Crafty Bastards was crazy fun! Huge thanks to all the amazing vendors for their hard work and fabulous craftertise!

The Washington City Paper would also like to thank Marie Reed Learning Center, the fabulous entertainers, the generous sponsors- Scion, Stitch DC, Adobe, Paper Source, Whole Foods, Avatar Wellness, Pinz-N-Needlez, The Dog Spot, the yummy food vendors- Carmen’s Italian Ice, Cake Love, and Sticky Fingers and the dedicated City Paper staff that made the day such a success.

Big yummy thanks goes to Craft Magazine for providing the sweet treats for all our crafty vendors. CRAFT is dedicated to the renaissance that is occurring within the world of crafts, and carries the torch of the DIY spirit by sharing stories and resources from the exciting independent crafting community.

Huge thanks as well to Etsy which hosted how-to workshops all day long at Crafty Bastards. ETSY is THE place for DIY makers and shakers to buy and sell handmade goods, and network within the ever-growing indie craft community. Check out ETSY for all your shopping needs this holiday season, and get in the crafty-know with The Storque.

Gladys Makes Things. Lots of things. Like meticulously hand-embroidered t-shirts and sweatshirts. She makes “Assume a New Identity” kits and archival-quality, hand-bound flip books as well.

But, her name isn’t Gladys. It’s Meg.

Check out all the wonderful things Gladys, er, um, Meg, makes this Sunday. Booth #67. Keep reading for her answers to our vendor questions.

1. How long have you been making things?
Oh, gosh. I’ve been embroidering shirts for about three years now, but I’ve been making stuff for as long as I can remember. The first time I sold crafts was in middle school when I hocked friendship bracelets at my mom’s table at a craft fair.

2. What is your earliest/favorite crafting memory?
My earliest crafting memory might be when I collaged a book about myself under the guidance of my friend’s mom. I believe the text said something like this: “My name is Meg. I’m three. I like dogs.”

3. Why do you make things?
My generic answer is that I’m fidgety. I can’t sit still for long, and I really like having something to do with my hands while watching TV. I also love knowing that if I want something to exist, I can just make it exist. Whenever I come up with a new shirt design, it’s usually because I want that shirt myself.

4. What sort of things do you make?
Mostly I embroider shirts, but I also do a lot of collaging, knitting, and so forth.

5. Any success stories you’d care to share?
Somewhat inexplicably, one of my shirts was featured in Philadelphia Style magazine this spring. Seeing as that’s a legitimate, glossy fashion mag, I continue to find this amusing.

6. Inspirations?
Humor!

7. Craft supplies you can’t live without?
A good pair of scissors.

8. Describe your work area.
Because I mostly do embroidery, I can take it anywhere! I’m going to send you a picture of me embroidering outside. See? ANYWHERE!

9. Family? Pets? Plants?
I have a jade plant in my window that I occasionally remember to water. Based on my inability to keep that fed, I haven’t gotten a pet yet. I do dream of having a kitty though. I also have a boyfriend, who thankfully feeds himself.

10. Favorite color or pattern?
I find myself drawn to crafting with bright blue, even though I don’t wear it much.

11. Have you been a Crafty Bastard before?
No! It’s my first time, and I’m really excited!

12. Tell us about other crafters you love and your favorite handmade purchases.
My three favorite purchases at the last event I did were a big flower choker from the Candy Thief, a little bird wall hanging from Dead Bird, and a hilarious shirt of a man looking into a microwave from Family Dinner for One.

13. What is one thing everyone should know how to do themselves?
Cook!

Thought I’d take a break from the vendor Q&A to show off some of the wonderful plushies that will be at Crafty. This is just a taste. Arrive early and experience the full flavor this Sunday.

Squid by Sewing Stars

One of Cleo Dee’s Squids

Smashed Sea plushie by Tsai-Fi

Damned Dollies!

Cherrybox’s Plush Kill Forest Collection.

Spooky Bunnies by Spooky Daddy

Culture Dolls by MaVa

Pile of Cotton Monsters by Cotton Monster

Friends and Foes from Friend or Foe

Magpie DC’s AstroNOT

Missing Monsters!

T-Bone from Mr. Pickles

Strawberries by My Paper Crane
Yes, she made the Tampon Dolls at the 1st Crafty Bastards.

Something missing? Tell us about your favorite plush makers in the comments section.

