I woke up this morning to a very sad news story…

The main building of Eastern Market, South Hall, caught fire early this morning and took about 2 hours to put out. Eastern Market has been such an important fixture in DC to crafters, local shoppers, and tourists alike. There’s no better place in DC to peruse antiques, clothes, pies, jewelry, fruit, and books all in the same place. I hope we’ll get more information soon. If there are any Eastern Market vendors out there who can provide insider updates, please feel free to post.

Allow me to introduce you to my latest craft addiction, Threadbanger.com.

The Charm City Craft Mafia is now accepting applications for the inaugural Pile of Craft Fair, which will be held June 23rd in Baltimore, MD.

Hurry, hurry! Application deadline is May 5th!

Earlier this month, fellow Crafty Bastards organizer Kim Dorn and I attended the first-ever Craft Congress in Pittsburgh, PA for a 2-day extravaganza of 50+ craft fair organizers from across the nation. There were sessions facilitated by notable members of the indie craft community with topics ranging from helping vendors sell at craft fairs to tax advice to online markets to copyright and trademark protection.

The sessions were info-packed and inspiring. And to top it off, we had fun screen-printing at Artists Image Resource during the Saturday night reception. Here are some of the results:

We had a blast and were excited to see all the Crafty Bastards alumni in attendance:

Kathy Malone
Kpoene Kofi-Bruce
Deb Dormandy
Shannon Mulkey
Christy Petterson
Jennifer Baron
Jill Chisnell
Al Hoff
Alison Gordon
Jessica Manack

We wish everyone the best of luck in the craft fair production endeavors!

Special thanks to Shannon Mulkey (far right in picture) of the I.C.E. Collective for the accidental tour to the heights of the ‘Burgh and her ability to channel the parking gods.

We were tickled to discover that Matt Stinchcomb (one of the masterminds at Etsy, the extremely popular online marketplace for all things handmade) is a DC native!

Other highlights included the sneak preview of the Indie Craft Documentary (due out 2008), meeting the fabulous Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching, being in a room full of people that love craft fairs and the DIY movement, getting a better idea of how the indie craft world functions outside for the DC area, all the awesome free stuff and the non-stop crafty brainstorm with Kim on the way home!

Want more? You can watch the Craft Congress video footage on Threadbanger.com, view photos on Flickr, and read Christy Petterson’s excellent wrap up.

We’ve got lots of great ideas in store for Crafty Bastards this year and we’ll be accepting applications for the fair soon. To get the latest updates, send an email to craftybastards@washingtoncitypaper.com with “Subscribe” as the subject.

The Crafty Bastards gals are here to give you the buzz on the indie craft community inside the Beltway and beyond. As D.I.Y. enthusiasts, we’ll be blabbing about everything from Crafty Bastards festival updates to the insider scoop on what’s new and exciting in the world of indie crafts.

We’ll dish where to buy local, and where to shop online. You’ll also pick up new crafty habits and how-to’s from super crafty guest bloggers, and find out where you can roll up your sleeves and learn something new in our Crafty Workshops.

Get crafty and enjoy the blog!