Congrats to the Charm City Craft Mafia for producing such a well-run, heavily attended event! Check out the video interview with organizer Rachel Bone:

The organizers did a great job promoting the fair, as evidenced by the press coverage they got leading up to the event and the nonstop flow of shoppers. Often by the end of a fair, the crowd has dropped off and there is very little activity. Not sure what other vendors experienced, but Liz doubled her pillow sales in the last hour of the fair, which gave us an extra boost of energy as we packed up our goods.

C.C.C.M. members were just great! They were on hand to help us unload in the morning plus they negotiated free burritos from Chipotle and water from Trader Joes for all the vendors. How awesome is that?

For the poor souls who missed out, here’s a taste of what we saw and bought.

Liz picked up some fabulous lamps made from recycled furniture by Jason Kirker of Kirkiture. I enjoy his tagline: “Because wood doesn’t grow on trees anymore.”

A friend discovered the Guardian Gnomes (pictured below) offered by A.Bel Studio and promptly scooped up 5 of them.

Cotton Monsters were all the rage at Crafty Bastards 2006, so no surprise they were pretty popular at Pile of Craft Fair. This shot was taken in the afternoon with just 4 lonely monsters left.

Juliet, the lovely woman behind Broken Plate Co. is super sweet and super crafty. She’s pictured here with her case of broken plate pendants. Make sure you check our her new Mutha Crafter clothing line for craft-oriented mothers-to-be and infants.

Ft. Cloudy Sarah makes fun clothes that incorporate her many appliqué designs, including the wonderful Ninja Fetus mentioned in a previous entry. She also had a bunch of great wire sculptures made by her brother on display.

Kpoene’ Kofi-Bruce of Mignonette and Ladies Independent Design League brought some wonderful designs with her, including the dress below. On a side note, you can watch Kpoene’ in action on TLC’s new competitive design show, “I’ve Got Nothing to Wear” this Friday 6/29 at 10pm.

We thought the stained glass, dark wooden floors and aged walls of St. John’s Church served as the perfect backdrop for all the handmade goods on display.

I bought these splendid button rings from Tigerlillyshop. I love the carrot background on the bunny ring.

The Charm City Craft Mafia has been hinting at another show around the winter holidays. We’ll keep you posted.

Don’t forget, the deadline to apply for Crafty Bastards 2007 is this Sunday, July 1st! Hurry, hurry! Apply now.

Already applied? Sit back, relax and enjoy the video from Crafty Bastards 2006. Ah, memories.

Baltimore’s Pile of Craft Fair will be the place to get your craft fix this weekend. The Charm City Craft Mafia has assembled a super fabulous mix of indie crafters and this event is not to be missed.

We chatted with organizer Rachel Bone of Red Prairie Press (she printed the dress below) to get the skinny on this Saturday’s show. See you there!

Printed dress from Red Prairie Press

When is it? How often does Pile of Craft Fair occur?
Saturday June 23rd, 10-5pm. This is the inaugural event, which we hope will be every year- but we hope to start having a holiday event as well.

Where is it? How do I get there?
2640 Saint Paul Street is the location. It’s St. John’s Church, and the space inside is run by Red Emma’s communist bookstore! There are directions to the space on our website.

Who are you? Why are you doing it?
The Charm City Craft Mafia is a collective of independent artists, designers & crafters owning independent businesses in Baltimore. The purpose of our group is to create networking and support for the indie community in Baltimore with resources for running small business, access to craft shows, etc. We are starting this show to help bring indie craft together in Baltimore, as well as put our city on the map for crafters and artists from other cities.

What 5 words best describe the Pile of Craft?
Indie, art, craft, unique, free!

How is this market different from other markets in the area?
We are focusing more on young contemporary indie craft with emphasis on handmade. Rather than tea cozies and plastic canvas, our artists offer screen-printed apparel, sculptural jewelry, nifty plush objects (such as ice cream, toast, milk and monster softies), fine art, etc.

Plushy goodness from My Paper Crane.

What vendors are you most excited about?
We are excited about all of our vendors! We hand selected almost 40 indie businesses to be a part of this inaugural show. Each artist sells their own wares, and we are not just excited to see what they bring. We’re excited to meet each of them as well!

Honeycomb Glove and Headband Combo from It Knits

How much money should I bring?
Lots of cash. More than you think you want to spend! While some vendors will accept credit cards, and many accept checks, cash is almost always preferred. There is an ATM just off 25th street, and a Bank of America on Charles Street.

Will there be food at the fair? Nearby?
At the fair, Red Emma’s will be selling coffee & snacks. There are many great restaurants in Charles Village, both north and south of the venue on Charles St & St. Paul St.

