Archives of the Art Dog Blog from MacPherson's

Industry icon and all around bon vivant Jerry Haines passed away peacefully on Christmas day at his home in Southern California. Jerry was one of the pioneers of the contemporary USA Art materials scene, having worked with Robert Sachs, Shiva and more recently as owner of the Artist Color Wheel Company, now lovingly cared for by his son Ken. We”ll miss you Jerry, you were one of a kind!

Jerry Haines in the Garden

This just in from JM Ghent, General Manager of Curry’s in Canada:  “We have recently acquired the renowned art supplier Woolfitt’s Art Supplies in Toronto, Ontario”.  Former owner Ben Woolfitt will be moving on to create art and pursue other passions in his life. At over 100 years old, Curry’s was founded by Fred Curry in 1911, as an art supplier, framing shop and art gallery and has remained in the family to this day. Woolfitt’s will become their 12th retail location. Woolfitt’s maintained a wholesale business serving art supply stores throughout Canada. Below is Curry’s official note on their plans for the wholesale business:

Curry’s is very excited about this opportunity to blend the best of Woolfitt’s with the best of Curry’s. And after a careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision not continue with the Woolfitt’s Wholesale business. Ben Woolfitt and Bonnie Kievit have really enjoyed helping art supply retailers develop their businesses by providing them with quality materials. However, Curry’s focus and strength is on the retail side and we are not positioned to give the wholesale business the attention it requires. Therefore, we anticipate that Woolfitt’s wholesale customers will transition to distributors like MacPherson’s. We are optimistic that the wholesale customers will be well served moving forward.

Woolfitt’s in Toronto

Jim Gary

Jim Gary has joined Canson as their Southern California regional sales representative. Previously Jim had worked in a similar capacity for Daler-Rowney.

Lon Larrsen, C2F’s East coast sales manager, has announced he will retire the end of November.

Lynn Pearl

Lynn Pearl has joined  the DMC Corporation brand leaders in threads and other needlework supplies for creative stitchers. Previously Lynn had worked many years as a product manager for ColArt Americas. Her title at DMC is Product & Brand Marketing Manager.

Kirk Gillespie

Kirk Gillespie has joined Savoir-Faire as their northern California sales person. Formerly he worked for Rileystreet in Santa Rosa, C2F as a sales rep, and then for his own canvas business, American Custom Canvas in Colorado. In related news, Aaron Foppe has left Savoir-Faire to join the great new start-up Bristle Magic.

C&T Publishing’s newest addition to its popular Eco Tote collection, called Wheat Fields, will be stocked at MacPherson’s and debuts in February 2013. It features a striking art quilt inspired by Van Gogh’s painting, Wheat Fields with Cypresses. A portion of proceeds from each sale is being donated to the NAMTA Council for Art Advocacy whose mission is “to sustain, strengthen and support the art material industry through advocacy, awareness, and increased funding of art and art education. “

Eco-Tote Wheat Fields

Retailer Videos are a great way to connect with your creative customers. Check out this latest is one from Opus Art Supplies in Vancouver, BC for their “lifestyle” video collection intended to support their brand of “Resources for the Creative Individual”. It’s not about selling product – it’s about connecting artists, discovering new ways to create and inspiring more people to pick up a pen and start drawing. In this one, animator Jeff Chiba Stearns tells the viewer how he came to create an award-winning video that has more than 1.8 million views on YouTube:

Bristle Magic is a miracle product  and sells like crazy when your retail staff points out the “Magic” to customers buying brushes and paints. They will thank you! Check out this short video to see how Bristle Magic completely disintegrates oil paint off a brush! Ask your MacPherson’s sales contact for all the details, or find it in the Pricer or OEX catalog under “MVBM”. The 12 bottle POP starter assortment placed on the checkout counter is a perfect “launch” pack (item number MVBM5).

Oh, and did we mention that this video can make a terrific Facebook or blog post?! It’s fun, engaging and informative and is just the sort of content your followers will appreciate.

Four ace reporters from our west coast merchandising and sales team, Joanne Quinn Owens, Sandy Goodstein, Catherine Thoele and Gary Santos collaborated to file this brief  “curated” view of last week’s CHA mega show in Anaheim:

ArtBin’s newish Marker case and inserts are super hot items. They’re just what the professor ordered for big collections of Copic, Prisma, AD and Promarkers and we have them in stock, order now!

Princeton showcased Catalyst Contours, a hard silicone value priced decorative scrapers and blades. Besides being great for clay, these are perfect for cake decorating, and culinary arts.

