WE Artspace is going to be holding an Art/Craft Fair, beginning Thanksgiving weekend and running every weekend till the weekend before the Christmas Holiday. If you are interested in reserving a spot to sell your art/crafts contact me at info@weartspace.com There will be a $10 non-refundable reservation fee.
BBSF Jury Page Updated
August 28th, 2009We have updated our jury page with this year’s guest judges:
Meet The 2009 Guest Judges
Eric Nakamura, Publisher / Co-Editor
Eric graduated from UCLA with a degree in East Asian Studies in 1993. He got his start in magazine making through a stint at the Santa Monica College newspaper, The Palisadian Post newspaper, various zines, and Larry Flynt Publications. In 1994, he started Giant Robot magazine and in 2001 opened the first Giant Robot store in Los Angeles. Today there are Giant Robot stores in LA, SF, and NYC and a restaurant called gr/eats also in Los Angeles. Each location features the newest in Asian popular culture products along with monthly art exhibitions. Nakamura also curates exhibitions outside of his shop spaces for clients such as Toyota Scion, University galleries, and the Japanese American National Museum. In addition to publishing issues of GR, Nakamura has made an independent movie called Sunsets, shot photos for punk rock bands, and designs t-shirts. http://www.giantrobot.com/
Cathy Pitters and Torie Nguyen – Founders, Crafty Wonderfland
Cathy and Torie first met as members of the local craft collective, Portland Super Crafty. They both have been making and selling their own handmade wares for years and saw that Portland was lacking in a regular venue for crafters. The pair decided to create Crafty Wonderland – Portland’s first monthly indoor art + craft extravaganza. Since it’s inception in April of 2006, the event has gained a large following of loyal shoppers and vendors and has received glowing reviews in both local and national press. Crafty Wonderland: http://www.craftywonderland.com
Matthew Stinchcomb – VP at Etsy Inc.
Matt Stinchcomb, a.k.a. matt, has known Etsy since it was just a twinkle in Rob Kalin‘s eye. Matt was Rob’s roommate when the Etsy’s founders were first launching the site, and he joined the team as one of Etsy’s first employees. He shepherded Etsy through the heady start-up days — doing everything from screenprinting tote bags to hobnobbing with the press, from designing ads to handling Etsy’s marketing and communications, from founding Etsy Teams to Etsy’s “Artist-in-Residence” program (that only happened once). Since Etsy has been hiring more Admin, Matt has now passed on several of the hats he’d been wearing for many years. Today, in his role of VP of Community, he keeps us all honest (and hosts a dance party or two in the Virtual Labs). He’s a beloved co-worker — and we have an epic list of Fun Facts to prove it. http://www.etsy.com/
Natalie Zee Drieu – Senior Editor at CRAFT Magazine / Founder of Coquette
Natalie Zee Drieu is Senior Editor for CRAFT, heading up the popular DIY craft site targeted for the new generation of crafters. She has brought her crafting know-how to TV appearances for shows such as “The View from the Bay”, “Bay Area Backroads”, and “The CBS Early Show”, as well as conferences and trade shows like SXSW and the Craft & Hobby Association Show. Her fashion blog Coquette, http://coquette.blogs.com covers her love of fashion, technology and crafts and is rated one of the Top 99 Most Influential Style Blogs (http://www.signature9.com/style-99/). When she’s not running after her daughter Chloe, Natalie loves to knit or crochet while watching good reality TV. http://www.craftzine.com
Interview with Chanda of Ezme Designs!
November 26th, 2008Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
I went back to school for a second bachelor’s degree after the pain of working 6 years, Monday through Friday 8-5 in jobs that lacked creativity and were emotionally draining. In 2004, I got my BFA in Ceramics and started the “having five jobs and attempting to sculpt in the studio in my free time deal”. In 2006, I had slowly been shedding my jobs and learning more about functional ceramics (as opposed to sculpture) since it is an easier way to make a living. When my second to the last job laid me off in 2007, I figured it was a sign to dive into actually running my business. My first “real” show was May, 2007 at the Maker’s Faire San Francisco Bazaar! Thanks San Francisco Bazaar!!!
What are your favorite crafts and how did you first get involved with crafting?
