Craft Mafia Blog

Richmond Craft Mafia presents Handmade Holiday 2011

2011-11-14T04:57:00.000-08:00

Skip the hectic holiday shopping trip to the mall and join the Richmond Craft Mafia at Plant Zero on Sunday, December 11, from 11 to 5 for the Seventh Annual Handmade Holiday.

The Craft Mafia has culled the craftiest, most creative folks from far and wide to join the hottest, all handmade, holiday market in the Richmond area. Want an idea of what you’ll see at this year’s show? Think modern takes on traditional crafts like pottery and knitting, as well super fresh styles of jewelry, t-shirts and clothing, bath and body products, toys, art, and many more totally awesome handmade goodies.

Rubbing out the mass produced is a serious undertaking, but the RCM is dedicated to supporting the handmade movement, and making the Handmade Holiday event hugely different from run of the mill craft shows. Each show is painstakingly juried to bring Richmond the most amazing variety and quality of handmade designs, and to ensure that loyal attendees and supporters of the movement never see the same show twice.

Check out what vendors will be participating this year, and get event details and directions by visiting the event website at www.richmondhandmadeholiday.com. You’ll also find a sneak peak at some of the vendors’ favorite items!

To learn more about the Richmond Craft Mafia, please visit http://
www.richmondcraftmafia.com

Call for Vendors: Handmade Holiday 2011 (Richmond, VA)

2011-10-01T19:05:00.000-07:00

Once again, it is time to get your craft on with the Richmond Craft Mafia! Our next show, Handmade Holiday will be at Plant Zero on Sunday December 11th, 2011! The show exclusively features the work of indie crafters and designers, and we are looking for the craftiest, most creative folks around to join us for the hottest holiday market in the area. The RCM has a great following, a fabulous venue, and mad promo skills so if you’ve got a unique product and super fab display, get your application in before October 17, 2011 and remember to: Buy Handmade & Shop Locally this Holiday Season!

For more information, visit www.richmondhandmadeholiday.com.

Craftaluma's "How The Craft Was Won!"

2011-08-06T17:28:00.000-07:00

Howdy-do Craftistas and DIY'er Sharpshooters!

Summer is here at long last. The Petaluma Craft Mafia is in the mood for a show! We've branded a smokin' hot show for you this summer on August 21st at the Petaluma Art Center for Craftaluma's "How The Craft Was Won!"

The Petaluma Craft Mafia has teamed up with the Petaluma Art Center and we are pleased to announce our first outdoor craft shindig! Craftaluma's "How The Craft Was Won" outdoor Indie Bazzare.
Per usual we are anticipating a whole passel of crafty talented vendors! Sublime, irreverent, kitschy and just well made crafts of local and independent artists who will inspire you to get your craft on.
Not your granny's craft show, but we know she'd be pleased as punch with the amazing craft found here. So join us, and if so inspired by our pioneering, glue gun waving cowgirl, please dress in your favorite cowgirl threads or throw on a pair of boots.
Along with awe inspiring crafts, we will have live music and treats!!

*** Vendors will need to apply to Craftaluma's "How The Craft Was Won" show at the links here or below. Keep in mind that this is an outdoor venue. Tents, tables and chairs are not provided.

Crafty FYI ** In addition, we are hosting our annual holiday show this year. Craftaluma's "Holiday Hoe-down" will be December 3, 2011 at the Petaluma Veteran's Hall. When registering for August's "How The Craft Was Won" you will save 40 dollars by registering for both show in advance.

* Applications are due by August 7, 2011. Thanks in advance!

Hold your glue guns folks, this show is smokin' hot!

With love and glitter,

Your Petaluma Craft Mafia

** Register for CRAFTALUMA'S "How The Craft Was Won" here:
http://www.petalumacraftmafia.com/craftaluma/howthecraftwaswon.html
http://www.petalumacraftmafia.com/craftaluma/index.html

2011-03-11T09:20:00.000-08:00

The Richmond Craft Maﬁa will present the sixth annual Spring Bada Bing: The Boss of All Craft Shows, April 17 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Plant Zero in South Richmond's Manchester Art District. The event will feature over 60 independent artists and designers from around the country, selling handmade wares varying from perfume to plush; recycled clothing to revamped jewelry and everything in between. More information is available at www.springbadabing.com.

The Richmond Craft Mafia presents Handmade Holiday 2010

2010-11-28T17:03:00.001-08:00

RICHMOND, VA - Skip the holiday shopping trip to the mall and join the Richmond Craft Mafia at Plant Zero on Sunday, December 12, from 11 to 5 for the Sixth Annual Handmade Holiday.

Moving this year’s event to a larger venue means even more handcrafted goodness than ever before. Additionally, the RCM have expanded the event to include not only local crafters, but some of the best independent crafts folk from across the country!

Want an idea of what you’ll see at this year’s show? Think modern takes on traditional crafts like pottery and knitting, as well super fresh styles of jewelry, t shirts and clothing, bath and body goods, toys, art, and way too much more to even think about listing!

Rubbing out the mass produced is a serious undertaking, but the RCM is dedicated to supporting the handmade movement, and making the Handmade Holiday event hugely different from run of the mill craft shows. By painstakingly jurying each show they produce (which means reluctantly nixing many, many worthy artists) the RCM brings Richmond the most amazing variety and quality of handmade designs, making sure visitors will never see the same show twice.

Check out which vendors will be showing this year, and get event details and directions by visiting the event website at www.richmondhandmadeholiday.com. You’ll also find a sneak peak at some of our vendors’ favorite items!

To learn more about the Richmond Craft Mafia, please visit http://www.richmondcraftmafia.com

Craftaluma 2010: The Usual Suspects Holiday Show!!

2010-11-20T09:41:00.000-08:00

Happy Holidays from the Petaluma Craft Mafia! Folks, we are not in the habit of taking candy from a baby, nor nicking the smiles from your bright and shiny faces. Life has us all busy and spread thin, and isn't always roses and red meat - some days it's green salad and scrambled eggs. But we have had so many requests about when our next show is, we could not let you down! No siree.
So, Craftaluma, the much anticipated craft show of the year here in fair Petaluma is ago with the choicest, freshest talent in Petaluma and beyond. We get so much supportive feed back on our shows, vendors and music talent, so you, my dear friends, could be clinically inspired and happily sated by the crafty Indie vibe you have become accustomed to at Craftaluma. (Not to mention getting your last minute shopping done). And if so inclined, pick up a little something wonderful for yourself for the holidays - hey, what happens at Craftaluma, stays at Craftaluma. We didn't see nothin'!

Our fifth annual show, Craftaluma's "Usual Suspects" Holiday Show is chock-full of crafty DIY wares so meaty in creativity, you'll need a machete to wend a swath through our talented vendors to help you with your shopping list and be creatively inspired.

This year the Petaluma Craft Mafia is teaming up with the amazing Petaluma Art Center for Craftaluma. The venue is centrally-located and beautiful. The team at PAC is having it's annual staff salon show for craft shoppers to oggle as well. We think Art and Craft, make a beautiful team.
So please join us for the best craft for miles around, fantastic music to groove to, cupcakes and friends.

Do you prefer your craft rare or well-done? Craftaluma has you covered. Pass the horseradish.

**Vendors: Please email me at cheryl@petalumacraftmafia.com for more info. Our website is being updated and we will have online applications shortly.

Please drop by and say "howdy" to our "Usual Suspects" the creative team in the Petaluma Craft Mafia. See you all there! ;)

CRAFTALUMA "The Usual Suspects" Show
December 12, 2010 from 11-5
The Petaluma Art Center
230 Lakeville Street
Petaluma, CA 94952

Richmond Craft Mafia's Handmade Holiday Application is Now Available!

2010-10-01T08:03:00.000-07:00

Applications for The Richmond Craft Mafia's Handmade Holiday are available from September 20th to October 20th!

Click Link to Apply:
http://www.richmondhandmadeholiday.com/p/apply.html

New Orleans Craft Mafia Celebrates Our 5th Birthday on Thursday, June 24!

2010-06-15T17:43:00.001-07:00

Cinco de Craft Mafioso – New Orleans Craft Mafia’s 5th Birthday Party Fiesta!
Thursday, June 24, 6pm – 10pm
The Factory, 8314 Oak Street, New Orleans

The New Orleans Craft Mafia is celebrating its first 5 years of bringing crafty alternatives to the Crescent City with a birthday bash on Thursday, June 24. The event, dubbed “Cinco de Craft Mafioso”, will take place from 6pm – 10pm at The Factory, a new crafty workspace at 8314 Oak Street, which will begin teaching screen-printing classes on July 7.

Cinco de Craft Mafioso is a celebration of all things crafty. The event is free and open to all ages, and will feature free craft workshops, including t-shirt recycling and screen-printing. Bring your old t-shirts in and revamp them – we’ll show you how to breathe new life into your old tees!

The event will also feature a crafty marketplace with handmade goods by members of the New Orleans Craft Mafia, as well as music and snacks. Be sure to stop by for free beer (while it lasts!) and get there early because the first 20 guests will receive a free New Orleans Craft Mafia tote bag filled with handmade goodies!

Please RSVP on Facebook and share the link with your friends!

The Renegade Craft Fair

2010-05-09T06:19:00.001-07:00

Come on down to the 1st Ever Renegade Craft Fair in Austin on May 15 + 16, held indoors at the Palmer Events Center!

This FREE TO ATTEND craft, art, design and DIY spectacular will run from 11am – 7pm each day + feature over 200 of today’s finest indie-craft talents from all over the nation!!

You can expect to find all sorts of incredible handmade goods at the Fair! Get a sneak-peek of who will be setting up shop at this year’s Austin event on our Artist Page!

We hope you’ll join us by biking or taking public transportation to the Fair! If you’re driving, the Palmer offers low-cost parking in their garage just adjacent to the building!

Please see our FAQ for details, directions + lots more info!

Everyone can get to crafting by participating in many Workshops + Demonstrations!

Join the pioneering ladies of The Austin Craft Mafia in their craft-making adventures!

Screenprint your own tee with Susann Keohane at the ACM booth, and then transform it into a one of a kind creation with the help of Stitch Lab!

Mafia members Leslie Bonnell, Jenny Hart and more will be leading a variety of textile and fashion-related classes at the Stitch Lab booth!

The fellas from Public School will be in attendance sharing their design and photography skills. Make sure to stop by and have your “school portrait” taken and check out limited edition prints, tote and other work from this incredible, Austin-based design collective!

Part boutique, part classroom – The WonderCraft will have their shiny, new 32-foot airline streamer (a.k.a.Stella!) on site, leading a slew of workshops in jewelry + accessory making!

Be sure to join the fantastic folks from ETSY.com at their hands-on booth! Stamping, sewing, printing – you name it! Etsy will guide you through many quick + simple, make + take projects!

Boisterous pandemonium is sure to erupt when Austin’s Minor Mishap Marching Band makes their way through the Fair + only the best in independent music will be on blast with DJs from KVRX on hand! Also be sure to catch a set by Americana folkster’s Shotgun Party!

Swing by the Renegade Craft Welcome Station to pick up a free issue of Juxtapoz Magazine while they last + sign up for one of our free raffles, provided by Uppercase Journal, BurdaStyle.com, Beautiful/Decay and Jenny Hart’s Sublime Stitching!

And don’t forget to get your photo snapped in a free-to-use photobooth provided by The Magnolia Photobooth Co.

A Different Kind of Show

2010-04-16T18:16:00.000-07:00

We came up with the idea last spring. For some reason, the Chicago Craft Mafia has had limited success with a spring show. We've tried different locations, and our spring events were poorly attended. When the economy hit the skids, we had a discussion about "downsizing", letting go of craft supplies that we were not going to use, so someone else could try out a craft without a huge expense. Our very successful fall show is called the DIY Trunk Show, and while we were brainstorming, Richelle of Girl Metro, said that people could do it their own damn selves. No finished items, just supplies. The show was born! We came up with the idea about a month before we wanted the event, so it was low budget. The time was limited to four hours, the spaces were first come, first served, and vendors had to bring their own damn tables and chairs. Promotion was done mostly using social networking. It was a big hit, and a lot of fun for all. Because of the success, the Chicago Craft Mafia is going to make this one of our annual events. Our second Do It Your Own D*mn Self Show is this Saturday, 4/17. We've all been tweeting about it and posting to our Facebook pages, and inviting all our friends. We think it will be even more fun than last year!

Hollywood Craft Mafia hosting the First Annual Odd Duck Handmade Bazaar THIS SATURDAY!!!!!

2010-03-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

New Orleans Craft Mafia needs your swag!

