It's The Mature Thing To Do

Is it true that everyone is doing it? Crafting, that is. It appears so. With a 43 percent growth in the past three years, the craft industry currently totals nearly $30 billion annually. Very compelling numbers!

According to the Craft and Hobby Association (CHA), 4 million new people are discovering crafts every year—with a great majority of them adults.

With annual birth rates matching that 4-million number, the craft industry and the toy industry are both welcoming the same amount of new consumers each year.

The good news for retailers and manufacturers alike: the new adult crafter is fearlessly testing a variety of new craft categories every year. This new breed considers itself as mixed-media artists, collage artists, professional crafters, craft designers, fiber arts designers, needlework artists and altered artists. These crafters' palettes include the pages of scrapbooks, the canvasses of altered books and wall collages, wearable art in the form of jewelry and beaded purses, and knitted, crocheted and quilted clothing and accessories. Their art is often functional, spanning the realm of home décor with ceramics and clay arts, woodwork and metal-punching, needlework, floral arrangements and more.

Beginning crafters may start with one craft, and later learn how the same tools and supplies can be multi-purposed into other craft endeavors. The rubber-stamping and scrapbooking worlds are an excellent example of this crossover. Both crafts are heavily involved in the paper arts. The tools and techniques used for card-making, altered books, tag art, stamped ceramic jewelry and rubber-stamp collages are being heralded as options to spice up scrapbook pages.

Yarn fibers and inks, file pockets, stickers, stencils, fabric, buttons, ribbons, and metal hardware are all embellishments that can be creatively applied to both art forms. In fact, most trade conventions and consumer shows have combined forces to attract both sets of paper artists. (See the resource guide on page 45 for lists of Web sites promoting nationwide art and crafting.)

Retailers might want to encourage staff to attend shows and enlist support in searching for new ideas for their stores. The potential for discovery is great with exciting new manufacturers, products and potential in-store class demonstration options. Grab your share of this growing market segment!

1 Technology: stepping through the digital portal

With Internet penetration in the United States approaching 70 percent, and digital camera ownership currently at all-time highs—73 percent of all scrapbookers own a digital camera—going digital and using the Internet as a resource and research tool will continue to increase. Simply typing “crafts, USA” into the Google search engine provides more than 3 million references.

Incorporating technology into crafting keeps it fresh, and attracts younger, more tech-savvy crafters with a promise of efficiency. Software for images, fonts and journaling for scrapbooks are just the tip of the iceberg. Sewing machines are incorporating touch screens, USB ports, and downloadable embroidery stitches that provide patterns and designs in minutes. Special ink-jet fabric and papers with self-adhesive backings provide quick and easy-to-apply, no-mess options for customizing projects and personalizing crafts.

Manufacturer Web sites offer examples of projects, with instructions and handy supply lists for trying new products and techniques. Retailers might want to get staff involved in keeping up with the latest technology by encouraging hands-on training and providing frequent staff update meetings.

Savvy retailers will appoint an employee to the role of technology specialist to assist customers and to answer questions of other staffers. Most of the Web sites direct their users to local stores where their products are sold. Many publishers of both hard-copy and Internet sites provide supplier resource guides and retailer listings to drive additional customers into stores. Ensure that your retail store is listed among the top sites so customers can locate you as a resource.

2 TV exposure and how-to pubs have expanded the category

With more than 15 craft shows airing on PBS, cable and premium channel TV, there is a greater awareness of the crafting world than ever before. Channels such as House and Garden Television (HGTV.com), Do-It-Yourself Network (diynet.com), and The Style Network (stylenetwork.com), offer a range of crafts, gardening, decorating and remodeling shows, plus a jewelry show and two knitting shows. The Craft and Hobby Association consumer campaign—“Discover Life's Little Pleasures”—has created added awareness through TV and billboards across America.

All of the Carol Duvall (generally recognized as the Diva of Crafting) episodes are archived on HGTV.com, along with lists of instructions and supplies. Smart retailers are re-creating this in-home viewing experience with in-store craft classes and demonstrations, alerting people to new techniques and products, and encouraging continued sales of craft kits and replacement craft supplies. By placing strategic in-store display signage, retailers can highlight products appearing in recent episodes, with finished product samples on display, along with the instruction sheets and supply lists. This will encourage do-it-yourself crafters with fresh ideas, and will ring up additional sales.

A plethora of publications spanning multiple craft categories can be purchased at newsstands, by mail subscription, or in online editions. These top-of-trend publishers provide creative and reasonably priced instruction books to teach consumers about new crafts and to introduce them to new uses for current supplies. Check out the resource guide for popular how-to instructional book publishers for your consumers. Use trade publications to educate your staff. Craft supply sales may soar by just adding some of these topical titles to a store's inventory.

