ASI 59 "Special Edition" - NAMTA Trade Show Part 1

Welcome back to Art Supply Insiders. My name is Jeff Morrow, and today we have a very special edition for you. We're on the floor of the 2023 National Art Materials Trade Association Convention called Ation. We'll be talking to the vendors. We'll be bringing all the new products to you into the arts and crafts world.

But first, if you'd like to hear more of these podcasts, please hit the subscribe button on your preferred podcast platform and we'd appreciate it. If you tell a friend. If you'd like to show your support, please consider going to our website and hitting the support button@www.art supply insiders.com.

Now, let's get to the good stuff.. 

We just walked into the deco booth and we're talking with Tom from Deco. Tom, how you doing today? I'm doing great, thank you. Well, it looks like you've got a lot of really neat stuff here. Anything new that you're showing here at the show? Yeah, absolutely. We have, uh, four or five items that are new, um, and I'd love to tell you about 'em.

Please tell me. Okay, so, um, we're. Uh, headquartered out of Kentucky. So, uh, we decided we would do a small batch, uh, paint line, so kind of playing off the bourbon, uh, industry that, that, that we know. Yeah. So we have a, uh, a small batch, uh, acrylic paint, um, that's using high quality products. It's a little bit higher price point than your average craft.

Paint. Um, and it comes in a four ounce jar instead of the typical two ounce, uh, bottle. Um, so this is a, uh, really excited about it, a, a really beautiful color palette. And then we also have, in addition to that, is we've partnered with some influencers and created some custom colored curated kits. Of theirs and, uh, inside the kit are some project ideas using those colors in the kit.

And, uh, yeah. So it's, uh, and they're really unique styles. We have three different ones right now of three artists, uh, that we've partnered with, and they're really fun. And, and the, the product is actually called Small Batch. That's right. Yeah. It's Deco Art, small Batch. So, uh, and it's a really, a smaller jar, right?

How big are those jars? Uh, four ounce. Um, so you're gonna get twice as much as you get in our typical two ounce, uh, bottle. Okay. That, that makes perfect sense to me. That looks like a great line. What else do you have this new? Yeah, so, so we've seen a huge trend in, um, what the kids are doing, uh, younger, younger demographic with going to Goodwill.

They're, they're repurposing clothes, um, so clothes and, and items that they're finding at. At flea markets and, and, and garage sales and things like that. So we're, we've developed, uh, two paints. It's all under the thrift flip, uh, brand, which is kind of, yeah, it's a little tough to say, but there's a textile, uh, color palette and then there's a multi-surface color palette.

So the. Textile, we're seeing a lot of, you know, jean jackets, jeans, if you see the display here, um, we've got, uh, you know, kids are customizing and personalizing the clothes and then they're also, uh, you know, can take any hard surface or regular craft surface and, and use our thrift. Flip paint on that and it works great.

And it's called Thrift Flip? Correct. Wow. Wow. Don't say that fast. I'm not going to say it fast. Uh, cuz my wife is absolutely gonna love this kind of product. Anything else? Yeah, let's, uh, if we want to come down, we've got a new, um, water marbling, which is, uh, a really interesting, uh, Product. You, uh, basically what you're doing with water marbling is you're thickening the water.

So we have a medium to do that. You mix it into the water, and then we've, uh, we've, uh, made specialized, uh, formula of the paints that you drop onto the water. They sit on top of it and they, they maintain their beautiful color. And then you, we have tools where you can mix and create. Patterns you can dip, uh, anything from paper to tennis shoes, canvas, tennis shoes, uh, you can do on wood or leather.

Uh, and then we've also done fabric where we've created these beautiful, um, quilts out of the fabric. So, um, Tom, this is great. If, if our audience could see what I'm looking at right now, you'd be so. So where do they go if they wanna see more about this? Your, your website? Yeah. Come to our website@decoart.com and, uh, we'll have information about all these products and, and more so, so that's deco art.com.

