Urban Craft Uprising, Winter 2010

 

Okay, so to say that I went a little over board at Urban Craft Uprising is putting it lightly. For sure. It can't be helped though. When one sees a bowl supported by ceramic baby arms, one has to purchase it immediately. Kniffin Pottery. They're neat.

I was vending at UCU -  selling Shower Art with Mr. Gale - so I didn't have as much time as I wanted to wander around all the booths. I did make sure that I took several quick passes through everything and that afforded me enough time to at least spend twice what I had budgeted so I guess I actually had more than enough time to look around.

Urban Craft Uprising is my favorite show. Hands down. Crafty Bastards and Crafty Wonderland (next weekend in Portland) are tied for a close second (only because they both involve travel). Oh, wait. But then there's the Renegade shows. Ugh. Okay. They're all so good.

The first day of Urban Craft is my favorite day of the year because it's the day when I know there will be another whole day of Urban Crafting.  Yay~! The second day of Urban Craft is the saddest day of the year because I spend the whole day thinking about how it's almost over. Sniff.

It's a great show in many respects. It's well run and organized. Everyone really seems to sell tons. There are bazillions of people around (9800 this year!). Great vendors are selected through the jury process. Lots of help from volunteers. Crafty book author signings. Crafty demonstrations. And this year - FOOD vendors! Yay!

Normally the concession stand at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall is open and food sales aren't permitted. This year no concession stand (What? No pretzels and hot dogs? Okay by me!) and instead there were vendors selling awesome soups (5 different kinds each day!), cookies, candies and breads. I had soup from Got Soup? both days - Pumpkin Coconut Thai soup on the first day and Chicken with Wild Rice on the second day. Both delicious!

Here's my one piece of constructive criticism: The food was on one side of the room. The tables were on the other side of the room. The soup bowl was really full. I had to walk my soup through the crowd to get to a table. Dangerous. I made it - but not without yelling, "Hey, I've got soup here. Watch it!" a couple of times. Luckily it's a problem easily solved by either moving the food or filling the soup bowls less full. One of those solutions has to be devoid of red tape and bureaucracy. All that said, there were probably tables right next to the soup that I just didn't see. Let's not remove that from the realm of possibility, okay.

Our two days were filled with inspiring, creative vendors and the nicest customers ever. A friend of mine came by the booth and exclaimed, "People are waiting in line to buy art!" Pretty cool. Pretty darn cool.

Some Stuff I Bought:

Oh my. I got a handful of these "You Shitty Cat" cards. How could anyone resist? Well, anyone with a cat anyway. Especially my cat.

I plan to give them to my cat for every holiday. (and if you're looking for a really loud, annoying cat - please do let me know!)

These are made by Kyle of Power and Light Press. She is in the process of raising money on Kickstarter to build a mobile print shop in the back of an old delivery truck. Help her out.

My awesomely hilarious friend Moxie  (who is also the President of Urban Craft Uprising) wrote this book, I Felt Awesome.

It's super Funny. Perhaps - and I do not say this lightly - the funniest craft tutorial book ever written.

Moxie is not the most excited about shameless self-promotion which is why it was super fun to buy her book and wait in line to make her autograph it. Bbwwwwwahahaahahahahah! Squirm!

Awesome!

This is Moxie.

She is obsessed with needle felting. For reals. She makes fantastic needle felt sculptures and sells kits so you can learn how to needle felt too.

It's like she's sort of the needle felting champion of the world.
If that kind of thing existed.








More Stuffs I Bought and People I Met: 

Emily from Tako Fibers: http://www.takofibers.com/	Texture Clothing: http://www.textureclothing.com/	Tender Loving Empire: http://www.tenderlovingempire.com Tiny Boat Sculpture by www.cartoonmonster.etsy.com
Old School Stationers letterpress calendar: http://www.oldschoolstationers.com/	MeMe Cosmetics: http://www.memecosmetics.net/	Bag from Xobruno (who inspired me to start framing my embroidered doodles) http://www.xobruno.com/ and my new Urban Craft Uprising apron.
This is for reals the best soap in the world. Estrella: http://www.estrellasoap.com/	Awesome headband from Schmancy: http://www.schmancytoys.com/	Vegetable bag from Wonder Thunder: http://www.wonder-thunder.com/, Truffle Sea Salt by Secret Stash Sea Salts: http://www.secretsalts.com/ and Crewel embroidery kit from Tako Fibers: http://www.takofibers.com

Crafty Bastards - The Vendor Edition #2

Let's go over a few of the peoples I had time to meet during Crafty Wonderland.

Artist, Robert Ullman from Atombombbikini.net was there. Finally, something at a craft show I can buy for my husband thet he'll really actually totally like. In fact, whenever I ask The Mister if there is anything he wants -- he says, "Bring me back something with boobs on it and I'll be happy." Finally, I was able to make his boob dreams come true.

