Hi, Sarah Levine here. I’m the newest edition to the Crafty Bastards Blog and work at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring as the Office Manager/Publicity Coordinator. Pyramid Atlantic is a non-profit contemporary arts center dedicated to the creation and appreciation of hand papermaking, printmaking, digital arts, and the art of the book. We have extensive studio space that artists can rent as well as workshops, residencies, and a beautiful gallery. We invite artists from all different backgrounds to check out these traditional art forms and use them in their own contemporary work. Find out more about what we do at http://www.pyramidatlanticartcenter.org

I started working at Pyramid Atlantic in January and am exploring all the art forms we offer. But up until last week, my closest experience in the Papermill was my mini dachshund peeing on the floor. Luckily Gretchen Schermerhorn, my co-worker and director of the papermill is forgiving of pups and an excellent teacher. Along with some fun classmates, I took Gretchen’s “Hollander Beater Unveiled” class where we learned how to make a variety of pulp, pull paper sheets, and press them.

After learning about different fibers and some background on papermaking we prepared to make a cotton rag pulp. We cut up orange, red, and white fabric into 1″ pieces, a pound total, which is a lot of cutting! I will skip the explanation of how exactly the Hollander Beater works because it’s somewhat extensive and it’s been a long day. So dot dot dot, after about 1/2hr in the Hollander beater we took it out and strained the pulp. Next we “pulled” the pulp through deckles/moulds (often made from picture frames). It was really fun and a bit wet and I think the whole class enjoyed the feeling of dipping our hands into vats and pulling sheets. I am excited to see how the different sheets come out. The class used about 4 different types of fiber to make our pulp. The different types of fibers and the length of time that they are beaten leads to a variety of paper thickness and appearance. Some of the pulp was thinner and very difficult to work with, sticking to the mould, but produced beautiful translucent paper. There was a bunch to clean up but we all pitched in and got it done.

Since I’m among crafters I probably don’t have to explain why someone would want to take the time and effort to make their own paper when they can just buy it. Even though computers and the digital age has done away with lots of paper, when you think about it, paper has been very essential to society. We record our history, beliefs, hatreds, loves, cures, stories, etc on paper. Even though I recycle like a fiend, I gotta have my paper and am not a fan of digital books and I don’t keep my diary on-line. There will always be something special about the tactile experience of books and written letters, and making your own paper makes it even more unique.

The rumors are true and it’s finally official. There will indeed be an Artomatic in 2008.

May 9–June 15, 2008, right in the middle of DC, steps away from the New York Avenue metro, and in a brand new building. With 800 artists on eight floors of the Capitol Plaza 1 building at 1st and M Streets, NE, this year’s event promises to be bigger than ever before.

So, what is Artomatic? Artomatic is a five week non-juried event that brings together artists, musicians, performers, and an audience of over 50,000 people. From the artomatic web site: Artomatic provides a forum for all of our area’s artists to convene, perform and exhibit, strengthening the visibility, cohesion, and marketplace of Washington’s arts community.

The event opens in just seven weeks! And registration is moments away. But what do you do now?

1. Visit artomatic.org and sign up for email updates!
2. Start making stuff!
3. Want to help organize the event? Join a committee!

And of course, watch the Artomatic web site for details on registration.

Like any unjuried event, there’s good, there’s bad, and there’s downright creepy. But I’m not here to judge. Here are some pics from the last event in 2007, I hope you’ll decide to participate this year!

Photos by Sean Hennessey. See more at his Artomatic 2007 set on flickr.

Rania Hassan once coated herself in baby oil and rolled in cheeto dust. Imagine if she’d lost the bet! See the results at goshdarnknit.com.

The Charm City Craft Mafia is accepting applications for the 2nd annual Pile of Craft. The show will be held in Baltimore, MD on Saturday, June 21st from 10am-5pm.

Non-refundable application fee is $10. If accepted, vendor fee is an additional $55. Vendor spaces are 8 ft. in. length. Chairs and an 8 ft table will be provided. The deadline to apply is May 1st, 2008.

