Television Interview with Howard Green of BNN

A few weeks ago a producer from Business News Network (BNN) called asking me to participate in an interview entitled "The Business of Craftmanship".

The focus of the segment was to discover how people can turn the craft of making things into an actual business, and in addition to me discussing the craft of fine furniture making there were also interviews with custom guitar maker William "Grit" Laskin, and shoemaker-to-the-stars John Fluevog.

The interview took place last Tuesday at a gallery in Toronto called Industrial Storm, and it would be an understatement to say that I was incredibly nervous going in.



Thankfully the show's host Howard Green was incredibly professional and easy going, and his friendly, relaxed demeanor worked wonders setting me at ease before the interview began.

Howard's interview with me can be seen at the following link:

http://watch.bnn.ca/headline/#clip590938

Meanwhile Howard's interview with William "Grit" Laskin is here, and the interview with John Fluevog is here.

Ay, Caramba - IDS11 Opens With a Roar !!!

O. M. G.

Before this year's Interior Design Show (IDS11) began I had a feeling that Kevin's display would generate some positive "buzz". The reality of opening day, however, blew my expectations right out of the water.

IDS11 opened with a roar, and within the first hour the aisles in Studio North were jammed with visitors. With little effort was Kevin creating traffic jams in front of his booth with demonstrations of his rotating T.V. cabinet.

Before the show began I told him he'd have to "keep that thing moving" to get people to notice his work. (I was concerned that his less-than-prime location might be a detriment to him getting seen). In reality, there were a few times I had to get Kevin to shut things down - just to get traffic flowing again and keep surrounding exhibitors from getting ticked off. It was mayhem - in a good way.

I truly lost count of how many times I heard the words "awesome" and "amazing" used to describe Kevin's work. Within the first 4 hours he had already gone through more handouts than he gave out for during the entire IDS10 show last year. At the rate things were going he'd have been out of literature by mid-afternoon, and we had to change tactics to only giving handouts to those who specifically asked.

Business News Network (BNN) interviewed him at one point, and a video cameo of him appeared on tonight's national broadcast on Global 57. (I won't repost it here because his face time was only about 10 seconds long, but it's in the middle of a 9 minute segment).

In addition to BNN there are also several design bloggers who have posted positive reviews of his work, including Remote Stylist, Bedford Brooks , Blogto , Mosaicworks , and Delectably Chic.

Long story short: Kevin had a magnificent day today, and I am so happy for him!

But 'my dogs are barking', my back is aching, and it's time relax with a pint.

Tomorrow will be another long one as day #2 of IDS11 gets under way.