some new products!

New: Laini's Ladies fans and notecards! What fun. Forthcoming this season we also have Laini's Ladies bath salts, a very cool thing, as they are produced by a wonderful Chicago-based nonprofit called The Enterprising Kitchen. Their mission statement is to provide workforce development for women working toward self-sufficiency and economic independence. They're a member of the Fair Trade Federation and use all-natural ingredients.

I'm really glad to be able to use products made in the USA, especially by such a great company. Being a new artist just starting out in licensing, it's really not an option to go all Made in the USA, but I hope to find more opportunities like this one with The Enterprising Kitchen.

I recently explained a bit about "licensing" in an interview, and I thought I might do so here as well, since I myself didn't really know what it was even as I was trying to get my toe in its door. A simple definition of licensing, without the legalese, is giving limited permission to a company to use one's artwork or brand in the manufacture of a product. So, in my case, I grant a company called Bottman Design the right to make Laini's Ladies. I create the artwork and they have the right to use it on agreed-upon products, for a limited term, and in return I receive royalties, while they do the manufacturing, promotion, and distribution. This is a GREAT arrangement for me, since I have no interest in the day-to-day businessy things, and they have been wonderful to work with. To other artists sellling their work to companies, I would recommend you be very cautious in licensing contracts and absolutely have a lawyer read everything; not all companies are great like Bottman!

But back to the products pictured above: fans! How cool is that? Fans totally make me think of being a kid overseas, and begging my parents for lacy Spanish fans in the marketplace in Palma de Mallorca -- the same marketplace where my five-year-old sister went missing for several terrifying hours until my poor parents were certain she'd been kidnapped by slavers. Fortunately we found her, calmly eating ice cream with some gypsies in a market stall. On this same trip, my brother, then eleven, fell to fiercely coveting a sword he saw in a shop and went on a hunger strike for it! My parents actually bought it for him, only to discover when we checked out of our hotel that he'd actually been eating mini-pizzas hand over fist and charging them to room service! Ah, Alex. We also got to see a joust in a medieval castle, ride mules into the hills, and see German tourists playing topless volleyball at the beach. Where we lived, in Southern Italy, people didn't go topless at the beach, so that was memorable. Especially in motion like that. So, fans. Memories. Love how memories are like that, chains that lead one to the next.

The new products will be available in the next couple of months, in stores, and here I'll keep you posted!