The last Craft Mutiny show of the year is happening at Design Within Reach in Georgetown, this Saturday, December 13th! Shop for awesome handmade goods while hanging out in the sleekest home furnishing showroom in DC.

Craft Mutiny, DC’s most exciting craft collective, has been hosting holiday shows for the last 3 years, encouraging shoppers to buy handmade during the gift giving season.

This is your last chance to get your hands on fabulous Craft Mutiny finds, as well as a slew handmade gifts from local vendors such as Jaime Zollars prints, Spaghetti Kiss Sci-Fi tees, Imogene’s lovely silver jewelry and recycled leather wristcuffs from Fisticuffs Leather.

You can check out the vendors and get directions here.

Craft Mutiny Holiday Trunk Show and Sale
THIS SATURDAY, December 13, 10am-5pm
Design Within Reach - Georgetown (3307 Cady’s Alley NW, Washington, DC 20007)

For more information go to craftmutiny.com.

I’ve wanted to learn how to sew since I was young, but I’ve always shyed away from classes where you need to shell out big bucks to use machines that intimidate the hell out of me… so I say thank goodness for the DC Threads Sewing Lounge.

The DC Threads Sewing Lounge is a free program held on the second Saturday of each month at the North Michigan Recreation Center (1333 Emerson St, NE, Washington, DC 20017) from1-4pm. The first session will be held on October 11th.

Participate in a “sew-n-tell” hour where you can bring projects you are working on to share tips and exchange ideas, followed by guided projects that are fun and beginner-friendly. You’ll need to bring your own supplies, but sewing machines are provided, and best of all… the sessions are FREE!

DC Threads is a great resource for local sewers. Get info on their Lounge and local sewing classes, find out where fabric stores are near you, and lots more at www.dcthreads.org.

CraftStylish is hosting the Make It Pink Challenge, encouraging Crafters to craft towards a cure. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month—pink ribbons are everywhere, all in support of finding a cure for breast cancer.

CraftStylish challenges you to get crafty and make it pink. Whether you sew, make jewelry, knit, crochet, do paper crafts, bead, embroider, or quilt… just make a pink creation and post it in their Make it Pink gallery. For each project posted, CraftStylish will donate one dollar to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.
For more information, visit Make It Pink Challenge.

It’s 11pm on a Friday night. You’re in your piggy pajamas. You’ve got your bunny slippers on. And your ready to shop… wha?? Ok, so the piggy pajamas are my thing, but you can still get your late-night indie shopping on at Dekka!

Dekka is now open Friday and Saturday nights from 9:30pm-Midnight. Come out for live interviews with local artists and designers, interactive video, music, drinks, and of course shopping for your favorite one-of-a-kind wares… cause who can shop properly with all that sunlight in your eyes?

This is possibly DC’s only afterhours shopping experience (as far as we know!?).
Dekka is located at 1338 U St. NW, 2nd Floor.

Official Crafty Bastards Photographer and Washington City Paper alum, Geoff L. Johnson, knows a thing or two about taking a really good photograph.

A photographer since he was a teenager, Geoff’s love of documenting friends and the spirit of his personal photography is at the heart of his professional work.

Having been friends with Geoff for the last 7+ years, I can’t even begin to describe how talented he is. Here is just a small glimpse into mind of Geoff Johnson, Photographer.

1.) How did you get into photography and what led you to doing wedding photography?
I was first taught black and white photo’y and basic darkroom skills in high school, just outside of DC. after graduating from SCAD, with a degree in graphic design, I worked as a designer and art director, all the while still making photo’y. then about 10 years ago, some creative-minded friends that were getting married asked me to take photos at their wedding.

2.) Many photographers do only wedding photography and many won’t shoot weddings at all. Do you do other types of photo’y?
Yes, I take on editorial projects (such as documenting the always exciting Crafty Bastards)… model and fashion… I love location and travel photo’y… the only thing I don’t do is studio photo’y.

Wedding photo’y can be tiresome, repetitive, stressful work. my work process keeps wedding photo’y fun for me and I think that comes through in the images. I limit the number of weddings I do, travel as often as I can (Jamaica wedding in October) and always make sure that I’m a good fit with the couple. I document real moments as they happen, by working unobtrusively and spontaneously. looking through my wedding galleries (www.geoffsphotos.com) you’ll see an approach that is: part fashion photo’r, part photo-journalist, part travel photo’r.

