Art Cocoons were born in a recycling bin.

In the spring of 2008, while vacationing in Florida, the land of white and pastel colored furniture, a trail of oil paint stains and finger prints from the lanai studio to the kitchen and back drove this artist and aspiring inventor to the nearest cardboard recycling dumpster in search of a solution. After procuring a stack of cardboard boxes our artist set out for long bike ride, a gulf coast beach sunset and an evening at the pool and hot tub in order to ponder the "problem" and consider the possibilities. The first version of Art Cocoons were constructed the next day and put to immediate use. As the stack of wet plein air paintings and Art Cocoons grew, ideas for improvements did as well.

Once back home in New Hampshire, our inventor became rather obsessed with the concept and created several versions of small wet panel carrier sets. She collected a variety of brands of painting panels and learned more about corrugated cardboard and its manufacturing process. She joined SCORE, a network of retired business executives who help small businesses with all sorts of issues. And she showed her samples to her painting workshop instructor, Michael Chesley Johnson, who loved them. Support and encouragement from this respected artist gave her the courage and energy to really push to produce this product.

Had she only known what a long and winding road lay ahead. The simplest things are sometimes very complicated to make. Consider the pencil. Really consider it.
Somebody did.

Most manufacturers she contacted did one of three things:

1. Ignored her.
2. Quoted really high.
3. Chuckled and then ignored her.

One company, Liberty Carton in Lenexa, Kansas, was interested and willing to take on a project from start up company with no track record, limited funds, and one product. Right from the start the team at Liberty Carton was supportive, encouraging, helpful and energized by the entrepreneurial spirit of our inventor.

The design was refined, samples were made and revised and finally in October of 2008 the first order for 3,000 sets was placed. All sorts of unexpected problems came up during the manufacturing process. The folks at Liberty Carton worked very hard to get things right but in the end only 280 pieces were sent to New Hampshire. And they fell apart on the way.

Discouragement reigned. Our inventor spent the Christmas holiday lamenting the possible failure of her dream project.

In early 2009 a local NH company came to the rescue, promising perfection, fast turnaround, lower pricing, and free delivery. Liberty Carton was disappointed but understanding. The 280 sets were reassembled and artists from NH Plein Air Painters were invited to participate in a focus group to test and evaluate the product. 15 artists showed up, painted for several hours using the Art Cocoon, answered 12 pages of questions and added their own suggestions. This information was extremely helpful and changes were made before the second production run.

Unfortunately things did not work out as planned with the NH company. Another call was made to Liberty Carton. They were delighted to have the opportunity to try again and as they say in business, the third time is the charm! The product is now beautiful, functional and of very high quality. And it is great to say~ Made in the USA!

There are three companies in Kansas involved in the manufacture of Art Cocoons. Liberty Carton, which specializes in packaging solutions, provides the expertise, the oversight, the material and the printing. Art Cocoons are made with a special high quality moisture resistant hard corrugated board which requires special machinery to die cut. The sheets of corrugated are trucked to nearby company, Service Pak, for the die cutting. Once die cut it is again loaded on trucks and sent to a third company, Performance Packaging Group, for assembly. Once assembled they are again loaded
and trucked back to Liberty Carton for warehousing and distribution.

The next and most important piece of the story is you, our valued customer. All of the people involved in the development and manufacture of Art Cocoons hope you try Art Cocoons. If you like them please tell your friends about them. We would love to your feedback, too.


Art Cocoon, LLC   P.O. Box 217   Sanbornton, NH 03269   603-998-7360
info@myartcocoon.com www.myartcocoon.com



Pat LaBrecque invented Art Cocoons in 2008 and introduced them in 2009. Patent pending. All rights reserved.