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Kathy Phillips was interested in leveraging the success of her company’s rustic
tin words – pithy, inspirational, and ubiquitous affirmations (Dream! Breathe!
Believe!) which had blown the roof off of the Amish country-based operation,
Primitives by Kathy. Phillips had already colorized the white-washed
declarations (Joy! Get Real! Giggle!), made shelves out of them (Rejoice!
Simplify! Whatever!), staked them for the garden (Woof! Smile! Create!), and
framed them for pictures (Life Is Good! XOXO! Precious!)
It was merely a matter of time before these terse rejoinders found their way
onto plates.
This year, just in time for the enterprise’s tenth anniversary, Phillips has
launched a tabletop line, Pottery by Kathy (simple but effectively capitalizing
on the simple but effective company name Primitives by Kathy). The three designs
are led by Word Expressions (shown throughout), a sequel of sorts to Annie
Schickel’s enormously popular metal word series. Word Expressions is reminiscent
of the extensive (exhaustive? 2,800 SKUs) Primitives by Kathy catalog.
Typewritten bon mots on creamy bodies evoke pottery of yesteryear passed down
from one generation to the next. In this respect it fits in well with the
company’s oeuvre.
Primitives by Kathy’s catalog looks like it was culled rummaging through a
treasure-filled old attic or scouring the city’s flea markets in pursuit of
weathered woods, distressed metals, aged quilt squares, faded glories,
cross-stitched pillows. Primitive art, after all, (also know as naïve or
outsider art) is crafted by untrained artists and characterized by simplicity
and lack of elements. It’s homemade, folksy Americana, timeworn and rustic,
reminiscent of toleware and fraktur, which both, interestingly, hail from the
County the business is located. The rural, farming Pennsylvania Dutch region,
known for its large contingent of Mennonites, has always held a fascination for
crafts folk. The rolling hills of historic Lancaster County has proven a fertile
breeding ground for homey, hand-fashioned work, and, thus, has been an ideal
environ for this multimillion-dollar operation situated in the heart of the
Amish country.
It’s here where Kathy Phillips was raised, a daughter of retail. Her mom’s gift
shop in a tiny nearby touristy town was where she earned her chops. Phillips
says her decadelong experience helped hone her acute marketing instincts. “It
really transformed me,” she assures. “I discovered that promotion was where my
heart was and it had the potential to really excite our customers.” Her years at
retail proved a fecund training ground. As a buyer, Phillips learned to spot
assortments retailers covet. As a merchandiser, Phillips learned how to sizzle
the steak. And as a businessperson, Phillips learned how to keep an eye firmly
peeled on the bottom line. Her mother’s small gift shop, Phillips avers, turned
out to be the perfect launching pad for the business that began as many do, in
the basement of her home.
Backtrack to 1997. Phillips, unchallenged and growing bored, a single mom of two
young kids looking for something more, felt she had a strong handle on what
customers wanted. She started with what she knew. Her customers loved buying
candles so Phillips suspected that was as good a place as any to start. The
burgeoning entrepreneur fashioned a wooden candle box with cut-outs of stars and
hearts and a fastened wire handle (above). Plunking down $700 for a tiny booth
at a Valley Forge crafts fair, Phillips displayed a few dozen boxes in pursuit
of fame and fortune. Much to her surprise that’s precisely what she got. By the
end of the first day, she amassed so many orders she hung a sign: SOLD OUT.
Aghast neighbors urged her to pull down the sign and continue writing orders.
Phillips obliged. At show’s end, she returned home exhausted and exhilarated,
$85,000 worth of orders in hand for a $10 wooden candle box.
And that’s when the panic set in.
continued . . . .
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