3.) What other photographers or other artists do you admire most?
The last 2 books I bought were a Joel Peter Witkin and Cindy Sherman. In June I attended the “Festival of the Photograph” (www.festivalofthephotograph.org) an annual photo’y festival in Charlottesville, Va. The 3 key speakers were Mary Ellen Mark, Joel-Peter Witkin and James Nachtwey, all world-reknown with decades of experience. I’m a fan of straight photo’y, as opposed to digitally manipulated, so I’m generally drawn to artists that work that way. I’ve always loved Henri Cartier-Bresson, Sally Mann, William Eggleston, Bruce Davidson, Wim Wenders. and there’s so much great stuff happening today that you can’t even see it all. I look at blogs, national geographic shooters, www.aperture.org, www.magnumphotos.com, www.digitaljournalist.org…

You’ll find Geoff shooting his way through 25,000 people at this year’s Crafty Bastards DC. After the fair, you can check out his handy work on washingtoncitypaper.com/craftybastards.

Geoff Johnson is available for commercial and personal projects, big and small, locally and globally. To contact Geoff or check out his portfolio, go to geoffsphotos.com.

Washington City Paper and Urban Outfitters want you to vote for your favorite 2008 Crafty Bastards vendor!

10 vendors from 10 different craftegories have been selected by City Paper Staff based on construction, creativity, originality of product and use of materials. From those 10, you can vote for the one who you think should be crowned The Craftiest Bastard of 2008.

Here are the 10 City Paper picks (in no particular order) you can vote for:

• Craftiest Jewelry - Alitas Jewelry
• Craftiest Designs - El Jefe Design
• Craftiest Home Decor - Bright Lights Little City
• Craftiest Beauty Products - Biggs and Featherbelle
• Craftiest Plush - My Paper Crane
• Craftiest Clothing Line - Mignonette Designs
• Craftiest Accessories - Cherrybox Studios
• Craftiest Paper Products - Goshdarnknit
• Craftiest Kid’s Line - Sheriff Peanut
• Craftiest Illustrations - Jamie Zollars

The lucky Crafty Bastard with the most votes will receive a grand prize package valued at $1,900, including:

• $250 Urban Outfitters Gift Certificate
• $100 Gift Certificate to Café Trope
• One City Paper 1/2 Page color ad to advertise their product(s)

Cast Your Vote online here until October 1st, or cast your vote at the City Paper booths, on-site at the Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair on Sunday, September 28.

Good luck to the top ten, and stay tuned to see who was picked as The Craftiest Bastard of 2008!

Celebrate summer shopping in DC with the Mid-City Dog Days of Summer Sidewalk Sale. This weekend-long event will take place on August 2nd and 3rd in Mid-City, the area surrounding 14th and U Streets NW.

This Sidewalk Sale is not only a great opportunity to eat, drink and shop at discount prices, but it also takes place during DC’s Tax Free Holiday, which is an awesome bonus!

Mid-City doesn’t have the frenzy of tourists that Downtown has, nor the shopping frenzy of places like Georgetown… and that’s a good thing for locals. Mid-City’s attraction is its ever-growing assortment of small restaurants and cute boutiques that ooze neighborly charm… and it’s the cute boutiques make this area a definite stop for weekend shopping.

We all know that shopping for affordable indie finds in the District used to be almost impossible…. but Mid-City has become a hub of sorts of eclectic clothing stores with handmade dresses and accessories from local independent designers, not-your-average shoe stores, funky shops that sell everything from magnets to one-of-a-kind glassware, and a Saturday Farmer’s Market that supports local growers.

Some of my favorite Mid-City shops that support local indie crafters and artists, or are just plain cool, include:

Dekka (1338 U Street, second floor)
Nana (1528 U Street)
Lettie Gooch Boutique (1911 9th Street)
Garden District Interior (14th and Church Streets)
Miss Pixies (1626 14th Street)
Pop (1803-A 14th Street)
Go Mama Go (1809 14th Street)

So get down to Mid-City this weekend for the Dog Days of Summer Sidewalk Sale. You’ll be in for some sweet shopping and a host of other free activities. For a full list of participating shops, restaurants, bars theaters and galleries, as well as discounts and events, check out midcitylife.com.

The Crafty Bastards Discovery Series is in full swing! With our second workshop in the series under our belt, we’re gearing up for the next one in August.

The Crafty Bastards Discovery Series has crafting experts come to Whole Foods on P Street once a month, to talk to the Crafty community about ways to make crafting a successful endeavor on many levels. The first workshop, hosted in June by Tina Seamonster, gave crafters all the info on how to sell successfully at craft fairs.

Our last workshop, Crafting Online 101, was hosted by Caitlin Phillips of Rebound Designs, who went over various web tools and popular online programs to help artists and crafters sell and promote themselves on the web.

