I just returned from setting up and working in the C&T Publishing booth at the National Art Materials Trade Association (NAMTA) annual trade show, which took place this past week at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis. I’m exhausted right now, but still feeling so inspired by all the great people I met and excited about the warm reception our new products received at the show.
Our booth was small, but we couldn’t have landed a better location. We exhibited in the MacPherson’s row, and not only does the MacPherson’s team make great booth neighbors, but they get a lot of foot traffic, which we also benefited from. Here are some photos of our booth…
Our Business Development Manager, Mary Wruck, with Peter Overpeck, one of our Independent Sales Reps in the Art Materials market
After a hideously early flight, and a grueling day of booth set up, the show began, and I spent the first day of the show demoing some very new products we launched at the show.
Me at the demo table
I know you are itching to hear about the new products we launched, so here are the details…
Lesley Riley’s TAP™ Transfer Artist Paper will be released this June. These 8.5″ x 11″ iron-on image transfer sheets are available in two quantities, a 5-pack, and an 18-pack. You can inkjet print, paint, stamp, or draw an image onto TAP and it will come out clear, crisp, and vibrant on virtually any surface—fabric, paper, wood, glass, canvas, metal, etc. It’s a lot of fun to play with and works especially well with fast2fuse and Shape-Flex interfacings, Lutradur, and Ready-to-Go! Blank Canvas Books, even when these surfaces have been pre-painted or inked!
Ultra-Light Lutradur® is just like our Lutradur® Mixed Media Sheets, except at a weight of 25 grams, it’s a lot more sheer. Also, it comes as one 20” x 2 yd piece, unlike our Lutradur sheets, which comes as a pack of 8.5″ x 11″ sheets. You can run Ultra-Light Lutradur through your inkjet printer though—just cut it to size, coat it with clear medium, such as Liquitex® Matte Gel Medium, let it dry, and secure it to a piece of plain paper for stability, before sending it through from your manual feed tray. Ultra-Light Lutradur® will be available in July 2010.
Silicone Release Paper, to be released in August 2010, comes in a convenient package of 10 qty. 8.5″ x 11″ sheets and 2 qty. 17″ x 22″ sheets. These are the best sizes for tracing and transferring small and large patterns. NOTHING seems to stick to these sheets, so Silicone Release Paper is the perfect companion product for our TAP transfers. They protect both your iron and your ironing surface from the sticky residue of fast2fuse and the ink on the TAP transfers.
These three products are made for each other, and it was great to demo them all together. This photo gives a great view of some Ultra-Light Lutradur that is arranged below a demo sample made from TAP, Ultra-Light Lutradur, and a piece of fast2fuse®.
To make the above sample, I inkjet printed an image of an albino peacock on to a sheet of TAP, then transferred it on to a piece of Ultra-Light Lutradur that had been prepped with some orange paint. I then fused the Ultra-Light Lutradur on to a piece of fast2fuse, which added stability. All I’d need to make this piece into a lovely postcard is a piece of paper to fuse to the other side. So simple and fun!
The butterfly and pink rhino quilt (by Susan Carlson, for her book Serendipity Quilts out this June) TAP transfers I’d pre-printed were a big hit and many a buyer took one of the finished samples with them.
Here is an action shot of the pink rhino quilt image being “tapped” onto Shape-Flex®. You can see the Silicone Release Paper sheet beneath the piece.
When the exhibit hall closed at the end of the day, we rushed back to the hotel and freshened up before departing for the President’s Reception event, which was held at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art. Soon after we arrived at the beautiful venue, Ali Snow, C&T Publishing’s Sales, Marketing, and Manufacturing Coordinator, and I stole away outdoors and found the perfect place for a few minutes of some much-needed decompression.
Of course we checked our phone messages and emails while enjoying our moment of tranquility.
A few minutes later, we bounded back indoors and enjoyed a fabulous evening of eating, drinking, and mingling with our new friends in the Art Materials industry.
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5 Comments
That TAP transfer paper looks really, really exciting. What I want to know is, if you use it on quilters’ cotton, will the image survive the washing machine?
Thanks!
Allie Aller
Hi Allie
When an image is transferred with TAP, it is fused into the fibers of the fabric (any fabric) and becomes part of the material – so the image doesn’t fade at all no matter how many times you wash it. You can even wash it in a bleach cycle without the worry of any bleeding.
I’ve never attended this event but hope to next year. Thnaks for sharing. Kathy Peterson Inspired.
Hi from NZ what a great stall display, am fascinated by the transfer paper demo. Hope will be able to buy it in NZ. Thanks for sharing the tips and exhibitions. Ann H
Fantastic displays…and very important these days, may be more than ever! Thanks for sharing.