An ACRE of Beautiful Things 

Artisans go wholesale in an effort to make careers out of their crafts.

By Maria Falconer
Published: July 21st, 2010 | 3:10pm

At first glance, the annual American Craft Retailers Expo, or ACRE, seems like any other convention—rows and rows of 8x10 booths, manned by the ambitious, young and old alike. But upon closer examination, the difference becomes clear. No plumbing fixtures or energy drinks sold here.

Held every spring in Las Vegas, ACRE is an event designed for artisans to display and present to retailers their clever, crafty, artsy, and beautiful things. Nothing is actually sold at the show, but artisans take wholesale orders and then ship the goods to the retailers several weeks later. Generally, the more outgoing an artisan is, the better he or she will do at the show. The convention has become quite popular because it gives artists the chance to meet and transact with many retailers in a very short amount of time and get live, real time feedback about their crafts.

I traveled to ACRE this year for the first time to scope out new items for my online shop, Rambles.com. After many years of being a fan and patron of WholesaleCrafts.com, a site that helps artisans promote and sell their wares wholesale, it only made sense to attend this show organzied by WholesaleCrafts.com founder and artisan/business mogul and Nancy White.

White started the convention in 2007 to bring retailers and artisans together face to face. This year, ACRE took place over three sweltering days in Las Vegas, June 5–7. I caught up with White on the monorail one morning, on her way to the convention center to take care of last minute preparation.

“Are you buyers or sellers?” White asked me. When I told her that I was a buyer, her face lit up. “That’s great! We’ve got some great things this year,” she said. But then her attention turned almost immediately back to her sellers. “We bought ads on the monorail, you know. I hope they come out okay. I’d hate to disappoint my sellers.”

White need not have worried. The ads turned out great and the show was a resounding success. According to the official post-show press release, about 400 artists from the US and Canada displayed at the show this year, and retailer attendance was up 4%.

Through my own shopping at ACRE, I got to know three artists quite well, all creative, all women, all strong. Pam Neeley of Neeley Designs estimates that she’s sold tens of thousands of earrings over the course of her more than ten year career. Neeley is one of the rare few, an artisan actually making a living solely from her art—much to the surprise of her husband. After witnessing the reaction of the crowds to her beautiful and striking earrings at a Midwestern show, he began winding down his career to support hers. Today, Neely Designs is something the couple happily does together.

Jennifer Utsch markets her brand, Jendala, as "Art for the Soul." She uses mostly recycled and reclaimed items to make her wind chimes and then uses the profits from her sales largely to fund her various philanthropic efforts, like making Angel Lights for 9/11 firefighters and hosting workshop for crafters in Mexico.

Perhaps the most touching story I encountered at the convention came from print and design artisan, Raphaella Vaisseau of Heartful Art. As a little girl, Vaisseau wanted to grow up to be an artist, but her mother dismissed that desire as a pipe dream and advised her to follow a more practical path. For years Vaisseau worked in traditional jobs, but eventually, she gave in to her passion. Today, she celebrates more than fifteen years of making a living from her magical drawings, proof positive that with hard work and determination, even pipe dreams can become realty.

White has recently added an annual winter show to the ACRE schedule. The first will be held this January in Orlando, Florida. Like the Vegas show, I’m certain that it will be populated by hopefuls, most of them, at least for the moment, living more on passion than profit. But, the promise will be there, everywhere you look, of a more bohemian existence—one made of raw materials, plentiful customers, and dreams. Perhaps, as Neeley recalled to us, it was her husband who best summed up that dream with the question he posed to her many years ago at that Midwest craft show: “People actually pay you for this?” They certainly do.

Maria Falconer is owner and founder of Rambles, an online shop of handmade and vintage wares.