ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, May 26, 1996 TAG: 9605240009
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
IT takes Kevin Riddle a month to make a slat-back chair.
He splits the white oak logs with a wedge and a sledgehammer, rounds the posts on a shaving horse, weaves the oak splints into a herringbone-patterned seat.
He keeps no modern machinery in his Botetourt County workshop; he works only with his hands and traditional woodworking tools.
Riddle is a patient man. As he says in his handwritten catalog, "Quality cannot be rushed."
But even Riddle is becoming frustrated. He has fought unsuccessfully for two years to overcome what he and other Virginia craftspeople see as an unwillingness by the state to promote their industry.
"The people coming across the state line at the welcome centers should be able to walk out with some sort of booklet that would direct them to the crafts in the state," said Riddle, who also makes wooden pitchforks and benches. "But they can't."
Riddle, whose workshop is near Eagle Rock, has become a one-man booster club for the state's craftspeople. He spends hours upon hours - time he could be spending weaving seats, or splitting logs - researching and lobbying and writing letters.
Last year, he sent out a survey to the state's visitors centers. Of the 16 centers that responded, 15 said they needed more information on Virginia handcrafts. Eight said Virginia's handcraft information is not as good as that provided by neighboring states, which promote their craft industries heavily with maps and guidebooks.
"There's a ready market, and there's a whole invisible group of producers out there," Riddle said. "What's missing is communication to bring the two together."
No one has conducted a formal survey of Virginia craftspeople, but a Virginia Cooperative Extension database includes the names of more than 2,000 crafters from all across the state.
The vast diversity within the crafting community is both a cultural asset and an organizational nightmare. Finding common ground among full-time craftspeople is difficult. They produce such a variety of goods - ladder-back chairs, hand-knit sweaters, gold jewelry, clay pots - that they defy simple organization. Some disagree even on terminology: Are they artists or craftspeople? Do they work in studios or workshops?
"Everybody has different concepts of what they want to project," said Barbara Mason, who, with her husband, Fred, owns a jewelry studio in Norfolk. "When you get a lot of craftspeople or artists together, you get a lot of strong wills. But that's how they've survived this long."
One point on which many craftspeople agree, however, is that they need some way to market their wares and demonstrate the economic impact of their cottage industries to the state's economy. Full-time crafters often lack the time and resources to market themselves; they would like to be able to look to the state for the know-how to promote themselves.
A push toward craft marketing seemed to be building in the early 1980s, when some craftspeople, in conjunction with the state's cooperative extension services, formed the Virginia Artisans Business Development Association. Now called the Association of Virginia Artisans, it was created to teach crafters the basics of marketing and business strategy.
Around the same time, the state-funded Virginia Commission for the Arts started publishing an annual guide to state craft shows and fairs. The booklet became so successful, said Peggy Baggett, the commission's executive director, that a private vendor took over the project.
"There's no point in a government agency providing a service when a private vendor wants to," she said.
But since then, while neighboring states have expanded their craft-marketing programs, Virginia's has remained relatively stagnant. The state artisans association remains active, despite some internal differences among its members. And the private vendor who began publishing the annual guide first expanded it to a quarterly magazine and then, several weeks ago, announced it was going out of business. Baggett said it may be taken over by another publisher.
Some areas of the state have been running their own regional craft-marketing programs. In Southwest Virginia, for instance, the Coalfield Regional Tourism Development Authority works with the state Cooperative Extension Service to publish an annual guide to the area's craft fairs and shows to help crafters find markets for their goods.
The marketing effort was bolstered by a $100,000 grant from the Tennessee Valley Authority, said Phyllis Deel, extension agent with Dickenson County Cooperative Extension. The money - $20,000 a year for five years - got the group off to a strong start and, while the funding has run out, Deel said the necessary groundwork has been laid. And the group has learned it has received a Forest Service grant that will pay the salary of a crafts marketing specialist.
Such calendar-type publications are a start, Riddle said. Many crafters make a good living by selling at shows, such as the juried show at Roanoke's Festival in the Park now going on. Sunnye Kiser, director of the show, said 120 crafters will display their work. Most are full-time craftspeople, she said, and many travel the craft show circuit all summer.
But craft fair purchases often are impulse buys, Riddle said; he's found it's difficult for him to sell his $175 chairs to casual shoppers. Frustrated by state inaction, Riddle finally decided to market his own products. He read marketing books, he attended small-business seminars, he worked with business development offices.
"But the craft business is such a specialty niche that those people can't help you but so much," he said. So he learned to market his chairs the way he learned to make them: by trial and error. He has discovered that his furniture sells best through catalogs, which he produces himself.
He could, he said, make a decent living on his own, without the state's help. Some 95 percent of his income is from his chair and tool sales; he also takes occasional part-time jobs driving a truck or doing handiwork.
The Masons, in Norfolk, rely solely on their jewelry craft for income. They make a comfortable living, Barbara Mason said, and are able to do some advertising, but they know that there are plenty of craftspeople who can't afford to market themselves.
"When you're struggling and you're trying to keep your business afloat and it's your sole income, it's hard to pay for the extras," she said.
Riddle can't understand why the state hasn't done more.
"The state puts out a brochure on the covered bridges - all six of 'em," he said, shaking his head. "And it won't do one on the thousand-plus craftspeople."
Talk to some crafters about the importance of promoting the state's handcrafts, and you'll hear testimonials about how vital the arts are to a state's overall health, and how we must preserve our heritage.
In some ways, Riddle is no different. The men in his family always have worked with their hands; even today, Riddle uses only authentic Appalachian tools and techniques. Too many third- and fourth-generation Southwest Virginians just don't seem to care about their past, he said.
