Aleene: A Tacky Lady by Aleene Jackson

A craft industry pioneer and self-made woman ahead of her time, Aleene Jackson was once dubbed the "Poor Woman's Martha Stewart," or as her youngest son Tony calls her, the "Mother of All Crafts."

She started selling corsages when she was nine or ten. Also in entrepreneurial fashion, she often initiated her own projects, such as a local horse club. She fought her school principal over the rule that students weren't allowed to create clubs not under "school auspices." She loved horses so much she skipped high school often in favor of horseback riding.

While still in high school, she met her future husband Woody Hershman. His domineering, "stuck up" mother, as she describes her, disapproved of her. His mother even tried to stop him from seeing Aleene -- she offered him a motorscooter if he broke up with Aleene, and he accepted, yet they later resumed their romance.

Inspired by the floral arrangement at her wedding, Aleene became interested in becoming a florist. Her passion and motivation landed her jobs at florist shops where she soon learned the trade. She then took a six-week course and decided to open her own shop selling floral arrangements and supplies. The supplies, not usually available to consumers, sold well. The California Floral Association tried to dis-member her for it -- it was "illegal" to sell floral supplies. She ended up winning her legal battle with them.

She also branched out, teaching classes which helped promote her business. Her determination and promotion skills led to regular local TV segments in the late 1940s, when TV was in its infancy. She used Styrofoam in her arrangements to good results, so much so that her father created machines for cutting it into shapes and they started a division of her company called Snow Foam. After Woody returned from the war and she became pregnant with her first child Candy, she sold the shop and later opened a retail store selling supplies. Her best-selling Formosan Wood Fibre was used to create realistic-looking fake flowers.

Her family was important to her and she always involved them in her businesses, however, discussions didn't always flow smoothly between them. The Formosan Wood Fibre sales slowed, and family members believed that with more promotion, sales would increase. Aleene had already settled on promoting a new glue that didn't soak through silk. The inventor sold her the rights to the formula. It became a big seller, and Aleene's Tacky Glue still sells today.

Despite a warehouse fire in 1959, Aleene returned to form. Family disagreements caused her to sell them the Snow Foam business. In the '60s, she moved from retail and distribution to manufacturing. Her Craftmaker's Caravan, which toured several major cities throughout the U.S. was important for widely promoting crafts to consumers. There had been no craft industry before -- crafts were thought to be part of the hobby industry. The Caravan promoted her and other crafters' products; she and craft industry leaders also demonstrated craft-making.

In 1969, model company Aurora, Inc. bought Aleene's, Inc. At the time of the buy-out her company had too much overhead. Aleene soon regretted the decision. Aurora didn't live up to their part of the agreement: they didn't employ her as a consultant and they changed the Tacky Glue formula. She fought to buy back Aleene's and won a year later, but during that agonizing time she tried new crafts which she later sold in the revitalized business. She created another hit product, Shrink-It, originally known as Shrink-Art, plastic art that shrank when baked in an oven. Her TV show Aleene's Creative Living debuted on Lifetime in 1981, and later switched to TNN. She also began a monthly magazine of the same name.

Aleene cites different reasons for writing her biography: to empower women to start their own businesses, to inspire people, to answer fans' questions about how she started, to have something for her grandchildren to remember her, and as a journal for herself.

She lends the stage to her five children, allowing them to describe their work in the business. In the mid-'90s, Artis/Aleene's, Inc. filed for bankruptcy. She left her son Tony to manage the company. She blames his lack of budgeting skills for the dilemma and blames herself for keeping the show to promote her products. They spent a lot of money on manufacturing new products without figuring the cost of the materials versus the projected profit or loss from the finished products. Aleene also blames the bankruptcy on their branching out too much and growing too fast; they didn't time the sales of the products well enough. They recovered through the help of loyal customers who agreed to pay their orders in advance and they licensed the "Aleene" brand name to other companies.

Aleene also includes a chapter about her personal philosophies. She describes herself as a quick learner, someone who never let a lack of experience stop her from tackling something. She believes she's learned from her problems and viewed the bankruptcy as an opportunity to learn another lesson. She dispenses many of these philosophies in earlier sections, including business ideas such as how to get free publicity. She solicits readers' suggestions for a proposed "Empowering Women" course. The book also contains several photos of herself and her family, her marketing materials, her craft booklets and products.

The typos throughout are a minor distraction. A few loose-ends include a lack of information about what happened to the Snow Foam business and a follow-up on what her first husband did after their divorce (he was once involved in her business, creating drawings and photography for her craft booklets). Part self-help book, part biography, many readers will likely gain some useful knowledge from Aleene: A Tacky Lady.

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