VirtuArte.com

For someone like me who is always looking for new artists and products to promote, the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market (the Market) is a great event to attend. The Market is held in July on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, New Mexico. 2009 will mark its sixth anniversary. The first Market was held in 2004 and has grown into the country's largest venue for international folk art. It is also a major contributor to the cultural and economic sustainability of folk artists. In 2008 125 artists from 41 different countries participated. New were artists from eight countries not represented in 2007, including Mongolia, Rwanda, Kenya and El Salvador. More than 20,000 people attended and sales of $2.0 million were generated. The artists retain 93% of their sales.

Last year was my first visit to the Market so everything was new to me. I was an "early-bird" shopper, walked up and down aisles watching artists demonstrate their skills, talked to artists, picked up product information and made a few purchases. This year I have a similar plan except I will be looking for two specific artists that are on the VirtuArte website. One of the artist I met at last year's Market, the other will be participating for the first time.

Met at the Market

As I was walking down one of the aisles last year I saw a lot of women crowded around a group of tables filled with beautiful scarves and shawls. These scarves and shawls were the work of Jabbar Khati, an artist from Kutch, India. What caught my eye were the beautiful colors, the patterns and the tie-dye effect, which is created through the practice of bandhani. I purchased a couple of his pieces and afterwards contacted Jabbar to see if I could promote his work on my website. Now a year later he is back and I am sure his scarves and shawls will be as popular as they were last year.

First time participant

I first became aware of Elhadji Koumama's work at the New York International Gift Fair in August 2008. The beautiful Tuareg jewelry handcrafted by him and his family is something I had not seen before, and immediately knew it was something I wanted to promote on the VirtuArte website. In December I received an e-mail from Ann Elston, who works with Elhadji and his family, telling me she had read my blog post on the Market and submitted an application for Elhadji. The application had been sent in past the due date so she did not think there was much of a chance of Elhadji being accepted. However, she had just been notified that he had been accepted. Ann said, "If I had not been reading your blog I would have never known about the Market." Ann has since told me the Koumama family has been busy making jewelry for the Market. I am sure others will find it as beautiful as I do.

Go to http://www.virtuarte.com/artist/jabbar-khatri to find more about Jabbor and bandhani. To read more about Elhadji go to http://www.virtuarte.com/artist/koumama-family.

I will be leaving next Wednesday for Santa Fe and am looking forward to going back to the Market. Follow my updates from the Market at www.twitter.com/virtuarte.