ASI 79 Cutting into the World of Crafting with OLFA's Yvonne Busdeker

Jeff: 0:09

Welcome back to Art Supply Insiders. My name is Jeff Morrow. Today we're talking with Yvonne Busdeker. Yvonne is the brand channel manager for OLFA. Yvonne, before we jump in, just tell people in general what is an OLFA? Who are they? What do they do?

Yvonne: 0:27

OLFA is one of the leading craft notions suppliers in the world.

Jeff: 0:35

And what do you supply? What is your product that makes you so good?

Yvonne: 0:41

We have three different segments. It comes down to cutting tools. We have our Pro Section, which is what started the company in 1956. Then there's a safety channel and then the craft channel, which I take care of, which began in 1979 with the invention of the rotor. So that's my main item.

Jeff: 1:05

You guys are that company that you put it down and you just kind of rolled it along and it cuts stuff out as you roll it along.

Yvonne: 1:13

Slices right through it.

Jeff: 1:15

Yeah, I know because you guys have cost me a lot of money. My wife is a crafter and you guys are kind of known for that yellow handle or yellow case or something like that. Right, Correct.

Yvonne: 1:30

The yellow handles across all the lines. We do have some colors on craft, but our main company color is yellow.

Jeff: 1:37

Well, how did that ever come about? I was looking on your website, which, incidentally, before we go, give everybody your website address.

Yvonne: 1:46

It is www. OLFA. com and it's O-L-F-A.

Jeff: 1:55

O-L-F-A. com and I've been looking at it. I've got it up now for about the last hour or so, so what a great website you guys give the end user anything they would ever need right.

Yvonne: 2:10

We want to make it the destination. While we don't sell direct to consumers, we sell to our customers, whether it's your independent quilt shops or more national chains. We want to be the go-to website for all of the information. So, whether it's our customers or the end consumer, we want to make our or we strive to make our website the destination. Whether it's how to change your blade or a free project when it comes to crafters, or just more information about the tools in general, we want to be that source of information.

Jeff: 2:45

Well, I can attest to O-L-F-A. I've been in the art industry for a whole bunch of years and many of our audience knows. In a former life, my business partner and I were the brush guys and we sold brushes online. But both are products all around my house and I've had them for a long time and boy are they good and do they last.

Yvonne: 3:11

Lifetime warranty on those handles. They are definitely some days I don't know why, it still amazes me. But we'll get emails from consumers and they'll be like you know, I'm missing a little washer or something like that, and we ask that they send a picture of the handles so we know which one they're talking about. And they've got the original handles. That are 40 plus years old Amazes me. I'm like oh wow, I haven't seen one in a while. But it's our consumer, our user and user. They still have those handles, whether it's 20, 30, 40 years old. That speaks to the quality.

Jeff: 3:49

Yeah, it's nuts, because I have put, you know, competitors of yours in my hand, but I always seem to go back to my alpha one because I know it's going to work right.

Yvonne: 4:03

It's kind of work and they spend a lot of time on the design, like our, let's say, our, what we call our. Our ty2g Rotary cutter is our classic straight handle. If you look back at the photos it's changed a little bit here and there, but the overall design handle has stayed the same. They've made updates. They're always looking at ways to make the better and it may be Is that the consumer may not see, but they're constantly looking at those. But at the same time we don't come out with a ton of new designs and handles because the ones we have were designed properly in the first place and those designs have endured and that that style. And it really comes down to what. Which one of those handles is your handle?

Jeff: 4:53

Yeah, I'm looking and kind of from a forty thousand foot level. So you guys make like rotary cutters and blades and mats and rulers and scissors and Art knives is does that kind of cover about 80% of all the stuff that you make?

Yvonne: 5:10

If you throw the utility knives in there, which is our pro business? Yes, because there are some crafters that will use some of those pro pro utility knives as well. But from the crafting sense, yes, that's our grouping.

Jeff: 5:24

Well, what would be the difference between a, a Pro product and a craft product?

Yvonne: 5:30

typically it's going to be the use so well, and then even that gets a little gray sometimes because it's a crafter as an artist, as a maker. We will pull two from anywhere we can find them if going to get the job, going to get the job done. But we have them like rotary cutters, mats, one of the three scissors, art knives, rulers, those are going to fall under crafting simply because their main, their main use is going to be quilting, sewing Crafters, okay. But we do know that our rotary cutters are used on and blades are used on industry, in industrial settings and in professional settings. So they're definitely as crossover. You can't, we can't, say just because the rotary cutter it's stuck in craft and no one else outside of that we use it because it's not the case.

