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The New Year is here, 2009 has arrived. Many new plans are being made for our business. This year you will see more new merchandise added to our inventory than ever before. We plan to freshen up our web site this spring and we are considering adding E-Patterns, Online Classes and possibly a Blog. Time is always the issue when I start to do anything new. So hopefully the time can be found to implement all of these in 2009.
We are putting everything in place for a great year and look forward to sharing it with you. |
HEADS UP … A SALE STARTS TODAY! |
Yes, and you are the first to know. It begins NOW! It is on the web, so stop, take a look and place your order now. No back orders, the sale is for in stock merchandise only. DellaAndCompany.com
CONTAINER TO ARRIVE NEXT WEEK |
Good News, For those of you waiting for the caboose, it will be in this container!!! Many of you are waiting for the caboose and we are now accepting orders. We will start shipping as soon as they arrive.
Four vintage "traveling machines", a school bus, an airplane, and two different styles of delivery trucks samples will be added to our collection. After I have tweaked the samples we should be able to have these available for sale in May.
OMPIR, WREDE AND DUNN COLLECTION |
You will find a new link on our menu, FOLK ART COLLECTIONS. Some know that I have a collection of Peter Ompir, Warner Wrede and John Dunn pieces. It pleases me to share a collage of my treasures. It is not a very large grouping, but it brings me much pleasure. I treasure them all and I think you will enjoy it as well when you view the photos I took. Other pieces will be added at a later time.
As the year unfolds I will be sharing other collections that I have gathered over the years. I am definitely a “collector”of treasures that warm my soul. I am not looking for something to start a collection. It just seems to happen. I buy something that speaks to me and as time passes pieces find me. It’s true. I had an email last night from a man on the East coast that has Ompir items for sale. I am eager to visit with him to find out how in the world he knew to contact me. Folk Art Collections
Did you notice that I said "collections"? These will be designed by several of your favorite Folk Artists. Trudy Beard, Maxine Thomas, Rosemary West, Shara Reiner and Debbie Cotton have each agreed to create a series for us. It will be a wonderful addition to our product line.
I had a nice visit with Trudy this week. She is so excited about doing a collection of ornaments for Halloween, Easter and Christmas. It will seem like Christmas all year when the ornaments start arriving.
More new ornament samples arrived this week. Our new "Village Series” was in the container. It is unlike anything we have offered before. Three dimensional New England homes complete with a chimney. A church, school house and a mercantile building will be available later.
A dozen or more ornament samples designed for Shara Reiner are in as well. Angels with dimensional faces, slipping halos and funky wire hair, a funky chicken with dimensional tail feathers and other shapes that will make you smile and your heart sing. Shara received photos via email of her samples and she was thrilled. She is ready to paint as soon as FedEx delivers them. With her glowing approval I know we will love the completed pieces. She has a unique style and I love her designs.
NEW ANTIQUE REPRODUCTIONS |
In mid January we will receive the first of our much talked about new samples of antique reproductions. You could expect to see them on our web site in about 90 days.
The Pennsylvania hooded tin cradle mentioned in the last newsletter will be arriving. I am hopeful it has been reproduced to my specifications.
Books of interest to folk artists will be added to our web site. I have a “picker” that buys books for me and for several years we have been selling them at shows only. They are out of print books and are mostly hard back, only a few are soft cover. They are filled with wonderful photographs, mostly in color and a joy to look at. They cover a range of interest; antiques, River Boat painting, a few Joyce Howard books, Bauernmalerei (some of these are in German), European painted furniture - far too many categories to list here. As soon as we locate all of them we will add a list of their titles with a description to the web site. We will give you a "heads up" via email so our Folk Art Friends will be the first to know they are available.
I will return to travel teaching after being off the seminar circuit for several years. My aging parents failing health kept me at home. I will limit the number of seminars I teach. My first seminar will be in Alexandria, La. in the fall.
If you book a seminar on the way to a trade show the seminar expense for a chapter or shop will be much less as there will be no airfare. Our annual schedule is Creative Painting, Las Vegas, NV in February, SDP Show, Peoria, IL in June this year, next years location is to be announced, Artist Expo is Houston, TX in July, HOOT, Columbus, OH in August and New England Traditions Providence, RI in October.
New seminar samples will be available in late spring. Contact me to discuss Seminar information.
TRADE SHOWS VEGAS and PEORIA |
Vegas Creative Painting Conference is the last week in February. My class is full and the tins are waiting to be base coated. I look forward to visiting with you in our booth and sharing our new samples and tin pieces.
SDP’s Trade Show and Conference is in Peoria, Illinois in June. I will be teaching a Special Event there. The project is a popular one. Requests for both the tin and the pattern have arrived weekly since the classes were published. You must plan to go to Peoria. It is centrally located for so many of you. The convention accommodations are priced much better than in years past. And, of course, you will want to take classes!
Debbie Cotton has painted on our Tin Lizzie Truck. It has a Christmas Tree Farm design on one side and a Tree Farm design on the other side. Painting it this way allows you to leave the truck out all year. How clever is that?
In upcoming issues of PaintWorks there will be designs by Maxine Thomas, Rosemary West, Sonja Richardson and yours truly.
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The samples sold in November were gone in about three hours after the letter went out at 5:00 A.M. my time. Unbelievable! Many of you were disappointed because they were sold before you read my email. My email box was flooded with your emails wanting to buy a sample. So for those of you that were disappointed another "Retired Sample Sale" will be offered soon.
In order to have a level playing field for those of you interested in purchasing samples all of the samples will be displayed at one time for you to view. Then only one sample will be auctioned at a time. Bidding will last for a short period of time. The highest bid at the end of the time period will be the winner. Then in a few days another sample will be auctioned. |
The samples will be placed on the web site in a couple of weeks. They will not be on the web site when you receive this letter. We will send out an email telling you when it will start and everyone will have an equal opportunity to bid on the first day.
I am filled with optimism about the New Year. I became even more energized as I worked on the newsletter today. Our business is growing and we are pleased to offer the largest collection of tin in the industry. I know it's growth will continue.
Recently I received a letter containing “20 Tips for Making 2009 a Positive Year”. The letter is definitely worthwhile. If you are interested let me know and I will share it with you. Della@DellaAndCompany.com.
In each newsletter I remind you "to take care of you", well that is what Bill and I did three weeks before Christmas. Along with our best friends we flew to Barcelona, Spain and took a 14 day cruise. It goes without saying we had a wonderful time. We arrived home nine days before Christmas. No tree up, no shopping done, a good list made, but nothing purchased. I went online ordered a lot and then purchased gift certificates. The adults had a gift and a gift certificate and the grand children received a “fun” gift and cash. I definitely recommend it! It was the easiest shopping I have ever done.
There were no complaints from our family except our Beau and Phoebe, our grand dog. (They are shown together in the Christmas collage on the opening page of our web site.) They were a little unhappy there were no gifts for either of them on Christmas Eve. Santa did leave them some raw hide and treats so, not to worry, all is well.
I close with warmest wishes for a terrific year in all areas of your life and "remember to take care of you and think with your heart".
With a grateful heart, Della