Applications and more details can be found on the Charm City Craft Mafia web site.

You can read the review and see the pictures we took at last year’s Pile of Craft. Plus, watch Kim Dorn’s video interview with Pile of Craft organizer Rachel Bone to learn more about Charm City Craft Mafia and get the walk through experience:

When I started making things, I was really inspired by the dirty streets of Washington, D.C. Monday morning trash was always the best. Walking to work down 16th street, I always found the most interesting things. Dropped shoes, dozens of flyers from a closed cell phone store, broken bike parts, thank you cards never mailed. For a long time, I collected these things, these forgotten treasures, plotting their revival. Little did I know that I wasn’t the only one. The practice of using waste materials to produce useful products is called upcycling.

My own attempts at upcycling never really produced anything “useful.” Necklaces made from wine corks found behind the Mayflower Hotel? Um, gross and not at all useful. So I am always fascinated to find crafters who are creating useful products from waste materials. It really is a challenge. Trash is, well, trash, which means it can be dirty, smelly, damaged, etc. From time to time, I will spotlight upcycled products that actually work. I will actually purchase these products and test them out.

First off is the Ornj Tote Bag by David Shock Designs out of Detroit.

Ornj bags are created out of recycled construction fencing, pulled off city streets and abandoned fields. Brilliant. I don’t know how many times I have thought about how beautiful that orange construction fencing is. So orange and lovely.

The bag is well made and very very sturdy. The handles are reinforced so that they don’t hurt your hands. I picked up the bag, thinking I would turn it into a diaper bag, but this is not the best use for it. Diaper bags tend to get too full of toys and stuffed animals and sippy cups and this bag doesn’t like to be over-filled. It gets bulky, etc. It does make an awesome book bag or shopping bag for a quick trip to the market.

You can also pick up a felt liner for your bag:

So far, this is the best upcycled product that I own. It is functional, sturdy and best of all, stylish and fun.

Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at http://www.ilikeseamonsters.com. She thinks you are rad.

This interview continues a series of Q&A’s featuring vendors who participated in the 2007 Crafty Bastards fair. Last year, we didn’t get to post all of the Q&As before the festival was upon us, so here they are now!

Dirty Pictures is a one-man show consisting of Anthony Dihle and his silkscreen press. Ever since moving to the DC area, Dihle has made a name for himself, intertwining his art with the DC music scene by designing show posters for bands like The Hard Tomorrows and Bellman Barker. Dirty Pictures also plays with darker, off-beat themes, producing printed recipe cards based on the last meals of inmates on death row. These cards were featured at last year’s Crafty Bastards Festival!

In between festivals and private art shows, Dihle takes time to share his silkscreen knowledge, giving workshops last summer on fabric silkscreening at the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Silver Spring, MD. He also gave this interview to us, providing insight on how he came to master his craft.

1. How long have you been making things?
I’ve been screenprinting for 5 years, making posters for 3 years.

2. What is your earliest/favorite crafting memory?
When I was little I had a babysitter who showed us how to make ramps and tunnels for matchbox cars out of toilet paper tubes. Little racecourses.

3. Why do you make things?
It feels good, I can trade with the stuff I screenprint. It’s a purer if sloppier form of my day job, graphic designer. And I’m a big showoff.

4. What sort of things do you make?
Mostly, posters for bands. Because that’s who asks for them. I’ll make posters for anything, including yard sales and block parties. And occasionally art prints, but I feel sort of rudderless with art prints, I’m comfortable with the specific-ness of promoting a show/ event.

5. Any success stories you’d care to share?
When bands tell me that their posters get stolen from storefronts and walls I’m secretly delighted with the thieves.

