Video Spotlight: Pile of Craft Fair
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.
June 28th, 2007 at 11:20 pm
Wow, thanks so much for the shout out! I’m so glad the gnomes were such a hit! This was a fabulous show, and I was so proud to be a part of it. I hope to see everyone at the D.C. show this September (and possibly have a booth, too! Fingers crossed!)
-Amanda
June 28th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
Such an amazing show! The CCCM did an awesome job. And a million thanks to Chipotle and Trader Joes - taht was a wonderful surprise!
Thanks for stopping by Sara, it is always a pleasure. Good Luck with all the Crafty Bastard work you have ahead of you!
June 29th, 2007 at 10:15 am
[...] thanks washington city paper for the great review of pile of [...]
June 29th, 2007 at 10:27 am
hello!
thank you for such a gracious review. we enjoyed putting this show on and all of our vendors were fantastic!!
christa
it knits
June 29th, 2007 at 10:40 am
It was totally great to meet you at the show! You guys rock! Thanks for including us
and thanks for the great review of PoC!