Below is a brief summary of what was discussed at Crafting Online 101. For more details, check out Caitlin’s blog on her site at rebound-designs.com.

CRAFTING ONLINE 101
Having a strong online presence is quickly becoming essential in the crafting world. With the huge boom in the popularity of indie craft, competition is fierce, so the more people who see your work, the better. Here are some tips on how to use the Internet to get your craft business going, or to promote your existing business to new audiences. Don’t get too overwhelmed - you don’t have to do it all at once. There are so many different tools to use online and new ones are popping up every day.

Your Online Presence: Yourshop.com vs. Etsy
Having a place online where customers can find you is essential to success today. There are two main options: Your own website vs. an Etsy shop. There are pros and cons to each.

You can always have both an Etsy shop and your own website, and link to your Etsy shop with an Etsy mini. (See example here: www.rebound-designs.com ) Etsy minis can be put on a blog, or a Myspace page as well.

A few thoughts on Myspace and Facebook: These can be useful tools for promoting your business, but they should not be the only online presence you have. If you are sending customers who are attempting to shop to a Myspace page with blinking graphics and embedded MP3s, it makes you look very unprofessional. Use sparingly.

The #1 Most Important Rule of Websites: Have good photos! Your online store is the only way a customer across the country can see your products, so make sure your pictures are well lit, in focus, and show the product properly. There are lots of good tips on product photography if you search online.

Accepting Credit Cards Online
Having awesome photos isn’t enough. Customers have to be able to buy your work easily online. The simplest way to get started with accepting credit cards online is through PayPal. You can do this in several ways. For no set up fee, and no monthly fee, you can use Website Payments Standard. This lets you either install a cart system, or single purchase ‘buy it now’ buttons, which link to the secure PayPal site. https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside.

Blogs
This is a huge marketing tool for the craft world. There are hundreds, perhaps thousands of blogs devoted to discussing indie craft and design. Some are personal blogs of artists who share their creations, how to tips, favorite things, and so forth. Some are more commercial blogs, with semi- to full-time professional writers keeping up with the hippest new things, and with paid advertisements.

Some of Caitlin’s Favorite blogs include:
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/craftybastards/
http://www.designspongeonline.com/
http://indiefixx.com/
http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/
http://www.ohmythatsawesome.com/
http://blog.craftzine.com/
http://extremecraft.typepad.com/
http://modish.typepad.com/
http://readymademag.com/blog/
http://www.boingboing.net/
http://www.ilikeseamonsters.com

Twitter
Twitter is sort of a microblogging tool, which lets you send out short messages under 140 characters. You can send them from your phone, or the web, and you can include links (tiny url is useful here). You can follow other people’s twitters, and they can follow you. You can twitter about a new blog post, or a new item in your shop, or to let people know about a craft show you’re doing.

Flickr
Flickr is a great site for sharing pictures of your work. You can have a gallery of past work, works in progress, your booth displays, or whatever, and you can tag them so others can find them. You can join groups with similar interest, and this is really the best way to get your pictures seen.

It is against the Terms of Service of Flickr to exploit it for commercial purposes, so just posting pictures of crafts with the intent to sell them or advertise them is not cool. But, you can still drive traffic to your site in many easy, legal ways.

Social Bookmarking
Check out Wikipedia for a good breakdown of this bookmarking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_bookmarking.

Mailing Lists
A mailing list is an efficient and direct way to keep in touch with all of your customers and fans. You can send out announcements for shows you are in, upcoming sales and promotions, shop updates, etc. It’s great because past customers that may have wanted to purchase again often forget, and an email is an instant reminder. Every time I have sent out a mass mailing, I have received orders in return. The best way to send out a mailing list is to have a program that collects, manages, and sends the mail for you.

Overwhelmed?
The most important thing to remember about online marketing is that you don’t have to do it all. Try a few things out and see what works for you. But as crafting as a business gets more and more popular, it will get more competitive, and the more ways you have of reaching potential customers, the more sales you will make. The more customers are personally interested and invested in you, the more excited they will be about your work, and it doesn’t get better than that.

Read more from Caitlin on her blog, at rebounddesigns.wordpress.com.

The Next Crafty Bastards Discovery Series workshop is coming up in August. If you’d like to get the exclusive invite, just sign up for the Crafty Bastards mailing list and you’ll automatically receive the invite about a week before the event. You must have an invite to attend, and our friends at Whole Foods provide the yummy treats… cause you can talk about crafts on an empty stomach!