2010-02-20T14:42:00.000-08:00

The New Orleans Craft Mafia is proud to once again sponsor the Alternative Media Expo, presented by Antigravity Magazine. The Alternative Media Expo ‘10 is scheduled for Saturday, April 17th from noon-6pm at the warehouse in the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp Street, New Orleans, LA), and will feature tons of exhibitors with comics, ‘zines, fashion, crafts, music, film, design, community activism and much more!

Admission is $5, and the first 100 paid attendees through the doors will receive swag bags courtesy of the New Orleans Craft Mafia: a reusable shopping bag filled with freebies and product samples from various indie businesses. These bags present a great opportunity to get the word out about your business, band, or organization. Vendors exhibiting at the Expo are also highly encouraged to participate in the swag bags and leave a lasting impression on visitors.

Get the word out to this diverse group of customers who seek to support independent businesses by including your product samples in these swag bags. Product samples may include, but are not limited to: CD/DVD samplers, comics and magazines, small jewelry or accessory samples, t-shirts, blank notecards or stationery, sample size soaps or cosmetics, gift cards, or other small samples of your products. If you choose to send in samples, we ask that you send a minimum of 25 samples.

Some swag suggestions include, but are not limited to: coupons, stickers, buttons, magnets, pens, etc. We ask that you do send actual swag items and not just promotional materials such as business cards or flyers. You may attach business cards, etc., to any donated swag, of course. (If we receive ONLY business cards or fliers from you, they will NOT be included in the swag bags.) If you are interested in sending in swag material, we ask that you send in the full amount of 100 items.

The deadline for sending in swag & samples is Wednesday, April 7, 2009. Items may be sent to:

New Orleans Craft Mafia swag bags
c/o Kerry Fitts
P.O. Box 791922
New Orleans, Louisiana 70179-1922

Those interested in dropping off samples and swag locally in New Orleans may bring them by UP/ Unique Products at 2038 Magazine Street during regular business hours (Monday-Saturday 11am-6pm, Sunday noon-5pm). Please make sure your items are marked as being for the New Orleans Craft Mafia / Alternative Media expo swag bags.

For more information on contributing to the swag bags, please email mallory [!AT] neworleanscraftmafia.com

Petaluma Craft Mafia's Spring Fling NLP!

2010-01-30T14:40:00.000-08:00

Happy (belated) New Year! It's the last day of the first month of the tenth year in 2010. Confused? Us too! The last of the Christmas tree needles are falling off , and the stores are already lined with Valentines, and heck, even Easter candy. I've got the peeps to prove it. Whatever sort of holiday candy is currently lining the shelves is how this crafty lady keeps track of the months. While January is giving us the slip, you can beat the Petaluma Craft Mafia is busy planning a super crafty year.

We're gearing up for a wonderful 2010. We've got some swell new members to add to an already motley crafty assortment of creative bon-bons. Everyone in our famiglia creates such diverse work, we have a knotty knitter, (Judy, this hysterical image above is for you), a vintage jewelry maker, a re-purposed clothing designer, a lady who just sews the cutest vintage pillows and plushies, and a woman who saves vintage items and consigns them, makes cooool t-shirts. I mean, if life is like a box of chocolates, your Petaluma Craft Mafia is the ultimate assortment of sweets without the tooth-ache.

Petaluma's crafty first famiglia is hatching a whole host of fun things to do this year, and we'll be sure to keep you posted.
One fun event, is our Naked Lady Party we are holding at crafty Mafia sister Alison's vintage consignment shop on Kentucky Street. Sorry, folks, this is a private party in March, and a great way to dust off winter and welcome spring. Our crafty famiglia and a few assorted friends who we adore, as NLP parties can get pretty chaotic fast if you get too many women in one room trying on clothes and sipping cocktails. So if you here lot's of hootin' n hollerin' it's just us, the normal noises!

But, even if you don't get an invite to this event, don't fret folks, you too can host your own NLP, add some new clothes to your wardrobe, and clean out your own closet, and help your wallet stay fatter in the process. I mean, how can you beat that?

Some simple guidelines for hosting your own NLP. Most importantly, have fun and don't invite too many folks, or it can get quickly overwhelming, especially if space is at a premium. Remember, the goal is to find clothes, get feedback from your fellow naked ladies, and leave with some gems, and give some gems. I'd recommend inviting peeps whom you know you admire their taste in threads, vintage or current, or swapping is not going to be nearly as fun.

Music, get the mood going with some music that will keep you grooving as you dig through piles, and pull jumpers over your head. Food, snacks or a MUST. Trying on clothes with your gal pals works up an appetite and can get fatiguing, as any woman knows. A few libations both alcoholic and non-alcoholic for tee-totaler friends to switch it up.

Last but not least, privacy. Yes, you want to be sure to schedule time for when it's men's poker night, and the kiddy's are at a sitters so as not to distract you. Hey! Trying on other's cast-off is not only green, and a great way to get a new wardrobe, but it requires focus.
It's also a great time to think about others. Have some separates or suits that would work well in a more professional setting? Put together an outfit that would benefit a woman of modest means trying to re-enter the work force. There are numerous agencies you can donate the back-to- work items to, who would greatly appreciate it.

Stay tuned here, We'll be reporting back on our Craft Mafia Naked Lady Party.

Ciao, Ciao!

Your Petaluma Craft Mafia

New Orleans Craft Mafia unleashes our new website!

2010-01-18T11:10:00.000-08:00

The New Orleans Craft Mafia has just unleashed our fresh new website design -- check out our new look!

We've had the same design pretty much since we started our group back in 2005. Five years later, and we thought it was about time for a change! We've gone through a lot in these five years... forming just before Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee failures ravaged our city, and we've had members come and go since then. We've maintained a group e-commerce shop, which has since closed and we've sponsored many craft events around town. We've remained strong and we're poised for even bigger and better things. We're dedicated to keeping the spirit of indie craft alive in the Crescent City!

Why Walk, when you can Run with Glitter?

2009-12-03T10:49:00.000-08:00

"Baby, It's cold outside," he said. "Why not warm things up with a little glitter?" she smiled mischieviously. A sprinkle here, a splash, there...
The rumors are true, the whispers are telling.... and finally it seems we've landed in a glitter wonderland. The Petaluma Craft Mafia is launching it's third production, after, Craftaluma, Holiday Craftacular, and now we're officially, Craftaluma's,"Running with Glitter!!"

We were going to take the year off, but our crafty friends and vendors kept pestering us, so, while we will still do our spring show on May 15th, 2010, we're going to get things warmed up
for the Holidays with a runway and craft show. Whew!

Running with Glitter is hosting some of the best talent locally, and in the north bay. Handmade goodness that will help you with your shopping list and support local artists.
Come on down to the Petaluma Vet's Hall, groove to the live tunes, grab a cupcake, and take-in the glittery fashion show with some of the leading, cutting edge DIY'er designers!
We're gonna have a glitterlicious 'ol time, and the admission to the show is one buck, proceeds benefit the Phoebe Washer Foundation for the Arts.

Psst. Get there early for faboo swag bags!!

Peace, love and glitter,

The Petaluma Craft Mafia

What: Petaluma Craft Mafia hosts, Craftaluma's "Running with Glitter" Holiday Show.
When: December 19th, 2009, 12 noon- 5
Where: Petaluma Veteran's Hall
Admission - 1 buck - Swell swag bags for the first fifty folks.

Happy Holidays from the Petaluma Craft Mafia

2009-11-25T22:11:00.000-08:00

Our crafty famiglia, the Petaluma Craft Mafia, over here in the land of butter and eggs, is working hard to get our first fashion show, "Running with Glitter," put together.... the details are endless! We have such respect for those that have done the combined craft and fashion show, it's a whole other kind of organization! OMG!

Until then, we're wishing our crafty sisters and brothers across the globe a very fine holiday season!

Much love and glitter,
XOXO
Your Petaluma Craft Mafia

Petaluma Craft Mafia in Modern Seamster!

2009-11-17T11:24:00.000-08:00

Issue #3 available for download online very SOON!

Last summer, the Petaluma Craft Mafia were invited to sit down for an exclusive interview with the editorial staff of what is quickly becoming a favorite read for us, Modern Seamster.

It was love at first read, with a magzine jam packed full of goodness about sewing, the arts and crafts scene, music, culture, fashion. Candy! But not "fluff", oh no. Sure, it's a gorgeously laid out cover and spreads, but not only is it easy on the eyes, but full of useful and practical articles, advice, interviews as well.
And of course, we fell in love with the hard-working, hard-playing staff (we identified with their spirit, and can-do attitude). They took us to lunch, at a local restaurant here in P-Town, and got us liquored up, (okay ,we each had ONE margarita) and got a gander at our hometown of Petaluma and were surprised it was so bustling! We enjoy it so much, and came away feeling incredibly inspired by the talent and vision of this new magazine. We were told, that we are part of a series they are doing on our entire famiglia, the Craft Mafia. We look forward to reading more about our crafty sister cities across the globe. L.A. you rocked it! :)

If you haven't checked out Modern Seamster do so now, Issue #2 is just amazing, and currently free for downloading. You will just have to be patient for Issue #3, "The sixties" issue!

Amore, and a big shout out to Modern Seamster!

2009-11-17T10:18:00.000-08:00

Pssst! A little birdie just whispered in our ear that the annual Petaluma Vintage Holiday Boutique is this Saturday, November, 21st from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Open Door Church at 5th and B streets.

Is there anything better then Vintage I ask you? Not unless you're talking a big scoop of Ben and Jerry's coffee ice cream.... or a million dollars falling from the sky. Even, then, it's a close tie! Lucky you won't need a million dollars, because the admission to PVHB is free.

This show is produced by one of the most adorable, sweet and creative women here in Petaluma. She is golden, incredibly creative and has been a encouraging support to Petaluma's Craft Mafia. We heart her! The Petaluma Vintage Holiday Boutique is one of my favorite shows in Petaluma. Come on down this Saturday, be inspired and say "hello" to Eileen and the crafty vendors. Tell her the Petaluma Craft Mafia sent you... See ya there!

Ciao, ciao darlings!

Your Nortoriously Glittery Petaluma Craft Mafia

Stitch Rock '09 Rocked it in Delray Beach, Florida

2009-10-06T05:21:00.000-07:00

and Hollywood Craft Mafia was present and accounted for :)

Odd Duck Handmade Bazaar Vendor Call!

2009-09-27T19:55:00.001-07:00

Facebook Anyone?

2009-08-08T15:11:00.000-07:00

Hollywood Craft Mafia on Facebook

ACM on Twitter!!

2009-07-09T14:40:00.001-07:00

Follow the Austin Craft Mafia on Twitter! www.twitter.com/atxcraftmafia

A Very Important Benefit

2009-07-09T14:37:00.000-07:00

Many of you may have already heard... one of our fellow mafiosas, the founder of the San Antonio Craft Mafia, Katherine Brown, is fighting glioblastoma, in layman's speak that's stage 4 brain cancer. The San Antonio group has been touched deeply by her illness and are holding a benefit for Kat and her children. Please help in any way you can. Have friends in San Antonio? Please tell them about the the event. Have a blog? Feel free to repost.

For more information about Kat and her illness you can read articles in the San Antonio Express News and The Handmade News.

Hollywood Craft Mafia News

2009-06-25T18:52:00.001-07:00

This month HandmadeNews.org is featuring Craft Mafias all over the country and the Hollywood Craft Mafia had the honor of kicking off the month. They wrote an article about the group and featured each one of us separately. We'd love for you to check out these articles:

The Hollywood Craft Mafia

Handmade Austin Women Annual Spring Show this weekend May 2nd + 3rd

2009-04-27T15:52:00.001-07:00

Handmade Austin Women 4th Annual Spring Show

May 2nd and 3rd, 2009

It's the weekend before Mother's Day!

Saturday 10am-6pm

Sunday 12pm-5pm

Handmade Austin Women presents the fourth annual Spring Show on May 2nd and 3rd, the weekend before Mother's Day. Handmade Austin Women are dedicated to unique design, and the highest quality in handcrafted work. We organize our show to promote the profound benefits of sustaining women artists at work here in Texas. We support Austin's cottage industry and the growing character of our local, independent economy.

Handmade Austin Women are pleased to announce the 2009 lineup:

Trisha Allen ~ Uniquely Recycled, Art Cards

Jenifer Nakatsu Arntson ~ Accessories, Wallets and Handbags

Jo Bridges ~ Paintings

Lisa Crowder ~ Studio Jeweler, Metalsmith

Kathryn Davis ~ Mixed Media Collage Handmade Accessories

Jamie Jo Fisher ~ Contemporary Art Jewelry

Laura Freeman* (aka Luna Tart) ~ Ukulele

Chia Guillory ~ Sunhats, Fashion and Accessories

Laura Imhoff* ~ Singer Songwriter

Heather Jarry* ~ Marionettes

Gabel Karsten ~ Still Life Painting

Beverly Mangham ~ Art Assemblage and Clay

Christa Mares ~ Sculptural Crochet

Melanie Schopper ~ Functional Ceramics

Cherie Weaver ~ Drawings, Paintings

*musical entertainment

A family-friendly musical marionette matinee begins every other hour on Saturday. Live music plays on Sunday. Both days we offer complimentary tea and coffee service. Additionally, the Ginko Studios gardens will be open for viewing. Our show grounds are handicapped accessible, but call ahead for special-access arrangements.