Will Charm City Craft Mafia be selling goods at the market? If so, what are you working on?
Yes! Those participating (we are a large group) will have their own booths and will be selling a little of everything: cotton monsters, screen-printed apparel, jewelry, handbags, pottery, comics, accessories…You name it!

Handbag from Bake Sale Designs.

Anything you’d like to add?
Our vendors will fill up two large rooms of the church, so visit both rooms, and pick up more info about the Craft Mafia at our outside booth. We’re also holding a raffle with items donated by our members to raise money for future shows…Be sure to try your luck!!!

6/22 UPDATE
Check out this sampling of craftacular items from vendors that will be at Pile of Craft.

Blossom Wallet by Imogene

Colorful Pendant from Broken Plate Company. I picked up a couple of her pendants at Handmade Arcade last Nov. and love, love, love them both.

Purple tote from Denada Designs

Ninja Fetus Onesie from Fort Cloudy

Heavy Duty Vaya Bags

Sushi Cat Toys from Needles Noodles

Cherry Shirt from Salt Lick

Ben and I just got back from the Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, NY (6/16-6/17). It was super duper ridiculous hot, but despite all the sweaty bodies crowding into the booths, the fair was another awesome weekend craft adventure. One of the reasons that I love Renegade is all the crazy, fun, weird people that I get to meet and talk to.

The fair this year was in the McCarren Pool in Brooklyn, just across the way from the field it was in last year. I have to say that the pool was a much better venue for the fair than last year. The gals from Renegade had the vendors in rows, as opposed to one giant horseshoe like years past. This created more of a marketplace-type feel, and I think it encourages more shopping. They also added food vendors: Schnack sold vegan hotdogs and burgers, and meat stuff, and two ice cream trucks and a juice truck… having food and water was essential, and I hope they have even more food & drink vendors there next year.

Getting ready for Renegade is a huge process for both me and Ben that starts months before with us planning to start working on stuff - my shirts, envelopes, and pins, and his comics, shirts and paintings. Eventually we end up planning and thinking about planning up until the last week when we finally realize that it’s time to get down to business. Ideally, I’d love to be able to say that I have everything ready to go a week before the fair, but, as always, I’m pulling an all-nighter with glue, buttons, fabric, pins, stickers, t-shrits, and my beloved Gocco printer. But that is all part of the fun. I think Ben and I had been up for 30 hours+ at the start of the fair. I felt a bit cracked out, and the heat didn’t help, and I think I was walking around the fair like a zombie, but in a weird way, it was fun. It’s just pure fun to be around like-minded crazy crafters and people who also have a soft spot in their heart for giant stuffed creatures with rainbow tongues, monster finger puppets, and chainsaw earrings.

Being around all the crafters last weekend has me inspired and now I’m even more psyched for working on Crafty Bastards…

I never respected my poor Print Gocco until she was gone. Over the four years that she was the main tool of my craft, I treated her super bad. I stored her in a closet under shoes, dropped her dozens of times, let my twins knock her off of a chair, never cleaned her, never changed her batteries, ever. I shouldn’t have been surprised when over the past few months, she began to decline. She was making spotty prints, not exposing bulbs, ruining screens. It was so sad. My quest for a new machine began and was far easier than I expected.

Wait, what’s a Gocco, right?

Wikipedia says:

Gocco is a fully self-contained compact color printing system invented in the 1977 by Noboru Hayama. Using flash bulbs similar to those found in old cameras, an original image is thermally imprinted on a master screen.

The name “print gocco” is derived from the Japanese word and concept “gocco”, loosely translated as a type of make-believe play used to learn common rules and knowledge.

In December 2005, Gocco’s parent company, “Riso”, announced they are ending production of the Gocco system due to low sales in Japan. An Internet campaign was started to find a new home for the product (www.savegocco.com).

So, over four years, I used my Gocco to make nearly 1000 prints. I printed on blank cards, silk screened t-shirts, lunch bags, pillows, underwear. You name, it I printed on it. (See photo below of 2 and 3 color cards.)

The Gocco is the answer to all of your silk screening wishes and dreams. It is compact, easy, low stress, fun. The only real drawbacks to the Gocco are the smallish print area, about 4 inches by 6 inches and the constant threat of supplies disappearing since the parent company announced the product’s demise.

It appears that all of the worries surrounding the Gocco’s future can now be quelled. This week, Paper Source made this announcement on their website:

“In our excitement about getting the Gocco machines and supplies in at Paper Source, we sorta jumped the gun with our announcement that the machines are available to order from us immediately. We’re delighted that on June 22nd Gocco machines and supplies will be offered for sale online. We’ll be happy to take your pre-order over the phone. Please call us at 888.727.3711 to pre-order any of the Gocco items listed…”

This is super news. Having a major store supporting Gocco is totally rad. Their product list’s first item is this, though: PRINT GOCCO ARTS FOR PAPER $395.00. I am not sure what they are selling for $395 or if that is a mistake, but I bought my new Print Gocco from Northwood Studios 3 weeks ago for $165. I also saw one available on Etsy’s Feltcafe this morning for only $100. So this $395 price point should be researched before you run out and buy one from Paper Source. Some other good online sources for Gocco machines and supplies are Welsh Products and Wet Paint Art. I have ordered from both myself. Welsh Products has the best price and customer service.

