Brick & Mortar since 1991. Blogging since 2006. From Jason Thompson, Rag & Bone founder & creative director. We write about the things we love: bookbinding, book arts, paper arts, the bindery, personal stuff, our kids, our travels, sometimes food and sometimes art.
I spent the day redesigning the Rag & Bone website. There are still a few small changes to make, and I need to add a couple of new areas, like a new Press Pages tab and something called, “Why Choose Rag & Bone…” with lots of pictures and such. But so far, so good. What do you think? If you have any suggestions, please leave a comment. Someone was nice enough to comment on my twitter feed with suggestions regarding a search box and voting for new cover options - great suggestions! If you have ideas, please let me know I would love to hear from our customers and fans. Here’s the site: www.ragandbonebindery.com
We also introduced a new book this week, the “Photo Frame Album“. It’s a small brag book size album which holds 20 photos. The pages are paper slip-in frames so it’s easy to place photos in and out of the pages. The pages also ‘frame’ photos nicely. Available in every cover option and only $29.00. Click here for details.
Here are a few photos of the booths and new products we saw at the New York International Gift Fair.
Paper & collage work from Clare Goddard. Clare was only a few booths away from Rag & Bone, and she travelled very far to attend the show. I was drawn to her paper & bookish collage work and especially the beautiful paper spoons. She was lovely and said she had a good show.
Clare’s work is currently on view at the Paper Works show in London:
Paper Works
Through 19 September 2009
1-5 Needham Road, London
Tel: +44 (0)20 7243 0782
info@flowgallery.co.uk
TWELVE WISHES FOR YOUR MARRIAGE
The newest addition to our popular “Twelve Ways” series makes a great gift for a new couple embarking on a life together. Share advice and experiences for a successful marriage with a dozen easy to fill in prompts such as:
~ You’re a great couple because…
~ What marriage means to me…
~ Five ways to keep a marriage exciting and new…
~ If you were a movie couple you would be…
~ Recipe for a successful marriage…
~ Thinks you never say or begin a sentence with…
~ I have always admired the way you two…
Rag & Bone attended the 2009 Fall New York International Gift Fair a few weeks ago. It always takes a while to post a review of the shows, we get so busy as soon as we return. This show was a little better than average, I can say the same for the last show as well. This year the section we exhibit in, “Studio”, was moved to the main hall. This was a great move. Our booth was placed alongside another Juried section called “Accent On Design” which is the so-called high-end section. Needless to say, this was a great location. We had two booths situated on a corner again.
We arrived in the one-way-rental U-Haul truck around noontime the day before the show opened. The truck was unloaded immediately, a trend we’ve noticed in the past few shows due to the smaller show size. The booth always takes longer than we expect to set up, even though the furniture (the bulk of the booth) is delivered set-up. The illusion that the booth sets up fast is due to the big furniture setting up in minutes. The books and little ‘touches’ however take hours.
The booth was similar to our January set-up, but different from our Stationery Show booth display. In recent years we’ve sold the booth furniture locally (in NYC) via Craigslist so we can just pack up a few books and hit the train. But we’ve been keeping the furniture and driving it back to RI for the past few shows.
The show was an average show in regards to attendance. It didn’t feel necessarily busy or slow, it was steady however. We didn’t pick up as many new accounts as we did in May, however our average order size was larger and we did reopen accounts which had been quiet for a bit. The few larger stores we did pick up were also confident with their orders. I’m always feeling one way or the other: Either I wish we had more smaller orders, or a few larger orders, either way it all adds up the same. This year was fewer and larger which added up to a better show than last year. So it goes…
We’re excited to add more non-book items to the line and to expand our printed book line. We’re following up with key accounts and we’re hearing a return to paper-page albums, which are the core of our line. That makes us happy.
We didn’t see much of our competition at the show. Without naming names, we were surprised to see smaller displays from our competitors, or they just didn’t show up at all.
Ilira spent one of the days visiting our NYC customers to write orders at their stores, which was a better success than we expected. I think customers appreciate the personal visit. I know I would!
Anyway, here are pictures of our booth. Thanks for reading.
