Rent What’s New Site

I don’t know if you’ve had a chance to visit Rent What’s website recently, but if not, you have got to check it out.  The website has always been terrific, but recently they added some great new content and redesigned the navigation to make it even more user friendly.

The site really is fun to explore, and they have made it so easy to find what you are looking for.  I love the new Backdrops page (check out the LED backdrop information – remember, I posted about them last week), and the addition of separate web pages for each of the Specialty Drape Collections (such as the Rockin’ Red Drapery) means there is lots of inspiration for the show or event designer.

So, whether you’re looking for a drapery rental or just in the mood to check out some cool pictures, this is a gorgeous site to look through (and I bet you’ll come up with some great ideas for your next show or event!).

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Carley’s Having a Baby!

Carley, our Purchasing Agent, is getting close to her due date (early September), and we are all so excited for her and her husband Caleb.  It has been great to follow her along in the process, see the Ultrasound photos, and find out it’s a girl!

A couple of weeks ago, Silvia (you know her, she is a contributor to this blog) threw a baby shower at her home for Carley, and we had a great time.  Check out Carley opening baby gifts:

Silvia made some great food for the shower (love those potato tacos!), and Violet brought some darling ladybug cupcakes – yum!

Now, we are all waiting with bated breath for the big day (and waiting to find out the new baby’s name).  We are going to miss Carley a lot while she is out on maternity leave (could happen any day now), but we are so excited for her and Caleb to be welcoming their first child.

Congrats to Carley, Caleb, and their entire extended family!

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iL CiRCo Drapes

I don’t know if you are familiar with iL CiRCo, but if you aren’t, you should definitely check it out.  Based in San Diego but appearing throughout the world, iL CiRCo is a troupe of singers, dancers, acrobats, and a variety of performers that put on amazing shows!

We were pleased to be asked to make custom stage drapes for the troupe earlier this year, and were really excited recently to receive a short performance video from the client showing our drapery “in action” in Panama.  Unfortunately, I am unable to attach the video to this post, but I was able to pull out a still photo from it.

Isn’t the drapery gorgeous?  I really think it fits the mood of the show – ethereal, whimsical, and just a little fantastical.  The drapery is made from FR Crushed Glimmerene in Magenta.  Glimmerene is a gorgeous fabric with a beautiful shimmery, almost iridescent quality. 

I love the way the fabric drape hangs in a serious of swags and openings, with the height of the drape ranging from 34′ high in the center down to 22′ high on either side.  And I am even more happy to say that the client, Imagination Entertainment, was so pleased that they have recently ordered a second identical drape!

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Megan on Blog Talk Radio

As a result of her trip to Shanghai in June, Megan was introduced to Angie Strader, host of “What’s Your Bottom Line?” on Diva Toolbox Radio Network, and was asked by Angie to appear on the show.  The show aired live last Tuesday, and it was a really interesting experience, both for Megan and the rest of us here in the office.

Megan was asked to call into the show, as well as go onto the show’s webpage, a few minutes the show went live at 2:00 pm Central Time (noon here on the West Coast).  Angie had another guest for the first 15 minutes of the show and then went live to Megan as that day’s featured guest.

It was really a fun experience here.  Megan sent out a company-wide e-mail asking that she not be disturbed during the live radio interview, and even put a warning sign on her closed door (it reminded me of those red lights at TV studios – “Silence – Taping in Progress). 

Meanwhile, we all logged onto the Internet to listen to the interview while we worked.  It was a great interview, but a little surreal to be sitting in our offices a few feet away from Megan and yet hear her being interviewed on Blog Talk Radio!

If you want to hear more from Angie Strader, you can listen to “What’s Your Bottom Line?” live each Tuesday at 2:00 pm Central Time (3:00 pm Eastern, 12:00 noon Pacific), and there are also a number of previous shows available.  I’ve also just checked out her blog, and I found her posts quite interesting.  I especially liked the post titled, “Why the heck are you going it alone?”

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Two Years Injury Free!

Today, Sew What? celebrated an incredible feat – two years (730 days) injury free!  What do I mean by “injury free”?  I mean that there have been no workplace injuries at Sew What? in two years.

This really is an amazing accomplishment.  Most traditional offices don’t think too much about workplace injury – there just isn’t very much likelihood for injury.  It’s different at a manufacturing company like Sew What?  Our sewing and warehouse staff work with a variety of machines (sewing machines, grommet machines, forklifts, large format digital printers, etc.), and even the slightest distraction on the part of the staff member could result in an injury.  Many of our custom stage drapes are large and heavy and unwieldy.  So to go two years without an injury is a tremendous accomplishment.

We are so proud of our staff for their diligence in working safely.  Every 90 days, we celebrate by providing a catered lunch to all of our staff, and on the large milestones, we take the celebration up a notch.  This time, in addition to a delicious catered lunch, we brought in a mariachi band to entertain.

