Art vs. Craft was a smashing success (this is coming from me, the coordinator and organizer who was very pleased with the 1900 people who came)! As far as multi-tasking for the day I think I pulled it off fairly well. I started the day with fierce allergies that I shake my fist at as I type......

We shot about 7 solid interviews and I will upload some photos later today or tomorrow morning with a list of who we spoke with. I am still crippled without my camera (damm you DELTA cleaning people for not turning it in... I shake my fist at you too), so everything is in differnt places.

I also have the disclaimer that my store is in the middle of a huge move/expansion so a lot of my enegry has been there durring the day this week so far (well, the last few days).

I have a TON of donations to photograph and get up in the shop, my goal for next week!!

So photos soon & Minneapolis/St. Paul watch out here we come....

New York. Part 2
June 17th
Renegade Craft Fair. 150 vendors from around the country. 90 degree heat.

We showed up at about 9:30 and met up with Alison who had agreed to sell my Flying Fish stuff so I could work on the film and make some money at the same time. Miss. Alison rules, everyone should have one of her vinyl wristlets!!!

My mini table that Allison watched over!

We scoped out the fair and I was reminded of the size of the show. 150+ vendors is a TON of work being shown at one place.

Micaela and I set out to scout the scene; there were a bunch of people I had talked to ahead of time that I wanted to touch base with. Leah Kramer of Craftster.org was our first interview of the day. She just released a book and we talked about that, what’s it like to have developed a site that has over 60,000 registered users and her involvement with both Magpie and Boston Bazaar Bizarre. What a lady!!Leah Kramer of Craftster.org

It took us 4 hours; yes 4 hours to get around the circumference of the show. I was entirely overwhelmed with the amount of people who wanted to talk about the film, meeting vendors who sell at my shop and discovering new work that I fell in love with.

Besides lots and lots of "beauty shots" we actually only did one other interview on Saturday, which was with Dennis Stevens a self proclaimed “craft theorist” who writes for the blog redefiningcraft.com. Dennis found Micaela and I dragging our feet in the heat and told us that Garth (yay extreemcraft.com) had mentioned we would be there shooting and he wanted to talk with us about the many theories of the methodologies behind d.i.y. craft, the third wave of feminism related to craft, where d.i.y craft and American Craft are similar and many other interesting things. It was a suburb interview and I’m so glad he found us!

Micaela & Dennis

Towards the end of the show I realized I couldn’t deal with doing any more interviews, I was on the verge of heat stroke and we called it a day. Dinner was to be had with my friend Jacob of Ex Libris and his rad friend Melissa.

Micaela, Melissa & Jacob- after fair drink!

Day #2 in New York was great!

June 18th
Since we had missed the boat with doing a lot of interviews on Saturday we had to bust our butts to get a lot done Sunday. The heat gods sent down there wrath of burley rays and we globbed on sunscreen and jumped into the show headfirst right away.

We spoke with Sarah Neuburger of the small object to start the day. I am a super fan of all of Sarah’s work so it was exciting to get to talk with her on camera.

Next Jennifer Corace, artist and illustrator extraordinaire spoke with us about her merging of art, craft and design. I also picked up some of her new postcards with a nautical theme for my flat files.

Sharing a booth with Jennifer was Deb Dormody of I’FN books. We talked with her about bookbinding, her involvement with the craft community and her company’s growth in the past few years. She also donated a beautiful journal for our etsy shop (not listed as of yet…. dang missing digital camera). Thanks Deb!

We then spent over an hour talking with the ladies from the Austin Craft Mafia. We did interviews with Jenny Hart who gave advice on how to protect your designs, working and balancing your art and having a business that takes off faster than you can say doilies.

Jenny Hart & Micaela

Susann Keohane and Hope Perkins spoke with us about their involvement with the DIY network and their show Stylelicious, they also charmed our pants of with their drawls….

Tina Sparkles talked with us about Austin’s Stitch Festival, quitting her day job to Tina Sparkles full time and staying ahead of the game with creativity and style. Jennifer Perkins of Naughty Secretary Club shared her story about making her life full time crafty, balancing her business with co-hosting Stylelicious and her own show Craft Lab.