Well since I am a ceramicist, I should say that is my favorite! I started arts and crafts as soon as I could crawl since my Mom is a trained painter. I took art classes in high school and in college, I studied Photography until I recognized that I was horribly allergic to photo chemicals. After college, during my stint as an 8-5 zombie, I always took adult school classes in metal working, woodworking, jewelry making, mosaicking, drawing, etc. When I started taking pottery classes I was hooked and took classes for several years before returning to school — the California College of Arts (and Crafts). At CCA(c), I was originally a Sculpture major but clay kept calling me back so I switched my major to Ceramics. During my last semester, I took a textiles class and if I had taken that class at the beginning of my return to college, I probably would have been a Textiles major. I adore textile work and wish I had time to do any of it! I do feel like my ceramic work is very much inspired by textiles though…
What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them?
Hands down — coming up with ideas… I wish I had a little factory of people making my stuff but would want to do it completely fair trade! I would love to make housewares in many more mediums and if I had other people making my work I could go crazy! :)
Are you super organized or messy?What does your workspace look like?
I like to be organized but it all ends up messy. It is impossible to be too clean with clay mud all over your hands and clothes! Safety is a big concern for me since clay dust is so toxic (contains silica which can cause lots of lung problems) so I do try to clean with a wet sponge. I do my glazing at home and my clay work at my studio so I have two spaces to keep clean and spend a lot of time boxing up stuff and moving it back and forth. My home studio is part of our office and is more sunny so I like to glaze there. My clay studio is in a live work space where my studio mate and her three other roomies live. We have a business called Campfire Gals Kiln Co. (http://www.campfiregals.com) where we fire other people’s work who don’t have their own kilns. We have FOUR kilns and lots of equipment so we are really lucky. My only complaint is there are no windows so it is like working in a dusty cave.
Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business?
Keep on keeping on. In fact, I am only thinking about December 15th when all my holiday shows are finished and I can sleep for a week or two!!!
Interview with Shinya of Magnote
November 26th, 2008> Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
We design and sell a whole new idea of paper craft robots called PIPEROIDs. Each of the robots (or set of 2 for PIPEROID characters) are made just from six paper pipes. The pipes are pre-drilled with holes, and all you need is a pair of scissors to cut the pipes according to the instructions. No need for a glue nor tape! It’s exciting and cute little robot gaining popularity amongst not only kids but also adults as an interior decoration item. People like to put them on kitchen counters, desk at home or office, and mantels for display.
> What are your favorite crafts and how did you first get involved with crafting?
Coming from Japan, I’ve been introduced to origami from when I was 3 years old and have loved paper crafts ever since.
> Are you super organized or messy?What does your workspace look like?
I try to be super organized but generally they end up being messy…
> Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business?
Piperoid, our paper pipe robot, is gaining popularity and spreading fast. Look out for new models coming in the next few months!
Interview with Jenny of CUT+PASTE
November 26th, 2008Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
I’m a graphic designer by trade and I started CUT+PASTE back in 2002 when the online craft community was just beginning. I started the website and a consignment program when I noticed a lack of outlets for crafters to sell their goods on the internet. Through our popular consignment program, Partner in Craft, we are able to feature and promote new artists and makers who might not otherwise have a retail voice online. We’ve hosted over 300 artists and designers and promote their work in press and new business opportunities.
What are your favorite crafts and how did you first get involved with crafting?
I love all crafts, but have a particular soft spot for unique handmade clothing and jewelry. I first got involved with crafting by sewing and reconstructing clothing and selling it on ebay (before I started my site). I started my site originally to sell some of my own goods, but started to meet lots of other crafters online who aside from ebay, didn’t have a “home” for the crafts. So I started to sell goods made by other lovely creative people and the site just grew from there!
What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them?
I love coming up with ideas. I don’t always have the best patience or skills to execute them all, but I’m a problem-solver by nature and I love finding ways to make things happen…either by myself or with the help and collaboration of others.
Are you super organized or messy?What does your workspace look like?
I’m super organized…you kind of have to be when you run a store, especially when you are dealing with lots of different vendors and their goods. My workspace has a spot for the creative brainstorming, but for the most part, I tend to file, organize and try to keep everything orderly. Even when things get messy, there is nothing like a good deep cleaning for me to get my ideas and thoughts in order.
Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business?