But he has learned to steer clear of emotional appeals when he deals with state officials.
``I hesitate to even talk about culture and quality-of-life issues,'' he said, ``because when you bring those things up to the state officials, they just kind of roll their eyes - `OK, how much money do you want now?'''
He has tried, over the past few years, to collect enough economic data about the craft industry to satisfy the government's need for statistical support. He has accumulated a box full of brochures and economic impact studies from other states. He has made phone calls and written letters, and he has learned which government officials return calls and answer correspondence. He has discovered - to his chagrin, but not his surprise - that he often knows more about the state's craft industry than the folks in Richmond.
"I beat the bushes for a couple of years, getting the bureaucratic runaround," Riddle said. "Finally, it starts looping back onto itself."
Fred Mason of Norfolk understands Riddle's frustration.
"The economic impact of this form of self-employment is often overlooked," Mason said. "It's passed off as people sitting at their kitchen tables making covers for tissue boxes."
What Virginia crafters need, Deel said, is an economic impact study similar to those conducted in Kentucky and North Carolina.
In Kentucky, where a craft marketing program has been in place since the early '80s, a 1993 study found that craftspeople had annual sales of about $24.2 million, out of a total state domestic product of about $76 billion. The sum rises to $52.5 million when tourism spending - on lodgings, food, other attractions - is factored in.
In 1993, Kentucky received about $1.7 million in sales and individual income taxes from Kentucky crafts and the income and spending of craftspeople. During that period, the program received $263,000 in tax-dollar support.
North Carolina, which in 1994 was just beginning to market its crafts, conducted a similar study and learned that full- and part-time craftspeople together sell $49 million worth of goods, out of a total state domestic product of $160 billion. That figure doesn't include sales of North Carolina handcrafts at retail shops.
"We know it's happening in our state," said Deel, "but there's no research data to support that." Such a study would cost about $100,000, she said. Virginia crafters last year sought funding from the General Assembly, but the request was denied.
Ann Lastovica, an extension specialist with Virginia Cooperative Extension at Virginia State University, said the craft industry's initial goal back in the '80s was to get craft products under the auspices of the Virginia's Finest marketing program, administered by the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. But the department decided the Virginia's Finest designation should be limited to agricultural and processed-food products, especially since the department's funding had been cut in previous years.
The crafters now are trying to work with the Division of Tourism in the Department of Economic Development. Riddle wrote Patrick McMahon, director of the tourism division, in May 1995 to share his ideas about promoting crafts as a tourist draw. He got no answer. He wrote again in late June, this time with a cover letter from state Sen. Milfourd "Bo" Trumbo, R-Fincastle, and again received no answer.
Sue Bland, a spokeswoman for the division of tourism, said that while her office doesn't publish a comprehensive guide to Virginia craftspeople, it does market local handcrafts.
"We do it by incorporating it into everything we promote, rather than listing it separately," she said. The Commission for the Arts had borne the primary responsibility for marketing handcrafts, she said. And, while the commission no longer publishes its yearly craft fair guide, tourists still can call there to request a list of selected Virginia crafters, although Baggett said it is by no means comprehensive.
Bland encouraged craftspeople to work with their local convention and visitors bureaus, as well as with the state tourism division, to develop marketing strategies. The tourism division does publish specialty brochures in conjunction with specific groups, she said, including a guide to the state's golf courses and a bed-and-breakfast promotional piece.
Additionally, Virginia's new page on the World Wide Web includes an arts and crafts section, she said.
"Clearly, we have an interest [in the craft industry]," Bland said. "We continue to promote it."
Other state departments publish promotional information, as well; the Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, for instance, offers a listing of the state's Christmas tree farms, a mail-order catalog of Virginia food specialties and a guide to Virginia wineries.
Most of these publications are not funded wholly by the state; the attractions or businesses listed in the guides may pay a fee to be included. But Riddle said that wouldn't be a problem for the state's craftspeople. A place to begin, he suggested, is with a simple listing of all craftspeople in the state, similar to a guide published by the state of Kentucky. Crafters could be assessed a fee - $50 or $100 - to be included in the guide; the cost would both offset some of the production costs and assure quality control.
If, after a few years, the guide proved successful, the state could start a jury system and allow only top-quality crafts into the guide.
Lastovica doesn't think the state is necessarily indifferent to its crafts; she said the lack of support is largely a matter of setting priorities during a period of general downsizing of state government. But the issue has become a Catch-22: Unless the state funds a study, it won't recognize the economic impact of its crafts. But no study will be approved unless the state finds incentive.
The data from states such as Kentucky and North Carolina should be sufficient, she said.
"Our goals are to increase the awareness of the craft industry and to show the revenues that are being collected through this industry," Lastovica said. "We don't need to reinvent the wheel."
Riddle has considered holding classes for other craftspeople, to give them a chance to learn - with relative ease - what it has taken him all this time to figure out. He has even considered compiling a handbook, similar to one published by the Tennessee Arts Commission, that guides craftspeople through the intricacies of setting up a business and a marketing plan.
But he just doesn't have the time. He has to earn a living at his craft.
"My business has suffered," he said. "If I had stayed home and attended to my business, my business would be a lot better and I wouldn't have this box full of stuff."
LENGTH: Long : 236 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:WAYNE DEEL STAFF 1. For two years, woodworker Kevinby CNBRiddle has waged an unsuccessful one-man campaign to get the state
to boost Virginia's craft industry. Riddle (above with a pitchfork
he made in his shop near Eagle Rock) uses only authentic Appalachian
tools and techniques. 2. Shaping a piece of wood (right) is done the
old-fashioned way - on a shaving horse.
3. Riddle puts the finishing touches on a white oak slat-back
chair in his workshop. color.