This evening Cortney & I finally had a second to put together packages for the contributors to our book that just came out. Here we are signing the first copies!!!!



As we were working I received a text from Jenny Ryan (organizer of Felt Club and blogger for Craft Magazine)in Los Angeles who was at Barns & Noble buying out book. They went into the stock room to pull it out for her and put in on the shelves right then! I texted her back and asked her to take a picture for us for the blog......



Today our good friend Kate Bingaman-Burt who is the illustrator for our book sent over the most lovely set of photos of the book.... here are a few but check out the set HERE.

This is what it looks like when you are trying to make the Sundance final deadline. Almost there.......

This weekend we are Chicago bound!

Guess what.....we are going to have the book for sale for the very first time!!!! AND and and the brand new Handmade Nation pattern that Kate Bingaman-Burt illustrated and Sublime Stitching is releasing!!

Find us at Renegade Craft fair, booth #3!

Somehow, I forgot to post this article from the New York Times last Thursday...... It has been a pretty nutsy week. The link to the article is HERE.





I also launched our new website last week, it only took me a year to cross that one off the to do list. One step at a time.....

Micaela O'Herlihy is the Director of Photography for Handmade Nation. She is an amazing woman; artist, filmmaker, mother of two. Her son Thurman who is 9 recently had his second art opening and Mark Escribano was there to document it. He shot some fantastic footage and recently put a short up on youtube, if you watch it, make sure you get to the end. Stills I shot from the party are HERE.

Random press & super sweet cross stitch......

A few odds and ends of press I got over the past few week that I should mention. First is a really great write-up in the The Onion (Milwaukee edition) written by Rebecca Cook. The cool thing about that was Nathan's band had a huge write-up a few pages over, I love it when we get press at the same time. Ken Taylor wrote an article on indie craft with quotes from both Cortney and I in XLR8R Magazine. It's on the last page in the September 2008 issue if you want to check it out, but I've scanned both in HERE & HERE too.

I also did a radio interview with Paul Riismandel on media geek which you can stream HERE.



Kim Kisiolek my business partner at Paper Boat took this photo on her iphone while at an antique mall this weekend and I am in love with it:


The stitches are so perfectly wonky. Best eves.

NY Times, Museum of Art & Design & Museum of Contemporary Craft......

About a week and a half ago I received a surprising email from Penelope Green, a writer from the NY Times who was interested in writing a story on me. She wanted to know what the inside of my house was like for a possible story in the Home section. There would be connections made with Handmade Nation to my home interior/art collection. I sent her some images (which I had posted without explanation on flickr) of our place and the story was approved!


Our house

Within a few days she was scheduling a trip to Milwaukee. Mind you, I had just finished shooting the credits to the documentary and was prepping for a music video shoot that very weekend so my life (and house) was in total chaos!

The idea that a reporter was coming to write about our home, a reporter from the NY Times, was a little insane for me to wrap my brain around. I spent that single day cleaning, and could of used 3. Nathan, my super dude helped me not loose my mind (per usual) and helped out a ton.

On Tuesday August 19th Penelope flew in from NY to Milwaukee and we had a 4 hour interview in my house/studio/gallery (all the same building).

I was told to expect a call to set up a time for the photographer to come by that week. I got a call later that day from Darren Hauck who is a local photographer who cover Wisconsin for the NY Times. He came by on Thursday to take photos, which was almost more nerve wracking then the interview itself.


This is Darren photographing our building

So sometime in September the story will run, I'll let you know as soon as I find out the date.

Oh and to top off a totally amazing press experience, I received confirmation from not only the Museum of Art & Design in NY (this will be our NY premier!) but also the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland, OR that we will be doing programing with them in 2009. More news on that soon.......

Craft In America nominated for an Emmy Awards!



Craft In American director Carol Sauvion passed along this news to me via email. She had been in NY for the Peabody Awards and Sabrina Gschwandtner took the time to show her the 20 minute work in progress clip of the documentary I had screened at Light Industry earlier this Summer.

Massive congratulations go out to Carol and her crew for their massive accomplishments with their project. The Craft In American website has information on local TV programing and information on how to purchase the DVD.

Check out:

Diem Chau who I have worked with at my gallery and was also a part of the Devotion To Thread show is featured on the cover of Fiberarts Magazine this month, the article was written by Susan Beal (who is a contributing essayist for Handmade Nation the book).

Sometimes I work on other stuff.....



I was the set designer for this shoot at the Pabst Theater on Sunday. It was a music video for Decibully directed by Sam Macon. I blogged about it HERE.