3 Craftspeople, group efforts and collective wisdom

Artists are seeking their communities through in-person and virtual meetings. Circle journals, artist trading cards (a fast-growing new art form in a 2.5 X 3.5-inch-sized palette), crop nights, in-store classes, home parties and other group settings encourage a sharing of inspiration and an acceptance of art in many mediums. Beginners mingle with intermediate and advanced artists and crafters to continue to learn about their chosen craft, and are exposed to new uses. Web-based magazines called art-zines now number more than 630,000 in a recent Google search. Blogs, chat-rooms and forums are sources for new information. Local artist groups and craft stores hold regular group gatherings to stimulate the exchange of ideas, knowledge and inspiration. You may not see them, but they are out there, in force, seeking community and ideas.

The mixed media artists are the heavy-users, adding various mediums to their tool supply closets with yarns, paints, beads, metals, papers, ceramic supplies and more. Create an in-store crafters expert group, and ask them to advise your staff on new products and provide tips on new resources. This select group of knowledgeable crafters can help retailers improve traffic and alert them to new trends, plus provide a loyal group of repeat customers. Many smart retailers tap into their local artist community as demonstrators. Other demonstrator resources can be located through trade organizations.

4 Marketing experience: vacations to inspire the artist within

Retreats, conventions, cruises, crop weekends and consumer trade shows are all designed to provide an enhanced artist experience, and are available in evening, weekend, weekly and semester-long options. They bring together artists with similar passions and provide instructors, materials and classes to educate and inspire the crafters.

Retailers can participate as sponsors, instructors, or by offering a room for these groups to meet regularly. If the retailers are not involved in this process, then the home-based craft organizations will fill the gap and tap into the wallets of your current customers.

5 Faithbooking, inspiration, celebrating heroes

The role of inspiration, divinity and heritage is a common thread among some crafting communities. The faithbooking trend of creating albums designed to showcase exemplary displays of character between generations is based in this tradition.

Church groups and religious organizations are eager to participate in a craft that documents these values. The growth of scrapbooking and rubber-stamping materials devoted to faith-based, spiritual and inspirational themes has grown over the years as an emerging trend niche.

Also, a recent interest in documenting the lives of our heroes has also spurred a wealth of scrapbooking supplies for police officers, firefighters, rescue and medical professionals and all branches of the military service.

6 Knitting, crocheting, fabric arts: not your granny's quilting bee

Women are as likely to gather in knitting groups as they are to congregate at Friday night Bunco parties or the local Barnes & Noble bookstore.

Since yarn crafts are generally portable, fabric artists can be seen exercising their crafts on train and bus rides, while waiting in line, or at a coffee-shop, where groups gather to Stitch 'N Bitch—as the title of one popular, irreverent book calls it. And they are not stitching doilies; they are designing bikinis, cell-phone holders and trendy mini handbags.

These knitters are hip and edgy, and make colorful statements with the newest textures and stitching techniques, sharing their craft and the camaraderie. Research from the Craft Yarn Council reveals that the fastest growing segment of the yarn market is with 24-to-35-year-olds, showing an incredible 150 percent increase in the most recent 12-month period. This age bracket alone accounts for 6.5 million active knitters and crocheters.

7 Extending the rainbow palette with inks, paints and color

Inks and paints, dyes and stamp pads: the six major color companies offer more than 1500 ink choices this year.

Ten years ago, there were just dye and pigment inks to use on flat and coated papers. Today, paper artists are easily lured into mixed media with inks that work on multiple surfaces including wood, clay, metal, shrink-plastic, transparencies, vellum, leather, dominoes, glass, mica chips and more. There are choices of ink-pads that are based in chalk, watercolor, rainbow, distressed, alcohol, metal, heat-set and permanent inks.

Iridescents, pearlescents and metallics add sparkle and shine, and interference inks add dazzle to dark surfaces. Metallic rub-ons, glimmer chalks and embossing powders can add additional creative effects.

No wonder that adult crafters are experimenting with mixed media, their tools allow them to crossover to many mediums, so the cost investment appears to hold greater value.

According to Suzanne McNeill of Design Originals, Fort Worth, Texas, “With the new art trends, there are no rules. You don't have to know how to draw. Now art is more about creativity, therapy, journaling and friendships.”

Retailers can ask manufacturers to provide tip sheets and technique guidelines to help their customers make sense of the dizzying array of options. Solicit help from willing manufacturers for color sample boards to assist customers in finding their ideal colors.