Tom, thank you very much. Yeah, thank you. 

So I've just walked into this real. Cool Booth and I've walked into a company called Trekell creative, amplified. What is Trekell? Created, amplified. And I'm talking with Andrew and Courtney. So, uh, Trak is actually the owner's last name of the company. Did I say it wrong?

Trekell. Hey, it's Trekell, it's Trekell TRIL, whatever you want it to be. So I was trained to say,Trekell so, Trekell, Trekell. So, uh, creativity amplified is just our tagline. Ah, yes, yes. So tell me what Trekell does. So we, uh, started off actually manufacturing nail brushes for acrylic fingernails back in the eighties.

Really? Yes. And, uh, the owner always had the artist brushes on the side because it's the same process to make a nailbrush as it is an. Brush. Yeah. And um, it just kind of, in the early nineties it was there, it kind of did it sing. And then when I started in the early two thousands, he wanted me to try something with the, the art brushes.

I didn't know a thing about art and I was just kind of like, all right. And that was when social media was taking off, started finding artists on there, asking him questions. What do you guys want? What are you looking for? Yeah. And kind of expanded the brush line just based off of that alone. And then one of our artists, his father made his, uh, wooden canvases in his garage and he was like, I really think you guys should expand to doing, you know, wood products.

So come down to my dad's house and he'll show you guys how to make a cradle panel. Really. So yeah, so we went down there, learned how to make panels, opened up a wood shop, and then from there we started making different shape panels, kind of realize that there's this, um, need in the market for these unique shapes.

And um, Halloween is actually our biggest time of year because we offer. Coffin shape panels, skulls, uh, pumpkins, tombstones, whatever you can think of. Yeah. So that's what we do. Now we're known for our, our unique, uh, canvas shapes, and then we work with, um, some, I guess you could call 'em celebrities in the artist world, our protein artists, they get to, uh, create their own.

Brush sets with their own handle colors, uh, you know, put a sticker in there, something like that. So just very artist centric. And we are, we have a, a younger following and we just try to put out there what everybody's asking for. It'd be different. So if somebody wants to go and see more of your product, I'm assuming you have a website right?

Correct. So everything is on our website@tril.com. We offer a tiny bit on Amazon. Not too much, but we definitely are trying to push into more retail because there has been a demand for us to be more accessible and we totally understand it and we want to be out there for everybody. So Tril is. T R E K E L l.com.

Is that right? Yep, that's correct. And you know, there's a ton of brushes out there in the marketplace. Why do people come to Trak for their brushes? I honestly think it's just the culture. They just love what we do. They, um, They love the artists that we support. And it's all just about that. I mean, people are always supporting a brand more so than the product, I believe.

So there are really good brushes out there and um, I think that's just the only thing that sets us apart is just what we're doing behind the scenes. Well, this is a company that you definitely have to go and check out because they are innovative in what they do. And again, give us the. It's tril.com. Www.trekell.com. Courtney, thank you very much for all your time. Definitely, thank you. 

So I'm walking by a booth here and I'm seeing a product that just really caught my eye. The name of the company is Paint Puck, and underneath it it says Brush Cleaner. And we're gonna be talking with Dawson, who is the owner and creator of it.

Dawson, how you doing today? I'm doing great. I'm doing great. How are you, Jeff? I'm doing fine. Tell us a little bit about this incredible product that you've got here. Okay. Well, it all, it all started out about six years ago when I was doing a painting of my own. I was, uh, going between colors on a lot of the same brushes, trying to paint this landscape of Hawaii, uh, for a mentor of mine.

Yeah. Uh, who com. He was wanting to commission, you know, either a sunset or a mountain or a waterfall. And naturally I combined all into one. Of course. So while I'm doing this painting, um, I was like, as I had in elementary school, and this was my first painting since elementary school, probably back then, I was taking my brush in like a pint, glass, whatever.