Jeff: 6:26

It's really kind of you use it in a lot of different Applications, right?

Yvonne: 6:31

I mean you just, whatever you think you can do, try it at the end of the day, it's a knife, it's a rolling blade. So, as long as you have your mat underneath, I mean, when I when I am gonna back up just a second when I came to all five came as a paper crafter and and and they, you know like, oh, we use rotary cutters for making quilts, and I was like I Use it for paper at chipboard, like I have one. That's not what I use it for. So and that's one of the one of the Really fun parts of my job is finding out what people use the rotary cutters for and making sure that in all of our information we're letting people know it's not just for fabric.

Yvonne: 7:15

You may want to have a different blade for fabric and then, as you know, as that you know isn't working on fabric the best, then you switch it to paper and chipboard. But it's a knife. You can cut a lot of different things with it. I would not just as a general Crafter. It's a knife, it's a tool to cut something.

Jeff: 7:35

So you're a crafter yourself, then right from the time I Scissors. Tell our audience a little bit about the crafts that that you do and and how OLFA has been able to help you get better at your craft.

Yvonne: 7:56

I Originally started with sewing because my mom was a sewer. She would make her clothing and Her scraps box. I would go in and pull out scraps and I would sew pillows for my you know, for second, third-grade teachers. And then evolved into paper when I had kids, because I Brought booking and paper was a very Something that made sense to me and I loved creating with paper.

Yvonne: 8:20

And when I came on board with OLFA close to eight years ago now, I Knew that our core For North America, our core followers, were quilters. That's not all of them, but quilting is one of the like. Quilters took a hold of the rotary cutter when it came to North America and they have not let go of it. In order then to talk to what is now going to be the consumer that I'm, that I'm talking to, I needed to understand their crafts. So now you nobody can see, but you can see behind me A small the fabric that I now have to make quilts. So it's definitely a bit pushes me to do more crafts because I want to be be able to provide more Informing, more education to our consumer. So I have to know our tools and I have to push them and see what else they can be used for.

Jeff: 9:19

Well, I was looking on your, your website, to try to figure out all the different uses and, and I saw it on like Leather and and and you can use it in the garage and use it when you're on your boat and scraping Tape up off the off the cement. What, what are some of the craziest things you've heard people use OLFA for?

Yvonne: 9:40

I this is always one of my favorite question. Oh, do you know that some of the rotary blades are used in sale making? It would be our stainless steel blades for not rusting. But my favorite one is we have three specialty blades, one of which is a way. I believe it's the wave blade. But one of the three specialty blades there are stainless steel which can be used in food processing. So one of them is used to make wavy microwave bacon. What I know that was that was one of my favorites.

Jeff: 10:17

Wait a minute. How do they make wavy bacon? But I can't even see the visual. I'm trying to figure it out.

Yvonne: 10:23

It's to cut the. I believe I would have to look it up, but it's it's. It does the. It gives the bacon its waviness for the microwave. I don't use microwave bacon, so are your blades food safe?

Jeff: 10:38

Is that what I'm hearing?

Yvonne: 10:39

The stainless steel ones, which would be the. There's three steel, so we've got an 18 millimeter size, that is, and there's three of the 45s that are stainless steel and they're under specialty on the website If you look under rotary, rotary products blades, and yes, there is a stainless steel pinking, a scallop and a wave blade.

Jeff: 11:04

Really, yes, I would. I would have never bacon. That just kind of threw me for a loop. Now all of a sudden I'm hungry bacon.

Yvonne: 11:18

In my house. I made some this morning.

Jeff: 11:21

I'm glad it's not like smell of visions, because I'd be smelling it and I'd be cutting the podcast off right now. One of the crazy things I saw and we've done a couple of podcasts on this is you have people that use them for cosplay to right.

Yvonne: 11:39

Yes, they do. Because, again, well, a couple different, couple of ways. One, we had a cosplayer we've worked with at the past. She, her name is Jed Amanda, and she does these amazing, amazing costumes, mostly fabric, so rotary cutter, your, you know, cotton fabric, making these, these wonderful clothing pieces that want these costumes. And then some of the other ones that we've worked with, they have a lot of like foam and other materials where you would then pull from the pro side where they have the larger industrial, you know, the larger utility knives which would be perfect for that. That's why I'm like you can't just look at the craft side of the business when you're looking at crafts, because as crafters we're going to take from everywhere.