6. Inspirations?
Yeah, lots. People, music, art, science, history, photography, books & magazines, old nintendo, other designers, comics, machines, robots, animals, monsters, places… a specific big influence is Fort Thunder and the whole art/music scene in Providence, Rhode Island when I went to college there a few years ago. Fort Thunder was a colony of artists and musicians, noise rock and experimental stuff. The Fort was in a 100+ year old mill building in the dank part of town. The prints and posters in Providence at that time were insane. Intensely colorful, erratic, schizophrenic, often barely legible, and typically had the one-dimensionality and narrative tracking of a child’s drawing.

7. Craft supplies you can’t live without?
Table, inks, squeegee, x-acto, macintosh, camera.

8. Describe your work area.
In a section of my apartment is my printing table, which was formerly an air-hockey table. Every flat surface in my apartment is used as a drying rack, since I don’t have a proper one.

9. Family? Pets? Plants?
My parents are curious/supportive of my printmaking. My little brother is a photorealist painter living in Brooklyn. He makes very large paintings of raw beef. He works at Sotheby’s during the day as a financial person. He’s 23, I’m 25. I had a tomato plant but sadly it bore no fruit and died in my window. I have some dried-up flowers in a red stripe bottle, and some fake flowers in tin cans. Hobo decor.

10. Favorite color or pattern?
I’m stumped on both.

11. Have you been a Crafty Bastard before?
Yeah, last year. It was fun and financially worthwhile, so here I am again. It was also the first time I got to see how larger numbers of people responded to my work. Fun.

12. Tell us about other crafters you love and your favorite handmade purchases.
Too many to name, but my favorite posters that I’ve acquired were trades. Or ones that I peeled off walls after the show, of course. The Dutch and Canadians especially seem like good postermakers. Seriously. And of course the other DC poster guys including Jeff, Tim, and John. There’s a good variety of styles and methods among us.

13. What is one thing everyone should know how to do themselves?
Basic home and auto stuff. Caulk a bathtub, cook eggs, jumpstart a car. Home and garage crafts.

This interview continues a series of Q&A’s featuring vendors who participated in the 2007 Crafty Bastards fair. Last year, we didn’t get to post all of the Q&As before the festival was upon us, so here they are now!

imogene is a two-person studio that uses metalsmithing to create precious necklaces, pendants and other crafts. Their delicate designs often are inspired by animals, as reflected in the whale and bird necklaces. According to Annie Chau, who runs imogene, her first true love is metal. “I also spend my days knitting, obsessing over pattern, reading and collecting both objects and hobbies.”

Based out of Baltimore, MD, imogene also carries creations by a number of other designers in their boutique. Steve, who maintains the website, emphasizes imogene’s focus on new and emerging designers whose handmade goods aren’t factory-stamped or production-lined. We were lucky to catch imogene and pick their brains about their crafts. Enjoy!

1. How long have you been making things?
As long as I can remember! As a child, I holed myself away to color, make latch hook rugs, and paper dolls.

2. What is your earliest/favorite crafting memory?
In second grade, back when “art day” was every Tuesday for exactly one hour, our art teacher came into the classroom with construction paper, macaroni, toilet paper tubes, scissors, and glue. She asked us to imagine that we were all little bugs and then to build ourselves a dream bug world out of the materials she brought. That is still my favorite craft project of all time.

3. Why do you make things?
I think it must be for therapy. It is a time where I am completely alone with my thoughts and materials. It is so meditative. And really - I’m not sure what else would I do with myself! . . . it’s just a compulsion!

4. What sort of things do you make?
I make and sell jewelry, but I am also a knitter and am experimenting with my brand new gocco! Recently I’ve been thinking that I don’t have to limit myself to just jewelry!

5. Any success stories you’d care to share?
I am utterly amazed every time I’m out and happen to see someone wearing my jewelry. WOAH.

6. Inspirations?
It can be anything! strangers, creatures, critters, ugly things, pretty things. DEFINITELY the craft community. Oh yes, and Aubrey Beardsley, Michel Gondry and Wes Anderson. I like them

7. Craft supplies you can’t live without?
Jeweler’s saw, torch, rubber cement, scissors, and sharpies.

8. Describe your work area (photos please!)
I just moved to a new studio space!! It’s a long, slow process so it looks a bit empty now. I love it! In the pictures you can see my jeweler’s bench, soldering area, shipping area, and computer area. I’d like to set up a little area designated for photography too. Oh and the thing I’m the most excited about- there’s a sink close by!! When I was working from my home, I used (and destroyed) the bathroom sink!