I had beer out of the day before, and, I was remembering how I was in elementary school where I take the brush and I stab it and jab it and drag it along the sides and bottom of this smooth, uncaring like cup where the water goes. And I was like, gosh, there was just something I had down in there that did a little bit of extra work.

Yeah. To get all the paint off of my brush. Um, then this process would be going so much faster and I wouldn't be. Obsessively, like inspecting the bristles to make sure that all the paint is out. I didn't want to get, you know, red and mixed with the blue when it was only supposed to be red and that kind of thing.

So basically I sold the painting when it was finally completed and I used the, uh, money that my, uh, mentor had paid me for the painting to say, uh, get some supplies to start prototyping. I bought a 3D printer, uh, some A and b silicone, uh, and I started 3D printing. For this drawing that I had done for this device that would make this work so much better.

And um, sure enough, using that money, I was able to get a prototype done. I actually, uh, took those prototypes to NATA in 2017 and, uh, salt Lake City, and I was just, Not knowing anything, I was handing out my prototypes like, Hey, what do you think of this for paintbrushes? Think it'll work. Like, did you know the painters have this problem?

And so before you go on, let me, let me give you a visual. So what we're looking at here is, is is at the bottom of a paint cup. There's looks like a whole bunch of little nubs. Mm-hmm. And you take, and you sea, you take pri, what is like a sea. Yeah, you're right. So. And I'm holding it right now. And this is silicone, right?

Mm-hmm. Yes. It's, and so all these little nubs sit at the base of whatever you're rinsing your brush out in, and you just scrub it against those nubs It activ, it cleans the brushes while you paint. So afterwards you don't have to. And you've also got another product here that is silicone also, but. You can put the water in it and you can hold your brushes at the same time.

Right, right. So, um, I found that with the, as much as we like to have these small little disks for sale, um, I wanted to make something bigger. What this is, is, uh, the ultimate rinse cup, it kind of looks like a hummingbird feeder for those who are listening. And I've gotten the hummingbird feeder common.

Dozens and dozens of times. Million times. Yeah. So it works well. So, um, anyways, this hummingbird feeder looking thing, it not only has the patented, uh, cleaning brush nubs built into the bottom of it, so you can wipe your brushes on it just like you would on your regular, original paint puck. It has an integrated drip tray and, uh, pallet down at the bottom.

You can put paint here to swath in, uh, and then also it has brush holders lining the inside. Side of the opening of the cup. Oh my goodness. So you can drip it. So, so let's tell everybody what your website is so that they can go and look at this hopefully while they're listening to you talk. Okay. Yeah, just go to paint puck.com.

It's paints like painting a picture and then puck, like hockey puck, just one word. So P A I N T P U C k.com. That's right. That's the one we're on Instagram too, with that exact same. Nothing complicated. Well, this is the coolest product that you're gonna ever see. They also have a new one and we're not gonna get into it now cuz I hopefully we're gonna have another podcast down the road.

Yes. But it's something that'll be coming out that's called a collapsing bowl. And I'm just gonna kind of tease you with that and. Dawson, I want to thank you very much for the time right now and make sure that you go to paint puck.com. And it doesn't matter if you're a crafter, if you're a beginning artist or if you're a fine artist, you're gonna need this product.

Thanks so much, Dawson. Thank you, Jeff. 

Well, I've just walked into a really interesting booth, da Vinci. Artist brushes and Greg Daniels Fine Arts, and I'm talking with Greg Daniels. Greg, how are you today? I'm good, Jeff. Nice to see you. Nice to see you. So tell us a little bit about what you do and what you're selling here.

Well, we are the North American importers for Da Vinci brushes. Um, for the last 25 years, da Vinci is a factory in Nurnberg, Germany. Uh, the same family, the Defit family has owned it since 1890, and we are a rarity in that we are an actual brush factory. We make everything from the raw material to the finished product.