Jeff: 12:29

Wow, there's just so much that you do so. When they go to your website, you have your catalogs on there that give them pictures and product numbers and all that kind of stuff. Right, correct, so they can. So if people have a real specialty need for an Ulfacutter probably where they would go.

Yvonne: 12:52

You can. Certainly you can start there, but honestly, our product pages we load them with anything and everything and then the catalog kind of comes from that. So if you want a more interactive, I would start with the product pages. Look through the utility knives, look through the art knives, look through the rotary cutters. Each one of those pages is going to have all the information about that cutter. It's going to let you know what it cuts, what the blades are. That goes with it. It's going to have the blade change information. It's going to have product videos for you. It's going to have reviews. Everything is pop is again that user experience. We want to make sure that they can find any information they need and the best place is going to be to start is those product pages and just poking around.

Jeff: 13:38

So one of the unique products I saw that I didn't know you had was something called an ergonomic rotary cutter. Well, tell our audience a little bit about what an ergonomic rotary cutter is.

Yvonne: 13:52

That is our number one rotary cutter for a lot of reasons. All of our handles, all of our rotary handles are right and left handed for right and left handed users. That particular one, you look at it and you're like, no, a left hander can't use it. That one's a little unique in that on the on the product page there's a video on how to how to actually change it. But when you remove the blade you simply have to turn the handle over and then refast and everything. So you have to swap the side that the blade is on to turn it into a left handed, so that one's right and left handed.

Yvonne: 14:31

It has the blade lock, which is really nice. Especially if you're a crafter and you've got small kids in the house, you want to be able to lock that blade. So it's to pick it up. They can't open the blade and then when you're ready to use it, you, you know, flip the blade lock and then you can use it and it has an auto retract on the blade, which all of the other, all of the other handles have a blade cover. But as a crafter you have to make it a habit to always close that blade If you make a cut and you set it down, you've got to close the blade lock to be safe, whereas the ergonomic automatically closes. So there's multiple safety features in that one that that really make it a number one seller, and then, additionally, those three specialty blades that I told you about fit with that handle. There's actually a spacer, a plastic spacer, on the backside of the set that would move to the front, between the blade and the handle, to give it room, those specialty blades room, to properly cut.

Jeff: 15:33

Oh, there's one, an incredible product that looked at it and it's almost like it's got a on the handles. So you squeeze it and then the blade, the rotary blade, comes down, and then you do your cutting with it. With it, with it, the trigger close and then you and the blades protected again, but it's not locked.

Yvonne: 15:55

Correct. So that makes it especially for first time users, or again someone that's got small children around, or just them, you know, just themselves they're. You know, I'm not good at remembering to close my blade, so this one is the one that's going to. You know, keep my work surface a little bit safer.

Jeff: 16:14

Now, is there a I don't know the answer to this a safe blade for kids, for them to be able to use, or would you say that your products are more for the adult crafter and the adult professional?

Yvonne: 16:29

They're definitely adult supervision, adult type products or older, older teenage products. That being said, we know that I was a very hands on, like my kids, had the craft room available to them. However, they didn't just use tools without knowing how to use them, or I was with them, or I can't say my kids had ever used a rotary cutter at a young age, because I really didn't have one until they were a little bit older. Each parent needs to make that decision, like our products. I, I, 18 and above, you know, or high school and above, for sure, but it's going to depend on each one.

Yvonne: 17:11

Like we know, we've worked with some high schools that have quilting. I will absolutely support that. I mean, that's some. They're teaching them, they're training them, they're supervised, they're taught how to use the tool, the same as if you've got like kids in in, like Boy Scouts. They use pocket knives, but they use them when they're, they're taught to understand them, to use them properly. It kind of falls within that, because I would never say don't ever teach. You know, let your, your children touch rotary cutters until they're such and such of age. It comes down to the parent and the child working together on those crafts. We have crafters, they, they and there are kids that are using rotary cutting education and supervision, because a great tool and used properly.

Jeff: 18:01

Yeah, that's really the thing with almost anything when it gets into crafting, isn't it? I mean we don't want kids putting glue in their mouth or on their fingers. I mean, you really they can. They have glues for kids and scissors for kids, but yours are for 18 and older, who know how to use those things, and then kids have to be supervised. Don't let them do it on their own.

