This photo pretty much sums up December 2007 for me and gives you an idea why I got so behind in updating and communicating about what was going on with the film. This is my airplane tray flying from Milwaukee to Boston. I was trying to catch up on my wholesale orders for Flying Fish Design & have stuff to sell at the craft fairs we were shooting at. This winter was insane and let me tell you it's all about nail clipper's to sew on the air plane since you can't have scissors!!

FACT:
Over the last 7 months of shooting we traveled over 19,000 miles to document the craft community. OVER 19,000!

FACT:
Micaela & I have opposite sleeping schedules so I watched a lot of late night TV.

FACT:
Boston is the worst city I've ever gotten lost in.

FACT:
We love Providence, RI

FACT:
This is some very very serious small beadwork on the back of Jenine's hoodie. We did a studio visit with her in Providence, RI which is on the lower back of her hoodie!! It reads-
CRAFTCORE



FACT:
I had to take a good 2-3 weeks off after the Holiday's or else I was going to crash and burn, loosing all motivation along with me. So I did, and it took me about a month and a half to catch up with updating everything after that break.

Now everything from flickr, etsy and myspace is all up to date (fingers crossed).

Our biggest and most important news is that we found an editor to work with locally who will be cutting a trailer, this means there will be something for you all to see in the next few months!! This is super duper exciting for me to be taking the next step forward. I will be posting when we start to work on that process.

So here is the quick rundown:

The flickr account is updated with all of our travel photos from December. Pictures from Seattle, LA, Boston, Providence and more. You can see photos of who we interviewed including Nikki McClure, Tracy Bull, Leah Kramer and many more.

The ETSY shop has been updated with tons of new stuff (including the unisex T-Shirt that was requested) and we are having a WINTER SALE!!


And, check out this great write up about the documentary on Wickedly Chic from this week!





It's really good to be home. In the snow. In Milwaukee.

We will be shooting in Madison and Milwaukee over the next month as well as flying out to the Craft Congress in Pittsburgh, PA at the end of March.

More news soon.

Happy New Year.

Thanks to everyone who made this past 6 months of shooting a possibality. We are moving forward and getting ready to dive into editing.

By the way.....
Traveling + the holidays was a serious combo that hindered updates in internet land. Today I am working on updating the photos on flickr and also uploading new work to the etsy shop!

Home again home again... just out on the West coast now back to the East coast with barley time to unpack here in the Midwest!!

Just got back to Milwaukee from our longest out of town trip yet which covered Seattle, a day in Olympia and then down to Los Angeles. We hit the Urban Craft Uprising show and then Felt Club in LA. More to come on those shows later along with the AMAZING interviews (hint: studio visit with Nikki McClure, studio visit with Mandy Greer, interview with the guys over at buyolympia.com, and much much more!) we did on the side when I get a second to upload all the pictures....


The Portland Handmade Bazaar has just announced that they will be joining the DIY Trunk Show, ICE Atlanta and Felt club who have all donated the proceeds of their raffle to our film!! thanks! thanks!! thanks!!! So if you didn't catch the show on the 10th swing by this Sunday and see what there is to fill up your Holiday shopping needs (or just your needs!).

Micaela and I will be heading out to Boston this Friday, we get into town just in time for the pre-party organized by the ladies of Mogo! Then we will be selling and shooting (our new insane style) at the Boston Bazaar Bizarre!
Like I said more news soon, must get other stuff done, like breath and make more stuff to sell in Boston since LA totally wiped out my inventory (thanks LA).

Christy Petterson who wears many hats in the craft community, one being the new editor of Getcrafty.com wrote this GREAT editor's letter about this weekend's crafty events. 8 indie craft fairs going on this weekend around the country!!

Read about it here

We will be shooting at FELT CLUB in the warm and sunny LA on Saturday December 9th from 11-7pm at the Ukrainian Cultural Center, 4315 Melrose Ave (between Vermont & Heliotrope)!
www.feltclub.com


xo,
Faythe & Micaela

ICE Atlanta- GO to it!

Save the date Atlanta, for the Indie Craft Experience, December 9th, 2006!

We were lucky enough to shoot with the ladies of ICE in June 2006 (our first shoot actually) and it was GREAT! If you are in the Atlanta area, check this show out they rule and they are supporting a local charity as well as our documentary with their admission cost!

Details:
The 4th Indie Craft Experience!!!!
Come get all your holiday shopping done in a fun, festive atmosphere. We'll have over 50 vendors and you can check them out on our website.
So come on out!
December 9 from noon to 8 p.m. at The B Complex in the West End. $5 admission benefits Hagar's House, a shelter for women and children and the Indie Craft Documentary!