Faythe & Jennifer of Naughty Secretary Club

And the lovely Vickie Howell of DIY’s Knitty Gritty talked about her new book “Not Another Teen Knitting Book”. She also talked about making art and craft available for youth to keep them out of trouble and spoke about the value of handmade work in our generation.

Let me just say that the Austin Craft Mafia ladies are an inspiring group of women that I have some serious respect for. They have fun, they have community and they are hella crafty!

Right across the way was the Portland Super Crafty Booth. We got to talk to the three members who were in attendance, Cathy Pitters of Bossa Nova Baby, Torie Nguyen of Totinette and Susan Beal of Susan Stars.

Cathy, Tori & Susan of Portland Super Crafty

I was excited to talk to them about their book “Super Crafty” saving the world from mass production. We also got to talk about what they are individually working on and where they see the craft movement heading. Also all three of the ladies donated stuff for the etsy shop as well as a signed copy of the book (all up next week I promise)!! Thanks girls!

Over to the Art Star booth where we met the owners Megan Brewster and Erin Waxman. These ladies have all sorts of ties to the craft community including there own indie show Art Star Bazaar (which we sadly missed due to overbooked lives). I got to ask them all my burning questions about their gallery, what it’s like to have a shop in Philly and there plans for the future. I heart Art Star our (the Paper Boat, my shop in Milwaukee) sister shop to the east!!

Phewy!! That was all we could squeeze in… like I mentioned before we missed some interviews I was really hoping to get, but we’ll catch up with everyone I promise.

Also, all the donations for the etsy.com shop will be updated after this weekend of madness- Art vs. Craft and my shop the Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery moving into our new space. As my boyfriend would say, it’s a craftastrophe!

The Indie Craft Documentary in New York. Part 1

New York in the summer is always an intense experience for me. The overwhelming amount of people, not knowing my way around, the HEAT, the trash, the walking blocks and blocks…. our trip was a super success and I would like to thank everyone who gave us directions and guided us around the city. I would also like to say a special thanks to Keeva & Nick who gave us a room to sleep in, Sarah Price for her time, guidance, equipment loaning and the rooftop of my dreams, Sue & Kathleen the organizers of the Renegade Craft Fair for letting their vendors know we would be shooting at the event as well as everyone who showed interest in the project, let us film their work and spoke with us on camera.

We were sad that we didn’t get to follow up with as many peeps as we had planned at the show. The immense size of Renegade, the heat, our pesky allergies all limited our time. But, there are more shows to come and hopefully we can catch up with you all soon!!

ALSO, thanks to everyone who donated their work for our etsy.com shop to help raise money for the film. We will be updating the store in the next few days. Those of you who are interested in donating, the information and forms are available on the site under the “support” section (just scroll down to the end).

So, this is what we did on our trip to the big city of New York-

Thursday, June 15th
Micaela & I flew out of Milwaukee late Thursday night and arrived at La Guardia all in one piece. We strolled around the East Village, got a drink and a slice and hit the hay to be all rested for our day of interviews on Friday.

Friday, June 16th

By 11:00 we made our way to Green Point where we met up with Erin Weckerle, the owner of Sodafine.

Our first NYC interview Erin of Sodafine

I had met Erin last summer when I was out for Renegade and was looking forward to catching up and talking with her about her ever growing store and the near future plans of relocating Sodafine to Williamsburg.

Inside view of the shop (check out the chandelier)

We did a great interview, drooled over her exceptional clothing selection, marveled at the chandelier that Erin had crocheted around and had to mosey along to our next appointment.

Sodafine will be at it's current location through June at 246 Dekalb Ave,, Brooklyn, NY

Cog & Pearl was our next scheduled stop. I was super excited to see this shop that so many designers rave about working with. We were lucky enough to get both owners in the house for an interview- married couple Seth Walter and Kristin Overson.