Yvonne: 18:21

Correct. It's the same with cooking. You're not just going to like, hey, here's the kitchen and have fun. You're going to teach your kid how to use the pots and pans, how to use the knives. It's again and every kid's going to be different and the parents and the children can work, work together on that.

Jeff: 18:36

So, so smart. So when we look on the website, you, you have a place to tell people where to go to buy your type of product, right?

Yvonne: 18:46

Correct Under. Again going back to that product page, we've put the top retailers on each of the product pages. It doesn't mean that there's not somebody else that uses them, especially when it comes to crafting. Your local quilt shop, your local, whatever the craft shop is that you go to, they may not be listed on our site because we can't list everybody. However, you know, depending on where you're at I'm in a busy area I can probably hit 10 shops within 10 miles and find the product. But national retailers for craft is going to be Joann's and then definitely your local quilt shops. I very rarely walk into a quilt shop and do not find Ulfa product on the wall.

Jeff: 19:29

I want to go back to. I forgot to ask you in the beginning stages. When I was looking at about Ulfa on your on your website, I noticed there was an explanation for why the original inventor of this made the product yellow.

Yvonne: 19:49

Yes, it was Mr Okada. His son is the one that is running the company now. He is family company, so they're they're great people to work for. The yellow is for safety. Oh, so I know you're like oh yeah, that makes sense.

Jeff: 20:07

Now that you say it, it makes perfect sense because it's almost like you know. You go into an intersection, you see red, yellow, green and when that yellow comes on it goes. You better be safe because it could work out poorly if you're not.

Yvonne: 20:20

It is, and you know what? It's great when you're at a craft table and it's so easy to spot that I mean we have I mean I have my wall behind me of all of our colors, but the yellow is still. It's that identifiable color and it just stands out in the craft table, unless you're working on a yellow project, in which case pick a different color.

Jeff: 20:43

I'm actually holding. I don't know if you can see this or not, but I'm actually holding and I think this is because it's the yellow knife cutter and it's so easy to see.

Yvonne: 20:55

Yeah, the yellow is definitely easy to see.

Jeff: 20:58

I never thought of that, so it's kind of like duh, think about it. Now. You have a lot of videos and blogs that tell people about the product and some of your artists that talk about how they use your product right.

Yvonne: 21:15

Yes, correct. So, on all sides of the business. Again, it comes back to educating and inspiring our consumers, and we do that through Common topic how do we change our rotary cutters? How do we change the blades, even in utility knives? How do I change the blade? And we probably have 10 different ways minimum to tell that story, whether it's a video, whether it's a step out sketch, whether it's photography that we've stepped out Because we realize everyone learns differently.

Yvonne: 21:48

And while somebody will be scrolling through our Instagram, you know, every day they're checking stuff and we may send across three different ways on how to remember to change your rotary cutter, but it's not until that fourth or fifth way that they're like oh, I get it. Some of the basic stuff we tell in a lot of different ways. Again, so that we catch everyone, or as many people as we can, and then inspiring them. You know, yes, I may use a rotary cutter to cut fabric, but, oh my gosh, we've got a designer that uses leather and she deconstructs, you know old other coats and makes a bag out of them. We want to be able to give them, to inspire them, to inform them, to educate them, because, in my opinion, crafting makes the world go around. It's, it's, it's, it's a fabulous. There's so many ways I don't think I could ever be one type of Crafter like make one thing. It's like oh, I think I can try that.

Jeff: 22:50

You know, give them easy instructions, give them some guidance and let them try it and if you think about so, I'm an oil painter and it took me a long time to learn how to do it. I still don't do it great. But when you come into crafting, Almost anybody can do some sort of craft right.

Yvonne: 23:11

At that. I am absolutely on board with that. The first thing the people you know as they, as you're talking or like well, I do this crap, oh, I can never do that, well, what?

Yvonne: 23:21

do, you do and though, oh well, I've tried doing this, I've tried doing this. There's so much that crafting is such a broad Category, so many things, whether it's it's just such a broad thing, there are so many things that fall under acting, from the people who do woodworking to the people who Make tiles that go on your wall, like art and craft are just, it's such a huge Thing you can see people making things out of popsicle, sticks and and toothpicks and, yes, I've seen mixed media artists go out into their backyard and find sticks and twigs and rocks and leaves and Turn it into stunning piece of art and that is one of the cool things with social media is being able to see so much of that life that you know, previous to the internet, we didn't have you, didn't?

