Crafty Bastards Vendor Q&A with Magpie DC

Those acquainted with the Fort Reno concert series are likely aware of Beth Baldwin, the creator behind Magpie DC, and her marvelous “Baddie” dolls. Beth draws, sews, and tries to make something every day.

Stop by booth #2 and get your very own Astro-NOT. As Beth says:

Don’t let the space suit and moon dust fool you. He’s not really an astronaut. He just tells people that to get dates with girls.

Beth’s answers to our vendor questions are below.

1. How long have you been making things?
My mom is a quilter and she taught me to sew. My father was an art teacher and threw pottery (even glazed and fired his own work) so I learned some from him. My grandfather had a dark room in his basement and a wood shop in his garage where he hand crafted large wooden trucks and locomotives that were big enough for kids to ride on. I think it would have been very difficult to *not* make stuff with that back ground.

2. What is your earliest/favorite crafting memory?
I really enjoyed throwing clay in my dad’s small electric wheel. It breaks my heart when I think of the access I had to a variety of skills and I didn’t take it for granted. I think my favorite memories are the smells. Of the dark room, of the freshly cut wood, of the dank clay.

3. Why do you make things?
See answer #1.

4. What sort of things do you make?
right now I’m making little felt monsters that have individual stories. I’ve always loved a story teller (which I am not one, I take too many tangents)

5. Any success stories you’d care to share?
There’s a 6 year old named Duncan running around with a full set of my “mon-stuhs” and seeing him see my monsters for the first time is really all the success I think I’ll ever need.

6. Inspirations?
My friends who told me, “You know, you should sell these” when I gave a few to friends for Christmas.

7. Craft supplies you can’t live without?
A good black pen and a small sketch book.

8. Describe your work area.
Oh my lord. It’s a mess. My roommate is on tour right now and thank god. I have exploded all over the house. There are literally felt scraps on my front stairs outside that clung to my shoe and I have random pins and buttons in my bed. which I guess also speaks to the dearth of personal relationships in my life right now.

9. Family? Pets? Plants?
My mom is so cute and excited about what I’m doing. She’s an amazing quilter. I have no patience so I could never do that. My mom, however, whipped out a prom dress for me in less than a weekend in high school. My grandmother also likes to tell the story of her making her wedding dress and 3 bridesmaid dresses yet three weeks before the wedding, none of the dresses finished, she set out making a new set of slipcovers for her living room furniture.

10. Favorite color or pattern?
I like orange. My favorite patterns are my own. I make my dolls in batches of 5 so I can see what works and what doesn’t work from the pattern so they kind of continually evolve. I have a pile of Astro-NOT and Batty cut outs with varying stance widths and facial roundness.

11. Have you been a Crafty Bastard before?
I did the very first one with my mom because when I was little, she would dress me up as a colonial girl and we’d sell her quilts at Market Day in Newtown Pennsylvania. It was fun to do a show with her as an adult.

12. Tell us about other crafters you love and your favorite handmade purchases.
I love Rania Hassan’s paintings. They’re so incredible. She also has the best idea and the most professional presentations I’ve ever seen.

Sean Hennessey also casts everyday stuff in concrete making the most common light bulb completely new and sculptural. I’ve seen photos of his new glass castings too which look amazing.

And if I may geek out a bit, I’m REALLY looking forward to meeting Robert Ullman. He did a 2-page comic that appeared in a comp book for ‘Free comic book day’ probably 4 years ago? I still have it because it is so succinctly funny and perfect. I’m totally going to be a dork and ask him to sign it.

13. What is one thing everyone should know how to do themselves?
Research. Half the fun of figuring something out is getting there yourself. If you expect people to hand stuff to you or do it for you, you won’t learn anything.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 12:25 pm and is filed under Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair, Crafty Bastards Vendors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.