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From now until the fair, we’ll be spotlighting awesome items that you will find at this year’s Crafty Bastards. Check out the complete vendor gallery to plan your shopping!

Steve Strawn has a story to tell. It is a fascinatingly beautiful tale of robots kicking the crap out of us. Since he is the world’s only photojournalist war correspondent sending back photos from Great Robot War, I was lucky to get the chance to ask him a few questions about his photography. Here we go:

Question: How long does it usually take to set up a scene for your photos?

Answer: It can take from minutes to days, depending on the inspiration, complexity, and the amount of stuff needing to be blown up. In particular, if something is to be destroyed, the setup needs to be much more meticulous, because the ligthing needs to be exact.

Question: Are you constantly searching for new toys to use?

Answer: All the time. My wife is convinced it is an excuse to just go ahead and buy more toys. It kind of is.

Question: Your robots are very simple, unlike most toys in stores today, where do you get them?

Answer: They are from Stikfas, who makes these wonderfully unbranded and incredibly articulated toys. They are not Power Rangers, they are not Transformers, they are some ambiguous robot from another world who is perfectly posable.

Question: Do you build/make any of the items in your photos?

Answer: I am starting to build more of my figures. There’s a lot that goes into my shoots that is hand-built, and a lot that is store bought. I do want to get away from the store-bougth stuff more for creative and lawsuit reasons, though.

Question: Do you have a true fear of the kinds of attacks that you are creating in your photos? Are they therapy? (That question isn’t meant to be rude, most of what I make is about zombies, even though I am not afraid of zombies. I am really afraid of sharks and seamonsters, actually!)

Answer: Robot invasion scares the shit out of me. Zombies are scarier because they were once people, and now they are something else, and for some reason that is far more terrifying than an automaton that’s here to tear us up. That being said, a zombie can only do so much damage, a robot can blow shit up hard, and really wreck things badly. And yes, it is therapy.

You can pick up some of Steve’s work at Crafty Bastards on September 28th at the Marie Reed Learning Center, 2200 Champlain St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, DC. Check out more of Steve photos at www.splutphoto.com

Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at I Like Seamonsters.com. Her biggest fear is men with shark heads. What the hell does that mean?

From now until the fair, we’ll be spotlighting awesome items that you will find at this year’s Crafty Bastards. Check out the complete vendor gallery to plan your shopping!

One of the cutest new items that I saw at Crafty Bastards Silver Spring was the tiny Tofu for Obama plush by Chris Creatures. Not only is this tiny tofu cute, he includes a removable t-shirt and an Obama sign for rallies. He’s ready for campaigning!

Chris was nice enough to chat with me about this little guy.

Question: Where did this silliness come from?

Answer: I’m a huge Obama supporter, so for a long time I kept trying to think of how I could show my love. I’m also a big fan of tofu (fried, steamed, grilled, you name it, I eat it!). In my world, tofu would be an Obama supporter. I’ve made the tofu plush before, but he always seemed like he was missing something. I thought it would be funny to give him a sign and a removeable Obama t-shirt.

Question: You sold these at Crafty Silver Spring, what was the reaction?

Answer: I sold the Tofu for Obamas at Crafty Bastards in Silver Spring. It was fun to see people’s reaction to it. They stopped to laugh and take pictures. I made 30 of them for the fair. They sold out and then I took advance orders. I spent a couple of days after the fair sewing those little guys.

Question: Have you sent one to Obama?

Answer: I have not sent one to Obama yet. What is the best way to send it to him? That is the question. I fear that the tofu would sit in a pile of unopened mail for months. He needs to breathe!

I promise to make more for Crafty Bastards in September. A portion of the purchase will go to the Obama 08 Campaign.

The question that Chris didn’t answer was: What food would be for McCain? Pork chops? Sardines?

Be sure to check out Chris Creatures on September 28th at the Marie Reed Learning Center, 2200 Champlain St NW, Washington, District of Columbia, DC.

Tina Seamonster blogs her life and craft at I Like Seamonsters.com. She is currently being vetted for the V.P. slot.

Don’t forget! Today is the last day to apply for Crafty Bastards DC! The festival will take place on Sunday, September 28 in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC.

Applications will be accepted through midnight. You can read the instructions here and some helpful hints here.

We will notify all applicants of their status by Friday, July 25.

Questions? Send us an email: craftybastards@washingtoncitypaper.com

Already sent in your application? Sit back and enjoy this video treat from the first ever Crafty Bastards Silver Spring.

Crafty Bastards Silver Spring Video Highlights

In the week leading up to last month’s Crafty Bastards Festival, we began posting a series of interviews of crafters who were going to be there. Unfortunately, in all the hustle & bustle, we were unable to publish them all. This continues the Q&A’s that we weren’t able to get to!

Just as you shrink from buying soaps for fear of synthetic additives, Biggs & Featherbelle have decided that you should have an alternative — handmade body care products that are free of synthetic fragrances, dyes and additives! Their soaps are made from unique recipes that use the properties of natural resources to heal and nourish different skin types. Pamper your eyes with their array of body butter bars, lip balms, soaps and bath soaks at their official website.

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

Clean, natural and fun

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?

Making soap…we are always making soap. We are excited because we have a new summertime product. We are bringing our new body scrubs to Crafty Bastards!

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

Surprisingly we never see many other body care vendors at the shows we do. There are tons of great handmade body care folks in the community but there is not an abundance of them at the shows we do. I never frown upon other body care vendors or view them as competition. We are all working together to open up the customers eye to using natural, handmade goodies for their bodies instead of all the commercial junk out there. Our products generally stand out for their ingredients and packaging. We are sticklers for a very clean product with only essential oils and nothing synthetic.

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?

We slowly have worked our way into it over five years. The dedication, planning and hardwork never ends but we love it!

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

We source our raw materials from a lot of different places. A large chunk of our money goes to Columbus Foods for soap making oils and Camden Grey for essential oils. We would love to get everything local but some of our ingredients are unique and not available everywhere. We like to get the best quality and a fair price so we can pass that along to our customers.

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?

Our products are all about being handmade and green so we love the fact that more people are understand and embrace the value of it.

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?

People are welcome to ask us questions anytime! We have even done some demos on making products. We learned by reading books and experimenting. If anyone is interested in handmade body care products, we have a lot of good books and information to pass along.