Yvonne: 24:20

you had to like go get up or something had to come in front of you, but watching all of artists emerge and seeing the tools that they're using, and it just blows your mind what people can do, and I love being able to see that and be a part of it, or to share it with other people and inspire other people, because it's just going to keep getting bigger and better.

Jeff: 24:45

I was on a cruise ship last week and, believe it or not, I saw art Made out of bowling balls. They stacked them up like sculpture and I don't know how they did it, but it was kind of spain actually the, the the creative mind is is an amazing thing. Yeah, I wished I was that creative. I'm not, but I sure enjoy seeing what other people do, and I guess it's just don't be afraid to try it. If you fail, whoever knows just keep doing it till you find something you like, right?

Yvonne: 25:24

Exactly, you find that niche, I know. When I started quilting, I'm like, okay, I'll follow a pattern. It makes me a little nuts following a pattern, because with paper crafting, it was all it was, it was mine, it was. Whatever I cut, whatever I made, whatever I put on paper, however, I stacked it. And then I finally did. I had come back from Japan and Brought a whole bunch of work with me which I'm obsessed with. It's just stunningly beautiful fabric and I'm like I can't find a pattern for it. I'm like you know what? I'm just gonna cut a bunch of different sizes and To start laying it out freestyle on the floor. I'm like, oh, I Get it, this is mine. So I know. When it comes to quilt making, yes, I've done patterns and there are patterns that I like, but like heart and soul into into a quilt.

Jeff: 26:16

I just want to cut the fabric and I want to lay it out how my mind sees it so, and the cool part about all four products is it's the type of product that allows you to be free, and I mean, that's really tool, just you can almost do anything you want with it, can't you?

Yvonne: 26:36

So many options. It's, it's insane. I mean, I love my Again. Nobody can see it, but behind me I've got my wall of tools. You can see it? It's actually bigger See. Oh Wow, look at those two water tools. And it's nice to just sit down To put whatever it is in front of me, because I'm one of those people.

Yvonne: 26:58

You know we'll open up boxes and I'm like, oh, I can you, I'm gonna you, I'm you know, I cut that section box out and I put it in my bin of stuff and To be able to know that everything in front of me is going to help me create whatever it is that I want to create. You know, with between the knives and the rotary cutters and the different type of knives with the different types of blades, like one of the things that we kind of dug into that I we have a knife, it's called the AK-4 and it's our cushion grip art knife and it comes in the package with three different blades. One is a chisel blade, which is great for, you know, miniatures and stuff like that, but you can also make buttonholes if you're a sewer. And then there's the standard number 11 blade for your paper. And then there's a using little blade in there called the curved carving blade and it's holding the same as our rotary blades. So guess what you can cut like butter with that thing Fabric.

Jeff: 27:55

Oh really.

Yvonne: 27:56

And it has a beautiful tip on it and you can fussy, cut little things. You can get into little corners where sometimes the rotary blade even if you go down to our millimeter, sometimes it's you end up overshooting and with that, that precise blade and that perfect honing is just. It opens up a whole nother avenue. You're like, oh my gosh, okay, this is my tool. I can use this in so many other ways. It's not just for paper or you know, paper type products. That's one of my sewing or fabric tools. Now that until we kind of dug into those blades, I will go that way.

Jeff: 28:38

I am so sorry we're at the end of our chat together. I think I told you before we came on that this would go by quick but darn it's really gone by really fast, so give everybody again the website.

Yvonne: 28:54

It's going to be OLFAcom.

Jeff: 28:59

Well, yvonne, what a great time this was. You've been so considerate and given our audience some really cool insight, and if they have a question, can they ask you a question through the website or call you. Is that something you guys are okay with?

Yvonne: 29:19

Yes, all of our social media is at the bottom of the website, lower right corner. If you follow us on social media, I'm usually the one on the other end if you have questions, but we do have a contact link at the bottom of the website Absolutely, ask questions away. That's what we're here for. We do have a great customer service team and if they can't answer it, it ends up in my inbox.

Jeff: 29:42

Well, it's OLFA. com. You owe it to yourself. Go to the website, see the products that you haven't been using. Yvonne, thank you so much for a really, really wonderful interview.

Yvonne: 29:54

Thank you so much. It was a pleasure being here.

Jeff: 29:56

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