So a lot of other brands are made elsewhere and they have their name stamped on them. We actually make every product, so that sets us apart. Um, da Vinci is, you know, known. The, the number one thing is quality. Yeah. Um, a high quality, uh, line. We have the largest, uh, selection of brushes in the world. We have an absolutely huge catalog.

And, uh, so anything an artist is looking for from the beginner watercolorist, oil and acrylic, um, Specialty brushes. Um, we have it. You have it. So if our audience wanted to go someplace and see all of this stuff, I'm assuming this is all on your website? Yes. The website is da vinci - defit.com. D E F E t.

So let's spell out the entire thing. Okay. So Da Vinci, d a v i n c i- D E F E t.com, da vinci defe.com, and we've just actually launched a new website about a month ago. Oh, great. So it's, it's brand new. We also have a Da Vinci app for the telephone. Um, that is wonderful. A lot of the. A lot of the people that work in stores, uh, store staff, when you go into an art supply store, use it to, you can scan the brush, get all the information, get a video on how to use it right on your phone as you're standing there, or you can use it at home, um, and enter any, any, you know, you can enter a category watercolor and see all the watercolor brushes.

And so the app has been very, very useful. Wow. That's really, that's kind of new in this industry. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that from a manufacturer. They're, they're, they do a great job with connecting, um, to artists and making it easy for them to understand. They, they Da Vinci, uh, although it's a company from 1890, we built a new factory in 2006 and a second new factory in 2013.

So we have the most eco-friendly green, non-polluting brush factories in the world. We did it, built them from the ground up and. Environmental, there's a whole section on our website about da Vinci and sustainability. All of our brushes have, uh, all the wood handles are from sustainable forests in the Baltic states.

And, um, so we try to do everything right. There's also a section called Da Vinci and Social Responsibility. We also sponsor artists. In our old factory, we, we didn't sell it, we turned it into an artist's house. So there's art galleries, art studios, and uh oh. So much to learn and so much to see. Now, do you have anything new that you've just brought out?

Yes, we have a new line. We've worked very hard to make, uh, breakthrough kind of. Synthetic brushes over the last 10, 20 years, and we have a new line called the Colono that's a synthetic kalinsky brush for watercolors. So it behaves much like a, a kalinsky sable brush for pointing and edging, but it's all synthetic.

And the name of it again was Collin, c o l i n e o. We had another brush we launched oh five years ago called Casana, and that's been a huge hit for us with watercolor, a squash illustration. And there's a large, uh, community called the Urban Sketchers, uh, that get out and all paint together. There's chapters all over the United States and Canada, and that's been a very successful brush for them.

Well, it's clear. We have a lot to talk about and you have a lot to offer the end users. So we're gonna have Greg on in a future podcast where we're gonna dig deeper down into all of the different things that they offer, but you owe it to yourself to go to. Again, the website is. Da Vinci hyphen Defit, D E F E t.com.

Greg, thanks a lot. I appreciate it. Sure, thanks Jeff. Nice seeing you. 

So I just strolled into a really cool looking booth and the booth is called Smooth On Inc. And I'm talking to Janessa and Heather. Heather Janessa, how you doing? Good morning. Hey, glad you found us. Thanks for coming by. Well thanks. And I'm looking at some really interesting stuff here.

I'm seeing aliens, I'm seeing. I mean, resin, I'm seeing all sorts of stuff. So tell me a little bit about what do you guys do? Well, we offer materials for mold making, casting, and the sculpting process as well to make your originals. So I'm here on the side of Chevon. Which is, uh, a company that Smooth on, has acquired recently in the last year and a half, but has been making clays and sculpting materials for over a hundred years.

In fact, smooth On's been making materials over a hundred years as well, so it's, we've kind of been siblings and didn't really know it. Right? Yeah, yeah, no kidding. So is this, this is, I mean, cosplay, that seems like it could be a really. Part of all of this, right? Oh yeah. That's just one of hundreds of like, of applications that our products are used for, you know, not only for the art and hobby industry, and not only for cosplay, but it could be medical, architectural, sculptural, all kinds of things.