For information, (512) 293-9505 or see us online at: www.handmadeaustinwomen.com

Handmade Austin Women

Spring Show 2009

Hosted by: Ginko Studios

Located at: 800 Gullett St.

Austin, TX 78722

(512)389-1920

This event is supported in part by Women and Their Work. Please visit www.handmadeaustinwomen.com for more information.

Download Letter-Sized 2009 Poster [PDF] [JPEG]

A new way to promote your crafty business!

2009-03-15T13:51:00.000-07:00

I received the following email regarding the Happily Handmade Giveaway. Definitely a great way to promote your business!:

"I wanted to let you know about a great promotional opportunity for indie business, called the Happily Handmade Giveaway. You might have heard of it, as we've had many craft mafia members participate in the past. We've just relaunched this event after a two-year hiatus, with a spiffy new website and a team of fabulous volunteers ready to make this giveaway bigger and better than ever before.

Even in trying times like these, we are confident that this giveaway will be more popular than ever. I mean, free stuff? No one can resist the prospect of that. And the cost to participate is minimal. Only $20 plus a donation for the gift boxes. It’s a small investment for a huge return - I think past participants will agree, there is no other tool more powerful to grow a mailing list than the Happily Handmade Giveaway.

A quick backstory:
The Happily Handmade Giveaway began in 2004 as the result of a brainstorming session among a handful of indie artists looking for a unique way to promote their businesses and reward their customers. Since then, it's grown to surpass our wildest expectations. Our last event gave away nearly $15,000 worth of indie merchandise to 51 lucky shoppers around the world. This event, our 8th, is shaping up to be incredible for all those involved.

The goal of the HHG is twofold:
- To promote indie businesses with an affordable promotional opportunity, allowing them to reach new customers and build their mailing lists.
- To reward shoppers for their continued support of indie business, for making the conscious decision to purchase from an independent crafter and not a big box retailer.

We're currently in our sponsor registration period, which lasts through March 20th, and are looking for indie businesses who'd be interested in sponsoring the giveaway. For a small fee (only $20) and a donation to our prize boxes, Sponsors will be listed on our website as an official hhg entry site. Contestants can enter the giveaway by visiting any the participating Indie Shop Sponsors' websites. Each website will feature a separate entry form, allowing entrants to increase their chances of winning by simply visiting more of the Indie Shop Sponsors. Each Sponsor will also have the full list of sponsors on their entry page, creating an active stream of traffic from site to site to site. Businesses participating in the giveaway report a huge increase in traffic to their site and subscriptions to their mailing list (often a requirement for entry).

For more information about the giveaway, our website is the place to go:
http://www.happilyhandmade.com/

Our most recent press release can be viewed here:
http://www.happilyhandmade.com/2009/03/the-happily-handmade-giveaway-a-valuable-tool-for-promoting-indie-business/

I'm also always available should you have any specific questions.

Thanks so much! :)

- Lindsay Landis
Webmistress and Event Organizer
The Happily Handmade Giveaway
http://www.happilyhandmade.com/

Mafia Members & Madewell 1937

2009-02-26T10:18:00.000-08:00

Erica of Erica Burns Designs & Shayne of Novelty Kitten, both DC Craft Mafia members, will be taking part in Denim After Dark with Madewell 1937. Madewell is hip collection of women's clothing from the same people that bring us J Crew. I will be at the Tyson's Corner Madewell store from 7-9PM & Shayne will be at the Annapolis store from 7-9PM. All of this takes place on Thursday, March 5th so come out & let us tag your initials on your jeans! Sweet!

New Orleans Craft Mafia needs your swag!

2009-02-03T17:22:00.000-08:00

The New Orleans Craft Mafia is proud to once again sponsor the Alternative Media Expo, presented by Antigravity Magazine. This will be the seventh edition of the Expo, and as always, this year's event will feature over 100 exhibitors with 'zines, comics, films, crafts, photography and handmade clothing, independent record labels and artists with CDs and records, indie and grassroots organizations, filmmakers and much more!

The Expo will take place on Saturday, March 21, 2009, from noon - 6pm at the warehouse at the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp Street) in New Orleans, LA. The admission fee for this all-ages event will be $5.

The first 150 paid attendees through the doors will receive swag bags courtesy of the New Orleans Craft Mafia: a cotton tote bag filled with freebies and product samples from various indie businesses. These bags present a great opportunity to get the word out about your business, band, or organization. Vendors exhibiting at the Expo are also encouraged to participate in the swag bags.

Some swag suggestions include, but are not limited to: coupons, stickers, buttons, magnets, pens, etc. We ask that you do send actual swag items and not just promotional materials such as business cards or flyers. You may attach business cards, etc., to any donated swag, of course. If you are interested in sending in swag material, we ask that you send in the full amount of 150 items.

We will also be accepting product samples, which may include, but are not limited to: CD/DVD samplers, comics and zines, small jewelry or accessory samples, t-shirts, blank notecards or stationery, or other small samples of your products. If you choose to send in samples, we ask that you send a minimum of 25 samples.

The deadline for sending in swag & samples is Friday, March 6, 2009. Items may be sent to:

New Orleans Craft Mafia swag bags
c/o Kerry Fitts
P.O. Box 791922
New Orleans, Louisiana 70179-1922

Those interested in dropping off samples and swag locally may bring them by Winky's (2038 Magazine Street) during regular business hours. Please make sure your items are marked as being for the New Orleans Craft Mafia / Alternative Media expo swag bags.

For more information on contributing to the swag bags, please email mallory [!AT] neworleanscraftmafia.com

New ads for the New Year!

2009-01-20T10:51:00.000-08:00

Thank you thank you again Steph for making this quarter's Craft Mafia ads. They're really cute and creative!

We really appreciate it. You do fantastic work!

A great cause and yummy yummy treats!

2008-12-17T16:23:00.000-08:00

Since I closed my business, Amet and Sasha, I've been a wee bit silent on the crafting front. And why is that you might ask? Because I'm exploring food, baking to be exact. I'm even heading off to pastry school this spring. Can you believe it??!? Well, maybe you can, but my head's still spinning.

One of my new projects is a food blog. It's just a wee baby of a blog, but if you like to eat, which I'm pretty sure is almost all everyone, then maybe just maybe you'll like my wee baby of a blog.

But this is not why I'm writing. I'm writing because this month I'm taking part in a wonderful cause. It's a fundraising effort for a school lunch program in Lesotho. What's in it for you?? Amazing prizes. No, seriously... good good stuff. So please visit me and see how you can win some great food-related prizes while helping with a fantastic cause.

If you have a blog and would like to help me tell the world about the raffle please do. There are SO many food bloggers out there donating to the cause. I'm donating a huge box of amazing brownies. Other people are donating things like Le Crueset products, cookbooks, classes.... so many great things.

I hope your holidays are warm, cheery and full of many many tasty treats!

Portland Craft Mafia Holiday Bailout Game!

2008-11-18T10:20:00.000-08:00

Would you like to win everything pictured below?

Then play the PDX Mafia holiday bailout game! All you have to do to be entered to win all the above goodies is find the Portland Craft Mafia logo in each of the shops listed below. When you have found each listing on Etsy containing the Portland Craft Mafia logo email the shop names and item links to portlandoregoncraftmafia@yahoo.com. If find them all you will be entered to win EVERYTHING you see in the picture above. That's right it is winner takes all! Keep it all for yourself or give as gifts to those you love during the upcoming holiday season.

The hunt will last 11/15/2008-11/29/2008. The winner will be randomly drawn from all correct entries. The lucky winner will be announced no later than December 1. The entire box of goodies will be mailed out with plenty of time before the holidays.

So what all are you getting you ask? You will win a hand poured candle, two book journals, two pairs of earrings, a mini glass mobile, hair accessories galore, several magnets, a hand carved stamp and more!

Ready to start the hunt? Check out the participating stores below and look for our logo in one of the listings. Email your list to portlandoregoncraftmafia@yahoo.com by 11/29/08!

Hunt for our logo in these partcipating shops:
Autumn Comfort Candles

BeBe Babies and Friends

Ex Libris Anonymous

Flapper Girl

Kenton Beadworks

Leah's Glass Creations

Mode Noir

Sjane

Happy holidays from the Portland Craft Mafia!

Steph from Long Beach Craft Mafia, we heart you big time!

2008-10-17T12:26:00.000-07:00

Thank you thank you Steph for making this quarter's Craft Mafia ads. They're super adorable.

And plus you really came through in a pinch. We really appreciate it. You did a fantastic job!

Petaluma Craft Mafia Presents: Mafia Made "Holiday Craftacular!"

2008-10-10T19:25:00.000-07:00

Dreams of holiday tinsel and Sugar Plum fairies waltzing through your head? Have you ever wanted to meet Bumble the abominable snowman from "Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer?" Stir that together with a little Nightmare before Christmas and you have Mafia Made HOLIDAY CRAFTACULAR! You can bet your candy-cane striped toe socks, we've got another crazy show planned!

The Petaluma Craft Mafia is pleased to announce our first annual holiday show, "Mafia Made HOLIDAY CRAFTACULAR" to debut on Saturday, December 13th from eleven to five at the Petaluma Veteran's Hall.

Our first show CRAFTALUMA was such a success, we keep getting requests for when we would have another show, so we decided to put together a holiday show with some of the most talented DIY'ers, crafty crafters and kick-ass artisans we could assemble - that includes you!

We will have plenty of crafty how-to demos from many of our inspiring and talented vendors. Mojo talented and local live entertainment from the ever-fresh and pretty dang crafty themselves, Bluebellies and adorable Gabby LaLa. You'll be thrilled to know that the Petaluma Craft Mafia plans to have another crafty raffle. **Vendors, (please send us your swag and any goodies you would love some lucky person to have to promote your wares and your crafty company). Swag bags to the first 50 folks through the door. Our theme is a Retro Winter Wonderland with a hint of kitsch and a bit of underground fantasical Holiday flavor going on -remember, this ain't your dear granny's craft show. Bumble the Abominable snow man may drop by and take pictures with the young folk...and you never know who else....

Get your Holiday Shopping done in one fell swoop, and come away inspired by our crafty cast of characters this year at Mafia Made HOLIDAY CRAFTACULAR.

** VENDORS: Vendors, applications are now available, Send me an e-mail (here or at cheryl@petalumacraftmafia.com) and I can forward you an application. FYI: This show is for Crafty, DIY, craft and art, items only, no re-sale or multi-level marketing items, thank you! Vendors you may apply online right HERE.

** SPONSORS: Please contact cheryl@petalumacraftmafia.com if you are interested in sponsorship and/demo table.

Show attendees and adoring public: We heart you! Thanks for coming out to support your crafty famiglia and their friends at CRAFTALUMA, and making our first show such a success. We couldn't have done it without you!

HOLIDAY CRAFTACULAR starts at noon and admission is 2 dollars. You will get a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of our awesome crafty prizes, and if you bring a toy for our "Toys for Tots" you will automatically get another chance at the raffle. Children under 16 are free. Crafto'licious swag bags for the first 100 folks through the door!

Come on down and meet Petaluma's Crafty First Famiglia under the mistltoe for some crafty fun and great music. We'll have a jolly 'ol tins'o'licious time!

Cheers,

The Notoriously Crafty PCM

"Mafia Made" HOLIDAY CRAFTACULAR
Saturday, 11-5 December 13th, 2008
Petaluma Veteran's Memorial Hall
1094 Petaluma Boulevard South
Petaluma, CA 94952

Craftoberfest in Sacramento!

2008-10-02T16:22:00.000-07:00

The lovely ladies of the Sacramento Craft Mafia present Craftoberfest on Saturday, Oct. 11 from 10-4 in downtown Sacramento.

Check it out if you're in the area:

Portland Craft Mafia's Kick Off Show This Weekend!!

2008-09-24T15:12:00.000-07:00

The new Portland Craft Mafia familia is having their first kick off show this Saturday September 27. If you are in Portland or the surrounding areas check it out!

The San Diego North Park Craft Mafia is looking for vendors for the Holiday Hit List 2008!