Check out this video:

They look ideal for stores who serve schools with culinary depts., as well as super possibilities for all artists. The Sensu has proved to be a major “home run” so will soon be available with a Black aluminum barrel at $39.95 , and there will also be a less expensive version called the “Solo” with a short colored wood handle, the latter will retail for about $25.00.

Aitoh:  Some great new designs, a departure from the traditional Japanese designs. A great move by Aitoh on these design that can be used with mixed media, etc.

Krylon Natural Stone sprays, a must-have for Architectural, and Design departments.

Elmer’s has some great new X-Acto #1 knives in colors and ergonomic handles. They also introduced 4 sizes of Pre-cut Foamboard for time saving framing and mounting jobs. Wait till you see the Cork-backed Foamboard in 20×30, Moms and kids will go nuts! Elmer’s Glues Pro Bond advanced works like Gorilla Glue only none of the annoying foaming consumers find in the big name poly-urethane glues. Adding to the Foamboard category, we will soon have the new Board Mate Dual Tip Glue Pen for Foamboard and Corrugated Boards.

Cork Foamboard coming soon!

Liquitex Acrylic markers:  These sport complimentary colors to Liquitex Acrylics and sprays and ColArt believes that they should be located in every stockist’s Acrylic paint section adjacent to the Liquitex tubes, jars and mediums.  Two nib sizes, we tested them and they have especially good color matching to LQ Spray can color.

Liquitex Paint Marker Rack

Sakura added Copper and Black Pentouch pens in all sizes as well as calligraphy pens. The pens worked very well, good coverage, opaque, and dry quickly. These will be hot throughout the year. New mini and full displays of the Pentouch metallics will also be real winners!

More Sakura News:  There’s going to be a rolling packaging change on the Pigma, Graphic and Micron. Will be Trilingual. Going away from the clamshell to carded (will be a very slightly bigger footprint, 1/8″). This will be happening March/April.

Moore Gallery Pins

Moore Push Pins:  The numbered pins, in black on white look like a great addition. They’re the kind used at art gallery shows to reference a painting to a printed list. White tacks with black lettering, and black tacks with white lettering. They come in packs of 25, with numbers for 1-25, 26-50, 51-75, 76-100.  Is this something MacPherson’s should add to our regular inventory? Give us your feedback below in the comments area. Moore also has plastic foam board and coroplast hangers that screw into the edges of the boards. We’d like to hear how you feel about those as well.

Floracraft: We are working on options for better pricing and selection on drop ship cartons of popular Styrofoam balls and sheets. They have some terrific options for easy merchandising  with pre-packed best sellers Value-pack “PDQ” trays, for ease in stocking and displaying.

3M has some new patterned paper tape, and patterned scotch tape. They also said they’ll be bring in their own version of washi tape. We will await feedback from the field before committing.

3M decorative tape planogram

Duroedge:  Have you taken advantage of the sales possibilities of Richard Snowden’s cutting/straight edge tool called Duroedge? Designers, architects and students of these two disciplines love it. Richard has created a nice power panel, with selling signage that can be drop shipped to you at an amazing intro price. The info is coming soon to your MacPherson’s sales person.

DecoArt had a new Americana Multi Surface Satin finish paint. The bottle label design was nice, not too ‘crafty’.  Also 12 new colors of Crafter Acrylic. We liked their People Paint face & body markers $2.98 retail – just fine tip now, but they’re working on a wider tip (for more coverage) and glitter. The Team Spirit Writers (window & poster paint dauber marker) were touted as better than what’s currently on the market (easier to remove, better value for money with larger size.) $3.99 retail, available approx Feb/March – what do you think? Comments below, please! The Metallic Lustre paste is pretty cool too – water-based non-toxic metallic cream wax that you can brush or sponge on, and then buff to shine. Available in 6 colors, $6.98 retail for 1oz pot.

Metallic Lustre paste by Decoart

Crafter’s Workshop:  Find the line in our Pricer or Online Express under MVCW. Lots of cute new designs, we’ll bring the majority of these in (and we’ll take this opportunity to close out the slower sellers.) They had a great demo station and examples with spray paint, on fabric/home dec items, using acrylic mediums through them, journaling, etc. Could be some good inspiration for your Urban Art and Home Decor categories.

Jacquard: Color Magnet Dye Kits come with the color magnet pen, two colors of dye packets and alpha stencils. The kits will be pink/yellow, green/purple, red/turquoise. They won’t be shipping for at least another two months. We’ll bring these in.

Shur Tech: NEW Duck Tape in mini rolls ¾ “ x 180” rolls. Regular Duck tape roll racks are now available. Each holds 50 different facings. If you are selling lots Duck Tape (and buying it from us) we can get you one free. Get in touch with your MacPherson’s sales contact right away to secure one for your store.

