2008 Crafty Bastards Vendor Spotlight: Pop Idiot

Get to know this year’s Crafty Bastards vendors! We’re posting a series of interviews of crafters who will be at the CB festival Saturday, June 28, at the Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center in Silver Spring, MD.

When life gets complicated, illustrator Kelly Alder is here to cut the BS. Pop Idiot prides itself in the simplest pleasures — t-shirt designs that are straightforward, fun, light-hearted, unpretentious and at times downright ridiculous. The energy in Alder’s monkey and spacemen characters are enough to repel any bad vibes, negative emotions and persistent telemarketers. “It’s a ridiculous world,” according to Alder. “Dress appropriately.”

1. Using just three words, how would you describe your work?

Ridiculous, irreverent, retro.

2. What are you doing to prepare for Crafty Bastards? Are there any new products or techniques that you will be trying out for this show?

Besides having some new cool T’s we’ll also have a hand pulled limited edtion 7 color silkscreen popidiot poster that measures 16×25. We got together with Spencer Hansen of Team8press here in RVA.

Spencer not only introduced to and guided us through the process of silkscreening the posters, he also did the coloring and we think he did an amazing job.

We have a feeling that we’ll be doing a lot more with Spencer in the immediate future, stay tuned for updates.

3. Is your craft widespread in the handmade community? What makes your stuff different from others in your craft genre?

It’s fairly widespread in the RVA community and we’re making headway into the rest of the country slowly but steadily thanks to the craft shows, Etsy and the internet.

As far as what makes our T’s different, like a lot of stuff that’s out there, we’re influenced by lowbrow pop culture of the last 50 to 60 years, we think that our personal filters, how we digest and spit it back out, is what makes ours different and unique.

We’d like to think that we have a personal take on a common sensibility.

4. Starting an independent shop takes a lot of dedication, planning and hard work. At what point did you realize you had the chops to start your own indie craft business?

A friend of ours who has/had the coolest toy store on the east coast kicked us in the ass and told us we should be doing our own thing, so we said why not.

5. Where are your favorite places to find your supplies?

Being that at this point our supplies are nothing fancy, pen/brush, ink, paper, T’s, and silkscreening ink, the local art stores in town and American Apparel.

6. Crafting is a grassroots revolution of sorts. It’s catching on as people appreciate all things handmade, original, recycled and environmentally/socially conscious. Does this influence/inspire your work? If so, how do you incorporate it into your craft?

When we first started we were aware of Paul Frank but that was about it. As we were beginning to get our stride and starting to attend craft shows outside of Richmond and discovered Etsy which has just been the last year or so, we began to realize just how wide spread the craft thing is.We’re not sure that it’s influenced the content of our work but it’s most definitely inspiring and motivating.

7. After seeing your work, many would-be crafters are inspired to start their own creations. Will you have any DIY kits available for sale at Crafty this year? Could you provide any simple how-to’s or tips for readers who want to get started on their own designs?

Not really but if they’d like to see some pictures of us and some of our friends in action they can check out the Team8press printing blog at www.team8press.com. While you’re there if you look around hard enough you can find a downloadable silkscreening tutorial by Spencer.