2008-09-16T13:27:00.000-07:00

Time flies when you are having fun crafting, and the holidays are approaching fast! We are already busy planning the spectacular 2008 Holiday Hit List and we are looking for vendors! This will be a super HUGE event -- to be held at the NTC Promenade at Liberty Station in Point Loma on Sunday, December 7th. If you have a crafty independent business and are in or planning to be in the San Diego area the first week of December, then you don't want to miss out on this opportunity! All of the details can be found here on the San Diego North Park Craft Mafia website. Hurry -- you only have until October 3rd to apply! This is going to be an epic show with entertainment, giveaways, craft demos, fashion show, and more!

The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry is here!

2008-08-11T13:22:00.001-07:00

Sorry for the mass note but I wanted to let the world know that my new book The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry is out today!!!!!

If you love kitschy jewelry and especially love making it yourself then might I suggest you run right out to your local Borders or Barnes and Nobles and snag yourself a copy (remember if they don’t have a copy PLEASE ask them to order one), order it off of Amazon or get a signed copy at Naughty Secretary Club!

Also if you could help me spread the word about my book I would love you forever and ever! Re-post this bulletin, Twitter about it, if you make some jewelry from the book add it to our Flickr group, if you have the book and heart it please leave an Amazon review, mention the book on your blog. Every little bit helps!

If you are going to be in Austin on August 30th, please stop by Craft-o-Rama from 3pm-6pm for the Naughty Secretary Club Book Release Party!

Xo,
Jen

P.S. enter the word BOOK into the coupon/voucher field when you check out at Naughty Secretary Club and get 25% off your entire order all August long!

We done did it!

2008-06-30T22:48:00.000-07:00

I know, I sound like a Hee-Haw reject, but I guess my brain is a little fried from Craftaluma, and we sure are proud! Thanks everyone, our attendees, the fabulosa entertainment, our sponsors my entire crafty famiglia, our local newspaper who gave us an awesome interview, and all of you crafty vendors, you sweet craft things you, who make our hearts sing!
We even got our very own song from the Bluebellies, who just rawk along with the rest of our entertainment. Hint: "Just say no to puff paint" we loved it.

I'll post video or photos later. I'm done crafted out for now, folks.

Rest, work play and then on to the next show, Petaluma Craft Mafia presents, "Mafia Made Holiday Craftacular!"

Craft Emergency Relief Fund

2008-06-23T15:47:00.000-07:00

For those of us in the New Orleans Craft Mafia, the flooding in the mid-west is striking a familiar chord.

The Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF), helps artists affected by disaster. It is an amazing resource for helping craftspeople recover from tragedy. Artists can either receive help directly through CERF, which accepts monetary donations, or through fellow artists via the discussion forums.

After Hurricane Katrina, I personally received some awesome assistance from fellow crafters/artists through the discussion forums. People as far away as Germany sent me fabric scraps to help me start rebuilding my business. One kind woman even sent me a replacement sewing machine!

You can view the forums and find a way to directly help someone in need by going to:

http://craftemergency.org/forums

If you prefer a less direct approach, you can donate to CERF by visiting :

http://craftemergency.org/support/contribute

new members for Manchester

2008-06-09T09:02:00.001-07:00

We've been plotting and planning ways to open our doors to more people for quite some time now and Manchester Craft Mafia is delighted to announce that are finally ready for new members so if you're in our corner of the world and want to join in let us know - full details here

If you're not in our corner of the world but fancy a little piece of crafting action anyway, we are working with our neighbours the Manchester Craft & Design Centre to help them create their Garden Party. We need your bunting so get cutting, stitching, knitting, crocheting and other 'ings' now. All contributions very happily received. Here's what to do.

Sunday, Crafty Sunday !

2008-05-22T22:27:00.000-07:00

The San Diego North Park Craft Mafia is now hosting monthly craft shows the first Sunday of each month! For every show we will be featuring various local indie vendors for plenty of shopping enjoyment. Our next show is June 1st from 12-5 at Filter Coffee House at 4096 30th St. in beautiful North Park. Coffee and shopping -- what a lovely way to spend a leisurely Sunday afternoon!

If you are in the San Diego area, and would like to participate in the next Sunday, Crafty Sunday event, check out our FAQ's page with the link to the application.

Handmade Parade has a brand-new site!

2008-05-20T09:28:00.000-07:00

Yep, you heard it right, Handmade Parade has a brand spankin' new site, at www.handmade-parade.com.

Handmade Parade started out as a neighborhood craft show. There's also a Handmade Parade blog, where we brought you the best of handmade holiday shopping this past holiday season. Now Handmade Parade has evolved into a virtual Craft Show of sorts, where you can purchase handmade merchandise from all over the world!

There will be new artists added all the time, so check back often! And if you are interested in joining the Handmade Parade revolution, email thehandmadeparade@gmail.com.

P.S.) I designed the site. Do you like it???

CRAFTALUMA: Venue Change

2008-05-15T07:14:00.000-07:00

Gather round crafty-cool crafters and craftoholics, due to a plethora of crafty applications, The Petaluma Craft Mafia has been forced to change our venue from our beloved downtown Phoenix Theatre, to the Petaluma Veteran's Hall. Both great venues.

Though we can't stay away from the Phoenix, so expect the PCM to host trunk shows at the Phoenix and a few charity events as well this year.

The new address for Craftaluma, "The Greatest Show on Earth" is:

CRAFTALUMA
Petaluma Veteran's Memorial Hall
1094 South Petaluma Boulevard
Petaluma, CA 94952

(by the bowling alley) ! Huzzah!

Come on down and meet the "notoriously crafty" Petaluma Craft Mafia. (We promise to behave).

See you there!

p.s. Bonus ..plenty o' parking now.

Mucha Muchacha Jewelry from L.A. Craft Mafia will be at Renegade Craft Fair - San Francisco

2008-05-14T11:07:00.000-07:00

I'm so excited that my application was accepted and that I'll be a vendor at Renegade Craft Fair-San Francisco! Renegade Craft Fair - San Francisco is happening on July 12th and 13th. What is Renegade Craft Fair, you ask? "The Renegade Craft Fair is a unique DIY event held 4 times a year in Brooklyn, NY, Chicago, IL and San Francisco, CA. RCF has gained a reputation over the last five years as being the biggest, best and the most well-known of all the DIY craft fairs out there. Each individual fair draws hundreds of applicants and tens of thousands of shoppers from all over the country and abroad! At the RCF you'll find all sorts of cool handmade stuff ranging from comic books to craft kits, silkscreened posters to reconstructed clothing."

I can't wait!

Craftaluma

2008-05-12T20:46:00.000-07:00

The Petaluma Craft Mafia is proud to announce that our own homegrown "Craftaluma" will take place on Sunday, June 29th, 2008 from noon until 5:00 PM. The show will feature local crafters, artists and passionate do-it-yourself-ers (DIY'ers) with hand-made offerings ranging from toys, home accessories, purses, clothing and other accessories, stationery and hand printed greetings, paintings and baby products, bath and beauty products to jewelry, and much more. Shoppers will also get a chance to , participate in crafty demos, make n' takes. Peek into the future and have your fortune told by Madame Kat. See local artists at work. Digg the tunes of local musicians and bands. Awesome goodie bags for the first 50 attendees and raffle tickets are available. Admission to non-vendors is 1 dollar.

Attention Crafty Vendors, wish to strut your awesome crafty stuff? Applications are now available for your convenience to submit online at http://www.craftaluma.com. Vendor application deadline is June 10th. For more info, please see our website or contact petalumacraftmafia@yahoo.com.

Craftaluma, "The Greatest Show on Earth."
June 29th, 2008
Time: 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Location: The Petaluma Veteran's Memorial Hall
1094 South Petaluma Boulevard
Petaluma, CA 94952

Book Review: Beadalicious by Sonya Nimri

2008-05-01T09:33:00.001-07:00

As both a jewelry designer and a collector of vintage jewelry, I love Sonya Nimri's fun and simple approach to DIY jewelry design in her new book, Beadalicious. She encourages her readers to recycle old jewelry into something fresh and new in their own style. Sonya arms them with the know-how to complete every project in the book and includes a brief education on beads, tools, jewelry findings and best of all, techniques for jewelry construction. Jewelry styles range from funky to minimalist and the simple instructions allow for beginners to complete any of the projects. My favorite designs are the "Bohemian Wrapsody Ring" and "Amber Drops" earrings. Infused with a sense of whimsy, many projects in the book offer related side bars with recipes for things like "Queen Bee Soap" and "Moroccan Mint Tea". There is also an "Extra Goodies" section where you can find instructions to make things like a headband made out of buttons or your own romantic beaded hair comb. This book and the fun projects inside will make gifting to your favorite people a snap!

The Chicago Craft Mafia Presents Hand May-ed!

2008-04-29T19:39:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, May 3, the Chicago Craft Mafia will come out in full bloom for our Spring extravaganza, Hand May-ed! We've teamed up with Zola Jones Design, creator of the Bumpy Ride Bag, in his shop at 1944 West Montrose Ave., Chicago. Hours of the event are 11 AM-5 PM.

Also returning in May for the CCM--The Craft Racket, our quarterly networking meeting, open to all Chicago craft artists!

Bazaar Bizarre & Maker Faire SF

2008-04-28T13:49:00.000-07:00

Maker Faire and Bazaar Bizarre are happening THIS weekend!

Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It's for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things.

72 Crafters! A smorgasbord of handmade items, many cleverly made with recycled materials. Something for everyone—jewelry, toys, lotions, art, glass, fiber arts, ceramics, handbags, baby items, even crafting supplies.

Saturday May 3rd, 10am-6pm
Sunday May 4th, 10am - 5pm
Bazaar Bizarre & Maker Faire SF
San Mateo Fairgrounds

Check out the other vendors here and here. Hope to see you there!

Big time Stitch news!!

2008-04-26T12:29:00.000-07:00

So I'm sure all of you have been wondering where the $%^$^&$*&%^* we've been... I know, I know... we've been a bit mum over here. Quite simply Stitch 2007 was awesome and amazing and wiped us out! We just needed a little break. Well, we're back and we're gearing up for our next show. When will that be you ask?? Well, we're changing things up this year...or next year to be more precise. The next Stitch will be held in April of 2009! Maybe it's the dreamy Texas spring, maybe it's exhaustion from 2007... who knows. But we're very excited about this change. We're hoping that with the spring weather on our side this will open up the possibility of an indoor outdoor venue. We also have a ton of other ideas up our sleeves and as our plans get nailed down we'll bring you all of the latest news. Until now, sit tight... we'll be back soon with tons more Stitch news.

L.A. Craft Mafia's April Meetup!

2008-04-14T17:06:00.000-07:00

Psssst! Here's the scoop:

Tuesday April 22nd 2008 at 7pm
Bigfoot Lodge
3172 Los Feliz Blvd
Los Angeles, Ca 90039
323-662-9227
www.bigfootlodge.com/LAhome.html
There is plenty of well lit metered parking on Los Feliz Blvd that's free after 6pm. There is also loads of free parking on the neighboring residential streets.

The craft for the night will be: Stuffies! If you have a favorite fabric or pattern go ahead and bring it along. Also, bringing your own tools is always appreciated but we will have tools on hand for your use;)

Don't forget to post it on your Myspace, tell your friends and blog about it!

Handmade with an Atitude

2008-04-08T08:58:00.000-07:00

The Sacramento Craft Mafia makes the cover (of the Scene section) of the Sacramento Bee! Read it here.

Left to right: Melody Claussen-Furry, Katie Reeves, and Amy Cluck. Photo by Michael Allen Jones.

Digg this -Felt Baron as seen in Giant Robot!

2008-03-21T12:09:00.000-07:00

Crafty lady Tami Lovett-Brumfield of Petaluma Craft Mafia is featured in the current issue of Giant Robot! (see pic top right.) Crafty cool editor Erik Nakamura couldn't pass up this funky-fresh table stocked with felted home grown produce at Tami's booth. We think he has fine taste: Crunchy carrots with toothy grins, apples and oranges that smile winningly from their crates ... no wonder Mr. Nakamura found them irresistible. A veritable Farmer's Market of softies at booth number 49!

The Felt Baron had already sent most of her crop of sweet apples, oranges and ice cream sandwiches off to good homes by the time Erik and his shutterbug skills got down to business. Good eye mate! We love you Giant Robot. What felty goods will Tami be crafting up is anybody's guess, but we'll keep you posted right here!

2008-03-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again - Spring Bada-Bing time! The Richmond Craft Mafia is now happily accepting applications for our annual spring show. Now in it's third year, the show will be held at Plant Zero in Richmond on Sunday April 20, 2008 from 11 am - 4 pm.

Click here to apply.

