Freebie Friday Goes To The Dogs (Notes, That Is)

Crane's collection of Dog Notes was reintroduced at the National Stationery Show earlier this month. There are currently eight breeds in the line - Standard Poodle, Golden Retriever, Labrador Retriever, Scottish Terrier, Jack Russell Terrier, Dachshund, Yorkshire Terrier and a Labradoodle Puppy.

For 2011 Crane will expand its offering of Dog Notes, but there are soooo many breeds out there it's pretty hard to figure out which might be the most popular to be featured on Crane paper.

So that's where you and your friends come in. Let's see if we can get a consensus winner. Enter a comment below promoting your favorite breed, or send me a Dog Tweet @craneinsider. I'll pick one winner from the blog and one from Twitter for a selection of Crane's Brushstoke Animals. 


Spread the word!

Bordering The Buzz at the Stationery Show

For more than 20 years, I have considered myself one lucky guy to have watched the steady hands, calm demeanor, attention to detail and complete dedication to quality that Crane's artisans bring to every piece of stationery they touch. I've seen craftsmanship honed over generations, many times handed down from father to son and from mother to daughter.

But it's an experience you can only get in Dalton. Until the National Stationery Show earlier this week. Crane brought two hand-borderers to the city to demonstrate their unique brand of traditional New England craftsmanship at the Jacob Javits Center.

It was jaw-dropping. Hundreds of visitors to the Crane booth every day stood transfixed as Sally Rice and Deb Larkin plied their craft. Their normally quiet and highly focused art was suddenly the talk of the town. They expertly bordered more than 5,000 cards and notes while being peppered with questions, flashes popping and  gasps of incredulity flying around the booth.

"I had no idea."

"Are you kidding me?"

"Unbelievable"

"I can't believe what I'm seeing."

If you haven't seen a video of hand-bordering at Crane, you can now and you can believe what you see. I think you'll understand why I'm still completely dazzled after 22 years. I recommend switching to full-screen mode.

I've Reached The Stationary Tipping Point

Before I start putting up a bunch of pretty pictures from the National Stationery Show, I have to get this off my chest. I'm not perfect. I misspell words every so often. I garble a participle on occasion.


But if you are in the stationery business, please learn how to spell stationery. It's with an:


e

I, along with many others, spend a good deal of the waking hours (some when we should be sleeping) promoting the use of stationery and an accompanying lifestyle that reflects courtesy, respect and civility in our interpersonal relationships. But every time someone in the business spells stationery with an 

a

we have to take another step backward before we can take the next step forward.

Here was the tipping point:

Sights & Sounds of a Stationery Journey at Crane

I was giving a tour at Crane for a stationer from Australia earlier this week and brought along the video camera to capture some of the sights and sounds of stationery on the move as we prepared for the National Stationery Show. The shots are mostly random. Sights and sounds that attracted my attention as we moved through the stationery process.

Golden Retro Details

I'm really excited about lots of new items being introduced at the National Stationery Show next week. I'll show you as many as I can over the next couple of weeks. In particular, I'm taken with the retro motifs that adorn two new kate spade gift box sets:

It's a Green Day on Wall Street and Main Street

Spring is such a beautiful time of year, especially here in Vermont. This despite the fact that it snowed yesterday and we will have a hard freeze tonight. There's lots of stuff popping up in the garden - lettuce, onions, chives, etc. Of course only an idiot would plant tomatoes this early in the season......ooops...guilty.....

And today, even Wall Street started the morning in the green for the first time in a while.

So let's have some more green:

Traditional Green Thank You

Trailing Vines

Bird of Paradise

Bryanna