Seattle & Los Angeles here we come! Please email us if you feel like there is something or someone we should check out, or even if you have a favorite resturant, we like good food! indiecraftdocumentary "at" gmail dot com

Seattle! We will be at Urban Craft Uprising this Saturday then shooting around the city at selected crafty locations for the next few days.....

Los Angeles! We arrive on Wed. and shoot all day Thursday & Friday at studio's & shop's then we will be shooting at the XL Felt Club on Saturday, December 9th!

Oh, and check out this post on the Textile Fetish blog, pictures of your's truly from Austin at Stitch! And this post on the Cut + Paste blog. AND, this post in the Craft Zine blog! If you have written about the Documentary in your blog or live journal please let us know so we can let others know about you... I know there are a lot of other posts, these are just some of the recent one's!!

Thanks again everyone for your support!

Just two weeks ago we were~

psssst.... this is the back of a Ramonster dress, get one they are amazing!!! All freehand machine embroidery! DANG!

Take note kind reader:

The best way to check out what we have been up to lately is to go to our FLICKR account, I have added a lot of descriptions talking about who we have been interviewing and what they have to say!

Okay okay, I'm offically behind-- please excuse my tardy posts. For those of you who may not know not only am I working on this film, but I also own a boutique & gallery plus run my crafty business. The holiday season is cursing me in every aspect of my life, so to say the least- I'm a bit overwhelmed. BUT, it hasen't stopped us from doing some serious traveling and getting lot's of great interviews...... I want to make sure you all know about it! Also as a side note Micaela could not make it to Texas with me so my good friend and filmmaker Drew Rosas was kind enough to step in and do the camera biznass! Thanks Drew!

First off, we went to Austin for Stitch, it was AMAZING! So many great vendors, such a great turnout. We also got to see our friend Sherry from Craft Zine, our friends Aitor & Becky of Sweetie Pie Press who have been on a flippin' craft fair tour! AND fellow Milwaukeeien (?!) Meghan from Birdcage Jewelry!Backstage with the ladies who make it happen!

We did studio visits with Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching

Whiteny Lee of Made with Sweet Love Kathie Sever (+ cutie pie daughter Ramona to the right) of Ramonster
We visited the ladies of the rad shop Parts & Labor

Then, we drove to Houston and went out "bombing" with the Graffiti knitting group-
Knitta' Please!

The top picture is of Drew filiming Knitta' in action. Bottom picture is the end result!

All in all it was an AMAZING trip. Please do read more about it along with the extended photo remix version in our flickr account.

------------ THEN what happend you asked? Well.....

Chicago, the windy city conviently located only 1.5 hours away from us here in Milwaukee....

Just last weekend, we went down to one of my personal favorite shows- the Chicago DIY Trunk Show. Organizers Cinnamon & Amy are some of the sweetest, most community oritented peeps I have met--- they also deserve a special extra big ol' ah hem.....

THANK YOU because they decided that they would donate the proceeds of their raffle to us, the Indie Craft Documentary! It has been our largest donation yet (besides from my dad, uh, thanks again dad!) and we REALLY needed it!

Thanks thanks thanks thanks and seriously, really, thanks! To all of you, thanks.

Crafty queen's of the day:

Amy & Cinnamon organizers of the DIY Trunk Show

Austin Bound!

Austin Bound!
Originally uploaded by Indie Craft Documentary.

Come find us!!

In Little Otsu

In Little Otsu
Originally uploaded by Indie Craft Documentary.

I've finally gotten around to posting the pictures from our San Francisco trip a few weeks back.

Sorry for the delay, I just had too much going on getting ready for the craft fair I coordinate Art vs. Craft!

Also, due to a long long day of interviews I forgot to photograph our last interview of the trip at Needles and Pens---- dang!! They rule.

Stay tuned for some pictures of Art vs. Craft and upcoming this weekend is Stitch in Austin--- here we come!!

IMG_0073

IMG_0073
Originally uploaded by Indie Craft Documentary.

Last weekend was the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago. Micaela and I drove from Milwaukee (only a 1.5 hour drive!) and did a bunch of interviews. We talked with Kathleen & Sue the show coordinators, Melissa of Crafters for Critters and Lekkner and Heidi of My Paper Crane.

We also got to see friends from all over the country like the ladies from ICE who drove out from Atlanta and Becky of Sweetie Pie Press who is on a 3 month long crafting tour from Canada!