I also met Diane Koss from Cutesy but Not Cutesy.

I was walking by her booth and did a double-take because she had a bunch of plush monsters with horns that looks sort of similar to this artier monster with horns that I recently purchased at Schmancy (the worlds best vinyl toy and plush store right between my job and my house).

Mine has the Boston skyline on its tummy and has a tiny red bird on its horns.

I fell in love with it. Anyway, when I saw the similar monsters at the show, I was like, "hhhheeeeeeyyyyyyyy, are you....?" And she was.

It was great to meet her and I was pleased that I could recognize her other work based only on her style. 








 

I was doing my 50 mile an hour walk through everything (Well, I would have been if it had been possible to go that fast. Really it was more of a shoulder to shoulder jello wiggle-on with the rest of the crowd) and saw the girls can tell booth out of the corner of my eye. 

Sara Selepouchin's diagrams on tea towels and notebooks make my heart flutter. And the fact that they are hand screenprinted makes them even better. Do you need to know the anatomy of a banjo while you're doing dishes? I submit: yes, yes you do.

I even got to meet some Etsy folks while I was there - which is always like meeting someone famous... or - just someone who is way cooler than you.

Morgan and Julie were nice to me even when I made repeated trips to their booth to demand more raffle tickets for my customers.

Thanks ladies!

My last purchase was a pair of earrings from The Broken Plate Pendant Co.  I love posts and can never find them because everyone else seems to love dangles.

Juliet even helped me pick out the best ones when I couldn't decide between two pairs.




 

It's such a cool concept too. She breaks plates - and turns them into wearable art - earrings and pendants. It's a great way to honor those vintage dishes you've been collecting for no reason whatsoever.

They're gonna break someday, right?

When they do, scoop up the pieces and give Juliet a call.


 

And that ends our travels through the wonderland that is Crafty Bastards. Again, I highly recommend that you go.

For reals. You'll love it.

Crafty Bastards - The Vendor Edition #1

So by now we're all familiar with the wonder that is Crafty Bastards in Washington D.C. but let's get to know the handful of vendors that I was able to talk to while I was there.

#1 Let's talk about Caitlin at Rebound Designs. I put out a call on Twitter to see if anyone had an extra table I could borrow and she was kind enough to answer my plea.

Thanks Caitlin! You have to be a special kind of nice to drag an extra table to a craft show.

Caitlin invented the Book Purse - which is - exactly what it sounds like: a purse made out of a book. I can't think of a better way to create a memorial to your favorite book that might be fallin' apart.

#2 McBitterson's - Tasteless Wares. They were our awesome booth-mates (who also have a really awesome website). Sadly, it was so busy that we didn't really get much of a chance to talk - but it was obvious to me - even without much convo - that we share a similar sense of humor.

McBitterson's makes fantastically sarcastic things with paper and plush.

The giant plush cigarettes with little frowny faces were a big hit. "He's sad cause he's a carcinogen!"Bah-ha-ha!

Figured out while we were there that I had actually seen them at another craft show -- in Madison, WI at the Sixth Annual Summer Craftacular. Neither of us live there. How weird is that?

Jennifer Cooke and I must have shared some sort of florescent pink day-dream obsession. I saw her booth out of the corner of my eye while I was trapped in mine taking everyone's money (mmmwwwahahahahahahah!)

The show was almost over when I HAD to bolt over there and check out her stuff. She prints in multiple colors (one of them florescent pink) which makes for an effect that I personally love. I ended up with a shirt and a bag (I almost had to fight another woman for the bag).

Check out r a e b u r n  i n k if you have also been dreaming in florescent pink.

Also, if you're into making stuff yourself, check out her book Design Your Own Tees and try out some of the printing methods.

I love my purse. So do others. People comment on it where ever I go. So go get your own and quit eyeing mine.

And thus concludes the first edition of the Crafty Bastards vendor highlights. Look forward to edition #2 coming 'round the bend.

Crafty Bastards. Lived it. Loved it. Can't Wait to Go Back.

Dear 10 people who read my blog: If you do nothing else in your little lives, please make a point to go to Crafty Bastards in Washington D.C. at some point.
It's amazing.

It's live changing.

You'll love it.

You'll weep.

From happiness.

Normally I review shows and talk about the things they did right and give some pointers for what they could do better next time. With Crafty Bastards I am hard pressed to find anything they could improve. It is honestly a HUGE, huge, huge and really well run show.