Know what you need? A fuzzy blue monster laptop sleeve. Get one Sunday from Barry’s Farm.

Barry’s Farm is cultivated by Barry and Katie, who love monsters, peanut butter and Eugene Levy (and his eyebrows!). Barry’s got a knack for t-shirt design and Katie’s sews up the cutest bags.

Stop by booth #69 on Sunday to see their fuzzy laptops sleeves and witty tees. Keep reading for Katie’s responses to our vendor questions.

1. How long have you been making things?
My mom is an artist, so I would say, probably about as long as I had control of motor functions! I really started sewing and crafting regularly in 2006.

2. What is your earliest/favorite crafting memory?
My favorite crafting memory was the summer after 1st or 2nd grade. My mom bought a bunch of blank tshirts and we got to tie-dye them all! I remember how cool it was that you could rubber band certain parts of the fabric to make hearts and stars. It was totally rad!

3. Why do you make things?
I feel like if I’m not doing something with my hands, then I’m going to turn into a mindless tv addict! I guess that was passed down from my parents who renovated their house from top to bottom without outside help, and who spend nearly every weekend building something new and amazing.

4. What sort of things do you make?
I love to sew! Right now, its all about sewing bags and laptop sleeves, but I would love to start sewing clothes more. I dabble in knitting and making stuff out of pretty paper, also, but my main focus is sewing!

5. Any success stories you’d care to share?
Our laptop sleeves have been on tv twice! Once on “Attack of the Show” on G4 and another time on a “Business Week Weekend” in New York. It was so awesome seeing people comment on our monster sleeves! Definitely a proud moment for us!

6. Inspirations?
I’m inspired by both modern and whimsical, childlike aestethics. I love clean lines, but I’m all about making objects that are both fun and functional, including ones covered in monster fur!

7. Craft supplies you can’t live without?
Lots of types of glue, a chopstick (for poking corners!), pearl snaps, hole punches, rainbow felt, needle-nose pliers, and yarn.

8. Describe your work area.
I’m so lucky to have my own room devoted to sewing and crafting. We live in an old apartment building with amazing hardwood floors and an abundance of windows. It also boasts the oldest elevator (gate style)in the area! To the right, is my sewing area (looking relatively clean!):

Below is my fabric stash/random craft stuff storage (looking not so organized!).

9. Family? Pets? Plants?
I’m the youngest of 2, and Barry is the oldest of 3. We both grew up in a small town in Illinois and have been dating since high school. We have one betta fish named fishtopher, but are hoping to add a couple of puppies to the mix in the future.

10. Favorite color or pattern?
Definitely polka dots! You can increase the cute factor of any object by 500% if there are polka dots involved!

11. Have you been a Crafty Bastard before?
Nope, this is our first time at Crafty Bastards and first time in DC.

12. Tell us about other crafters you love and your favorite handmade purchases.
Right now I’m really into the beautiful, sarcastic stationery from 16 Sparrows. I also adore the lovely prints from The Black Apple and I cant get enough of the plush from My Paper Crane.

13. What is one thing everyone should know how to do themselves?
I think everyone should know how to make a simple pattern. I sew everything from patterns I created myself and I think that that is the best way to create a unique product. If you create your own patterns, you learn what works and what doesn’t and often, one pattern can lead you to another.

Hey, check it out! Crafty Bastards is on the Etsy Storque!

The Crafty Crew is super-duper excited to have Etsy Labs hosting the workshops at Crafty this year. Sounds like they have lots of goodies in store. From the Etsy Storque:

Etsy will be set up with an exclusive tutorial display (find us on the tennis court) and will be leading tutorials throughout the whole event including:

* How to make a pincushion
* Making boxes from recylcled papers
* Making your own envelopes

So stop by, say hello, make something, tell us your Etsy story and get some sweet promo merchandise while your there (rumor has it the Etsy booth always gives away the best free promos at Craft fairs…wink wink).

Don’t miss out! Enough said.

Etsy hosts a full day of hands-on how-tos to get you crafting in no time!

11am Knitting with Stitch DC

12pm Bookbinding with the Paper Source

1pm Food as Art with Whole Foods

2pm Puppet Manipulation with Washington Action Group

ALL DAY! Etsy Labs! Make your own pincushions, boxes and envelopes! Plus learn how to fuse plastic bags into fab new finds! Hooray for Etsy!

Get details here and on page 91 of this week’s City Paper.