It was a super weekend and if you would like to see the rest of the pictures check out our flickr page HERE

Next stop, San Francisco October 7-10th!

You will see us in the following cities this fall:

DECEMBER

Urban Craft Uprising- 2nd in Seattle, WA.

Felt Club- 9th in Los Angeles, CA

Bazaar Bizarre- 16th in Boston, MA

NOVEMBER

Art vs. Craft- 4th & 5th, Milwaukee, WI.

Stitch- 11th in Austin, TX.

D.I.Y. Trunk Show- 18th in Chicago, IL

OCTOBER

7th-10th San Francisco, CA.

SEPTEMBER

Renegade Craft Fair~ the 16th & 17th in Chicago, IL.

support indie artists and come out to these regional shows and events....

xo,
Faythe & Micaela

p.s. To cover travel costs for all these dates we need to raise dollars... check out our esty shop for handmade items and documentary t-shirts-- all proceeds go towards our expenses!

want to donate an item? all the information you need is on our site under the "support" section, just scroll down to the bottom....

Lot's O news....

Pick up the new issue of VENUS to read an article about our film on page 76!! You can even spy a photo of Faythe looking really really tired (or maybe I just know how tired I was, so I look tired to me?!). The other rad thing is that the page before us is an article about Dutchess, a clothing store in Portland run by my best friend from highschool-- yay! Small small world.

Also the peeps over at Indie Fixxx gave us a little shout out check it out HERE.

Otherwise, we are working on editing a trailer so all of you can see what awesome footage we have shoot so far....

See you in Chicago next weekend at Renegade!!!

whooooooooooooah! where does the time go?

I got really behind with updating and posting!!!

Super 8 belt buckle from KIKU!!

I spent all day catching up-- photographing all the AMAZING donations for our ETSY SHOP, finally (sorry everyone who donated over a month ago). There are skull rugs, super 8 glass belt buckles, quilted totes, messenger owls... all for sale to help us with our expensens.

BIG Thanks to KIKU, Run Amok, Art Star, EKRA, Adorn Magazine & Snoose Boulevard for donating.

We did some shooting on the HOTTEST friggin' weekend of the year in Chicago at the Pitchfork Music Festival (so I can't really complain) where the RAD peeps of Depart-MENT set up shop to sell to over 30,000 people. GULP, yeah,,,, um I did mean over 30,000 people!!! It was pretty much mind blowing.

We were there for the set-up, the calm before the storm and did some talking with organizers Laurie Freivogel (KIKU), Sarah Bortt and Janet Ecklebarger (Gleen Desings). Please note there are other organizers of Depart-MENT too.... we just didn't catch up with them.

Later on in the day before I hit the wall with the heat, music and 30,000 other bodies we did a great interview with Besty Greer of Crafivism.com I have to say I was super duper excited to get to talk with Betsy and just lucked out that she was there to see all the bands all the way from North Carolina!

We saw some good music too-- CSS, Devendra Banhart, Danielson and Trantula A.D. to name just a few!!

Gotta run-- more soon!!

Just running a wee bit behind with all of the updates in the etsy shop and here on the blog. Seriously, where did last week go? If someone knows please email.

We have photos and info. about our last shoot in Chicago at Depart-ment which is held at the pitchfork music festival. I cross my heart that I will post all that fun stuff in the next day or two!!

Sorry for the delay in the update....... don't forget to check out our etsy shop where we have tons of cool handmade stuff donated to help absorb the cost of this independently financed film as well as t-shirts, totes and pins to show your support!!!

Minneapolis/ St. Paul, MN
June 8, 2006

I had not been back to Minneapolis in 3 years after living there for 5 a while back... boy has a lot changed! This was a real in & out trip for us and the weekend was quite a blur.

Micaela (camera lady & assistant director), Drew (our Midwest sound guy!!!), Margaret (helper in all ways) & I all drove in Friday night and stayed with Rana. We barely got 4 hours of sleep until it was time to load in for the first Craftstravaganza!!
I had also rented a space for Flying Fish so we had to get set up for that. Margaret came a long to help run the table while we were shooting so at least I had her gracious help!!

The setting of the show was on the State Fair Grounds in St. Paul and there were about 60 vendors total. The show was a huge hit, the news station was there, a reported 2,000 shoppers came, there was great live music--
and everyone battled the heat for a good time! We saw a lot of familiar faces and a bunch of new folks and we did our best to get as many interview as we could--

Jenna & Andy Krueger the show coordinators

We checked in with our friend Heather Wells of Bright Lights Little City who has driven all over the country to many of the shows we have been at this summer from CT. She was joined in St. Paul by her Mother Diane Wells

Lacey Prpic Hedtke & Micah Mayes did some fabulous hooping with there homemade hula-hoops for us!!