Let me give you an example: we were in a shared booth. You get a booth-mate, a tent, two tables and four chairs with the booth fee. When we arrived at the crack of dawn to set up, we didn't have any of those things in our booth space. Doug asked one of the volunteers and in 15 minutes we had all of the above along with a visit from the festival organizer who apologized said she hates it when anything goes wrong. Super smooth.

So we set up, 30,000 people arrived and handed us money and then we tore down. It went by so quickly that it was just a big blur. I guess my only wish is that I had been able to meet some more of the vendors. It was just too busy to talk to anyone for more than 30 seconds. Crafty Bastards does have some vendor events, but they are earlier in the process and don't work for traveling folk like me. If there was an event for vendors either the day before or the day after the festival then traveling folks could attend. That's it. That's all I can think of that would improve this event.

Crafty Bastards is pretty much perfect. There is also still time to vote for Ugly Baby (me) in the Craftiest Bastard contest. Today is the very last day. Do it.

Location:Valley Ave E,Sumner,United States

Washington DC - day one ( the non-Crafty Bastards day)

Stumbled upon this cute antique-ey slash vintage-ey slash design-ey shop called Skynear Designs. It's a personal rule that I must enter any building that has a large cartoon thing climbing up the side. So we went in. Within 20 minutes I had fallen in love with 3 or 4 things that cost over $900 on sale so it was time to leave.

We headed to the Textile Museum based on the recommendation of pretty much everyone in the crafty world. It was just okay in my book. This was probably because we walked over a mile in the hot sun to get there and then discovered that all but one room is closed due to some construction. Booooooo. What we saw was fantastically beautiful and I would absolutely go back for more if I'm in DC again in the future. I can also say, without a doubt, that the woman manning the front desk was perhaps the genuinely nicest person I have ever met. It's probably worth going just to see how nice someone can actually be.

Then we headed to the obligatory Abe thing. He's big. Real big. And you can't climb on his lap (in defiance of what my co-workers told me).

And here's the reflecting pool-ey thing next to the Abe thing.

And one more reflect-ey pool thingie.

We were milling about at one point and Doug said, "You pick where we go next." Moments later, we walked past this yarn store. And when I say we walked past it...I mean we went right in. Looped Yarn Works is on the second floor. And it's filled with yarn. Delicious, delicious yarn. It just so happened that they were going to Crafty Bastards as well. I couldn't buy anything because I have a huge ottoman full of yarn that I have to get through first, but the folks there were totally nice and talking with them made me even more excited for Crafty Bastards.

We ate at Teaism twice. In two different locations. Delicious. Try the salty oat cookie. It's delicious. DELICIOUS. D. E. L. I. C. I. O. U. S.

And finally, Albert Einstein. He's big. And kids like to climb on him so it's difficult as hell to take a picture of him without some little kid you don't know ruining the whole deal. He's big. And bronze. But his texture kind of looks like poo. A little. No disrespect. Just a little honesty.

   And that, my friends, is the end of Day One. Washington, D.C.  

Vote for Ugly Baby in the Craftiest Bastard of 2010 Contest

You all know Ugly Baby is the biggest bastard of all time. Vote for us in the Craftiest Bastard 2010 contest. Doug and I will be traveling to Washington D.C. in a couple of weeks to sell Shower Art at the Crafty Bastards Craft Show. It's my birthday gift to myself. Standing outside in a tent in early October. I love myself. I do.


Vote for us and we might win some stuff and give you some of it. (we won't though because we are bastards.)

bARTer Sauce Travels to Sacramento, CA

Some of you probably already know about bARTer Sauce. It's my experiment in trading for art and odd objects. Whatever I get -- I trade for something else -- and everyone I trade with has to tell me a story.

The project was supposed to last for one year, but it's been over four years at this point and it is still going strong. I have made hundreds of trades with people all over the US, Canada, Mexico and the UK. I've met some crazies and some people who have become friends for life.

This year, one of my favorite Sauce Traders, Nicolas Caesar, approached me about doing a bARTer Sauce art show at Side Show Studios in Sacramento, CA. I thought it sounded like great fun. I would ship the items in The Sauce that are available for trade (21 at this point!) and Nik would display them and also handle any trades from the Sacramento-ers.

I had huge signs printed with the stories that were submitted with each available item. Some of the past Sauce traders shipped their artwork to display at Side Show as well. It's gonna be a blast!

Are your heart strings tugged? Well, I normally pay out-of-pocket for all bARTer Sauce expenses: shipping, printing flyers, advertising, etc. but I am hoping to get some folks to chip in to help ship bARTer Sauce to and from Sacramento and cover the cost of having the signs printed.

I was just accepted for a Kickstarter campaign. They are awesome. It gives you a platform to do funraising. People make pledges and then if you meet your goal, your project gets funded. Yay!

Help me meet my goal of $500 and get some cool stuff in the process!