Lots I hope! We’d love to update the site with lots of new functionalities and actually have been looking for a new way for people to be able to shop online. Now with the increase in popularity in crafts and the handmade we still strive to carry and offer truly unique and well-made items by crafters everywhere in the world. We’ve done a bit of traveling in the past few years and are keenly interested in bringing an international flavor to the site…especially the relation of handmade culture being tied to a specific culture and livelihood.
Link to our website: www.cutxpaste.com
San Francisco Bazaar This Sunday!
November 24th, 2008Get ready folks because we’ve got a bigger and better show for you this year! This year San Francisco Bazaar will feature 115 + indie craft vendors, live music from the popular local band StitchCraft, DJ stylin’ from DJ Nick and Mark Johns of Slide and Spin Studios, hand crafted vegan cupcakes from Sugar Beat Sweets, friendly UPS volunteers serving up hot coffee, tea, snacks and yummy food to benefit Self-Help for the Elderlyand a fun line up of affordable craft workshops all day long!
50% of this years door fees will be donated to the Out of Site Center For Arts Education. They offer FREE after school, weekend and summer programs in visual and performing arts. ALL the funds donated to Out Of Site will go directly to hiring art instructors and paying for art supplies!
Take one or ALL of our affordable craft workshops including a lecture and discussion with the world famous mother of the Hand Spun Revolution Lexi Boeger of Pluckyfluff, DIY Holiday Pop Up Cards with Sugene of All This Is Mine, Wool Felt Birds with Fabric Fun of SF and Make a Wee Felt Penguin Ornament with Nancy Flynn of Get Crafty! Space is LIMITED for ALL classes! Send us an e-mail and register today!
Listen for an on air plug for San Francisco Bazaar tonight! It will run in the second half of the broadcast of Cross Currents, which starts at 5 pm. Cross Currents is a local show that airs on KALW 91.7 FM, M-Th at 5 pm. Cross Currents radio is looking for people like you to contribute and start conversations — whether it’s about a cool DIY project or an issue that you feel needs addressing. Feel free to contact them for any show ideas and topics you have!Visit San Francisco Bazaar On….
Interview with Lettre Sauvge
November 21st, 2008Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
We are a letterpress printing and design studio– fine press publishers and stationers. Lettre Sauvage consists of 3 conspirators out to undermine the texturally flattening influences of the digital age. We like to print real, print loud, and print hard.
What are your favorite crafts and how did you first get involved with crafting?
Lucky for us the craft of letterpress is introduced at Scripps College! We took our formal training and ran with it, breaking all the rules and establishing our own studio ethic of collaboration that’s almost like psychotherapy.
What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them?
When you’re a tiny press like we are you have to get a lot of satisfaction out of finishing a task because there’s not much financial motivation or outside approval. We have a small community of others who value the entire creative process. Sometimes we work hard on developing new concepts and sometimes we find them smiling up from the stacks of out-takes, emanating opportunity from limitation, straining out swan like from a rat’s nest. Accidents happen, and then you try to make the more pleasant ones repeat. That is the beauty of all real craft.
Are you super organized or messy? What does your workspace look like?
If someone’s coming over for a workshop, we’re immaculate! What day is it? We clean up after every job. We use two garages, Model A and modern 2-car, for our studio. So, the weed-wacker, extra house paint and crates of records create a nice border of reality around the mystic machines. The environment is a product of the work at hand. We tend to need a lot of paper, tape, and rulers so we try to make sure they’re nearby.
Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business?
Submissions to our first poetry contest are being prepared to be judged by poet, Mark Irwin. The winners will have a chapbook and broadside published next year. We’ll be printing two limited edition journals, the Forest Drive, a review of image and word, and Apis an “erotic annual.” We’re accepting submissions to Apis of erotic art and literature. We’ve been very excited about working on custom printing projects lately and are hoping to attract more designers and artists to fine edition printing.
Interview with Amy from Peptogirl Designs!
November 10th, 2008Amy of PeptoGirl will be at San Francisco Bazaar November 30th in SF.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
Hi, I’m Amy. I am a writer, web designer, baker, lover of all things pink and covered with sprinkles, hostess-with-the-mostess, and all around crafty gal. I’ve tried many different crafts but always seem to circle back around to jewelry.
I think jewelry and accessories should be fun, witty, colorful, and never taken too seriously. I love to use everyday objects like buttons, toys, guitar picks, and bottle caps in my creations. I love to take an everyday object that people often take for granted and put it in a new light.