Adam Moe the embroider

Painter & sewer Alison Beenken

My old roomie & industrial sewer extraordinaire Nate Van Hofwegen

We were ever so pleased to of crossed paths with Jessie Glover Boeltcher who is researching craft, communities, and identity for her PhD.

Becky Johnson of Sweetie Pie Press

Our next scheduled shoot is in Chicago at the Pitchfork Music Festival where Depart-ment has a set up for the thousands of indie music fans will be milling around!!

See you this weekend in Minneapolis/ St. Paul ........

More information HERE

it's about time!

etsyimage
Originally uploaded by Indie Craft Documentary.

since i lost my digital camera updating the shop with everyone's dontaions got delayed! yesterday i finally had a chunk of time to spend catching up.... almost!

anyway, check out the etsy shop, there is a TON of cool stuff for sale- all donated by crafters who want to support the documentary!!

all proceeds of the sales go towards expenses of the film. we need help!

First off- The Indie Craft Documentary got a shout out in the New York Time Magazine this last Sunday, July 2nd. The article written by Rob Walker is about the new wave of craft- you can read it online HERE although you may have to register (it's FREE). If you don't want to read the entire article, which you should, this is the part referring to the film-

"Still, the more popular crafting becomes, the more crafters see mass goods in mainstream retailers that mimic the handmade look. This is part of the reason that Faythe Levine, who runs Paper Boat Boutique and Gallery in Milwaukee and coordinates that city's Art vs. Craft fair, has begun filming a documentary that frames the contemporary craft movement as being partly descended from the indie-driven culture of zines and punk rock. Levine views the story of D.I.Y. crafting as one of building an alternative to mainstream consumption — not as a lifestyle trend. She also points out that this is an "art movement" that is dominated by female artist-entrepreneurs. "We're talking thousands of women," she says. "It's really impressive, and powerful.""

Now to finally catch up on talking about Art vs. Craft, Milwakuee- June 24th
Just a small recap of the day (a week later) with some photos of who we had time to interview and some other highlights. For those of you who don't already know Art vs. Craft just held it's fouth event, it is my personal craft fair that myself and my business partner Kim Kisiolek organize. We held this round at a new venue which was much more functional, but not a pretty as our old location.

A big thanks goes out to Drew Rosas who did sound for us for the day at the show. Yay Drew.

As to be expected it was fairly difficult for me to balance out running the show, having a booth and working on the movie but we did manage to get in interviews with the following peeps-

Melissa, one half of the little friends of printmaking (who do the poster design for the show) If you have never expierenced the design work of Melissa & JW- got to there site. It rules.

Luke & Sarah drove from Providence, RI to sell a smattering of lovely handmade music, pins and accesories under the monikers of Birds of Prey & Glaciers of nice.

Tracy Bull & her husband Justin drove out from Rochester, NY. Tracy make fused glass badges, nightlights and more under the name of Happy Owl Glass. I am a super fan of Tracy's work. She also made an exclusive badge as a donation for the documentary etsy site which will go up by tomorrow! They are super rad!


Carol Lynn of REcreate Designs came down from Madison, WI. she make a varity of well made clothing and accesories out of discarded items and she always has the best displays!

Heather and her boyfriend (husband?, sorry... I'm not sure) Donald drove a whopping 20+ hours to get to the show from Massachusettes to show off her amazingly great lamps made out of paper umbrella's and vintage ribbon. Check her work out at bright lights little city.

Bob & Allison of Hex Handcrafts, are local jewelry makers who work with a varity of metals to make chain mail. There table is always a hit and after the show I always see tons of folks around the city wearing their work.

Annie is the first shoemaker I ever met, I asked her if I could call her a cobblerette, but I guess a cobbler is a shoe fixer, not shoe maker (I think I am getting that right). Her work is absolutly amazing and she is self taught after wanting to do something besides being an architect! She walked us through the process of how she makes her artisian shoes in-house in her studio in Chicago- check out the mohop line. We are hoping to do an in studio interview with her as well.

Emily is a crafty superstar and one of our best sellers at my shop. She works under the name of the "recyclying artist" EKRA. She makes all sorts of goodies from bottle cap magnets to rugs crocheted out of old clothing. All her work is bright bold and reconstructed from discared or unused items. You can buy work from Emily at the Madison Farmers market weekly.