Or if you won't be able to make it there are plenty of other ways to be a part of this awesome show. Check the site for info on sponsorship and/or zine advertising opportunities or to contribute to our swag bags!
Contact:
For Sponsorship/Advertising - crystal@richmondcraftmafia.com
Zine contributions/ads - deanna@richmondcraftmafia.com
For Swag Bags email - nicole@richmondcraftmafia.com

http://www.springbadabing.com

We are super excited to be hosting over 60 vendors this year! Yay!

Planet Zero on April 20th is the place to be!!

Now Accepting Vendors!

2008-03-18T11:16:00.000-07:00

Down to Earth - Earth Day Craft Show
The show will be held on Saturday, April 19th, 2008 from 10am to 5pm at Sacramento News & Review Parking Lot (1015 20th Street, Midtown Sacramento).

Contact Katie Reeves or Erika Ashley Garcia for details and application!

Craft Con 2008

2008-03-05T09:58:00.001-08:00

I am super-duper excited because I just found out that this year's Craft Congress (now known as Craft Con) is being held in San Francisco!

Straight from the Craft Con site:
Craft Con is a business development conference for the craft community. People who make things of all types, of all backgrounds, will come together to talk about the business side of crafting, how they market themselves, and the philosophies behind it all. The conference will be held April 4-6 in San Francisco, California.

Last year's Craft Congress was the first event of its kind, bringing together an amazing group of craft promoters from all over the country and as far away as England to network, share ideas, and discuss the future of the resurging movement.

I just applied and I'm crossing my fingers that I get in, since there is limited space available. It's really terrific how crafters are coming together to network, share business advice, and figure out how to spread the word about DIY culture. Yay for Craft Con!

The Sacramento Craft Mafia Infiltrates Sacramento Parent Magazine

2008-03-04T08:24:00.000-08:00

Congrats to Missy and Tammie who are representing the Sacramento Craft Mafia in this month's issue of Sacramento Parent Magazine! And a big thanks to Lisa M. Thibodeau for writing an amazing article. I just love all of the mafia references!

And look, Missy's littlest made the cover:

Photo coutesy of Alexandra Frankel Photography

Photo coutesy of Alexandra Frankel Photography

You can check oout the article entitled She's Crafty online (if you live in Sacramento, you can pick up an issue of Sacramento Parent at Safeway, WalMart, or your local library).

You'll also want to check out Crafty Mama: DO Try This At Home!, featuring Missy's bunny pillow tutorial:

And Online Extra, the "The Gabu" Crocheted Creature Tutorial by Tammie:

There are quite a few moms in the Sacramento Craft Mafia and it's nice to see that Sacramento offers a hip and refreshing magazine for parents!

Design our next ad!!

2008-03-04T07:03:00.000-08:00

Hi Mafia Members!!
We're having a contest to design our next ad appearing in NEET magazine. The winner will have their names posted on the ad and you'll be blogged about. It's a great way to get your design skills out in front of people and drum up more business.

Here are the details:

Size: 350w x 454h, 72 dpi

Send it in by March 15 to mafia@craftmafia.com.

I will then post the ads for voting and the winning ad will be used. Be sure and ad your name somewhere on the ad so you receive credit for your design.

Please tell all of your members about this awesome opportunity to get some ad design experience! And remember this opportunity is open to Craft Mafia members only.

New website for Mucha Muchacha Jewelry

2008-02-27T21:13:00.001-08:00

Hey all, I have a new website and I'm really excited about it! You can see my new logo, learn a little about me, find out what shows I'll be selling at, shop for awesome jewelry and read my blog all in one place. Do you love it?
www.Mucha-Muchacha.com

Craft Mafia gets a mention on daytime TV!

2008-02-26T15:33:00.001-08:00

Our friend Mark Montano's book "The Big-Ass Book of Crafts" has just come out and can be found at both indie and major bookstores everywhere. Today, Mark was on the show "In the Loop with iVillage" and mentioned Craft Mafia being everywhere!! Mark Montano and our friend Auxy Espinoza (she photographed everything in the book) will be chatting people up at their book signing at Skylight books in Los Angeles on Saturday March 15th at 5pm! Be sure to go get your copy signed!

I just donated...did you?

2008-02-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

I just donated $2 to an awesome cause, plus now I have a chance at winning some incredible prizes, including an I Heart Felt book, Handmade Nation T-Shirt (you pick size), Handmade Nation Pocket Mirror, 3 Sublime Stitching iron-on transfers, and Handspun Yarn from yarnpunk!!

What are you waiting for? Proceeds support the making of The Indie Craft Documentary, which aims to educate the public about DIY, indie businesses, and crafting.

Craftaluma, "The greatest show on earth"

2008-02-16T20:16:00.001-08:00

The Petaluma Craft Mafia is hosting it's first craft show this summer (exact date and time TBA). We're very excited to announce "Craftaluma" the Greatest Show on Earth." Or, at least we're gonna knock ourselves out trying to make it the greatest craft show west of the Mississippi! I know we've got our work cut out for us.

We plan to have a live band, carnival concessions and maybe a fortune teller/palm reader. Actually I just thought of that. But hey, whats a carnival craft show without a fortune teller? I've had this carnival theme since the holidays, and believe it may have inspired a scary clown dream I had a few weeks ago. Why is it clowns can be so scary?

We'll post more info and online applications once we get things finalized. In the meantime, we just wanted to invite our crafty mafia famiglia and all you other crafty types to Craftaluma, here in the land of butter and eggs which is Petaluma.

Crafty sisters, please send us your awesome swag, cards, postcards, samples etc. Dress us up in your crafty goodness. General admission to crafty shoppers is $1.00. Raffle tickets are available.

Just don't send in the clowns!

Contact cheryl@petalumacraftmafia.com for more info.
Cheers!

FREE Valentine Pattern from Roxy Craft!

2008-02-12T11:15:00.001-08:00

Hey guys & gals, you should definitely chack out the new free pattern from Roxy Craft!

"I <3 U" Crochet Heart Ornament Pattern
Just in time for V-day! Make this little quickie in time to give to anyone on your Valentine's day list. Works up in about 20 minutes...less for you old pros! You could make enough to give one to everyone you know!

Spring Line Up in San Diego March 30th -- call for vendors!

2008-02-03T14:54:00.000-08:00

Hello fellow mafiosas! The San Diego North Park Craft Mafia is ecstatic to be announcing our huge spring spectacular show—the Spring Line Up! It will be held on Sunday, March 30th at the Silver Gate Masonic Hall in North Park. This event promises to be enormous, and of course will be completely entertaining. Are you are planning on being in the San Diego / Southern California area on March 30th, and are interested in joining us to be one of our many fabulous vendors? Then check out the online application here . The deadline for applications is February 22—don't delay! We would love to have you be part of our Line Up!

Petaluma Craft Mafia Hatches a Half-Dozen

2008-01-30T20:00:00.000-08:00

Since forming the Petaluma Craft Mafia with my other two founding members Dee and Anna, our crafty little famiglia has grown by double this past month. In the land of butter and eggs, commonly known as Petaluma, we are hatching creative DIY chics as fast as a hen lays eggs. In livestock speak, our famiglia head count is now a half-dozen and counting.

Yay!

We are pleased to welcome Tami Lovett-Brumfield of the Felt Baron . Tami makes the cutest felt and fleece creatures you ever did see. And she is an absolute sweetheart. We are proud to have her as part of our crafty little famiglia!
It's a great way to start the new year with an expanded famiglia. I am confident she will contribute positive juju to our already harmonious and crafty famiglia.

Welcome ladies, we have much craftabulous mischief to create!

Happy New Year!

P.S. 2007 photo Cheryl Aronson. Petaluma Landmark of "The Hatchery."

I Made it! Market in Los Angeles on Saturday Feb 9th!

2008-01-30T19:55:00.000-08:00

I Made It! Market
It's a handmade/indie craft show with 16 Los Angeles
area artists. Screenprinting, fused glass, homebrew, comic
books, children's clothes... it's a diverse group of
vendors.

It's on Feb 9th from 12-4pm at
Billy's Coffee Shop 114 West 5th
Los Angeles, CA 90013.

Free Admission!

For more info go to: www.imadeitmarket.blogspot.com or
www.LosAngelesCraftMafia.com

The San Diego North Park Craft Mafia has expanded!

2008-01-29T14:24:00.000-08:00

We are so very pleased to announce the addition of our new members:

Amy Smock of Designs de Luna
Margaret McLean of The Wee Set
Meagan Rae Longtin of Meagan Rae Designs
Karen Jorgenson of Altered Provisions
Lisa Yednorowicz of Old Cake Paintings
Sarah Sweeney of Piedras and Pretties Collection
Stefanie Histed of Made With Luv

Check out their websites NOW! They are all so fabulous!

New Orleans Craft Mafia wants your swag!

2008-01-19T12:58:00.000-08:00

The New Orleans Craft Mafia is proud to sponsor the Alternative Media Expo, presented by Antigravity Magazine. This will be the sixth edition of the Expo, and this year's event will feature over 70 exhibitors with 'zines, comics, films, crafts, photography and handmade clothing, independent record labels and artists with CDs and records, indie and grassroots organizations, filmmakers and much more!

The Expo will take place on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 from noon-7pm at the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp St.) in New Orleans, LA. The admission fee for this all-ages event will be $5.

The first 150 paid attendees through the doors will receive limited edition cotton tote swag bags, courtesy of the New Orleans Craft Mafia, filled with freebies and product samples. These bags present a great opportunity to get the word out about your business, band, or organization. Vendors exhibiting at the Expo are also encouraged to participate in the swag bags.

Some swag suggestions include, but are not limited to: coupons, stickers, buttons, magnets, pens, etc. We ask that you do send actual swag items and not just promotional materials such as business cards or flyers. You may attach business cards, etc., to any donated swag, of course. If you are interested in sending in swag material, we ask that you send in the full amount of 150 items.

We will also be accepting product samples, which may include, but are not limited to: CD/DVD samplers, comics and zines, small jewelry or accessory samples, t-shirts, blank notecards or stationary, or other small samples of your products. If you choose to send in samples, we ask that you send a minimum of 25 samples.

The deadline for sending in swag & samples is Friday, February 15th, 2008.
Items may be sent to:

New Orleans Craft Mafia swag bags
c/o Claverie Crafts
P.O. Box 9399
Metairie LA 70055-9399

For more information on contributing to the swag bags, please email mallory [AT] neworleanscraftmafia.com

Tiny Yarn Animals: Amigurumi Friends to Make and Enjoy

2008-01-08T08:32:00.001-08:00

I am really excited about the new book Tiny Yarn Animals: Amigurumi Friends to Make and Enjoy by Tamie Snow of Roxycraft! Tamie's little yarn animals are so darn cute, I'm going to have a hard time waiting until it comes out in August! The good news is, you can pre-order your book now on Amazon!

And if you still can't wait, Tamie still has plenty of patterns that don't suck on her web site: www.roxycraft.com

The Sacramento Craft Mafia is planning to throw Tamie a book release party. So stay tuned for details!

TeamJaded

2007-12-18T10:31:00.000-08:00

TeamJaded is a vlog-blog dedicated to DIY culture, information and innovation. We’re talking about creative people making things happen independently and outside of the mainstream. Abby Berendt and Jeremey Lavoi are traveling across the nation to find these people and share their stories.

Check out their interview with the girls of the Austin Craft Mafia:

Find out more at www.teamjaded.com!

The Sacramento Craft Mafia does Bazaar Bizarre

2007-12-17T12:02:00.000-08:00

Bazaar Bizarre was amazing. It was a lot of fun and very well planned and well attended!

Check out more photos on my Flickr!

Craft Mafia in the New York Times

2007-12-17T10:50:00.000-08:00

Wow the Craft Mafia is mentioned in the New York Times!

Handmade 2.0
By ROB WALKER

The declaration from something called the Handmade Consortium materialized on a Web site called buyhandmade.org in late October. “I pledge to buy handmade this holiday season, and request that others do the same for me,” it said, and you could type in your name to “sign” on; within a few weeks, more than 6,500 people had done so. “Buying handmade is better for people,” a statement on the site read in part, and “better for the environment,” because mass production is a “major cause” of global warming, among other things. There were links to an anti-sweatshop site and a Wal-Mart watchdog site.

The pledge echoed the idealistic language of a tree-hugger activist group, but actually the consortium’s most prominent member was the online shopping bazaar Etsy, a very much for-profit entity that bills itself as “your place to buy & sell all things handmade.” Etsy does not fulfill orders from an inventory; it’s a place where sellers set up virtual storefronts, giving the site a cut of sales.

While eBay rose to prominence nearly a decade ago as an endless garage sale for the auctioning of collectibles and bric-a-brac, Etsy is more of an online craft fair, or art show, where the idea is that individuals can sell things that they have made. How many such people can there be? At last count, more than 70,000 — about 90 percent of whom were women — were using Etsy to peddle their jewelry, art, toys, clothes, dishware, stationery, zines and a variety of objects from the mundane to the highly idiosyncratic. Each seller has a profile page telling shoppers a bit about themselves, and maybe offering a link to a blog or a MySpace page or a mailing list; most have devised some clever store or brand name for whatever they’re selling.