You name it. Mm-hmm. Really well, I'm, I'm almost overwhelmed on trying to figure out exactly what to ask. I see here though, that you can. A cast of a face you can, life casting is a popular application, and in that case, you're starting with a person, with an actual living person that you're making a, a replica of with either a silicone rubber or an algin or a accu cast line of algin.

Let you replicate, oh, wait a minute, Agin, what the heck is an algin? It sounds like an insect, right? So an algin is a temporary molding gel. Um, it's actually one of the oldest forms of mold making. Yeah, it's one of our skin safe materials. We have a lot of materials that are skin safe and for instance, our silicone lines that are used for making masks on skin.

Everything that you can think of that might be used in television, theater, movie industry. And what's great about that is you can make a mold of an actor and then make, uh, a special skin effects or a mask, um, to fit that particular individual to make that even more realistic on screen. Think of Saturday Night Live.

You've got an actor that comes in, they need to make something accurate and quick so they can make something funny that they're gonna. Definitely our materials are involved. Wow. This is overwhelming. So if when, when our audience is gonna want to come see this on their website and people absolutely go to their website, what is the website where they could see all of this kind of cool stuff?

It's. Smooth on.com, www.smoothon.com. So make sure you put that dash in there, right? Sure. And with the shavan clays, it's www.shavanchavant.com. And if you, yeah, and if you have any questions or you need help, not sure where to start. We offer free technical support. You know, that's one of the things that we're finding with our audience is that people are always a little intimidated to start on this kind of stuff, right?

But if they know that the manufacturer is willing to talk them through it, uh, and so you guys really enjoy. Our people call you guys. Absolutely. We talk to people all over the world. Us literally, you're gonna talk, it's clearly the, the, the two of us and a whole bunch, the teammates. Mm-hmm. Absolutely. We also support with free videos.

We're constantly trying to do stuff on social media tutorial videos to try to help people understand. Well, I want to tell you guys out there, we're gonna have a, a, a longer podcast that gets into more detail on all of the things that they do, but the visual of this booth is absolutely amazing. And if you are into cosplay, if you are into any of those kinds of.

Things you really need to go to their, to their website and and see what they have to offer. Heather and Janessa, thank you very much. I really appreciate the time. Thanks Jeff so much. 

Here we are in the T C W booth, the Crafters workshop. CW means what again? The Crafters workshop. Crafters workshop.

And we're talking with a friend of ours who we've done a podcast with back. Early part of last year, and we're talking with Jamie and how's everything going? Oh, I love, I love coming to shows. I think the only bad show is the show you don't show up for. I totally agree. So tell us, just give us an overview of who the Crafters workshop is.

So the Crafters workshop is predominantly stencils of beautiful handmade designs that we make in the United. And we've been doing this 26 years. I started off as a retailer and just needed some good stencils for my own store. So I drew them, had them maid, stuck 'em up on my walls and people bought them.

Yeah. And you guys can't see what I'm seeing, but what they bring to the market is something that you really need to see. Uh, they've got a, a product here called stencil butter. Remind everybody what stencil butter is. Well, you know, Stencils for so long, and as much as I love all the paints out there in the market, paint just is too watery.

And it would go through the stencil and underneath and you, you, you start off with a beautiful color and a beautiful design, and then you'd have something kind of squishy. So we designed a special type of modeling pace. That is creamy, and I called it stencil butter because it reminds me of butter that I leave out on the kitchen counter before I'm gonna make chocolate chip cookies.

And it has to be room temperature. And that butter is delicious and it has a little shimmer to it and shine, and I have purse. Chosen each color and mixed it so it's the exact color I need to make the most gorgeous rainbow palette that your customer is going to want. Yeah. You know what, when, when you look at this and, and Jamie give them the, um, email address of, so they can see all of this incredible stuff, so you can come take a look.

