This month, the 2003 winter craft show season kicks into high gear with the wholesale shows on the East Coast. We are looking forward to seeing old and new faces at these events during February in New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore.

Some exhibitors at the summer shows in the same venues, as well as at retail shows around the country, complained of fewer buyers and slower sales than in previous years. However, since we usually visit with craft artists during lulls in sales activity, we thought we might have gotten an overly negative version of those shows.

We followed up with artists and buyers who exhibited at or attended retail and wholesale shows in 2002 to see how their experiences last year were affecting their decisions for 2003. In this month’s feature, “Which Way Is Up?” we present the responses of exhibitors and buyers at shows ranging from international wholesale markets and museum shows to regional events and street fairs. In three separate surveys, we asked artists who did retail shows, and both exhibitors and buyers who did wholesale shows, how their sales or buys in 2002 compared to 2001 and if they planned to do anything different in 2003.

We think readers will find their plans as well as their thoughts about the crafts industry in general to be very enlightening. One thing is certain: artists at all levels and all points in their crafts careers found 2002 a difficult one financially. It should be encouraging to everyone in the crafts field to realize that while the economic struggle is universal in scope, many artists are busy mapping ways to succeed in a new year.

This month we also present the first installment of a two-part article on payroll taxes by business writer J. Tol Broome Jr. We think his clear and detailed review of this complex subject will be helpful to artists with one employee or many. And, in her Business Wise column, Mary Stope gives us an inside look at the world of permanent wholesale showrooms. Artists who have never attended a wholesale show may be surprised to realize there are wholesale outlets for their work all year round and right in their own state.

In other columns, Bruce Baker covers the ground on the best floorcoverings for booths at shows, and Steve Meltzer shows us how to photograph shiny objects without reflecting everything in the room.

Finally, although many craft artists and retailers may have thought 2002 was an economic “disaster,” the term has a more specific meaning in terms of events covered by insurance. In this month’s finance column, Geoff Williams presents numerous ways to counter the effects of weather-related, fire and other casualties that face craft professionals every day of every year. More insurance helps, but insurance can be expensive and is not always available. Williams tells us how to help ourselves in places where insurance is only part of the answer. Find out if Williams’ advice could help you avoid a disaster in 2003.