Hawaii artisans and professional crafters can soon learn how to boost their business to the national level, as principals of the Arts Business Institute are en route to stage two-day workshops on three islands.
Graduates of the workshops may learn the lessons needed to get to the "national marketplace," said ABI Executive Director Carolyn Edlund.
Local opportunities are somewhat limited by the ability of most craftspersons to take enough time off from their day job to prepare to attend as many craft fairs as possible.
Then there’s inventory-building at nights and on weekends between kids’ athletic events and other responsibilities.
The laundry isn’t going to do itself, after all.
Some especially industrious folk have made it to the annual Made in Hawaii Festival, viewed by many as the biggest possible local opportunity given the wholesale buyers that visit booths before the festival opens to the public.
There are other massive annual craft fairs also at Blaisdell Center and others at various places around the island.
They needn’t be the end-all, however.
Hawaii artisans could find themselves, say, in a combined booth at the Buyers Market of American Craft, "a major event that could shake up people’s lives and transform them, help them become full-time artists," Edlund said.
Buyers from art galleries and other retail outlets attend the annual event, which is a top trade show for North American-made jewelry and gifts of all sorts.
The leading force behind the Arts Business Institute is Wendy Rosen, not the lady who teaches tie-dyeing in Kailua (though she has reserved a spot in the workshop), but a different Wendy Rosen, who authored "Crafting as a Business," publishes AmericanStyle and NICHE magazines and is producer of the Buyers Market.
The two-day workshops will be Thursday and Friday at Volcano Art Center on Hawaii island; Sept. 9 and 10 on Maui and Sept. 12 and 13 at Ward Warehouse.
"I’ve so wanted this to happen for so many years," said Debra Zeleznik, owner of the Rubber Stamp Plantation in Kakaako. She and Maui sustainable jewelry maker Mckenna Hallett are helping to organize the workshops on their respective islands.
Registration for the workshops costs $250, however, the following coupon codes will cut $25 off the cost and are island-specific: VOLCANO2013; MAUI2013, and OAHU2013.
Rosen and Edlund also offer optional 15-minute, one-on-one consultations for $25, which will be scheduled for attendees at the end of either of the two days of the workshop, which on Oahu is co-sponsored by Na Mea Hawaii.
On Oahu, attendees also can get additional information from the Patsy T. Mink Center for Business and Leadership.
———
On the Net:
» www.artsbusinessinstitute.org
» americanmadeshow.com
» www.mcbl-hawaii.org
Trivia for prizes
Advertising is hardly trivial for those in the industry, which means those who show up for the Admania Quizshow event at Dave & Buster’s on Sept. 12 likely will be out for blood, guts and glory — not to mention door prizes.
Nevertheless, the American Advertising Federation Hawaii Chapter invites anyone who’s got game to sign up a team of as many as eight people, or to show up and join an ad-hoc team.
Sample questions ask how many years the Nike "Just Do It" slogan has been in use, and which recent phone spot was directed by Roman Coppola.
Advance-sale tickets are $25 for members and $30 for non-members, and team tables cost $175. To make things more, let’s say, interesting, teams will have chances to send rivals to jail for $5, which is the same cost to post bail for jailed teammates.
———
On the Net:
» www.aafhawaii.com/admania2013
