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:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bdxXajE9Y8
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
httpv://youtu.be/zE24-1txBlI