If you are a consumer, you can. Tcw stencils.com. And if you have a shop we would love to sell to you, that would be at www.thecraftersworkshop.com. Take a look at all of our goodies. So do you have anything new here at the show? Well, we have new stencil butter, so we're at. 31 beautiful colors. Six of them, no, sorry, eight of them are pastels.

So think about like a, a creamy, lovely sunshine yellow and a beautiful tangerine. Um, there's a wonderful hydrangea and a pear green ums. Some light blues and oh my gosh. I mean, eight delicious colors. I mean, I'm looking at champagne, gold terracotta. Oh yeah, I'm looking at sunshine. Yeah, I mean, oh, pink lemonade.

Pink lemonade. So you've gotta go to their website. Uh, she makes. An incredible product and I can tell you that if you buy any of this stuff, if you use any of this stuff, you are gonna be more than satisfied. So Jamie, thank you so much again for chatting with us again. Give them the, uh, website. So I'll also give you the Instagram cuz we have an amazing feed.

So if you're on Instagram, we are at t c. Stencils and you can go to our consumer site, which is www.tcwstencils.com. Jamie, it's so good to see you again. Thanks. Thanks for having me. This was fun. 

So now we've walked into resin rockers and boy, what a cool booth this is. And you might recall resin rockers from the last time that we talked to Mandy.

Mandy, how you doing today? I'm doing great. How are you? I'm great. So do us a little 40,000 foot overview. What is resin rockers and what is it that you do? So we are a resin art supply company. So we, uh, sell everything from epoxy resin art supplies. UV resin, art supplies, mold, glitter, pigment, just about anything you can think of to make resin art.

So I'm seeing over here to the left, you've got goblets on that are spinning around. Yeah. What the heck is that? Those are Tumblrs actually. So there are a lot of Tumblr artists in the world. It's very hot, very trendy right now, and they can actually glitter those tumbl. And coat them with epoxy resin and make them durable and last a lifetime.

So the nice thing about those is you can actually customize them with vinyl and make them personal. They're just a great product and something really, really fun that people like to work on. It's cool, but I'm looking down right in front of me and I see this lovely, lovely lady here, and she just took what looked like a flashlight and it was like a blue light and she shined it on the piece that she's working on.

Why do you put a flashlight on a pair of earring? That's a great question, Jeff. So, um, the nice thing that we have with our UV resin is you can make quick things in a matter of minutes. So she's actually working on a pair of UV resin earrings and she's using a UV light to cure them. So you add your glitter, your pigment.

She's even putting some really. Spider web shapes on there, and then she cures them under the light for one minute and then puts the hardware on and you can wear them. Wait a minute, are you telling me that after she takes that blue light it's dry after a minute? Just see, I say dry for us dummies out there.

Nope. Right. The people in the industry say cure. It's. Ready to go? Yeah, it's ready to go. It's fully cured. You can put them in your ear and wear them out of the show. Wow. I'm so glad I dropped by your guys' booth. So, so tell us again, where is it your, our audience can go to see more about your product. So they can go to resin rockers.com and we also have tons and tons of video on social media.

So Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube. You name it, we're there. Well, I went to your website and I've decided I'm gonna keep my wife off of your website because I think it's gonna make me poor. Um, I gotta tell you, you really, really need to go to their website. If you are into resin of any kind, they've got it made for you.

So again, Mandy, thanks so much. Absolutely. Thank you, Jeff. You've been listening to a special edition of the Art Supply Insiders. Check back with us often as we talk about the world of art and craft supplies. If you'd like to hear more of these podcasts, please hit the subscribe button on your preferred podcast platform, and we'd really appreciate it if you'd tell a friend.

If you'd like to show your support, please consider going to our website and hitting the support button. www.artsupplyinsiders.com. 

Now go out and create something.