Duck tape floor standing rack on wheels

Copic has new locking merchandisers.  This was much needed.

Watch for info on the new Testors Hobby and Craft Merchandiser.

Royal has new packaging on the very popular Art Essentials Art Pack Color sets. They are priced to “stack ’em high and watch ’em fly!”

Mosaic Mercantile is breathing new life into this ancient and vibrant art form. They are working closely to pair of mosaic skus with AA wood panels. Our sales team is happy to put together Mosaic Mercantile Planograms of any size to help retailers get in or expand this excellent category.

See here for for a great short 1, 2,3 how to video.

Strathmore Artist Papers™ announces its high quality fine art paper is now available in an expanded offering of large rolls. These new items were developed to meet consumer demand for a greater variety of fine art papers in roll format.

A unique selection of colors, textures and weights includes specialty grades typically not found in roll format:

• Toned Sketch, Recycled Sketch and Drawing, Charcoal
• Mixed Media, Bristol and Watercolor
• Newsprint , Drawing and Layout Bond

Artists will appreciate the convenience and flexibility of creating without size or scale limitations.  Rolls are ideal for either practice of techniques or finished artwork.

The new Fine Art Rolls Merchandiser is an attractive wire display with colorful self-sell signage. This display has 18 slots to merchandise all the Strathmore rolls, and is ideal for placement in-line or as an endcap. It also qualifies for the drop ship discount when included on a qualifying drop ship order. Visit Displays.

Fine Art Rolls are in stock and shipping from MacPherson’s DCs now. There are two great ways to buy the program:

• DC Order Deal-Buy 18 rolls of your choosing  to fill the slots in the rack from any one of our 3 DC’s at your standard roll paper Strathmore discount plus an extra 15% off(63.875%) and get the merchandiser for free. That’s all it takes to tap into this growing category.
• Drop Ship Order Deal– Buy any 6 cartons of rolls, get 50/25/15% off(68.125%) and qualify for a lower minimum order of $4,500 retail on all Strathmore products with free freight and free merchandiser.

Learn how to increase the productivity of your retail space by contacting your MacPherson’s sales representative today.

Prismacolor announces 44 New Premier Art Marker Colors. Bringing the total color assortment to 200 colors in both brush and chisel tip, the new colors will include some skin tones, neons, and lighter pastel colors. There will be a retrofit available for the art marker towers introduced last year allowing retailers to easily add the new colors to their assortment. New colors will be available in June of this year. In addition to the new open stock colors, Prismacolor will launch a new 12ct neutral grey set, 24ct portrait set, and full assortment 200ct set all in both Chisel |Fine and Brush |Fine.

Sharpie will launch 5 new NEON colors coming this April. In 5 vibrant colors of yellow, pink, orange, green and blue, the new Sharpie neon permanent marker delivers ultra-bright, colorful marking on light surfaces in daylight, and marks that turn fluorescent in black light environments. The same, bold, smooth writing experience as a Sharpie Fine marker. A counter unit display will be available in May.

Coming soon! MacPherson’s will begin shipping new 8oz and 16oz sizes of Gamblin Gamvar: The perfect picture varnish™ in February 2013.

In 2010, Gamblin introduced Gamvar in a convenient 2oz size. Based on feedback from artists and retailers, Gamblin has added 8oz and 16oz sizes.

The three sizes of Gamvar, taken together, use the same amount of space as the Gamvar boxed set, which will be discontinued.

Get Gamvar with your Winter BTS Orders and Save…

MacPherson’s is offering all sizes of Gamvar open-stock at an additional 10% off net thru the end of Winter Back-to-School. Here are the item numbers and list prices:

• Gamvar 2oz: Item #GB10052, $7.95 list
• Gamvar 8oz: Item #GB10058, $23.95 list
• Gamvar 16oz: Item #GB10516, $39.95 list

The Perfect Picture Varnish™. Gamvar saturates and gives greater depth to the colors in your painting and gives your work a unified and protective semi-gloss surface.

Developed in collaboration with the National Gallery, Gamvar goes on water-clear, stays water-clear and can be easily and safely removed with Gamsol. Gamvar is virtually odorless and ready to apply.

In addition to the gloss imparted by Gamvar, notice the greater depth and intensity of color in the painting immediately below versus the same work, before varnishing.

Varnished

Unvarnished

Please contact your friendly MacPherson’s rep to get Gamvar on your next order.

Click here to go to MacPhersonArt.com to download the order form.