Featured Needlepoint Artist
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Voila! C'est Fini!
Susan Karten graduated from Pratt
Institute in New York with a degree in Fine Arts. She
began her career teaching art in New York City and found
she would rather be producing art than teaching it. So,
she answered an ad in the New York Times for an artist
and began her career in needlepoint designing for none
other than Erica Wilson. This was in the 70s, truly the
heyday of the needlepoint industry. Every department
store had a needlepoint department. Erica Wilson had
a shop in New York City (Erica Wilson Needleworks), published
a syndicated newspaper column, Needleplay, and was the
host of two public television series. What an introduction
to needlepoint!
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Susan next worked for Mazaltov's, another
fine needlepoint boutique on Madison Avenue. She began
doing custom designs and subsequently helped develop their
needlework kit business. Amazingly, these needlework
kits and canvases are the collectibles of today.
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Her next position
was with Paragon Needlecraft in New York City, a
large needlework kit manufacturing company. As
the Head Designer, she had the responsibility of
developing the needlepoint and rug lines and having
the samples and models produced.
Susan located a perfect resource, a factory in Haiti
employing a thousand workers that did all types
of hand needlework. She had the opportunity to
travel to Haiti to oversee the projects. The factory
was owned by Morton K. Karten, an American business
man living in Haiti. This was the beginning of
a storybook romance and ultimately the founding
of Voila! Susan and Morton were eventually married
and lived in Haiti together for more than fifteen
years.
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Upon their return to the United
States, Susan and Morton started a company with the idea
of completing the stitching of canvases for people who
had begun them and run out of steam; thereby the name
Voila! C'est Fini! -There! Its Finished!
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Little did they know
they had moved 8 miles away from the missing link, Susans
long lost cousin. They were reunited after a long time,
having been very close in their early years, at the wedding
of a family member. Cousin Abby, an early retired IBMer,
soon joined the Voila! team bringing the computer and mass
marketing skills necessary to move Voila! C'est Fini! to
the national scene. They were ready for their first TNNA
Show.
The first booth Voila! C'est Fini! took at a TNNA Show was
simply to introduce the stitching service. But being a
designer, and loving fashion, especially accessories: handbags,
belts and shoes, Susan just couldn't help it. She had to
design and have the designs stitched and finished into things
she could wear. When the retailers saw the stitched and
finished models at the Voila! booth, they wanted to buy
the canvases, so Voila! started painting. And so now, Voila!
is a full service, one of a kind company.
Voila! has an extensive line of hand-painted canvases, and
does unique belt, shoe and handbag finishing, in addition
to the needlepoint stitching service. Voila! will do your
stitching for you. They will finish your stitching into
beautiful accessories and models for your shops. And you
can purchase their hand-painted canvases and have the satisfaction
of stitching them yourselves.
Morton K. Karten passed away three years ago. Susan and
Abby carry on the business with the standards he set for
it and them. The stitching service was very important to
him. He was proud of the superior quality of the stitching
its workers produced which can be seen in the finest boutiques
and museum shops. The stitching work provides a living
for the sweet and talented Haitian workers who were employed
by him for more than 30 years. It is a necessity that they
continue it in his honor. Morton also demanded the best
customer service and customer communication possible. You
can be assured of total satisfaction with the services and
products Voila! provides.
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Susan's interest
in fashion brings excitement to the needlepoint
industry. Voila! strives to make needlepoint wearable
and fashionable and interesting to the younger generation.
You can depend on it!
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