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!

1. Is there a specific product that you will be selling at the fair that you would like to talk about?

I will be selling mostly concert posters I was asked to do from around DC and some from NYC, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. Some of the latest work has been posters for My Morning Jacket (including super limited-edition variant versions), Silver Jews, and Melvins. I also was asked by the AIGA in Florida to do a poster endorsing a candidate. I decided to do a poster for Barack Obama which is a play off of an AC/DC album. We will be selling the poster with profits going to the Obama campaign.

2. Does this product have an origin story? Did the idea come to you in a dream or through a portal or other strange way?

The Obama piece took a lot of directions. I originally wanted to do a “serious” piece about the election. Being in and around DC, there are so many issues that I have opinions on, yet articulating those opinions in a graphic manner is difficult for me. My sketch book has varying degrees of imagery from the passive to the angry; pictures of tree depicting hope to a sketch of Bush and McCain hugging with the words “Fuck You Buddies” under it. In the end, I decided to do something that made me and my friends smile. I used the AC/DC motif because of the constant attacks by the Republicans calling Obama a rockstar and figured it is better to embrace the name than run away from it.

3. What famous personality (alive or dead, real or imagined) would most likely be found wearing/holding/admiring this product? Why?

Maybe Henry Rollins? He likes both AC/DC and Barack and would possibly get the humour of it. Even if he did not smile.

4. Convince me that this piece should be one of only 3 things I could take with me to a deserted island!

It is made of paper and can be used to start a fire, the metallic silver ink can be used to signal planes and you can fend off tigers by giving them paper cuts!