n a recent morning during this cold winter, I saw a novel sight while sitting at a stop light in three lanes of traffic. The woman driver in the car behind mine had gotten out, leaving her car door open, and was using her two hands pressed together to scrape and shovel ice off her windshield. Fortunately, perhaps, this was a long light cycle at a busy intersection. After a few moments, she finished and walked back around the door where she stopped and wiped her cold hands on her trousers and coat. Then she got back behind the wheel and adjusted her seatbelt before we had to proceed through the intersection.

Few other cars had a coating of frost or ice on that morning. We had not had any snow within the past 24 hours. How this woman came to have a vision-obscuring film on her windshield is impossible for me to say. But, apparently, her defrosters or windshield wipers, or both, did not operate adequately, she did not know how to operate them, and/or she did not have an ice scraper and time to do the job before hitting the road.

It struck me that she had taken a risk standing in the way of traffic and possibly a greater one when driving under limited visibility to this point. I thought that too many of us try to get through the day or do our jobs this way. Striving to achieve more than the time to do it really allows, we underestimate our project needs, delay purchases of critical equipment, and skip chances to acquire the education or information that would enable us to perform at our best.

In our features this month, we look at some usual and not-so-usual ways for artists and retailers to add to their knowledge about developing, marketing and selling craft works. “Everybody Learns at the Yatsugatake County Fair” and “Pushing the Boundaries of the Creative Process” require extended investments of time and money, but “Artists Add to History at National Parks” presents a program that actually pays the artist for a vacation. “Museums are on a Mission to Educate” offers opportunities for the general public as well as craftspeople to expand their creativity and knowledge of crafts. All of these articles contain valuable, maybe unique, looks at ways to enhance a career in the crafts industry.

The driver’s plight also made me think of the many articles and columns we publish in The Crafts Report throughout the year and whether they are reaching all the artists and retailers that need them. We often hear from craftspeople seeking financial, legal, show or merchandising information for their crafts business. In many of these cases, the magazine has already run features or columns with just what they need. Subscribers who take the time to read through each issue may learn a lot that they don’t immediately use. But, sooner or later, almost all of them face the all-too-common situations we try to cover each month.

Our mission is to anticipate those needs and provide solutions before they lead to unforeseen risks or crises in a crafts business. Please continue to let us know about your concerns and we will give you plenty of assistance in every issue. All you have to do is take time to sit back and read all about it in The Crafts Report.