

Nadia,

Note that I have included the Adirondack North Country Association and Adirondack North Country Crafts in the links on my site’s Links page : http://www.harrywirtz.com/links.html. Thank you for your continued interest in my services.

Harry-- Harry Wirtz
Words & Pictures
Edinburg, NY 12134
phone: 518 863 8636web
www.harrywirtz.com
email: harry@harrywirtz.com

Changes are in store for Adirondacks Out of Hand, makers of Adirondack Chandler hand-dipped candles

Dear Nadia,

Changes are in store for Adirondacks Out of Hand, makers of Adirondack Chandler hand-dipped candles. This year our wholesale and internet sales increased by 30% due to our improved website, and new wholesale customers. As a result we have made a decision to close our retail store in Willsboro and concentrate on serving our wholesale customers. We will continue to attend local Farmer's Markets and the better retail craft shows. We now have a shopping cart on our website. I must thank the first few customers for their patience with my novice web skills, but it is getting faster and easier with each order. I would also like to thank Tim Holmes of Adirondackcraft.com for his excellent marketing of our candles. We had a banner year for our products on his website.

Goals for 2006 include development of a wholesale website, improvement of our soy wax candles, and a couple of new products to be introduced this year. The school fund raiser sponsored by Wayne Rabideau was also a great success. Our new location for our wholesale production is 92 Creative Way, Essex, NY 12936. Check out our website changes at www.adirondackchandler.com.

Chris Hurd

Most of region's visitors use web to research destination

86 percent of the visitors to the High Peaks region used the internet as their primary source for their vacation research, according to a 2005 conversion analysis done by the Lake Placid/Essex County Convention and Visitors Bureau. And 51% of the analysis respondents selected relaxing/dining/shopping as the activity category they were the most interested in.

27 % percent of holiday shopping was done online, up by 30% from last year. Bricks-and-mortar stores received 68 %, a 10% decrease from 2004 and catalog buying represented 5%. Summary results are from fifth annual Holiday eSpending Report by Goldman, Sachs and Co., Nielsen/Net Rating and Harris Interactive.

As Kim Rielly concludes in her article "A professional, well-designed Web site that promotes and differentiates a business' product can allow the small retailer to compete, and to survive the seasons in which walk-in traffic is slower. Sara Pratt, owner of Bath and Body Basics in the Alpine Mall in Lake Placid states that 70% of her sales come from her online shop. Sara offers online shoppers a percentage off online sales or free shipping.
Small Retailers Compete on the Web, Kim Rielly, communications director for the LP/Essex Visitors Bureau, Denton Publications, Jan., 14, 2006 , p.5

Niche Award won by Ralph Prata of Bloomingdale, NY

"Sound Chaser" by Ralph Prata of www.RalphPrata.com in Bloomingdale, NY is one of six finalists in the Home: Garden Art/Sculpture category of the annual www.Nichemag.com Awards program. This program recognizes the outstanding creative achievements of American and Canadian craft artists who produce work for craft galleries and retail stores. Judging criteria are based on technical excellence, both in surface design and form; market viability; and a distinct quality of unique and original thought. The annual Niche arts competition received more than 1,000 entries and jurors selected up to six finalists in each of the 38 categories. Awards will be presented at a ceremony on Feb. 19 at the Buyers Market of American Craft in Philadelphia. Woodshop News, Feb. 2006, p.18.

Many activities for Arts and Culture for Oswego County

On January 11, 2006, Michele Southgate presented Arts & Culture for Oswego County at the Oswego Network of Entrepreneurs (ONE) weekly wednesday meeting sponsored by the Oswego Community Development Office. She talked about how the Arts provides a way to improve the Quality of LIfe and make Oswego County more attractive to tourists. Arts & Culture provides grants to artists and organizations for arts programming. The Artists market showed how effective the McDonald's building was as a retail space. A&C is now exploring an Artists' cooperative. And is very involved int he 2020 arts group--implementing the 2020 plans Arts related tasks.

Art Walk during the Warm Up Oswego Festival has 14 business locations downtown. Artists from all over Oswego County will display their works as well as Dan Reynolds of Reynolds Unwrapped, a cartoon artist, who will display his work at the Oswego Armory.

A& C also sponsors the Oswego Film Group. and is involved with the Home & Garden Show , April 29 & 30 at the Armory.

ONE witnessed the first paycheck presented to Michele after more than a year's volunteer service as Executive Director. Thanks Michele for all your hard work and keeping this important community organization together and thriving! (excerpt from ONE meeting minutes)