Seth & Kristin

We talked about Cog & Pearl approaching its 4th birthday, the overall aesthetic of the shop and there hopes for both of them working exclusively at the shop becoming more and more of a reality. Cog & Pearl had a lot of work I was familiar with but also a dreamy selection of ceramics, 3-D art and house wears that all fit into the space in the best way. They also make an extreme effort to display the names of the artists next to their work, which I though was rad.

Exterior of Cog & Pearl 190 Fifth Ave., Brooklyn, NY

Next we zipped over to SoHo and met up with the fabulous ladies of Adorn Magazine, Christina Batch, Editor and Linda Permann, Craft Editor.

Micaela, Christina & Linda in the Adorn office space

I had been in touch with them since they are sponsoring Art vs. Craft(my craft fair I organize in Milwaukee) and thought it would be good to get their views on the d.i.y. craft community. SoHo publishes magazines such as Knit 1 and Vogue Knitting and Adorn Magazine debuts this June. It is a great print magazine that explores products, projects, style and interviews all craft related and aimed at the “younger hip” craft community. I think there first issue looks fabu and it includes an article by Trisha Royal, one of my personal favorite people I’ve discovered online. We talked a lot about what they are trying to do with the magazine and how it can help the d.i.y. craft community. They will be offering ad opportunities for indie businesses; you can submit your ideas, all sort of rad stuff. I fully endorse what they are tying to do. I was also suprised to find out that there was only a very tiny staff making it happen!! We kept them both in the office late on a Friday evening and we finally wrapped things up when the last person left and we had to find the light switches on the way out!

This is where all the crafty magic happens for the layout of Adorn!

That was a wrap for Friday!! More on who we talked with, including Sarah from the Small Object, Leah Kramer from Craftster.org and the ladies of the Austin Craft Mafia, and saw at the Renegade Craft Fair later today or tomorrow!

ATLANTA ATLANTA ATLANTA ATLANTA!!!!
A few things I wanted to mention before I talk about our trip-
Thank you to everyone who has been buying our shirts and other items on our etsy.com shop, I cannot tell you how much your support means to the project. Also, since my camera is m.i.a. I cannot update the shop with the rad donations from Tracy of Happy Owl Glass. Tracy has made an exclusive rooster badge for us to help raise money!! Also Melissa of Lekkner has donated a box of goodies that are just super cool--- they will go up on the site soon!!!

If you are interested this is what Micaela & I did on our first weekend shooting for the film. I'm just going to say one more time that I am so sorry to not have all the stills to make this entry more interesting and to see all the amazing people, places and stuff we saw!! (my digital camera went missing on the plane ride home- rats!!)

Friday June 9th
Evan drove us to the Milwaukee airport and we were off. We got to Atlanta around 8:30 pm and it was hot hot hot! An easy drive to the hotel that was located near the venue where ICE was being held. Out for a few drinks and in for good nights sleep because our first day of shooting was just a few hours away.

Saturday June 10th
We visited the Silver Skillet for real southern breakfast. With grits and biscuits were in our bellies as we headed over to the Defoor Centre where ICE (Indie Craft Expierence) was getting all set up!

Upon arrival was the normal scene of taping off booth spaces, unloading of tables and stuffing of swag bags. Our first interview of the day (and of the entire project!!) was with the fabulous Ileana Rodriguez of India Romeo. We sat in the bar area and ran through a list of questions which she handled very very well. I have to say I think I was more nervous then she was!! After that the vendors started streaming in and setting up.

Micaela shot tons of footage of everyone’s lovely items for sale at the show. There was a lot of great work on display and we both did our fair share of shopping (I got a snowflake 66 shirt, Gypsies Tramps & Theieves shirt, and a crochet corn dog from sweet honey complex for the boyfriend) .

We did a few interviews with vendors including Alena Hennessy and August Design.

There was a great fashion show MC’ed by Garth Johnson of extremecraft.com where my personal favorite was the fabulous dresses made by ICE show organizer Shannon Mulkey of Revamp Designs.