Chicago land Part 2

After the screening at the Hull House I stayed in Chicago for 3 more days. This has been schedule for months. My good friend Sam Macon who is a director at Radar Studio in Chicago and I have been planning on working on this for quite some time. Since we are both busy bee's scheduling shooting the opening sequence credits took a bit, but we did it. Our idea was to always do something by hand, we talked about a lot of ideas and stop animation was always on the front burner. Early in the week it was decided that stop animation was the way to go.



I spent Friday prepping with creative Annie Simeone who was in town from New York to assist. I had loaded up my entire studio of supplies for the weekend into my rental on Thursday and we had a few random supplies we needed to get here and there. Thankfully she used to live in Chicago and totally knew her way around, and drove everywhere for me (we were both happy about that).



Saturday morning we met Jonah Mueller (Sam's producer from Radar) at the studio downtown. This was the beginning of two very long days.......





Here's the stats:
Opening sequence to Handmade Nation
Chicago, IL
Radar Studio
26 hours
2 days
Stop animation
-----------------------------
Director: Sam Macon
Art Director: Faythe Levine
Producer: Jonah Mueller
Creative assistant: Annie Simeone



Results.......
Stop animation + mushbrains = the raddest thing ever.

More photos are HERE

Chicago Part 1

This past Thursday I had a screening of the 20 minute work in progress at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum in Chicago. I drove down with Cortney Heimerl (co-author of the book) to the event. We didn't have a chance to see the museum itself, but the actual screening room was super cozy.

The program director Catherine Chandler arranged for cupcakes from Bleeding Heart Bakery (here is Cortney with one of the delicious treats!) Catherine started off the event with an introduction about the museum, I suggest reading up on the Hull House museum founders Jane Addams and her partner Ellen Gates Starr,
such amazing women.
I then stepped up to do a quick introduction about Handmade Nation.

Side note: I have had this cough that plagued me throughout the night (it was the worst during the panel discussion!) I wanted to punch it out of my lungs..... unfortunately, that isn't how one gets rid of a lingering cough.

50+ guests then watched our 20 minute work in progress


Then there was a panel discussion with Deborah Maris Lader & Lindsay Obermeyer, Shannon Stratton and myself.




It was a great event, I was super happy with the turn out and feedback I got. There was even a writer from Time Out Chicago who did a review of the event HERE.



Stay tuned for Part 2 of Chicago which is super exciting.... we shot the opening credits for the documentary this weekend!!!!!!!! ahhhhhh.

This weekend Kim (co-owner of Paper Boat), Nathan (ye ol' boyfriend) and I all made the trek to Sheboygan to see the Civil Liberties show at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.


The Civil Liberties show is fantastic and there is work by a lot of peeps I know and work with including Handmade Nation featured artist Stephanie Syjuco. Along with the Civil Liberties show is the DIY Connecting Communities programing that I am a part of with Handmade Nation. I will be doing a week long residency there in October.....


The Handmade Nation 8 minute trailer is on a continual loop in the gallery with the audio playing out loud (for 2 months!). It was so exciting to walk into the room and hear the familar voices of crafters I know!

Wooden Robot live @ Paper Boat, Milwaukee
Originally uploaded by Handmade Nation!.

You may or may not know that my band, Wooden Robot, is the soundtrack music to Handmade Nation. We have been a band for over 6 years with a solid core of members (there are usually around 6 of us who play live, this show there were 7).

That's me in the back in the green dress, I play the musical saw.

This is our last show until Winter when our accordion player, Eilis (Fun Fact: who also happens to be the sister of Micaela O'Herlihy Director of Photography for Handmade Nation) comes back from Montana. She will be moving there for grad school in a few weeks. We are all going to miss her a bunch.....

This photos is us playing at my shop, Paper Boat Boutique & Gallery, in Milwaukee at the art opening for Leif Goldberg and Erin Rosenthal on Friday, August 1 2008.

If you are interested in Wooden Robot you can check out our myspace page, it's pretty random but you can hear more of our music. We will be releasing the actual album that is the soundtrack to the documentary this Fall/Winter and it will be available for sale whenever I screen the film (and I'm there) as well as online.

www.myspace.com/woodenrobot666

Today my friends is a big day. We got two advance copies of our book in the mail from Princeton Architectural Press, one for me and one for Cortney. This is the first time that we have held or seen the book in physical form. When I saw the UPS truck pull up I almost puked, it's true.

We also got news as of today that the book is doing so well with pre-sales that there will be a second edition printed already! Thanks everyone. We are so looking forward to getting our book tour all scheduled and sharing this project with you!

Sneak Peek:


That's all you get for now. More news soon!

Silent Art Auction = Success!

Bidding
Originally uploaded by Handmade Nation!.

We are home from Los Angeles in one piece, 46 pieces of art lighter!

The event was a huge success and there will be more details to come soon. I just need a day or two to recoup!

