CODA - Partnership Potential Amazing

On behalf of ANCA, I attended the annual Craft Organization Development Association on April 6 and 7, 2010. It was held in a riverside factory building restored by the Savannah College of Art & Design. Lovely big windows to admire the tankers coming into the Savannah port and the clean line of that arched bridge into South Carolina.

As hosts, the college and Camille and Bill Ronay, of Georgia Made Georgia Grown LLC, should be very proud of this year's conference.

In addition to the always anticipated networking of craft program administrations from across the North American continent and a great slot of speakers, the conference, this year, brought together a number of key players in the craft industry. In a time when continued funding from typical sources is less and less likely, partnerships between public and private, and between craft organizations, is key to providing ongoing great service to our artisans and retailers.

My hats off to the board. Their partnering beyond the traditional started at the 2007 annual CODA conference held in Calgary, Canada. Tom McFall, executive director of the Alberta Craft Council and host of the 2007 conference, was elected to the CODA board during this year's annual meeting held at the conference.

The board offered the opportunity to many public and private and craft organizations to collaborate.

They invited Wendy Rosen, founder of the Rosen Group. She is such a dynamo. She is so ready to share with everyone. It was just a joy to meet this fiercely focused, cut out the bull and let's get down to it woman who has built a business empire out of her deep love of the crafts industry.

I hope that many of the craft organizations take her up on her offer to provide an issue or was it a subscription to American Style as a gift for those who sign up as members during fund-raising drives. It's a package - it costs only $8 per new member. Contact American Style. And she had another program of interest - rubber stamping $10 bills with "FindAmericanMade.com. 600 craft galleries are participating.

I sat in on the World Craft Council North American meeting and became a member. There are five chapters. While the North American one has been dormant for 20 years, all the other chapters, but especially the Asian one with its 2,000 active members, have been collaborating on an incredible number of activities.

As well, an board member from the American Craft Council came to be part of the presentation of CODA's annual Leadership Award Presentation to "honor Andrew Glasgow; whose leadership, creative thinking and outstanding service have had a significant impact on the crafts field."

In these changing times, I commend CODA board members for giving us all an opportunity to sit at the same table.

Artisans Talk About How the Year Has Been

The Sparkle Christmas and NCCC Craft Fair were held, respectively, on Dec. 5 and 6, in Saranac Lake.

Though shoppers seemed to be cautious overall, a number of artisans such as Lisa Nortz, Silver Bench; Lis Barsuglia-Madsen, Heirlooms; Carol Clarridge, Whiteface Mountain Gourmet Syrup; Rose Bartiss, Rose's Goats - Goats Milk Soap, and Sharon Benesch, Benesch Creative Enterprises (via recent phone call) all had a good year.

Lisa Nortz' skilled and creative jewelry worksmanship has this exquisite handmade feel/look that has customers coming back each year to find her at the shows she regularly attends. She wears a beautiful collection of her work including a bracelet and ring she made during high school and a pendant necklace with free form glass stone on sterling silver triangle. She has received custom orders from her collection, particularly of the pendant necklace. Sadly, she will probably not come to Buyer Days (March 31/April 1, 2010) this year. She is making practical and sensible choices. Buyer Days had become more of a occasion to catch up with others while escaping cabin fever in Saratoga Springs than a show where she was making money the last few years.

Her niece, Emily Mae Widrick, Silver Streams Jewelry, a jeweler for the last few years, shows similiarities in style with Lisa, and Butch and Pat Bramhall, her grandparents as well as Lisa's parents, from whom she has learned yet she is already finding her own style. I see I had already picked up her card last year as well someplace along my travels.

All of the above make their own chains. And the richness of that silver work sets them apart.

Another jeweler who was a delight to find at the NCCC Craft Fair was Edison Collections. While training to become an airplane mechanic and laid-up last early winter, he decided to make jewelry out of found materials as Christmas presents. Now he and his girlfriend already have a number of accounts in the Lake Placid area!
Their style, presentation (ie., business card is also earring display) and use of found and recycled is distinctive. The jeweler showed me how he had polished the ironslug residue from the mines of yesteryear to create pendants. I have myself collected these pieces for their beautiful blue color and was delighted to see it used.

I'll be back tommorrw to post a few more tales from the front-line.