Maybe you’re interested in a “random music generator” called the Orb of Sound ($80), built by an Australian tinkerer calling himself RareBeasts. Or a whistle made out of a tin can and bottle caps ($12), by loranscruggs, near Seattle. Or the “hand-painted antique ceramic doll-head planters” sold under the name Clayflower22 by a retired schoolteacher near Las Cruces, N.M. Or the “Kaleidoscope Pearberry Soapsicle” ($5), made by a woman in Daytona Beach, Fla., who calls her shop Simply Soaps. Or a porcelain bowl with an image of a skull on it, from a Chicago couple who call themselves Circa Ceramics. Or an original painting from an artist in Athens, Ga., who goes by the moniker the Black Apple.

Browsing Etsy is both exhilarating and exhausting. There is enough here to mount an astonishing museum exhibition. There is also plenty of junk. Most of all there is a dizzying amount of stuff, and it is similarly difficult to figure out how to characterize what it all represents: an art movement, a craft phenomenon or shopping trend. Whatever this is, it’s not something that Etsy created but rather something that it is trying to make bigger, more visible and more accessible — partly by mixing high-minded ideas about consumer responsibility with the unsentimental notion of the profit motive.

On July 29, Etsy registered its one-millionth sale and is expecting to hit two million items sold by mid-December. Shoppers spent $4.3 million buying 300,000 items from the site’s sellers in November alone — a 43 percent increase over the previous month. Thus far in December, the site has had record-breaking sales every day. Only about two years old, the company is not currently profitable but is somewhat unusual among Internet-based start-ups of the so-called Web 2.0 era in having a model that does not depend on advertising revenue. It depends on people buying things, in a manner that the founders position as a throwback to the way consumption ought to be: individuals buying from other individuals. “Our ties to the local and human sources of our goods have been lost,” the Handmade Pledge site asserts. “Buying handmade helps us reconnect.” The idea is a digital-age version of artisanal culture — that the future of shopping is all about the past.

STEP 1: Weave Do-It-Yourself Spirit Into a Community
The path that has led to Etsy begins with a motto — do it yourself — that implies distaste for consumer culture. That notion was front and center last year, when O’Reilly Media, best known for computer-related publications, introduced a magazine called Craft.

A spinoff of Make magazine (a latter-day Popular Mechanics for the hacker-tinkerer set), Craft addresses “the new craft movement.” The issue contained a variety of instructional projects: “Stitch a Robot,” one cover line read. “Felt an iPod Cocoon,” said another. Inside, an essay by a longtime crafter named Jean Railla argued that making something yourself is a form of “political statement” and a protest against chain stores that are turning “America into one big mini-mall.”
This dissonant-sounding juxtaposition — politics and felted iPod cocoons? — is what makes the craft thing hard to pin down. Of course Railla wasn’t saying that stitching a robot is akin to a march on Washington; she was writing about a broader do-it-yourself idea that she has watched gradually permeate popular culture over the course of a decade.

Railla, who is 37, founded a Web site called Getcrafty back in 1998, when renewed interest in traditional crafts among young women was still something of a curiosity. It wasn’t as if such skills and hobbies had ceased to exist; from Martha Stewart to nationwide chains like Michaels, major businesses catered to a range of quilt makers and scrapbookers. But the new wave of crafters infused uncool-sounding domestic skills like knitting and sewing with a postpunk attitude that revolved partly around mall-rejecting self-sufficiency. Railla wrote about how to make your own soap and lip gloss — and also about how to knit a bikini. “I really came to it from more of an indie-rock, do-it-yourself kind of political place,” she told me recently. “Sort of married with making peace with feminism.”

Getcrafty was filled with project ideas and how-tos as well as discussion forums, which played a crucial role in building the craft-as-community idea that Etsy would later tap into. “Knitting is part of the same do-it-yourself ethos that spawned zines and mixtapes,” Debbie Stoller, editor of Bust, a pop-culture-meets-feminism magazine, declared. Stoller wrote a series of “Stitch N Bitch” books, which became part of a trend toward the formation of social-crafting groups across the country. More Web gathering points emerged, like Craftster and SuperNaturale. Offline, a communal make-stuff group called Church of Craft formed chapters in several cities.

Crafting had attained a subculture status by 2004, when Railla hired a New York University student named Robert Kalin and some friends to redesign Getcrafty. Kalin had been studying philosophy and classics, but, he told me, he was pessimistic about the job-market value of his degree and was looking for something more entrepreneurial. While he had a bit of woodworking experience, he and his friend Chris Maguire were basically techie types; they hadn’t known much about the handcrafting movement that was bringing so many young women to Getcrafty. “We were the only guys around,” Kalin recalls.

Soon he had an idea for a different kind of site that this burgeoning craft community might find useful: an online marketplace. By that time, plenty of crafters were not simply doing it themselves — they were selling what they had done. There’s nothing surprising about people who enjoy doing something (playing guitar, writing poetry, knitting a bikini) wondering if maybe there isn’t a way to make a living at it. But the scene that Kalin stumbled upon turned out to be brimming with entrepreneurial spirit.

Consider, for instance, the Austin Craft Mafia. This group of nine indiepreneurs traces its roots to a 2001 meeting of young women who hoped to leverage their craft skills into a way to quit their day jobs. Each member built her own business and helped the others do the same. They continued to offer advice and connections with others in Austin and, eventually, beyond. There are now 42 officially sanctioned Craft Mafias, in cities from Omaha to New Orleans to Anchorage to Glasgow. (The Austin Craft Mafia, like Etsy, is a member of the consortium backing the Handmade Pledge.)

For some years now, crafters have been selling on their own sites online. Craft boutiques have opened as fast as independent book and record stores closed. And a new wave of fairs has come to life, not of the country-craft, “Bless This Mess” style, but venues for a younger, more indie-punk aesthetic. These happen all over the country now — the Bazaar Bizarre in Boston and other cities, the Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago, the Girlie Show in Oklahoma City — and each one seems to get bigger every year.

So it’s no surprise that when Kalin suggested something akin to an online version of a craft fair but infinitely large and open all the time, to everyone, everywhere, Railla thought it was a “brilliant” idea. She was happy to consult on the new enterprise but gives Kalin and his partners credit for spotting the business opportunity and making it a reality. To her, crafting remains more of a philosophy, and its satisfactions are in participation, not consumption. She reiterated that idea in her Craft magazine column, arguing that the practice satisfies the urge to create, values feminine art forms, provides relief from the digital world and, yes, is a form of “political statement” against the dehumanizing global supply chain.

But she also understands the appeal of the handmade to those who might not have the inclination to do the making. Readers of the first issue of Craft magazine might have eagerly followed the instructions to stitch a robot. But surely others gravitated to a related article about the popularity of a style of hand-stitched robot that you could buy on Etsy. The article discussed how one doll maker’s creations were so popular that every time she posted a new one, it sold within 20 minutes. It was hard to read this without wanting to visit the site immediately and see what the fuss was about. And perhaps to participate in the idea of D.I.Y., at least by buying D.I.Y.

STEP 2: Emboider With Webbiness
This summer I visited the Etsy offices, in downtown Brooklyn . The company that Robert Kalin and his pals founded now has about 50 employees. (They remain jokily cryptic about what the name they chose for their enterprise means. It has been variously suggested that it is a play on the Latin phrase “et si” (“and if”), or that the secret can be found in Fellini’s “8 1/2.”) I got a tour of the rambling warren, spread over about 6,000 square feet on the sixth floor of an old building on Gold Street. It had a clubhouse feel that was equal parts venture-backed start-up and D.I.Y. enterprise: Here was the skateboard ramp; there the homemade greenscreen for Web casts. I was introduced to a number of young women at work silk-screening Etsy promotional materials onto bandannas, and also to the company lawyer.

Kalin is 27 and seems even younger, with boyish features and reddish hair. Serious in a way that could be read as either earnest or deadpan, he told me the stories behind a stuffed animal and an interesting metal sculpture on his desk, both from Etsy sellers. He then handed me a piece of crocheted bacon. In order to explain his company, he offered me a seat and reached for a book. It was a children’s book, about a fish named Swimmy. He pulled his chair closer and read aloud. The upshot was that a whole bunch of little fish gang up and begin swimming in a formation that resembles one huge fish, thus warding off predators. In their formation, the fish named Swimmy assumes the position where the eye would be. Kalin closed the book. “We want to be the eye,” he said, in case I’d missed the point. “Like Swimmy.”

Tilting back in his chair, he spoke for some time, with the supreme self-confidence of the college bull-session raconteur, referencing Marshall McLuhan, beginning a discourse about the problem with central banks with the phrase, “If you read the Founding Fathers . . . ,” and so on. He wasn’t so much making arguments as patiently spelling out the way things work. He informed me, for instance, that young people today are different, having grown up with the Web and all. He had sought guidance from his grandfather about making Etsy a reality but ignored the tedious advice about writing a business plan, figuring the site itself would serve that function. Later he wrote a “fan letter” to one of the founders of Flickr, the popular online photo-sharing site, and she became an investor. A founder of del.icio.us, the social-bookmarking site, invested, and so did a New York venture-capital firm. Kalin’s grandfather was flummoxed.

All of which is a familiar-enough Internet-start-up story line. I was more interested in what made Etsy seem different from so many current efforts to “build community” online: the luck or genius of the site is that Kalin and the other founders encountered in the D.I.Y./craft scene something that was already social, community-minded, supportive and aggressively using the Web. It seemed to me that the company’s future would depend not only on the success of its sellers but also on its reputation among them. Nor could its reputation simply be for business acumen. If all Etsy did was channel D.I.Y.-ism into a profit machine, it could easily be seen as monetizing — exploiting — the creativity and hustle of 70,000 indiepreneurs. There was a cultural dimension, too.

Kalin clearly understood all this. The company does not, for instance, demand exclusivity. Indeed it seems to want its sellers to market themselves aggressively on their own sites, in stores, at fairs. So in its idealized role as Swimmy, Etsy constantly holds entrepreneurial workshops (how to build your “global microbrand”), pointing to “best practices” among Etsy sellers, offering shop critiques, advising how to “write a killer press release.” Its magazine-videocast, The Storque, often feels like a D.I.Y. business school. In addition, Kalin has hired about a half-dozen of the best Etsy sellers to work directly for the company, in jobs meant to spread their skills to as many sellers as possible. Some help run Etsy Labs, a community-centric program held at the company’s headquarters, teaching craft skills.

On some level the Etsy idea is not really techno-progressive at all. It’s nostalgic. The company is host to a book club, which Kalin participates in, and when I visited, the most recent reading assignment was “The Wal-Mart Effect,” a book that assesses the societywide impact of that mass retailer’s success. Kalin seems flabbergasted that anyone would shop at Wal-Mart to save 12 cents on a peach instead of supporting a local farmer. Buying something from the person who made it is “the opposite of what Wal-Mart is right now: just this massively impersonal experience,” he told me earlier. “When you get an item from Etsy, there’s this whole history behind it. There’s a person behind it.” I asked whether Wal-Mart was really the right comparison, given Etsy’s eclectic, artistic merchandise, and the more workaday product mix of a big-box discounter. He brushed that aside, noting that Etsy sells clothes, which everyone needs.
His real point, it seemed to me, was not about Wal-Mart or any other particular retailer. It was far more expansive. If the marketplace today has become alienating and disconnected, then buying something handmade, from another individual, rolls back the clock to an era before factory labor and mass production. That’s a lot of clock-turning, if you recall Adam Smith’s excitement about the efficiency of an 18th-century pin factory. Really, Kalin has a problem with the entire modern marketplace. “Everything since the Industrial Revolution has been so fragmented,” he told me, sounding more like a character in Slacker, wasting time in a cafe, than a guy running a briskly growing business.

Kalin is nothing if not grandiose about what he thinks Etsy can accomplish. For example, he knows that individual crafters face a problem of scale: there is only so much one person can produce. (Hence the Industrial Revolution.) So he mentions creating “co-production” sites across the country, where groups of crafters would band together in a co-op-style model, ideally occupying space in distressed areas and offering training to people who want to learn handcrafting skills. Handmade isn’t a fad, he told me, it’s a resurgence, one that is of a piece with the booming interest in organic food. In 25 years, he said, Etsy would be both worldwide and personal, a global-local marketplace, a Web version of the Athenian agora.