We’re off to the New York International Gift Fair. It’s our 11th year. We’re not counting or anything, but something like our 22nd Gift Show. Please visit Rag & Bone Bindery at booth #4141. We’ll be back to blogging when we return on Friday! Wish us luck. Jason
We leave for the New York International Gift Fair in two weeks. Our giveaway for the show is a Kusudama flower kit, made from our recycled catalogs. Please stop by the Rag & Bone Gift Show Booth #4141 to pick one up!
The insert gets folded, which is why some of the packaging looks upside down. We’re using catalog pages, book pages and musical notation pages for the paper included in each kit. We’re making a bunch for the trade show display and maybe {if we can get it together} bringing a branch to hang paper ornaments from, also made from our old catalogs.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a winner! Three in fact. In our last comment contest we asked readers to let us know their thoughts on our new cover options: what’s your favorite, what’s your least favorite… After crunching the numbers the cover option that had the most wins is Chili Pepper. The least? Woodgrain Orange.
Each winner will receive a $50.00 gift certificate to use at the Rag & Bone Online Boutique. Congratulations to:
Back From Sabbatical
It’s fun to write that, like I’ve been hiking in the Himalayas or communing with nature somewhere. No such luck. Just working for the past month on my next book. I took four weeks away from Rag & Bone, which included blogging, and email {but not Twitter!}. But I’m back and picking up a few pieces since last time I was here - like posting images from the Stationery Show! The Gift Show is in four weeks, so I’m terribly late with these, but I’m getting into the blogging thing slowly, and posting images is easy. I’m awarding four winners in our last contest because I’m weeks late notifying anyone that they won. My bad, your gain! I’ll email you if you won. We’re giving away gift certificates this time, which seems more fun than sending random books - if you win, you get the books of your choice!
Onto the photos. More blogging {paper craft, book binding, book arts, artists, etc} to come!
Rag & Bone at the National Stationery Show 2009
Rag & Bone at the National Stationery Show 2009
Rag & Bone at the National Stationery Show 2009
Rag & Bone at the National Stationery Show 2009
Rag & Bone at the National Stationery Show 2009
Rag & Bone at the National Stationery Show 2009
Kusudama Flower decoration we made from our old catalogs - it’s pretty big, about 16″ in diameter
Our business card holder made from our old catalogs too
Party with our good friends Mark & Caroline from Ecojot
Party with our good friends Mark & Caroline from Ecojot
New from Rag & Bone Bindery
I just updated the website with four new cover options: Avocado, Chili Pepper, Lemon Grass and Mango. These cover options did really well at the Stationery Show and we’re excited by the bold, bright colors and contemporary patterns. Let us know what you think! {just sold-out the Lemon Grass: back in a few weeks when we receive our next shipment of fabric ~ that was fast!} Thanks, Jason
Rag & Bone Bindery
National Stationery Show
Booth 3635 - 3637
May 17 - 20 2009
WIN FREE BOOKS FROM RAG & BONE BINDERY ENDS FRIDAY, MAY 22ND {MIDNIGHT EST}
Here’s the latest comment-contest while we’re away at the Stationery Show: which one of the new cover options below is your favorite? Leave a comment to this post with your favorite, favorites or least favorite to enter. We want your opinion. We’ll select a commenter at random to receive a set of three books, your choice, bound in any one of these new covers, also your choice, mix & match! Wish us luck, we’re leaving tomorrow morning at the crack-of-too-early-in-the-morning. I’ve said it before, but the benefit to living close to New York City (four hours) is that we can drive to the show. The downside? We actually have to DRIVE to the show. We’ll see you all when we return. Thanks and have a great week everyone!
Photo Shoot
Lemon Grass
Lemon Grass
Traffic Jam
Dizzy Birds
Pewter Crosshatch
Oyster
Chili Pepper
Avocado
Mango
Persimmon
Twelve Wishes for your Marriage
Twelve Wishes for your Marriage
Please let us know your favorites for the latest comment-contest.
No blog posts while we get ready for the National Stationery Show. We’re leaving on Saturday, and will return the following Wednesday.
I’ll be twittering at the show - with photos - so if you’d like to see & read about a trade show vendor while-it-happens, action-packed with photos and actual trade show gossip, follow me on Twitter starting Saturday.