UPDATE:The updated Paper Source site reveals the $395 item to be the larger print area (6.5in. x 9.3in.) Gocco machine.

My new, smaller, cuter Gocco is orange and happy and easier than ever to use (see photo, she will always be stored in her box with bubble wrap!).

Last night, I made a small batch of t-shirts in under 30 minutes. How rad is that? It is not this easy for beginners, of course. There are tons of tips and tricks that I am always giving out. These might not be helpful to you until you are in the middle of a project, so book mark this post and come back to it:

• Start out using the Gocco inks. They are never too thin or too thick for the screens. They are a sure thing. Later on, feel free to experiment with other silk screening paints, but only after you see what the Gocco can do.
• Mix paint! The Gocco ink for fabric only comes in bland primary colors. Mix them to make new colors and you will be mucho happy.
• Change the batteries in your machine every few months. I never changed my batteries and know I got less than perfect prints because of it. I also had the scare of, “is it broken?” When I just needed new batteries.
• Clean your screens! I used to just toss mine. But you really can clean them (with the Gocco cleaner or baby oil or water) and use them again.
• Store your screens in foil.
• Only use print outs from a laser printer, no ink jets!

I would love to hear your tips, please comment with them below!

My prints are pretty simple, but to see some amazingly intricate work, check out the gocco flikr group.

You can also get more information at www.savegocco.com. Have fun!

The Crafty Crew introduces VIDEO. Kim Dorn (the woman behind the camera) and I had a chance to chat with local crafters Rania Hassan and Kristina Bilonick at Ballston Arts + Crafts Market last Saturday. We are vlogging virgins, so please excuse the rough nature of the interviews.

Rania and I discuss her lovely Knit Paintings, her print-making process and Gocco. We’ll bring a microphone next time. Promise. Visit Rania’s shop and check out her blog.

We talked to Kristina about her experience organizing the market and to get a preview of the July 14th market, which happens to coincide with Bastille Day. Wine specials, anyone? Visit Kristina’s site or stop by Smash Records and Junction to purchase her goods.

Paula Woolarina and I are back from the Art Star Craft Bazaar and I am officially exhausted. I have been going to sleep early like a grandma since I got home. I had no idea a two day show could be so hard. The weather didn’t help, either. Saturday was crazy hot and humid, making the shoppers seem droopy and tired. Sunday was nice except for the spotty rain and then the downpour at the end of the day. Sunday’s shoppers seemed more excited and interested to find something rad.

I was pretty impressed with the quality of vendor at this show. The gals at Art Star did an amazing job jurying it. Nearly every booth had something new and interesting and made for fun shopping and trading! Lucky for me, Lissie, who I met on Etsy.com came out to help with my booth on Saturday, so I got to shop and get water and eat ice cream and spend some time in the Art Star gallery/shop. I am still amazed that a complete stranger came out to help me all day in the heat! She was totally rad and a far better salesperson than me.

I got to meet some of my favorite indie crafters whose work I have been admiring online. Beth from LemonCadet won the day for the best booth presentation. She is fairly new to fairs, but has done her research (she told me so!) and had such a cute and clean and organized set up. This is what I am worst at, so I made sure I collected her energy and positives on the topic and put them in my pocket for later.

Another new favorite of mine is Spaghetti Kiss from Baltimore. Michael Bracco and Shawna Pincus-Bracco are a force with their line of shirts, housewares, comics and prints. I really dig their style.

I also met Kellee and Matt from My Favorite Mirror and we talked a bunch. They work with some of the best indie illustrators, putting their art on compact mirrors, coasters and mouse pads. They are really an indie craft label, like a record label. They have the best taste in art and make all of their products themselves, of course. Such a cool idea to showcase young artists on functional items.

Here’s some of the great stuff that I picked up:

1. Blueberry ring from P1 Unless Otherwise Noted
2. Shark print (#16 of 25) by Alec Thibodeau from If’N Books and Marks
3. Orange and blue flower pin from Woolarina
4. Dolly Parton Necklace from Danielle Maveal
5. Yeti mirror from LemonCadet
6. Mouse pad and mirror from My Favorite Mirror
7. Recycled fabric apron from The Other Woman Collective
8. Shirt from Spaghetti Kiss

I also special ordered this shirt from Gladys Makes Things. It says, ‘The Internet is Powered by Bees,’ isn’t that totally brilliant and funny?

