Mr. Beau Jangles   Beau is looking out his “window to the world” wishing he could be out on a beautiful spring day taking a walk. He spends a great deal of time on the bench in our dining room checking to see what is going on out there.   The bluebonnets are blooming on the country roads to our farm and, like Beau, I would like to take a walk too. However, today it is not meant to be for either of us. Spring arrived bringing an explosion of blossoms to our area and new tin and designs to our warehouse. I embrace it all with great expectations for a wonderful year in 2008.

Bill and I are working hard to get the new items in and ready for our trip to the SDP Conference in Tampa. If you have not made plans to attend there is still time.

Rosemary West and I will be teaching a Special Event. This is our third year to sponsor a Special Event. It is a fun, fun time and a wealth of information is shared. You learn Rosemary’s dry brushing techniques, how to prep old and new tin and how to “mud” or antique, my way.

Many designers are painting on our tin pieces in a variety of styles and techniques. A number of them will have samples in our booth and others will have them on the trade floor in Tampa.

SHARA REINER ...  A new pattern painted by Shara on our Double French Flower Bucket and is a smashing success! We were out of the buckets as well as her packet for a short time. Both now are back in stock. Many of you ordered the bucket and received the pattern free this week. That is a bargain and will be available until March 29. Purchase in our cart. Her sample will be in our booth at Tampa.

Shara will be painting on a new Folk Art Tin lamp of ours soon. It is destined to become a very special piece. The tin will be available online in late May and at the trade show in Tampa.

MAXINE THOMAS ... Two more new photos of projects by Maxine were just added to the web today. That makes three new designs painted on our tin since the first of the year. The candle box and the watering can patterns and tin can be ordered from us now. The new large clock pattern will be released in Tampa. Both the tin and the patterns will be available in our booth and online at that time.

View all three projects on our home page here.

ROSEMARY WEST ... We have a photo of a new pattern by Rosemary on the web, but it will not be available to purchase until after the Tampa Special Event we are teaching. It is painted on two pieces of tin, a coffee pot and a new trinket box. The coffee pot is a replica of an antique Dutch coffee pot. The box is a reproduction of a beautifully painted antique box that I purchased from Nancy’s Fancys at the HOOT Show several years ago. See photo.

JANE ALLEN ... Many of you don’t know Jane, but you have seen her patterns on our web site and in our booth. Jane helped out at most of the shows this year. I met her in a chapter seminar I taught a couple of years ago and she has become a good friend. We introduced several patterns designed by her at the SDP Show in Anaheim last year. Jane’s style is sweet, fun and uplifting. The quality of her patterns is excellent. Many of her patterns contain color step by steps, very good instruction and good photos.

At the writing of this letter Jane in the Pocono’s at the MAD Show. My ornaments as well as Jane’s are on display and she is selling our tin. It is the debut for her five new patterns that have recently been added to our web site on the home page.

OTHER ARTISTS painting on our tin …

Trudy Beard, Sonja Richardson, Debby Forshey Choma and Chris Thornton have just released new designs on our products.

Are you ready for a sale for Folk Art Friends only? I put a package of seven items together that is a retail value of $126.00 and will offer the whole group for $76.00. Please use discount code tinsale to receive the sale price in our shopping cart. These could become gifts, samples for future classes, pieces to paint for yourself or paint them for resale. This offer is good for two weeks only. The sale is not advertised on our web site.

Regular Retail Value $126.00  ...   Your Cost 76.00

FT-2073 Scoop .......................12.50

FT-2069 Candle Box ................21.50

FT-2008 Document Box ...........22.00

FT-2089 Med. Pail ................... 5.00

FT-2165 Sm. Tea Kettle ...........15.00

FT-2055 Lg. Round Tray .........18.00

FT-2099 Set 3 Heart Boxes ..32.00

NOTE: If you have friends that would like to take advantage of our sale and they are not on our Folk Art Friends list they should go to the web and join our mailing list. As soon as we receive their request we will send a letter to them telling them how to order at the sale price

Four trade shows remain in 2008. Bill and I look forward to each of them. We will be exhibiting and teaching at all of the following shows. The last week in May will find us at the SDP Conference in Tampa, then on to Houston for the Artist ExpoShow in July, August is the HOOT Show in Columbus, Ohio and in October we will finish out our schedule at New England Traditions Show in Providence, RI. There is ample time to register for all of these shows. We will be exhibiting and I will be teaching at the Creative Painting Conference Show in February of 2009. My project will be on our web site soon.

All of the shows listed above have catalogues available now with the exception of the New England Traditions and the Vegas Creative Painting Conference Show; their books will be available soon. Visit our Seminar/Event page for details.

Coffee pots, trinket boxes, ornaments, clocks and other new pieces will be arriving in time for the Tampa Show. Our much awaited “Folk Art Tin Lizzie’s” will also be in the next container. There are four adorable cars and a truck that will prove to be as popular as our Folk Art Train.

Aunt Daisy's Coupe

Parson's Carriage

Family Chariot

Vintage Truck

Junior's Roadster

 We have seventeen new ornaments and they will be available in Tampa. These are not puffed so it will be a brand new look for us. Photos of these will be posted in May.

We will have another large shipment of Folk Art Trains arriving in mid May. When they arrive I will send a ’heads up’ email. When you receive the email telling you they are in please go to the web and order and that will place you in line for one. We will not be taking orders in advance.

If you are a shop owner remember we cannot sell the trains at a discount as our cost will not permit us to do that.

The Folk Art Tin Caboose sample has arrived and it is terrific! You can expect the caboose to be available early in August. I will keep you posted on the arrival date.

Other new tin designs will be arriving in late summer hopefully in time for HOOT; if not they will be available at NET. A “sure winner” is our new Spice Rack with small tins. The tins are shaped in the form of old counter top bins; in miniature. Brenda Stewart owns the original one painted by Nancy Bateman. More updated news about our new products in the next Folk Art Journal.

What else is on the drawing board? I am working on small village buildings that you can paint for the holidays or be used as accent pieces on your mantle, on wide window ledges or table table tops. Other new tin will be a wheel barrow in two sizes that could hold lovely painted Easter Eggs and a Witches Hat in several sizes. These could be on your painting table by the end of the year.

More news about other products I am developing in the next Folk Art Journal. As I said earlier, it t is going to be a very creative year!

I will offer a few of my older samples for sale in Tampa. They will be sold “as is”. I hope to complete a number of new smaller pieces that I am painting to sell in Tampa, if not they will be offered for sale at shows later this year.

For sometime now I have planned to place discontinued, old samples on the web, but since some of them are shop worn I felt it would be best for customers to be able to see them up close and personal.

If you will supply email addresses of chapter members and painting friends that would like to receive our newsletter we will make a contribution to your chapter. The list of email addresses must accompany your request to be considered.

As an added bonus we will send a 25% off certificate to each of the new names on your list along with the steps for using it to purchase our products.

The newsletter is longer than usual as we have so many new products and information to be shared. Look for another letter before we leave for Tampa.

Take care of you, hugs, Della