We ended the night with an interview with Garth (in the background was kids breakdancing and every once and awhile someone would do a flip while Garth was talking about "extreme" craft, it was amazing). I could of talked about art and craft with him all night but the venue had to be cleared out by 1 am so we wrapped things up. We did however get to meet Garths rad fiancé Claire who makes glitter paintings (which you can read about on Garth’s website) which I had drooled over on-line, so I felt like I was surrouned by pure radness.

Some special shout-outs of the day go to:
• Christy, Susan and Shannon the ladies of the hour!!!
• Maggie & Kelly of Young Blood Gallery & Boutique for selling Flying Fish Design stuff so Micaela & I had money to eat!!!
• The ladies of Angel Court for being so kind and letting us rock their fancy necklaces (which I have gotten tons of compliments on so far!)
• relic boutique- thanks for the super sweet sail boat ring & kind words!!
• Garth & Claire who are an inspiration to make this film!

We made it back to our hotel and had a late night meal of Waffle House (which was conveniently connected to the hotel) and slept with our bellies full of pecan waffles.

Sunday June 11th
Out to breakfast with Claire (the glitter painter extraordinaire) at this great spot called Java Jive. After we were all full with tofu scramble we headed over to the Young Blood Gallery & Boutique to do interviews with the owners Maggie White and Kelly Teasley! On of the amazing things about Young Blood is that they have been around in some shape or form for 9 years. What an inspiration- the space was super rad and we got great footage of them and the shop.

We then zipped across town through various streets named “Peachtree” (which is very confusing) and met up with Petra who is the owner of the Beehive co-op. Her store is very beautiful and the collective aspect is really great. Petra is fordging new grounds with her store and the direction it is headding so keep your ears open for big news about Beehive!!

At Beehive we then gathered with the coordinators of ICE who had caught up on their sleep a bit. We went to lunch at this amazing restaurant called R. Thomas where Micaela was able to order a raw food dinner and was in heaven. It was super fun for me to get to chat with the ladies off camera about organizing a show and all the stressful silly things that can happen while planning. Something that I wish I could do with all show coordinators, and I guess maybe I will durring the course of this project.

After we ate we did individual interviews and Susan Voelker went first, then Shannon Mulkey and then the fabulous Christy Petterson. We talked about not only organizing the show but their individual lives, businesses, day jobs, legal matters and their feelings about the craft community. The interviews went so well and we got more information then we will possibly ever get to use!!!

All of the sudden we realized it was 7 pm and we needed to be at the airport, we said our good bye's, got incredibly lost going the wrong direction on the freeway and ending our trip with the last two seats on the plane right next to the bathroom (ewwwwwww).

But we made it! Shoot #1 a major sucess!

The trip to Atlanta was amazing, I am so thankful for everyone’s kind words, support and excitement. I am more inspired and motivated now to make this film then ever!

Can’t wait to get to Brooklyn in TWO DAYS for Renegade and tons of interesting interviews including people from Cinders, Sodafine and Cog & Pearl!!

BACK FROM ATLANTA!!!

We just had the best weekend in Atlanta that I could of hoped for. Right now I have to catch up on all sorts of stuff but I should have a full review of our trip, who we interviewed and all the fun details up by late tonight or tomorrow morning!!

The only sad downside is that I seemed to of misplaced my beloved camera on the airplane- so sadly unless the luck rains down on me in the next few days all my stills from Atlanta are lost. I am not big on posting in my blog without photos, but if you are interested I guess you'll bear with my writing and picture the experience without photos....

Cross your fingers that Delta has a nice cleaning staff that will turn my little camera....

More soon!!

We get to Atlanta Friday night just in time for...

We have all sorts of interivew planned for Saturday and Sunday including India*Romeo, the ladies who coordinate ICE Atlanta, and the ladies of Young Blood Gallery & Boutique!! DANG!

Wish us luck!

Faythe & Micaela

Our first donation has arrived from Emily Kircher Recycling Artist it was also the first piece of mail to come to the P.O. Box which was super exciting since I have checked it almost every day since the site went live. Thank you Emily for your time and effort to help this project (p.s. Emily makes a smattering of RAD stuff all out of pre-existing materials including the best rugs EVER).

These are now up on the etsy.com shop for your buying pleasure!