The business proposition behind this extravagant vision is rather more straightforward. Etsy charges 20 cents per listing and 3.5 percent of the final sale price; this is generally lower and certainly less complicated than eBay’s fee structure; it also charges up to $15 if creators want to highlight a particular item on the site’s high-traffic showcase pages. More competition may be mixed news for individual artisans as newcomers keep flooding in to peddle their wares, but it’s all good news for Etsy. The company makes money from successful crafters, but it also makes money from wishful thinkers who never get beyond the hobby stage. The entrepreneur who makes something by hand might face a scale problem. Etsy doesn’t.

That said, what’s surprising about Kalin is that his interest really does seem to transcend the profit motive. It’s pretty clear that he not only respects the values of the D.I.Y. world and the earnest idealism of the Handmade Pledge; he also really believes in them. The quasi-libertarian certainty of the Web entrepreneur and the equally confident ex-philosophy-student discourse about the alienating nature of mass society seem contradictory. But to Kalin, they are intertwined. “In a way,” he said when I met him in Brooklyn, “I see Etsy as an art project.” And after a brief recap of art history through Duchamp, he suggested that Etsy could “disturb” the way people see the world, rethinking what makes their possessions important or trivial, leading us to re-evaluate the way we consume. Surely plenty of crafters see what they are up to as a mix of art and business as well — although they may be coming at that from a somewhat different angle.

STEP 3: Stitch Together Ideals and Entrepreneurialism
This past March, I went to Pittsburgh to attend the first-ever Craft Congress, which was made up of about 60 of the best-known and most established figures on the D.I.Y./crafter scene. I had heard the agenda would include a discussion of how their movement ought to be defined and thought about by participants. This is what makes crafting feel distinct from a garden -variety consumer trend: It’s hard to imagine the leading figures in, say, the premium-denim fad or the limited-edition-sneaker craze getting together to hash out what those things are really about, what participating in them really means.

I wondered if the discussion would be translated into some sort of manifesto. Would they lay out rules for who is a crafter and who isn’t? Would they determine where screen-printing on bulk-ordered T-shirts, or working with factory-made beads, falls on the continuum of “handmade”-ness? (I had read some spirited discussion in Etsy’s forums about the definition of “mass produced.”) I was also interested in the Craft Congress because I’d heard that someone from Etsy would be there, and I wondered how the company would be perceived.

The congress participants (almost all were women) included organizers of fairs in Atlanta, Toronto, Washington and elsewhere, as well as crafters from all around the country. Many had met online but never before in person. The discussions and presentations, spread over two days, began with an attempt at “defining the craft movement” and ranged into politics and recent corporate interest in D.I.Y.-ism. But there was little interest in rule making and manifesto-writing. Jenny Hart, an Austin Craft Mafia founder, went out of her way to make the point that the congress participants should be careful not to come across like self-appointed leaders.
The topics of discussion often weren’t ideological at all, but more practical matters like marketing tactics, taxes and health insurance. Etsy was represented by Matthew Stinchcomb, its 32-year-old marketing chief. When he met Kalin, he was in a rock band. Tired of touring, he got involved in Etsy, applying the sorts of underground promotional ideas he picked up as a musician, like creating Etsy “street teams.”

Gregarious and easygoing, he gave the Etsy pitch. “I think there’s a larger story that we are selling,” he said, presenting Etsy’s goal as recreating the marketplaces of old. Marketing has “crass connotations,” he allowed, but to make those one-on-one connections, sellers had to promote themselves. Later he added that the craft movement needed to keep “providing resources for each other, so we’re not all working against each other.” In other words, he fit right in: his presentation — like the congress in general — was equal parts entrepreneurial seminar and subculture colloquium.

Somehow all the talk made that most conventional American path — small business — seem like an instrument of radicalism. I talked to another attendee, a 29-year-old crafter named Faythe Levine, about the motivations of craft artist-entrepreneurs. She had told me about the thrill of discovering the craft scene: “No corporate backing — it was people doing things, full-on D.I.Y.” Last year she began working on a documentary called “Handmade Nation,” and by the time of the Craft Congress had videotaped 80 hours of interviews with crafters in a dozen cities. Some of her subjects were making a living, but some were still trying to quit dull day jobs, and others were stay-at-home moms. “I didn’t necessarily ask people if they were making stuff and selling it to be political,” she said. But many told her that “running a small business yourself, and trying to separate yourself from the masses — it’s a political statement in its own. That was kind of interesting, and it did come up repeatedly.”

It’s still tempting to characterize anything that looks edgy and has an online component as somehow a function of youth culture. But the age of the average Etsy seller turns out to be 34. Many crafters no doubt feel passionately about the ideals suggested by the Handmade Pledge a horror of sweatshop labor and corporate conformity, concern about the environment and would be pleased to see the broader consumer culture embrace them too. Meanwhile there is also the more salient matter of how to make a rewarding, meaningful and satisfying living without having to give up on those ideals. The women who have led the craft movement don’t want to work for the Man. But many are also motivated by having reached adulthood at a time when the Man is slashing benefits, reneging on pensions, laying people off and, if hiring, is looking for customer-service reps and baristas. This is not a utopian alt-youth framework; it’s a very real-world, alt-grown-up framework.

Listening to the discussions at the Craft Congress, it seemed to me that while there’s a case to be made that this is an art movement, or an ideological movement, or a shopping movement, it is also — and probably fundamentally — a work movement. At one point, talk turned to corporate interest in D.I.Y.-ism, and in particular how companies like Toyota were sponsoring craft fairs. Some argued that “megacorporations” trying to burnish their hipster images had no legitimate role on the scene. Others suggested that corporate money could be put to beneficial uses. No consensus emerged, but toward the end of the discussion one crafter articulated the precise commerce-and-ideals dilemma of the crafty businessperson. “If we can’t have a job where we make enough money,” she observed, “then this movement isn’t sustainable.”

STEP 4: Sell
It is worth noting another element of the Handmade Pledge: “The ascendancy of chain-store culture and global manufacturing has left us dressing, furnishing and decorating alike.” It’s a shrewd pitch, because the consumer craving for novelty, for the unique, the special, seems unquenchable. It has spawned, for instance, a number of blogs dedicated specifically to ferreting out the exciting new thing, usually with a helpful link to a potential transaction. (One of the most popular such sites, Design*Sponge, is another backer of the Handmade Consortium.) Buying something from an indie craft artist can result in a buyer-seller connection, but it can also make consumption itself feel like a creative act. This is the crucial element fueling the craft boom: People show up at the fairs, the shops and the Web sites. And they spend money.

One afternoon last summer, a young artist based in Athens, Ga., unveiled her latest work. Emily Martin is 24 years old. She graduated from art school about two years ago and has never had a gallery show. She announced the date and time of the unveiling on her blog, so at 2 p.m. on Aug. 28, I clicked over and watched as she posted the new work to her Etsy shop: Six original paintings priced between $160 and $250, and nine hand-sewn dolls, for $37 to $65. They disappeared faster than I could click “refresh.” By 2:02 p.m. most had been sold, and Martin had made about $1,400 (minus fees). Martin fully expected to be working as a waitress and confining her art-making to her off hours at this stage of her life. Instead, the Black Apple, as she is known on Etsy, is a full-time artist and perhaps the site’s most famous success story.

Martin’s paintings often depict cartoonish girls with unnaturally wide eyes, and her shy voice sounds as if it were emanating from one of these innocent figures. “You’re told in art school, ‘O.K., well, one out of a hundred of you is going to make a living with the training that you’re getting here,’ ” she said. While sweet and appealing, Martin’s aesthetic is more thrift store than Chelsea gallery; she was “really intimidated” by “the whole capital-A art thing.” But at a local craft fair, someone told her about this new site called Etsy. “The idea of a shop online, being a more democratic thing, really appealed to me,” she says. As of early December, she had sold more than 10,000 items through her Etsy store — mostly 8-by-10, open-edition prints priced at $13 apiece, but also postcards, buttons, hand-sewn dolls and original paintings.

It’s a feel-good story of Webby empowerment and the triumph of a niche-culture underdog. Martin recognizes that what the Web in general, and Etsy in particular, has done for her is to make a market. It has exposed her work to more people than ever would have seen it in Athens, without any auditions for capital-A art power brokers. Just as important, though, is that her aesthetic turned out to have unusually broad appeal, and she doesn’t know quite what to tell the aspiring crafter-artists who besiege her with requests for advice. “I had no idea that my work would appeal to grandmas, 12-year-old girls, hipsters, guys buying things for their girlfriends and wives,” she says. The real lesson of the Black Apple may be not how many Emily Martin stories there have been (not many) but how many people figure that they, too, can achieve what she has (lots).

Inevitably, not everyone can, and it’s no surprise that Etsy has detractors. Some point out that for all the talk of consumers wanting to escape mall-fueled conformity Etsy’s online-mall format amplifies market-driven trends. (Images of birds, especially owls, are inexplicably popular. One crafter told me she was sick of making the same owl over and over — but that’s what her customers wanted.) Others grouse about another side effect, price pressure: The competition is so intense on the site that new crafters can’t break out, and some established ones feel they cannot raise their prices. That’s a particularly thorny problem if part of your sales pitch is that you’ve made a thing yourself; a careful artisan can’t respond to lower prices with greater volume. The most extreme version of this critique practically makes Etsy sound like Wal-Mart in its ripple-effect power through the broader D.I.Y. business community.

These aren’t really Etsy problems; they are consumer-marketplace problems. An enterprise founded on its creator’s passion still has to satisfy consumer demand if it’s going to be a profitable enterprise. Consider another Etsy seller story, one less splashy, but perhaps more representative, than Emily Martin’s. Circa Ceramics is two Chicago-based potters, Andy Witt and Nancy Pizarro. A few years ago, their work had a fairly traditional aesthetic Southwestern color schemes in stripes, flower shapes and other patterns. They sold these pieces at traditional fairs, or to business customers like coffee shops.

More recently they stumbled across some design blogs and learned about Etsy and the apparent demand for pottery work with an edgier look — which the potters themselves happened to prefer. At the Renegade fair in Chicago, their booth was full of porcelain pieces of all kinds — cups, magnets, wall-hanging tiles and so on — decorated with images of manual typewriters, skulls, vintage cameras and bugs. It was their first time at Renegade, and they seemed enthusiastic about how it was going. Their gradual move toward the “indie community,” and to a customer base they describe as 25 to 35 years old, rather than 35 to 75, has been good for business. A year ago they opened an Etsy storefront, and while they weren’t sure how many people would go for $30 coffee mugs ordered via mail, it turned out that hundreds would. Recently Circa Ceramics helped form the Etsy Chicago Street team. Etsy sales now represent 25 percent of their business, with orders going to customers as far away as Spain, Belgium, even Australia.

For Circa Ceramics, and for crafters in general, Etsy is another manifestation of how D.I.Y.-ism has evolved. Its motivation may still be the independence from capitalism that Railla wrote about. But it can also be about a form of independence economic independence within capitalism. Many of the artist-entrepreneurs opening up their virtual shops on Etsy want what Circa Ceramics or Emily Martin or the Austin Craft Mafia have achieved: Making a living from what they love to do. It’s a goal that reconciles ideology and self-branding, not so much to change the world as to stake out a place in it.

Rob Walker writes the Consumed column for the magazine. His book, “Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are,” will be published by Random House next June.

Bazaar Bizaare San Francisco this weekend!

2007-12-13T11:40:00.000-08:00

The Sacramento Craft Mafia will be at Bazaar Bizaare San Francisco this weekend! Stop by to see Peptogirl Industries, Mohair Circus, Rosebud Designs, and My Punk House!

Post taken from the Craftzine blog:

Come to Bazaar Bizaare San Francisco this Saturday, December 15 from 11am - 6pm at the San Francisco County Fair Building in Golden Gate Park (next to the Strybing Arboretum at the corner of 9th Avenue and Lincoln Way). Admission is just $1.00 at door to shop from over 90 vendors at this family friendly event. I'll be there all day working the CRAFT magazine booth (come by and chat with me!) and will be teaching the Quick and Easy Photo Ornaments workshop from 2:30-3:30pm. Wrokshops will be happening all day and you can check out the schedule here. For more info, visit the Bazaar Bizarre site.

Holiday Gift Guide

2007-12-11T08:09:00.001-08:00

Behold! Pittsburgh Craft Mafia's top picks for the holidays:

Pittsburgh Craft Mafia: updated and glamourous

2007-12-04T12:05:00.000-08:00

Well not QUITE all of the way updated, but we do have a blog

Soon I'll be posting our Holiday Gift Guide featuring items from each member. In the mean time my blog will be featuring other crafters and I would love to feature some other mafia members so please submit your site!

IndieSacramento

2007-12-02T20:15:00.000-08:00

Whew! IndieSacramento has come and gone. When we opened the doors at 2pm, there was a line going out the door! The swag bags were gone within the first 15 to 20 minutes. The event was a great success and I hope we can do it again real soon!