9. Family? Pets? Plants?
Two hilarious pit bulls, one boyfriend, many weird plants.

10. Have you been a Crafty Bastard before?
I am a first time crafty bastard!!! yeaaa! If at first you don’t succeed. . .

11. Tell us about other crafters you love and your favorite handmade purchases.
Of course I love all my charm city craft mafia peeps - they are all so talented, some of my favorite recent handmade purchases and favorite craftspeople include: a desk calendar by Something’s Hiding in Here , and my boyfriend has a T-shirt from We Are Campfire that I adore.

14. What is one thing everyone should know how to do themselves?
How to make French toast! Mmmm. Breakfast.

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

REALM Jewelry!

REALM specializes in unique handmade jewelry. Creator Jesse Walker combines semi-precious stones and other traditional materials with unexpected industrial elements. The results are classic, elegant pieces of jewelry that reflect urban and modern elements.

According to Walker: “As a designer, I believe jewelry should be bold and unique, but also casual and easy to wear. When you dress and adorn yourself, you create your own world, a world you carry with you wherever you go — your very own REALM.”

Visit the Realm Jewelry website!!

Crafty Classifieds for goodies like this and more!

Make stuff? Place a Crafty Bastards ad, it’s FREE!

That’s right, folks! To celebrate the 5th year of Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair, the City Paper is bringing TWO Crafty Bastards fairs to the DC Metro area!

Get your craft on twice with Crafty Bastards at the Marie Reed Learning Center in Adams Morgan on September 28th, AND now Crafty Bastards at Pyramid Atlantic in Silver Spring on June 28th!

We are excited to bring the Crafty Bastards festivities to Silver Spring and equally enthusiastic to be working with Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center, a non-profit contemporary gallery and interactive arts center on Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring, MD. This show will have a focus on learning, an emphasis on craft workshops, and highlight up-and-coming artists, and those newer to the indie craft scene.

We will be accepting vendor applications soon. Join the email list (go here, scroll down and look left) and we’ll let you know when it’s time to apply. For now, save the dates!

June 28: Crafty Bastards in Silver Spring, MD
Sept. 28: Crafty Bastards in Adams Morgan, DC

Yo, Crafty Bastards! We miss you. We wish we could keep in touch. We haven’t heard from you in a while and want to know what you are up to.

In an effort to keep up with 4 years of former Crafty Bastards, we have set up an email address for you to send updates to. We want to know when you win awards, start new projects, introduce new product lines or do anything completely rad. Time permitting, we will post this information to the blog.

So, get your press releases, photos of your work space and or new hair cuts ready and start emailing them to us at craftyupdates@washingtoncitypaper.com. Can’t wait to hear from you.

“wish you were here” card by Crafty Bastard, Rar Rar Press.

Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at http://www.ilikeseamonsters.com. She thinks you are rad.

Towson University is hosting its annual Tigerfest on Saturday, April 26th, and they’re giving artists and crafters an opportunity to have booth space to sell… and it’s cheap!

$50 will get you a 10×14 space where you can sell your wares to Towson University students and the local community.

This is Towson University’s biggest spring event, and with an estimated 10,000 people attending, it’s a great place to gain new clients and make some $$. Word on the campus street is that the Roots will be playing… but nothing is confirmed yet.

Tigerfest hosts a huge stage with live nationally known musical acts, food, games and giveaways.

Towson University’s Tigerfest 2008

Location: Burdick Field, Towson University

Date: Saturday, April 26th

Time: 3pm-10pm

To Apply: E-mail Jenna Irving at Jirvin2@towson.edu or call 410.704. 4429.

Sponsored by Towson University’s Campus Activities Board