Photos are up here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/indiecraftdocumentary/sets/72157606304733940/

Silent art auction this Saturday! Click HERE for detailed information!

"I think I’m so drawn to hand-made type (and hand-made anything) because it really points towards a spirit of individualism that seems to be fading fast as an important characteristic in our society."
-Andrew Wagner of American Craft (guest blogging on Design*Sponge this week)

Andrew Wagner is the Editor in Chief of the newly designed American Craft Magazine. I have had the pleasure of spending time with him on trips to New York and even got a chance to interview him for Handmade Nation last Fall (pictured left). He also wrote the introduction to our book- needless to say, I am a fan. Andrew is the guest blogger over at Design*Sponge this week. You should take some time to read his posts because he has a fantastic eye and is a true lover of beautiful, interesting, innovative work. I am especially fond of the entry about the handmade typography in recent American Craft issues. So amazing.


Included in his post is this page from the upcoming August/September 2008 issue, and I was pretty surprised to see my quote used on the main page (super small on the left bottom corner), how exciting!

Off to Los Angeles tomorrow morning. Flying with a crew of 5 (including me), I've never done that... too bad we will all be catching up on our sleep instead of hanging out in the air.

I've posted tons of screen shots on flickr of all the blog attention the art auction has been
getting. This event is going to be great, the only heartbreaking thing is I can't bid on any of the art and there is SO much amazing work.

This is via SuperNaturale

Holy awesome!

Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco, 2008

Renegade Craft Fair San Francisco, 2008
Originally uploaded by Handmade Nation!.

Renegade Craft Fair in San Francisco was a huge hit. The space was amazing, fantastic turn out and the band that played was super!

Tons more photos on our flickr account!

See you in Los Angeles next week!

x Faythe

Check out the great article in the LA Times about the documentary, book & art auction fundraiser this upcoming weekend!

OH! I almost forgot to mention that the Look Book for the Silent Art Auction Fundraiser happening next weekend in Los Angeles is up!

Check out all the amazing work that will be available to bid on if you are lucky enough to live in the Los Angeles area! Event details are HERE and remember the first 50 people to show up receive an amazing gift bag (see below)

This weekend is San Francisco time!

Thursday:
Swing by Rare Device from 7-10pm for the opening of Julia Rothman and Caitlin Keegan












Saturday & Sunday I will be at this:


Find me & say hi!

x faythe

Things to do & apply for

Applications for the 3rd annual Strange Folk Festival are being accepted at strangefolkfestival.com now thru July 6th! Our 2008 show will be September 27th and 28th, Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

This event is juried, and we will be choosing 120 vendors. There is no fee to apply. The vendor fee will be $65, and they have the option of renting a table or bringing their own tent. Last year, we hosted 100 indie artists and crafters from across the country in a one day event that attracted over 5,000 attendees from the St. Louis area

YarnCon is Chicago's own yarn-centric exhibition -- a place to promote, sell, and celebrate the yarny arts.

We are two Chicago knitters and otherwise crafty gals who love supporting local artists and businesses. In the last couple of years, we found ourselves seeking out local producers of yarn and other supplies to feed our growing habit and simultaneously satisfy our desire to promote the local economy.

In the course of our day-trips to fabled spinning supply shops and meeting friends of friends with alpacas, we had an idea: to bring these producers, crafty folk, and other fiber fiends together under one roof in the heart of the city. And so YarnCon was conceived.

Inspired in part by fantastic local shows like the DIY Trunk Show, Renegade Craft Fair, and DEPART-ment, YarnCon aims to be the premier market for independent producers of yarn, knitted/crocheted objects, fiber for spinning, tools, gadgets, books, patterns, instructions, and gifts related to spinning, knitting, crochet, and weaving.

Whether you're buying, selling, or just want to come hang out and knit, crochet, or spin in a great Chicago park fieldhouse for the day, YarnCon has your number. Come by and check out the goings-on on October 4, 2008, or contact us at info@yarnygoodness.com for more info.

Faythe Levine and news of upcoming Handmade Nation book and documentary are featured in the cover story on Handmade Design!

Also featured is author/designer of Handjob, Mike Perry who is also published by our publisher Princeton Architectural Press
www.midwestisbest.com/work.php

Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are, by Rob Walker.

I read the end first, it is on the DIY Craft movement and features Jenny Hart, Tina Sparkles, Etsy.com, Betsy Greer and me (Faythe Levine) to name a few.

When I met NY Times writer Rob Walker at the first Craft Congress in Pittsburgh in 2007 I was pleasantly surprised at his demeanor and genuine interest in the DIY Craft movement and think it is fantastic that he included it in his amazing book.

After reading the end first, I then started reading from the front, and I will just say, get this book- BUY IN!

www.amazon.com/Buying-Secret-Dialogue-Between-What/dp/140...