Crafty Bastards is all about handmade goodness, but we’ll have lots to keep you entertained throughout the day, including the ever popular Crafty Bastards B-boy Battle.

10:30am Rock-N-Romp featuring The Cassettes and J. Forte + the Secret Pop Band

12:00pm The Weirdo Show

1:45pm Word Splash…Sound Clash featuring Hip-Hop Theater Festival’s City Paper Slam winner Komplex.

2:45pm 3rd Annual B-Boy Battle hosted by AllOutParty.com

Throughout the Morning: Giant Puppets!

More details here and on page 76 of this week’s City Paper.

I love El Jefe’s work. Chances are you will, too. El Jefe Design in Rockville creates limited edition, hand-crafted, silkscreened gig posters for DC clubs like 9:30 Club and Black Cat.

Here’s a message from El Jefe himself:

We will be set up right where you enter Crafty Bastards (or right where you leave depending on your view) so be on the look out for concert posters, mexican wrestlers, and clothing galore.

We will have a ton of concert posters from the last two years on sale including a bunch that are not available on our website like ones for Animal Collective, Wolfmother, Wolf Parade, Ladytron, Sparklehorse as well as some of our rarer stuff for The Decemberists, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Detroit Cobras, and others. Items will range from one buck to a hundred and everything in between so be there early to get the goods cheap. All items will be marked down from our site since no shipping charges are needed.

Hope to see you. Best, El Jefe

El Jefe will be at booth #57 this Sunday. Below he answers our vendor questions.

1. How long have you been making things?
My earliest memories are taking scrap paper my dad would bring home and creating little monsters and drawing all over them. I also would draw all over the donations forms at church which did nothing to endear myself to the minister.

2. What is your earliest/favorite crafting memory?
I worked as the Arts and Crafts Director at a Boy Scout Camp in New Hampshire. I knew how to work start branding gimp which is most likely the reason I got the job.

3. Why do you make things?
Doing concert posters is a nice break from doing “normal” design work such as book covers, brochures, logos, and annual reports. It is nice to stretch my wings, using a pencil and pen, and draw something with little to no outside influence telling me to “make it bigger and move it to the center.”

4. What sort of things do you make?
I make limited edition, silkscreen concert posters for various local and national bands like The Decemberists, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Low, Rancid, The Gossip, Wolf Parade, and Wolf Mother.

I also put out limited edition art prints, t-shirts, comics… anything that strikes my fancy with a hope that other people will like it too.

5. Any success stories you’d care to share?
It does not matter how many I sell, I always feel like Andy Warhol after my first sale of the evening! The fact that one person liked it enough to buy means I did something right.

6. Inspirations?
Music, my cats, walking around DC, Mark Ryden, lucha libre, my family, watering my tree, and good books.

7. Craft supplies you can’t live without?
My lead holder. I hate normal pencils because they do not stay sharp for long and are too small for my hands. I got a spiffy lead holder that is extra large and I can sharpen at various angles to accommodate my thickness needs.

8. Describe your work area (photos please!)
It is 8 x 10 with a computer desk, Mac G5 computer, 23 inch screen, a stack of ten poster boxes under my drafting table which is covered with rulers, matte board, a double lamp, usually a cat; two bookcases with supplies and books by Paula Scher, Steven Heller, Sagemeister, and my Canon i9900 printer which I adore. I have three lucha masks on a sill, a Shepard Fairey portrait of Huey Lewis, and various poster art on the wall. The walls are wood paneling so I can not nail anything in.

9. Family? Pets? Plants?
A lovely wife who tolerates going with me to shows to sell posters, help answer questions, sass rude people, rip on bad bands and desperate attention seekers and give a good “outside” vew of my work; a new born baby boy who is adorable and will make a great paper weight, and four cats who sit on my sketches.

10. Favorite color or pattern?
Black… when in doubt.

11. Have you been a Crafty Bastard before?
No, I look forward to it though!

12. Tell us about other crafters you love and your favorite handmade purchases.
I love Dirty Pictures (Anthony Dihle), Popidiot, and SquidFire Inc.

13. What is one thing everyone should know how to do themselves?
Figure out where North is, especially if they live in DC.

Hooray! Crafty Bastards is on the CRAFT blog.

Plus CRAFT magazine has got some special treats in store for all you Crafty Bastard vendors this Sunday!

Oooh, I can’t wait!!!

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.