What are your favorite crafts and how did you first get involved with crafting?
I’ve been crafting for as long as I can remember. Jewelry-making has always been my favorite craft. I like the instant gratification of it and I love making something unique that I can wear. I’ve recently gotten into embroidery which I find to be relaxing and a great on-the-go craft. I also love to draw, which led me to join my friends Tamie and Lauren in designing embroidery patterns for Pimp Stitch (www.pimpstitch.com).
What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them?
Ideas, for sure! Sometimes the execution gets a little tricky…
Are you super organized or messy? What does your workspace look like?
Both. I try to organize often and love it when things are in their place. But mid-project I’ve got beads and embroidery floss all over the place.
Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business?
Yes! I’m putting on a craft bazaar called IndieSacramento (www.indiesacramento.com). It’s really great because it will give Sacramento crafters a place to sell locally on a monthly basis.
www.peptogirl.com
www.peptogirl.blogspot.com
www.pimpstitch.com
www.indiesacramento.com
Interview with Val from Kooky Dolls!
November 10th, 2008Val and her Kooky Dolls will be at the November 30th San Francisco Bazaar in SF!
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business.
Kooky Dolls were created in 2006 by artist Val Rousseau.
After an afternoon of doll making with her eldest daughter, Val realized she found something she truly enjoyed. She also realized that her eldest daughter was very fond of her creations. Her “Kooky Dolls” were born. Later, she expanded her product line to include accessories and dresses for the “funky” toddler. Val’s unique products are sold in stores coast to coast.
Val has a formal education in Fine Arts, which has allowed her to explore different mediums. Val uses her fine arts background to compose fun colors, patterns, and designs.
When Val isn’t busy at her sewing machine she also works as a freelance web designer and full-time mom, I mean Domestic Engineer.
What are your favorite crafts and how did you first get involved with crafting?
My favorite things are plushies and art dolls. I also like anything with a sense of humor.
I first starting making dolls in 2006 by accident. My daughter saw a pig in a certain handmade site…ahem..
and she said, “oh can we make that?” So I took out my scraps of fabric and made one, then two..and so on.
What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them?
I like them both.
Are you super organized or messy?What does your workspace look like?
I am a mess. It drives my husband crazy. Even though I am out in the converted garage it is still a mess.
I have always worked like that. When I was in art school my studio was a pit. But to me its an “organized” mess.
Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business?
I have a distributor, DKE Toys. I am just starting out with them so hopefully things will evolve.
Sprout Studio Interview
November 10th, 2008Jenifer of Sprout Studios will be at the November 30th Holiday San Francisco Bazaar in SF.
Please tell us a little bit about yourself and your business. i’m jenifer lake and i run sprout studio. …sprout studio is a one-girl maker of good things & a one help(her) get-it-together mister business based out of san francisco, california. jenifer spends her time(s) creating one of a kind, unique & vintage reclaimed jewelry pieces, wearables, accessories, & art for your walls. whether she is fashioning glass pieces, knittin’ up a woolie hat or working out the details on an art piece, she creates them with an awareness of making a better place to be & dwell.
What are your favorite crafts and how did you first get involved with crafting? i’ve always been crafting and making art since i was little. i ended up getting a BFA and now i teach art as well. my fave crafts would be dabbling in almost everything – i love to experiment and try new things, so give me some yarn and i’ll try my hand at knitting, i’ll paint, i’ll gocco, i’ll collage, i’ll photograph, i’ll make vintage jewelry…i like it all!
What do you like best, coming up with ideas or executing them? hmmm…tough one. well, a little bit of both – i think it depends on the day, mood, and how frustrated i get executing the new idea!
Are you super organized or messy?What does your workspace look like? i’m pretty messy although, i fantasize a lot about having an impeccably organized studio. my workspace is kinda crazy – organized chaos. i know where everything is, it’s just not in its place!
Any exciting future plans or developments in the works for your business? just to keep chugging along – i’ll have been in business 4+ years now this holiday season, so i’ll just keep expanding on what i’m doing. one goal i have is to make sure i allow for more art making time – collage & painting – and not as much “product” making time!
http://www.sproutstudio.net
http://www.sproutstudio.etsy.com
http://www.sproutgirl74.blogspot.com