Rio Grande has a marketing tool called Catalog in Motion which is
the most amazingly effective tool I have ever seen. I went to the
Hilton East this morning a little after 9AM thinking I was early only
to find I was late for Blaine Lewis’ seminar and that the parking lot
was full and Rio was doing business. I went to talk to Lee Marshal
first, as I am hooked on Bonny Boon products. Lee was able to answer
my questions, of course, which is the reason I am hooked on his
products, person product service. My Bonny Doon is my favorite tool,
bar none. The inventory control product I use, Jewelry Design
Manager, is also at Catalog In Motion. I was able to talk about the
program to learn more and find out that there is an update coming
soon which will interface with Quickbooks and solve some more of my
paper pushing problems. I am completely sold on JDM. 3M is a company
which always amazes me. I brought my apprentice, Shawna Lobmiller,
over to their booth and found myself saying that 3M always has new
products which I ALWAYS find usefull. I found their new product the
solution to my biggest problem, finishing jewelry. They have a new
type of wheel which will make me money by removing a step I usually
use in finishing, hand emerying. It is a green foam wheel with
different abrasive grits in it. I was told that is was a foam wheel
and I thought, so what, what does this do for me, well it’s the
difference between a hard cutting wheel and a drum sander. I was
able to use the 600 grit, 3000 grit and then to White Diamond and
rouge to get a mirror finish. I started on my drum sander but now
think I could probably get away from using it for the filing purpose
with these wheels or run these wheels wet. The finishing process for
my fabricated line was the most time consuming and there for the most
costly process I had to do to get the mirror finish I need. Not any
more, form in urethane (Bonny Doon) and finish with 3M green Wheels.
Perfect.
Sam Patania, Tucson
www.patanias.com