Columnist Susan Snyder: Tie one on with Bowdabra

Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2004 | 8:26 a.m.

What's most striking about Sandy Sandler's Anthem Country Club home is the absence of homespun cutesy.

No quilted wall-hangings or hand-painted log-cabin art adorn the walls. No checkered cloth covers the dining room chairs, and no hand-sewn rag rug covers the entryway.

What's probably most amazing is that the 43-year-old Henderson woman has no bow-covered wreath on her front door. And that alone seems odd, considering Sandler is the brain behind Bowdabra -- a low-cost bow-making gadget that has become the darling of the handicraft world.

Since introducing Bowdabra (as in, "abracadabra") in 1998, Sandler has sold more than 500,000 in the United States, Canada, England, Germany and Australia. She's sold them on Home Shopping Network and QVC. She sells them in craft stores such as Michael's and JoAnn Fabrics.

And yes, she's even spoken to a large, discount retailer whose name cannot be mentioned yet. But suffice to say, once Bowdabra hits those shelves, it will be sold pretty much everywhere on the planet.

Sandler's invention didn't come from a hobby but from corporate need. Bowdabra wasn't invented to help the crafty, but to help those for whom tying a simple bow is difficult and creating a beautiful one is beyond comprehension.

A product development and marketing consultant by trade, Sandler in the 1990s created an infomercial and training program for people who wanted to get into the corporate gift basket business.

"One of the things I do is research. And I couldn't find any books on how to get started in the corporate gift-basket business," she said.

So she created an infomercial targeting women who weren't like her -- stay-at-home moms who wanted to make some money. Then, while attending trade shows and giving presentations on product marketing, Sandler noticed another trend.

"The bow-making seminars were always standing-room-only. And the people came out of them and still couldn't tie bows," she said. "I knew that. I would hire people to make my (gift basket) bows."

She decided to hire an engineer instead. After months of work and miles of ribbon, he came up with Bowdabra. And Sandler hit the market.

"That's how you make yourself successful -- by surrounding yourself with really good people," she said.

Bowdabra looks sort of like a set of institutional-type bookends that are stuck back-to-back. It comes with a video and illustrated instruction book.

By folding the ribbons and other adornments in the center hole and tying the whole mess together with specially designed "Bowdabra Wire," even the most craft-challenged can create elaborate bows.

"It's amazing what it can actually do," Sandler said, twisting and folding ribbon in a Bowdabra the whole time she talked.

It's amazing someone else didn't think of it first. Maybe someone did, but ...

"People just don't know how to get started," Sandler said. "I have always worked helping people who had ideas and wanted to bring them to the market, but didn't know how."

It's like Donald Trump meets Martha Stewart -- which for Sandler has been a good thing.

"Bowdabra is my bread and butter," she said.