Summer Exhibits and Awards - Ceramics, Pastels and Rustic Tomorrow

Some of the Region's Best Ceramics on Exhibit in Lake Placid
“Contemporary Ceramics Invitational” which includes the works of 26 artists, is featured at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts through July 6. The exhibit features ceramics works by the following artists: Art Baird of Holland Patent; Regis Brodie of Gansevoort; Anne L. Burnham of Parishville; Cheri Cross of Jay; Robert Crystal of Cornwall, Vt.; Kierstin Egge of Elizabethtown; Leslie Ferst of Cambridge; Karen Ford of Westport, Conn.; Melissa Greene of Deer Isle, Maine; Julia Gronski of Jay; Lee Kazanas of Jay; Myung Rye Kim of Baltimore, Md.; Ron Korczynski of Natrona Heights, Pa; Ronald Larsen of Canton; Berry Matthews of Plattsburgh; Joel Neff of Bronx; Christine Owen of Wappinger Falls; Mary Lou Reid of Saranac Lake; Jackie Sabourin of Plattsburgh; Robert Segall of Upper Jay; Peter Shrope of Rainbow Lake; Andrew Van Assche of Plainfield, Mass.; Carol Vossler of Saranac Lake; Erik Wilson of Peru; and Sue and Terrance Young of Jay. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, June 4

Awards at Northeast National Pastel Exhibit
From ninety-one pastel entries in the exhibit, twenty one were selected to receive awards. Among those were Art, Craft and Foods publication participants, Martha Deming, of Remsen, who received an award for "Trio" and David Francis, a member of the Shirt Factory Artist Association, who received an award and $100 for "The Game Shelf". The organizer of the exhibit, Arts Center/Old Forge, is also in Art, Crafts and Foods this year. Adirondack Express, May 27

Art, Crafts and Foods
The Art, Crafts and Foods along the Scenic Byways of the Adirondack North Country is a 12 page, full color booklet featuring 51 artisans and shopowners or organizations which make and/or sell regionally made creations. 40,000 has been printed and distributed to 2600 distribution points (lodgings, chambers and others) from Lake Champlain and the Canadian border to the St. Lawrence River and Lake Ontario to the Mohawk River. Download a copy from http://www.AdkNCcrafts.com or contact ANCA to request one at 518.891.6200 or anca@northnet.org.

Rustic Tomorrow at Adirondack Museum
The exhibit pairs six makers of Adirondack rustic furniture with six architects and designers. It is the brainchild of Lake Placid interior designer and author Ann Stillman O'Leary, who came up with the idea while touring the American West where contemporary rustic design is popular. She wanted to jump-start the concept in the Adirondacks, where traditional rustic without the modern flair is the norm. One of the six pairings is Wayne Ignatuk, of Jay, and architect David M. Chlld who create a child's desk with a swivel chair and birdhouse cabinet. All materials used had to be indigenous to the region.
The exhibit runs through Oct. 19 at the Adirondack Museum and then is at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts from Nov. 7 through Dec. 13. Adirondack Daily Enterprise, May 23

Welcome to
News For and About Artisans and Retailers of the Adirondack North Country here at http://adknccrafts.blogspot.com/ inbetween e-newsletters. The last e-newsletter went out in Nov., 2007. They are archived at http://www.adknccrafts.com/storiesaboutyou.php.

During the month of March,
to promote the 55 exhibitors of Buyer Days (April 2-3), the small regional gift trade show in Saratoga Springs, NY that I coordinate for the Adirondack North Country Association, I blasted all of you 4 times with exhibitor show specials, new products and best sellers and some product photos. They can still be viewed at http://adknccrafts.com/buyerdayslist.php.
Shopowners referred to the eblasts and website listing as part of their preparation to attend the show. The two day gift trade show with average exhibitor expenses of about $260 generated an average of $3897 per exhibitor in sales (orders and cash and carry) with 165 attending shopowners! The average sales per exhibitor was actually up from the 2007 show by $1147 when 156 shopowners attended. The exhibitor contact info pdf and show summary will be posted shortly at http://www.adknccrafts.com/buyerdayslist.php.

In the May 2008 Woodshop News
Bernadette Boyle, marketing and public relations manager for the American Crafts Council (ACC), said that for the 32nd annual ACC show (Feb. 22-24, 700 exhibitors) in Baltimore the turnout (20,000 visitors) roughly matched that of last year's show. Later on in the article she states that the outlook for upcoming ACC shows is positive. "Our shows saw a breakthrough in attendance in 2007. Because of the economy after 9/11, attendance slipped a bit. But in 2007 we definitely have seen it creep up so our hopes are even higher for 2008."
FMI: http://www.craftscouncil.org/ and http://www.woodshopnews.com/

In the March 2008 Woodshop News,
The Furniture Society's 12th annual conference which is to be held this year in Purchase, NY from June 18 to 21 was featured.
"More than 14 demonstrations/workshops will be offered during the conference on such subjects as working with cork, surfacing wood, composite materials, chainsaw carving and design software. ...
In discussions over the course of the conference, panelists will explore the position of studio furniture in the current debates about craft, design and fine art. They also will analyze how the perception of value gets shaped, question furniture making as a career choice and offer suggestions on how to distinguish a responsible environmental movement from a marketing" standpoint.
If I remember correctly from another article reporting on last year's conference, some 350 people attended.
FMI: http://www.furnituresociety.org/ and http://www.woodshopnews.com/