raw materials

the downturn and recycling (free paper and cardboard!)

2008-12-08T04:34:42Z

As The New York Times writes, the market for recyclable materials is drying up. We accumulate a lot of cardboard boxes and packing paper (crumpled up kraft paper of various colors) which we try to recycle, but it has been getting harder. Our cardboard guy has started coming by less often, and we have many trash bags of crumpled packing paper that we can’t seem to give away.

If you are looking for some boxes for moving, and packing paper, just let us know. We’d be more than happy for you to take what we’re just piling in our storage area!

old bank holiday block party and art bazaar

2008-12-08T04:25:36Z

Taking over 4th & Main and The Old Bank on December 6th.

That Tom Gilmore is at it again - he’s shutting down traffic leading to 4th & Main on December 6th and throwing the Old Bank District a Holiday Block Party. Inside the Old Bank is an Art Bazaar, with downtown galleries and artists selling art priced for gift-giving. Raw Materials will be there, and this is what we’ll be hawking:

Framed Commemorative Metal Plate of the Los Angeles Time’s “It’s Obama” front page.
Framed Commemorative color mini-poster of the Los Angeles Time’s “It’s Obama” front page.

As of press time, we still don’t know whether our table will be inside the Bank, or directly outside on Main Street, but we’ll be there, will you? Stop by the table and check out the quality of our custom art framing and/or buy a piece of history for your loft wall.

gyst during the december downtown art walk

2008-12-04T02:47:22Z

Take a short break during Art Walk and Get Your Art Sh*t Together.

We’re not being judgmental, Getting Your Sh*t Together (GYST) is business software for artists of all kinds. GYST guides you through the world of business for artists, keeping you organized, guiding you to resources and helping you set up your practice in a way that allows more time for making art. On December 11th, during the December Downtown Art Walk, Raw Materials will host free workshops and software demonstrations of this remarkable software. Tucker Neel from GYST-Ink will be on-hand, sharing resources, and answering your questions.

The first 30 people to RSVP to gyst@rawmaterialsla.com will receive a free Artist Statement review. Simply email your artists statement to gyst@rawmaterialsla.com. GYST-Ink will review it, make suggestions, and return it to you at the event on December 11th. This offer, and a drawing for a free copy of GYST software is only available to people who attend on December 11th. Deadline to RSVP is December 8, 2008.

Raw Materials is the exclusive retailer of GYST and heartily recommends giving a copy to your favorite artist, especially if it’s yourself.

our new sidewalk sign

2008-11-12T04:58:43Z

If you have been by the store in the last couple of days, you might have noticed (or been drawn in by) our new sidewalk sign. James spent more hours than he would care to admit on it, but I think that it looks fantastic.

people who aren’t helping

2008-11-05T23:36:00Z

As it it is not hard enough to get a new business off the ground, there are jackals like the folks at Retail Business Supplies that will make a misleading sales call and then pretend you’ve agreed to place in order simply because you gave them your address (believing that they were confirming an order already placed).

We ended up having to send a certified letter to them, letting them know that we were going to destroy the stuff they sent unless they took it back. To their credit, Federal Express picked up the package today. So we’re only out a few bucks to send the letter and a few hours of researching how to deal with this sort of garbage.

The price they were trying to charge was ridiculous, of course. We could have gotten two or three times as many rolls for half the cost.

no accounting with taste

2008-10-19T18:48:36Z

I may have mentioned before that we are using MYOB AccountEdge to do our bookkeeping. They are on the cusp of releasing information on their next version, as they kept reminding us when trying to sell us the support plan that would get us a free upgrade.

Because a new version of QuickBooks for Mac was just released, I decided to download the free trial and make sure we didn’t want to switch before signing up for the support contract. The new version of QuickBooks looks pretty good — a lot more Mac-like than AccountEdge, for sure. The showstopper was reading about their support plans, though — the software cost is lower than AccountEdge, but the difference in price on the annual support plan bridges the gap, and doesn’t include software upgrades.

So while I wish that AccountEdge were better, there didn’t seem to be much about QuickBooks that made me want to make the leap. If I had any sort of spare time to speak of, I would probably try to whip up something that did the minimal accounting we need. The integration between AccountEdge and Checkout has turned out to be rather minimal, and there is a ton of stuff in AccountEdge that we just don’t need and mostly gets in the way. For example, there’s a lot of workflow for printing invoices and bills and checks and so forth, none of which we use at all.

less than ubiquitous

2008-10-15T19:37:26Z

If you have been following our Twitter updates, you may have noticed that we have been getting in a number of magazines. There aren’t a lot of distributors for magazines, and particularly the sorts of fine-art magazines we’re trying to carry. Today we learned that one of them, Ubiquity Distributors, won’t even deal with us because we won’t be bringing in enough titles that they carry. So here we are, a small, independent art supplies store who can only get Ingram Periodicals, pretty much the biggest magazine distributor, to let us buy magazines.

Unfortunately, Ingram doesn’t carry every magazine we wanted to carry, so we’re having to get in touch with some of those magazines to either get them directly, or encourage them to let Ingram carry them.

sale? what sale?

2008-10-14T22:50:04Z

Our 50% off canvas sale continues, we’re bringing in more eco-friendly, “green” options in art supplies, and we’re establishing everyday low prices on a variety of art essentials:

Golden and Liquitex acrylics at 20% off
Gamblin oils at 20% off
Graham oil, watercolor & gouache at 40% off
Strathmore pads and sketch books at 20% off
Canson pads and papers at 15-25% off (plus a $2 mail-in rebate on select pads)
MABEF easels at 40% off

new store hours

2008-10-08T23:12:52Z

We’ve expanded our store hours. Our new hours are:
Monday-Friday 10am - 7pm; Saturday 11am - 5pm

As one of the sponsors of the Downtown Art Walk, we will be open until 9:30pm every second Thursday of the month to accommodate downtown art walkers. We’ve started implementing some of our sale pricing in advance of this Thursday’s Art Walk - Strathmore pads are 20% off! Also, you asked for it and now we have it - books and magazines are in! We have Artforum, Modern Painters, Art in America, Wallpaper, and more.

We are still setting up shelves and awaiting delivery of more inventory from our distributors, but we’ve had lots of new stuff come in the past few weeks. The store is filling up nicely as we gear up for our Big Grand Opening in November, but more on that later. If you haven’t been in lately, stop by, check out our progress, and give us your feedback (or just say hello).

the great holiday swap

2008-10-07T23:40:39Z

Raw Materials is participating in a global artist trading card swap - express yourself in a small format and promote yourself in a big way! Create your own holiday or winter-themed trading card and in exchange, you will receive an original piece of art from another artist somewhere around the world. We have trading cards, entry forms and information at the store. Read more about artist trading cards and The Great Holiday Swap on the Strathmore website.