Art-Material International, Künstlerbedarf

The company AMI Art Material International:

Experience helps find solutions.
Nationwide the no.1 company for art supplies

Beginning as a businessman with specialized trade, Mr. Gerhard auf der Heide has surely well acquainted the “other side”. At the beginning graphic requirements played a major role.

The demand for graphic requirements gradually decrease due to the continuous progression
of computer applications in the graphic sector. The branch art supplies stepped out of its shadowing existence and it was up to us to fill
this market niche. Meanwhile AMI has an
over 30-years existence as a wholesaler with
a wide range of standard items and many
new exceptional novelties.

Founded in the year 1971
Since 1971 the company itself began to grow
and grow so that meanwhile the company buildings in Hamburg with around 400 m² became to small. The company then moved
into A new building which was located on
the so-called “green meadow” in Kaltenkichen which was a town 30 km north of Hamburg.
Even though the storage capacity has been extended several times we still have enough property to expand once more.

The current warehousing space with 3.600 m² including 200 m² for office rooms are almost Exhausted. Due to the active communication between us and artist that mostly live in our
area we have the ability to know their concrete needs and can therefore adjust our
assortment accordingly.

Due to our group of home and abroad representatives as well as our catalogue, novelty brochure, sample booklets (japan-paper) and
our direct response to customer inquiries,
we can assure that our retailers receive the
up-to-date information.

Internally AMI has a staff of 20 employees divided into administration, purchase, sales: stock and product envelopment. Our product development allows us to offer products with a low price segment. Several subcontractors working for
our company round off our complete program.

They produce various beginner sets which
contain either different colours, brushes or paper products. All-in-all our companies turnover is based on a 70% home market sales resulting
from the high acceptance from our retailers.
These results have been achieved by granting
a fair cost-effectiveness, possibility of ordering niche products and our delivery service.

Incoming orders before 12:00 on business
days will generally
be dispatched
on the same day.

Rarities from the far east

The Paperworld Frankfurt is one of the house exhibitions for AMI. At the exhibition booth you will often find extraordinary items presented behind glass cabinets that will surely raise your interest. The competence field
for products from the
far east enclose around 5.500 items. That is the reason why visits to the far east are planned regularly. Concerning the papers for example an exclusive selection can be found by AMI.

Vatican buys special paper from AMI
Fine Japanese paper with a grammage up
to 6g. Amongst the customers there is even one famous consumer: The Vatican. The restorers purchase these special papers offered by
AMI at the local retailers and herewith restore
the damaged and worn pages of old bibles and books. There are also alternatives in form
of finished and wounded far-eastern scrolls
made out of brocade or silk passepartout.

By publishing up-to-date articles in their
catalogue AMI passes on the necessary information regarding valuation, originality, tradition and country of origin to their customers. Many other details can be found through conversations with other classicists that
are have the essential knowledge.

Another rare item in our selection could have
once dealt as a sample for the Rotring-inkset:
a brush shaft with exchangeable brush tips.
In general the expensive chinese brushes are considered to be a status symbol; family stories, myths or ancestor names are scribed into the shaft and these noble unicums are passed on from generation to generation. Only the brush hair itself may be exchanged from time to time.

The filigree far-eastern art
In order to enjoy the authentic experience of ink
a real artist beneath the calligraphers would surely use his self-made ink, made by grinding the ink stone and diluting the resulting powder with water. Following the words of Mr. Gerhard auf der Heide, the artist case as known here by us has just the same use as the ink-set including seal stone
for the Chinese. Artist achieving such filigree
art also have the ability to carve their stones; their

names are carved into
the stones in several sizes and are used to sign
their artwork.