The mariachi band was a hit!  Many of our staff are Latino/Latina, and so they had a great time singing along.  The rest of us simply enjoyed the music (and even some dancing!).

I want to send a big Felicidades (Congratulations) to the entire Sew What? family – we truly appreciate your dedication to safety!

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Sew What? Inc. on the Web

As social networking becomes more and more popular, businesses have started to get involved as well.  In prior posts, I have linked to the Rent What? page on Flickr, which is a great resource to share photos with folks around the world. 

Well, recently, we decided that it was time that Sew What? have a presence on Twitter and Facebook.  Want to follow our Tweets?  Use @Sewwhatinc.  At Facebook, we are Sewwhatinc. 

See you on the Web!

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Sew What? Featured in Australia

As you may know from reading this blog, Megan (founder & President of Sew What? Inc.) was born and raised in Australia.  Though she has lived in the United States for many years (and is now a US citizen), it is still a kick to find her and Sew What? Inc. recognized in her home country.

The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald recently published an article about Megan and Sew What?, and I really enjoyed reading it – it gives a true portrayal of Megan, the company, and the many roles that custom stage curtains play.  

The staff photo used in the article is especially fun to see – all of us had a fun time posing for Megan.  She gathered us all together with a bunch of fabric and said, “Have fun,” and we sure did!  Here is another one taken during the same shoot:

I think these photos really show the spirit of Sew What?  We take our work seriously, but we still have fun while doing it!

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Fabric in Shanghai

During Megan’s trip to Shanghai for the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Network conference, she had the opportunity to meet up with a friend who lives in China and visit Shanghai’s garment district (including a few fabric mills).

She reported that it was a fascinating experience, seeing how fabrics are made and sold in China.  She also had a chance to take some great pictures. 

To me, the most interesting was to see the twists of yarn ready for weaving – quite reminiscent of the yarn used for home knitting and crocheting.

Working in a company that manufacturers custom stage curtains, I am around fabric all the time – and yet pictures like this continue to educate and inspire me.  They remind me that the textile industry operates in so many countries – there are fabric mills and suppliers in so many countries around the world, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, China, India, and many more.  It really is a small world!

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Great Idea by Rent What?

Portable dressing rooms, for use by artists onstage (or backstage) are something that many music tours need.  Think about those “quick changes” that happen between songs (or even mid-song).  The reality is, there just isn’t enough time for an artist to get offstage, get to their backstage dressing room, get changed, and get back onstage without missing a beat.  But for years, there hasn’t been a good solution to this need.  Yes, pipe and base can work, but it isn’t ideal.  Among other things, a dressing room made of pipe and base components requires several different pieces (uprights, bases, drape supports, drapes) – and if one piece is left at last night’s venue?  Well, the crew is scrambling to jury rig something together for tonight’s show. 

Well, Rent What? recently came up with an innovative solution to this problem.  They combined a durable, portable pop-up frame with a custom cover that stores on the frame.  At the show, all the crew has to do is pop it open and, voila, instant 8′ x 8′ dressing room, in under two minutes!

As Rent What? developed the idea of a portable pop-up dressing room, they realized that the outside of the cover needed to be black (to blend in onstage or in the wings), but that the inside should be white to maximum the light within.  The cover also needed to be opaque, so that the light didn’t bleed to the outside.  And the cover needed to be water resistant, for those misty (or rainy) days at outdoor venues.  With these considerations in mind, they chose Roadura, an innovative fabric offered exclusively by Sew What? Inc.

Not content to rest on their laurels, Rent What also thought about the comfort and ease of both artist and crew.  They added a light and mirror, so that the artist had all the necessary elements for a quick change, and they added a rolling cart for easy transport by the crew.

I am really blown away by the way that the folks at Rent What? identified a need and came up with an innovative solution to fill that need.  That to me is the true definition of an entrepreneur.

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Another cool project for Rod Stewart

I’ve told you about some of the beautiful projects we have done in the past for Rod Stewart – the gorgeous voile drapes in 2009 and the amazing Stewart Tartan drapes in 2006.  Well, we recently provided drapery for Rod’s 2010 tour, and it was seriously cool.

We started out making three 36′ 6″ h x 41′ w Braille Curtains out of Black 16oz Commando Cloth (along with three 7′ h x 41′ w Borders, also in Commando Cloth).  Then, our favorite graphic artist, John Rios of GrafixJam, provided some amazing artwork, which we had scenically painted onto the Braille Curtains.  Who would have thought that a Braille Curtain could also be a Scenic Backdrop?

The drapes alone look amazing, but just as impressive is that John’s artwork was also pulled into the tour’s video content as well.  Note the terrific cartoon of Rod that John did!

All in all, the combination of the scenically painted Braille Curtain and the accompanying video content makes for a really compelling set design, don’t you think?

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