Getting Ready for Glass Month

September is Glass Month at Maddi's. It's one of our favorite promotions because we love the look of the galleries filled with sparkling, bright glass. We began our ordering from glass artists last February and finished this week with a trip to the mountains to visit glassblower, Judson Guerard.

Judson works in an old building in Bakersville which was probably an early twentieth century hardware store. It's long and narrow with wonderful shelves lining the walls and a great tin ceiling and old hanging lights. While he makes some small ornaments and goblets, larger vessels represent his work best. His "Chaos Series" features large beautiful vessels with fused pieces of color and irregular eruptions of glass.

The centerpiece of our special collection is Judson's new "River Rocks" series. These are large, nearly flat, blown vessels which feature several blown glass "rocks" the owner can personally arrange. The glass has been sandblasted, and while opaque, it is extremely luminous and lovely. These pieces are just breathtaking in person, so be sure to come see them. And remember, you will save on every piece of art glass in our collection during September!

2009 Top Retailer - Maddi's Gallery

On our last night at the Buyers Market of American Craft, we attended the annual Niche Retailer Awards. The award ceremony is always fun and interesting. Special categories are interspersed with twenty-four "Top Retailers". At the very end, the 2009 Retailer of the Year is announced: Maddi's Gallery!

We are thrilled, honored and grateful. Thanks to all the artists who create the beautiful craft we sell. Thanks to our employees who work so hard every day. Thanks to all our customers who make every day enjoyable and interesting. And thank you Niche Magazine and the entire Rosen Group for this singular honor. We will remember this night forever.

Philliie, Day One

It's a beautiful day in the City of Brotherly Love and we're off to do some serious buying. The picture on the left shows just a tiny section of the huge Philadelphia Convention Center. It's the building straight ahead. The one in the right is the Reading Terminal Market. More about that at lunch time.

There are about 450 artists and craftspeople exhibiting at the show and for the most part they are arranged by media. Glass, one of our favorite areas, comes first. We usually do every area two times. On the first pass, we do some ordering, but leave some things to consider later. One item we're excite about is a stained glass, 3-dimensional Christmas tree. The tree comes with a full strand of white lights which you put inside the pretty glass tree and it looks so cool. They're definitely coming to a gallery near you!

After a few hours it's time to take a break and we head over to the Reading Terminal Market. This is a teaming place with all sorts of booths and counters selling every variety of yummy food from sushi to Phillie cheesesteaks. Our waiter at dinner last night recommended DiNimic's Italian pulled pork, so that's where we headed. I was tempted to take a picture of my 10 lb. (?)sandwich, but I think it might be XXX! Yumm.

After an afternoon of shopping we attended a brief reception sponsored by CRAFT, an organization of craft retailers and artists. And then off to the Phillie riverfront and the historic boat, the Moshulu, for a Buyers' Market Party. The night was lovely, there were nearby fireworks lighting up the sky and we made some new friends, too. We sat near 3 gals from the Etsy Metal Clay Team and promised to visit their booth in the morning.

Time to Buy

Friday morning Madis and I head to the Charlotte airport for a flight to New York. It's time to do some serious buying for the Holiday season. It's a smooth, easy flight and a few hours later we're having lunch in the Big Apple. Then it's on to our first stop, the Alexis Bittar showroom located downstairs in his SoHo store. Sasha Peck, who is head of Specialty Stores and Boutiques USA, is there to show us all the new goodies and write our orders. A little semi-precious, mostly with green and blue stones, a little rose-gold Miss Haversham and lots of Lucite. And this setting is so much more comfortable than doing the show floor! It takes about three hours to write our orders and Sasha is great trying on lots of pieces - everything looks wonderful on her, she's a perfect model for Bittar's jewelry.

One new color has been added to the winter line-up, and our customers should love it. It's a very nice Carolina Blue, paired with lots of gold and some semi-precious stones. Very lovely!

So it's five o'clock, Friday afternoon and it's raining in New York. We're dragging 2 suitcases and a computer bag and we need a cab. Now that's a challenge. Five is shift change for cabbies, so lots of "off duty" lights. At least we score an umbrella, just $5...and eventually a cab. We're off to Penn Station for Amtrak to Philadelphia.

It's been ages since we rode a train, but this is really great. So much more room than an airplane, seats just two across, and choose any one you want. There's a tray table, and an electical outlet, too. So my laptop is up and open and I'm writing this blog. In an hour and a half we'll be in Phillie and ready for our next stop, the Buyers Market of American Craft.