8 Jewelry and beading: a profitable combination

Adults, young adults and teens are crowding the bead and jewelry-making aisles. The younger consumers generally travel in packs and want to touch the merchandise.

CNA Magazine Editor-in-Chief, Karen Ancona, suggests retailers hire a craft-experienced teenager to provide simple, in-aisle demonstrations and make-n-takes on Saturdays—and during after-school hours. This in-store technique should create loyal younger customers, with the power of grassroots word-of-mouth marketing.

Beading and jewelry-making offer a great value for the consumer's money, compared with store-bought jewelry. Many techniques are simple, yet produce beautiful results in a short period of time. Current trendy beading and jewelry options include colored Czech glass beads, glass pearls, Swarovski crystals, faceted beads, polymer beads, dichroic and faux dichro glass beads, lampwork glass beads, wire and metal spacers, and sliders.

Both The Bead Shop, Milwaukee, Wisc., and High IntenCity, Fairlawn, N.J., offer a variety of cross-generational and highly trendy options.

9 Polymers, clay and wearable art

New clays have been formulated that create silver-plated jewelry and porcelain-like finishes. Craft Porcelain from American Art Clay Co., Indianapolis, Ind., is a new air-drying modeling material that can be used for paper-thin flowers to mid-weight figurines to heavier-weight sculptures.

Art Clay silver and precious metals clay provide a final delicate product that mimics silver. Colorful canes of polymer clay create colorful beads, and clays are often used as a stamping medium, to create texture and dimension. When stamped with the new inks, or drizzled with the new iridescent powders, these inexpensive materials create incredible works of art. We know how much kids love to mold with modeling clay. By exploring some of the new clays and adding craft clay kits to their stores (Polyform, Elk Grove Village, Ill., NSI, Farmingdale, N.Y., and other toy vendors are already in this arena), retailers can open up new sales opportunities.

10 Scrapbooking: turning the page

While this trend slowed somewhat in 2004, it still experienced a 25 percent growth over 2003 sales.

News includes bursts of color in papers and embellishments, adding dimension with epoxy or gel-like stickers, fabrics, buttons, ribbons, tags and colorful metallic objects. The “distressed or aged” trend still plays a powerful role, with the added twist of colorwashes in rainbow colors. This refreshed, brighter palette of vintage creates a background with a comfortable, broken-in feel that ties to emotions like friendships, relationships and the passage of time, common themes for scrapbook albums.

Creative font CD libraries, transparency overlays, quotes and text books, alphabet stickers and titles, stencils, collage art, faux post, words, definitions, rub-on letters and other ephemera add to the personalization of each scrapbooking endeavor.

Beginning scrapbookers generally start by crafting for their kids or family. As they become more advanced, many pull out those old, non-archival magnetic-paged photo albums from their childhoods and look to re-purpose them for future generations.

Recent retro and nostalgic papers and embellishments, in colorful patterns and retro themes (harlequin, love beads, kidney bean shapes, paisleys, stripes and more), provide inspiration with themes from the '50s, '60s, '70s, and '80s.

Tongue-in-cheek, irreverence, sassy, adult humor, cocktails and tailgate parties, girl's night out, and Red Hat Society themes offer variety and inspiration to advanced scrapbookers, who are looking to document their own lives and times, and capture their events and personalities with humor.

Locking in loyal customers is the key to unlocking repeat sales. Entice them, and keep them coming back for more through special newsletters, classes and demos, technique publications, special events for loyal customers. This type of marketing is designed to make regular customers feel special, cherished and rewarded.

Art stores across the spectrum have confirmed that, on the days of classes, demonstrations, guest artist appearances and cropping nights, business can increase as much as between 10 percent and 20 percent over regular non-event sales days. Once artists are inspired, they have “got-to-have-it,”—whatever “it” is: the newest tool, technique, or supply.

Providing a “deal,” such as discounts on class supplies and materials purchased on the day of the class, can encourage this new product frenzy. By demonstrating new ways to use the tools already in their toolboxes, or the supplies found in their artist closets, the age-old “New and Improved” works in crafting, too. Re-purpose it, and they will come. There are numerous manufacturers, offering pre-packaged complete kits, with instructions, for in-store classes and demonstrations, at bulk rates. Contact the appropriate trade organizations for listings of vendors.

Taking the leap into crafting can vastly expand a retailer's reach. Whatever the size of a store, a retailer can carve out an area to appeal to the crafter of all ages—especially the new breed of adult crafter.

How many other categories of products are providing double-digit growth in your stores? Try it, and you'll be sold on crafting, too.