The biggest surprise of the day for me was how much of a force Etsy.com is in sales. So many people told me they saw my work on Etsy. I would say that one in three sales happened because people remembered my shirts from my Etsy shop. I was also surprised that many shoppers had checked out my blog beforehand and wanted to see the new design that I had written about. I sold a bunch of new sea monster shirts because of this. I heart the internets.

Overall, Art Star was well organized and had great vendors, but the weather had it in for us. Another thing that locals kept saying to me was that it wasn’t the right neighborhood for a craft fair, indie or not. A few even said, “yuck,” to the location. I don’t know anything about Philly, so I can’t tell if they were right or not. Perhaps a different venue would have drawn more shoppers no matter the weather? Who knows.

Thanks to Art Star for putting on the show, it was great fun!

Spring craft fair season is in full swing and the Crafty Crew is super excited for the Ballston Arts + Crafts Market opener this Saturday. We caught up with Ballston Market organizer (and Crafty Bastards veteran), Kristina Bilonick to get the scoop on Saturday’s event. See you there!

What 3 words best describe the Ballston Art + Crafts Market?
Community. Handmade. Hip.

What vendors are you most excited about?
Haa..this is a hard one. I’m excited that many of the vendors who have been at the market since the beginning such as Steve Miller photography and Nancy Sween pottery will be returning this year. Other vendors that excited me when I saw their applications come in were from crafters I’ve admired during shows I’ve participated in such as I like Seamonsters (Zombie underwear pictured below), REALM by Jesse Walker, Squidfire (Grasshopper polo pictured below), 8th Street Soap, Craft Mutiny and Had Matter Art. I could go on and on. Basically, since I was on the panel of jurors, I pretty much love every vendor we’re showcasing. Probably not the best idea for a girl on a tight budget!

How is this market different from other markets in the area?
Well, instead of having our market be the only destination point, we’ve also done a lot of networking with the nearby businesses and restaurants to involve them in our market days. The first 100 visitors to our market will receive a goody bag with coupons and special offers at nearby establishments where they can take a break from the heat and maybe get some lunch or check out the newest show at the nearby Ellipse Art Gallery. For the July market which lands on Bastille day, a wine shop close to the square will be having a tasting that coincides with our market hours. And the nearby mall has added coupon books for its shops for our goody bags. It’s been really fun working with all of the nearby business owners, everyone has been really supportive!

When is it?
The market is held on every second Saturday of the month from 10am-4pm from June-October. Opening day is June 9th and it’s gonna be a blast!

Where is it?
The Ballston Market takes place in Welburn Square, which is a plaza right across from the Ballston Metro stop (Orange Line). Coming from DC, there’s a bus you can take from Farragut Square, the 38B. It’s a nice ride actually, goes through Georgetown, over the Key Bridge and through Arlington. The last stop is right at our market.

How much money should I bring?
You could walk away with a lot for under $20 or shell out a little more for an original painting, photo, or one of a kind jewelry piece. There is so much variety here that there really is something for everyone (dog portraits, anyone?). A lot of our vendors make items in a wide range of prices, like Rania Hassan of Goshdarnknit (Rania’s Gocco printed Moleskine is pictured below) who makes buttons, stickers and bookmarks for $1 in addition to her one of a kind knitted paintings.

Will there be food at the fair?
Our goody bags have coupons for lunch deals at nearby restaurants like the Willow Restaurant (opened by chef Tracy O’Grady of Kinkead’s), I Love Thai, to Chic-fil-a who donated free sandwich coupons (yikes!). Work it off later with the coupons from Curves of Arlington.

Why are you doing it?
The market is sponsored by the Ballston-Virginia Square Partnership, which is a membership driven organization that promotes the quality of living, visiting and doing business in the Ballston and Virginia Square neighborhoods. As part of their mission, they organize a lot of cool cultural events including a weekly farmers market, a fitness festival and the monthly arts + crafts market.

I was hired this year to ‘re-vamp’ the market in its fourth year. As a native DC crafter, I pulled from all of my experiences selling my work at different markets and shows (including Crafty Bastards!) to organize this market. This year’s lineup of artists is bigger than ever, and we’ve added live music and other fun activities to the event. Besides attracting a local crowd, we hope to bring in visitors from DC and other surrounding areas so they can discover what the Ballston neighborhood has to offer in addition to seeing all the awesome artwork and crafts!

Anything you’d like to add?
I hope lots and lots of people come out for our opening day on June 9th and throughout the summer. All of the details including a list of vendors, live music acts and supporting businesses can be found on the Ballston Art + Craft blog.

Each week we feature an advertiser from the Crafty Bastards Classifieds. This week the honor goes to…

Local artist Dana Ellyn.
City Paper’s Crafty Classifieds are full of goodies like this and more! Shop early and shop often.

Make stuff? Place an ad, it’s FREE!