If you want to follow everyone’s tweets from the National Stationery Show, follow the #NSS tag. {Type #NSS into the search field on your Twitter homepage}
PS: Has anyone switched their twitter account name before? I’m thinking of changing my name, but does everyone have to re-follow me again? That would be a pain…
Our Twelve Ways You Made A Difference book is on the Today Show! the final items to be reviewed for the segment “Last Minute Mother’s Day Gifts” {at the 4:40 minute mark}. Rag & Bone sends a big Thank You to the nice Today Show people!
Just letting everyone know we’re knuckling down preparing for the National Stationery Show which begins on May 17th so the blog posts will be a little light until we return, after the 20th. Wish us luck! Jason
Thanks to everyone who took the Rag & Bone bookbinding classes on Saturday. It was our first time holding classes together with the open studio and we had such a blast, we’re going to do it every time. Promise! We had fun, our students had fun, the kids had fun so we’re already planning more classes next time we have an open studio, probably in the fall, or maybe we’ll have one sooner just because! We had some impromptu papercrafting with visitors so maybe paper craft classes too next time.
Fellow blogger Brownwyn from Casapinka took our class and we taught her how to make paper stars. Stop on by Casapinka and share the love!
Our local NBC affiliate, Turn To 10, stopped by to interview Ilira & me for a new series called, “Success Stories.” Woo hoo! Times like this I wish we had cable TV. We’ll have someone Tivo it for us, but if you’re in Southern New England, it’s scheduled to air on Channel 10 NBC probably Monday at 6:00. RJ Hines interviewed us - a real sweet guy, totally put us at ease. Thanks to Janet, our Sales Manager, for setting this up!
The winner in our “place a comment, win a prize” contest is reader Denise West who won a $100.00 gift certificate to use at the Rag & Bone Online Boutique. Thanks for everyone who commented, we’ll have another contest real soon. Cheers!
I made a few more of these Kusudama paper flowers and thought it would be nice to take them to our next trade show, the National Stationery Show. We’re going “Green” with our next catalog so we disassembled a few old catalogs and made them into flowers to display around the show booth. I just photographed one for our catalog postcard which I hope conveys to our customers, “our new catalog has literally gone green, it’s turned into a flower”.
I think it looks good on the postcard, what do you think?
It’s the Rag & Bone Blog three year anniversary today
Our first ever blog post on 4/11/06 was an announcement for an open studio event at the Bindery celebrating our 15th year in business. We had cake at the studio and designed a limited edition album - with crystals on it! 15 is the crystal anniversary. In four days Rag & Bone Bindery will celebrate 18 years which is the Porcelain anniversary.
Rag & Bone 15th Anniversary four days after our first blog post.
I don’t know what we expected when we started the blog. I guess we hoped it would put a face behind the company and show our customers that we’re not a faceless corporation. I think we achieved this a little, but blogging has been so much more. We met friends and artists through the blog. I signed two book deals when my publisher came across the blog, and I’ve been interviewed for business blogs because of the exposure. We met our publicist through the blog.
Rag & Bone 15th Anniversary four days after our first blog post.
But most importantly, I’ve been more creative with my art since writing about all the cool stuff out there in the blogosphere. I don’t create as much as I would like, but I find myself aching to work on art more and more these days. The artists I write about are inspiring. My little girl Faye, who has an endless well of creativity, is inspiring too, we sometimes work on projects together. If nothing else, being able to have a more creative life is well worth the effort to blog just about every day.
It’s been challenging too. When we get busy, I have to move on to more pressing Rag & Bone projects, but I think I’m getting better at blogging at a more steady pace. There is no end to the cool stuff to find on the ‘net - so many talented artists and creative projects.
Anyway - thanks for reading.
QUESTION: What kind of posts do you like to see here on the blog? Paper? Bookbinding? Artists? Personal? What are your favorite posts? Please leave a comment and let me know. I’ll give away a few books to a lucky commenter, I’ll choose someone at random to receive Rag & Bone books so leave a link to your blog or other contact details in your comment.
Just because I don’t smile in photos, doesn’t mean I’m not happy.
It’s that time of year again, five birthdays in a row over the next month: Leah {today!}, me, Allison, Faye and then Ilira. I should preemptively start working off those slices of cake. Or not…
Happy Birthday Leah {Rag & Bone studio assistant and life of the party}
