With Christmas out of the way our thoughts turned to the new year and to restocking and renewing our card range. Last weekend was the Top Drawer trade fair and a chance to go to the big smoke and see what’s new. A quick drive in with the bike in the back, a quiet ride through the gold paved streets of west London and I was in a cathedral of capitalism and free enterprise, Olympia.
Top Drawer is an interiors trade show which seems to major on scented candles and cushions of many colours as far as the eye can see, at the back however are a few alleys of stalls populated by the card suppliers. These are shiny happy people newly emerged from art schools up and down the land who are desperate to inflict their raw talent on you.
Having got there very early in the day I was one of few potential customers of their fine wares, so walking down the lines was a cross between being on the catwalk and walking condemned to the scaffold, neither of which, I am familiar with. The trick is to either try and catch everyone’s eye and add a cheery ‘good morning’ and then trip over a bin or keep eyes firmly forward and then miss everything you have just travelled miles to see. I got over this problem by walking briskly and looking two stands ahead, this way I do not have to engage with another of the same species unless I absolutely must.
Anyway, some of these arty people are very talented and some of them are talented and funny, so I was able to find for you some new ranges of beautiful cards and some which are even funny! I realise that one person’s funny may not be everyone’s funny but I was there and I thought they were funny, so come in and see for yourself.
So know the offer is nearly complete, including Valentines Day and Mothers Day.