Check out the IndieSacramento Flickr group!

Check out the Sacramento Craft Mafia blog for a more detailed post and stay tuned for the next IndieSacramento event!

IndieSacramento

2007-11-29T09:32:00.000-08:00

Don't forget to mark your calendars for IndieSacramento THIS Saturday!

* Holiday Shopping: Sacramento's largest indie/ alternative craft fair
* FREE Admission! ($1 donation is appreciated)
* FREE swag bags to the first 150 patrons
* FREE music by local bands
* Cupcake Decorating for the kids (and adults), by Capital Cupcakes
* DIY demos & classes
* Fashion Show
* and Door prizes!

DON'T FORGET TO BRING CASH! Hope to see you all there!

2007-11-28T15:46:00.000-08:00

Saturday 12/1 is the Queen City Craft Bazaar.
The Burlington Craft Mafia is sponsoring a raffle to benefit Art From the Heart. Two gift bags will be given away containing handmade goods from the members.

Threadbanger does Stitch!

2007-11-16T11:32:00.001-08:00

Holiday Gift Guide

2007-11-15T10:54:00.001-08:00

Don't forget to check out the holiday gift guide on www.handmadeparade.blogspot.com!

Chicago is the Place, this Saturday!

2007-11-14T20:30:00.000-08:00

This weekend, the Chicago Craft Mafia, with 80+ of our crafty friends, is presenting the DIY Trunk Show! It began with selecting our vendors from over 200 applicants, and this year will be better than ever. We're taking over three gymnasiums in the historic Pulaski Park Fieldhouse. We're promoting the indie proprietors for holiday and any day gift purchases! To keep our customers shopping, we have some interesting indie food vendors, and a mobile ATM outside the fieldhouse!

Handmade Parade - Now a Major Motion Picture!

2007-11-14T11:36:00.000-08:00

Here is a little video from the big day, for your viewing pleasure! With the shaky camera shots and grainy pictures, it has all the charm of a snuff film....but we did our best. Enjoy!

Norfolk Craft Mafia Handmade Parade report!

2007-11-12T07:51:00.000-08:00

Whew! What an event! Handmade Parade was an amazing success. We had a wonderful turnout (our conservative estimate is about 1000 people), happy vendors and a super reaction from the crowd who came out. Amanda and I want to thank everyone who helped out or volunteered in any way, we could not have done it without you!

I saw lots of happy customers leaving with bags of handmade, one of a kind items and lots of happy vendors making sales. That's what it's all about, people!

Thank you to all the generous artists and crafters who donated items for our free raffle! It was a big hit! Also a HUGE thank you goes out to Ashley at Pickin Paint (and her awesome balloon man) for donating her time and efforts to create gorgeous face and body paintings and elaborate balloon hats all day long!

Twin bellies! This really added an awesome element to our show and I'm so glad she could take part! For more photos and a full report on the event, go visit the Norfolk Craft Mafia blog.

Get Crafty in the Kitchen with the Sacramento Craft Mafia!

2007-11-08T13:47:00.000-08:00

The Sacramento Craft Mafia cookbook is finally here!

Crafty in the Kitchen
Get Cookin' with the Sacramento Craft Mafia

$10 donation + $1 shipping & handling gets you over 50 tantalizing recipes, including:

Black Cat Cocktail
"Sangre de Craftita"
Creamy Creatress Dip
La Yoli's Sacred Baked Brie
Artichoke Crostini
Worth the Wait Crock Pot Barbecue Beef
Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
Mexican Cornbread
Chick'n Tortilla Soup
Shonda's Kitchen Sink Soup
Rain's Easy Stuffed Bell Peppers
Sugar and Spice Candied Sweet Potatoes
Vegan Chocolate Pie
Vegan Powdered Pecan Cookies
Sacred Tres Leches
Peptogirl's Peachy Keen Peach Pie
Naughty Fondue
And MUCH MORE!

Impress your friends and family with a mob-style feast this holiday season. Crafty in the Kitchen also makes a great gift!

*********************************************************************

Recipe Teaser
The Sacramento Craft Mafia Pink Pucker
Submitted by Shonda of Ignition

1 can of frozen pink lemonade
regular or your favorite citrus vodka
pink sugar (find flavored and colored drink rimming sugars at better liquor stores)
ice
lemon wedges

Scoop frozen pink lemonade into blender. Add one can of your vodka. Fill blender with ice. Blend until smooth. Rim glasses with pink drink sugar-pour in drink. Add lemon wedge for garnish if desired.

BUY IT HERE!

This Saturday! Invite your friends!

2007-11-07T08:01:00.000-08:00

Brought to you by the Norfolk Craft Mafia!

Get Made for the Holidays with the Sacramento Craft Mafia

2007-11-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

This Second Saturday, November 10th, from 4-10pm at Deep Art Yoga (2030 H Street, Midtown, Sacramento) is the first holiday show of the season for the Sacramento Craft Mafia.

Called "Get Made Holiday", you can expect an art and craft show like only the SACRAMENTO CRAFT MAFIA can bring!

Click here for larger view

Start your art walk early with the SCM at Deep while enjoying live music, free hot chocolate and amazing INDIE handmade items that you will not find anywhere else. Live holiday music, area art and over 15 vendors!

Also see the debut of Sacramento Craft Mafia's fundraiser cookbook "Crafty in the Kitchen" with over 40 pages of member recipes including appetizers, cocktails, desserts and more! A real gift in itself.

Need some bling for your holiday decor? Be sure to stop and see the spectacular Sacramento Craft Mafia holiday tree. Decked out in SCM colors of pink black and white and featuring Mafia made ornaments that are all for sale for a tiny price of $5 each!!!!!!!!

(And thanks, Shonda, for organizing and writing up this great promo text!)

Hope to see you all there!

We got Linked!

2007-11-05T06:45:00.000-08:00

The Norfolk Craft Mafia is the cover story on today's Link (the free local daily paper)! Click here to view a pdf of the full article.

There are profiles on several mafia members and some great photos from our swap meet a few months ago. Man, this is some great exposure for our big show this weekend! Let us know what you think!

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T13:53:00.001-07:00

Learn To Knit Workshop Report!

2007-10-31T11:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday, October 21 the Norfolk Craft Mafia had another one of our skill-sharing workshops and lots of mafiosas left with a new skill - Knitting! A big thanks goes out to Deva, Vero and Tasha for being willing to share their knowledge and love of knitting with the rest of the group. We had a great turnout - about 15 people - and ate some yummy snacks, hung out and knitted!

Thanks also to Amanda for the generous use of her home to host the workshop. It was perfect!

All the ladies who attended learned to cast on, knit knit knit and bind off. I heard some are making scarves now, who knows, this could be the start of some great holiday gifts!

Be sure to keep checking our events page for our next upcoming workshop. We're planning a Colonial Christmas-themed craft extravaganza for December so you won't wanna miss it!

More Reasons to Buy Your Stitch Tickets!

2007-10-22T14:03:00.001-07:00

Stitch Tickets are on sale now and here are a few more reasons why you might want to score yourself a set in advance.

We just added hand painted earrings and purses by Alisa Burke to the raffle prize.

You get in free to our after party with a Stitch wristband and we just booked DJ Abominatron.

You can get your make up touched up for free in the Rae Cosmetics booth.

Have you seen the handpainted glitterlicious dresses that are coming down the runway from Hot Pink Pistol and Tulip Fashion Glitter?

New additions to the 500 free tote bags just arrived from Anne Marie - Style for the Individual and Flapper Girl

Shopping in over 100 booths including: Chia, Party Bots, Fort Cloudy, Queen Puff Puff, Ornamental Things and More!

Remember Stitch is Nov 10th at the Austin Convention Center Hall 1, doors open at 4pm and tickets are only $10!

Be sure and read the Stitch Blog to get all the latest host Stitch gossip.

We won't take out a hit on your wallet!

2007-10-19T06:36:00.001-07:00

The Norfolk Craft Mafia made our television debut this morning! Check us out in a story by WVEC Channel 13’s Vanessa Coria.

Click here for the full story online and to watch the video segment.

We plan to have a high-resolution clip of the segment on our website as soon as possible. Thanks to all the mafiosas who submitted items for the shoot, your stuff looked gorgeous on the table. I wish the clip could have been a bit longer so we could have seen more details!

We’d love some feedback on the video, what do you guys think?

The UnUsual Suspects Holiday Craft Show!

2007-10-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

I shudder at the thought, but the holiday shopping season is almost upon us (unless you are OCD & finished your shopping in January)! The DC Craft Mafia is proud to host "The UnUsual Suspects Holiday Craft Show" Saturday November 3rd from 12-8PM at 5020 Battery Ln in Bethesda. The show will take place in a great space & will be filled wtih crafty people from across the country! We are thrilled to host many of our fellow Mafia members including Louisville CM, Pittsburgh CM & members of Richmond, Wilmington & Charm City Craft Mafias. There will be $1 door prize tickets available that will benefit the Washington Humane Society. We will also have FREE gift wrapping available! See our door prizes and the AWESOME crafty vendors at DC CRAFT MAFIA.

Don't forget your shopping list!

Holy Wow Stitch Austin Tickets are For Sale Now!

2007-10-11T15:39:00.000-07:00

Are you just dying to buy your STITCH TICKETS? Well guess what they are on sale now through Front Gate tickets. Don’t want to buy your tickets online? In Austin you can also buy them at places like Waterloo and Encore! Not to mention Saturday Nov 10th at the door of the Austin Convention Center.

A Few Reasons Why You Might Consider Buying an advance Ticket...

This is the Stitch 5 Year Anniversary Show!

500 free goodie bags supplied by Blue Q, Kailo Chic, 31 Corn Lane, Lollibomb Beauty, Harrilu, Ballistic Sweater Girl, Alissa Burke and More!

We sold out last year

Built by Wendy for Simplicity will be showing on the runway.

There will be $5000 worth of free Babylock sewing and embroidery machines in the raffle plus Dremel Drills!

Bradley Bradley Baumkirchner from Project Runway Season 3 will be there.

Prince Klassen, DJ Ian Orth and Bigface will be manning the DJ booth.

You can get free “runway hair” in the Birds Barbershop booth.

You might get interviewed by Vickie Howell for the webcast

Duncan Crafts will be there for the second year in a row doing crafty make and takes (they will also have a life size cut out of my sister Hope). Carlo Rossi will have a booth again this year too!

There will be craft booths by Etsy, Steel Toe Studios, Sublime Stitching, My Imaginary Boyfriend and More!

Good lookin' group you got there!

2007-10-11T12:23:00.000-07:00

The Norfolk Craft Mafia is super-pleased to announce our amazing lineup of vendors for Handmade Parade! We have over fifty talented artists and crafters from Canada to North Carolina that will be showcasing their wares on Saturday, November 10th! Come get your holiday shopping done in one place! Forget the malls and their crazy parking lots and the same old mass-produced items. Buy handmade, support an independent artist!

DC Craft Mafia
Polymer Clay Eclectic
The Luna Cat
Elemental Beads
Lark Studio
George Ryan
Meryl Jones Snow
Penguin Love
Brenda Maust & Kristina Bourlotos
Emotional Baggage
MASHULU
Autumnomatopoeia Designs
Twist Style
Virginia Design Company
Pizzatron
Craftology: A Cocktail of Mixed Media and Craft
Disquieting Designs
Noosed Kitty
Sloane Solanto
Interimaginational Institute for Fantastical Exploration & Cartography
Wolfie and the Sneak
Craftscharms & Collectibles
Cherry Mama
Amanda Page Stephens
Jeff Crag Art
Slipstream

ETCPLUS4
K.Parel Design
Annie Moon Primitives
Creative Treasures
Twittering Bird & Beth White
Pimento Designs
Armstrong Industry
Verotricot
Kutchicoo
Laura Geimer & Rebecca Chase
Keen Designs
LC Beads 2 Wear
Aniela Gray Designs
Martha Thrasher
Jellybeans Bracelets
Infintus
Lilypad Creations
Bee's Knees Studio
Molebaby Buttons
Missing Monsters
The Monkey and Me
Lizzelizzel & Stuntkid
Tasha, Kristal & Melissa McKelvey
Historically Inspired Designs
A Well Mannered Young Lady
Lokahi Spa

A sad goodbye

2007-10-11T08:23:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow night we are having the Burlington Craft Mafia Traveling Trunk Show at Red Square from 5-8pm. It will be a fantastic evening with handmade goods and the sweet indie-pop sound of Colin Clary and a Magog.

This night is also very special to us because one of our founding members Holly of misshawklet is moving and this will be her final event and last official day with the Burlington Craft Mafia. It was about a year ago when Erinn contacted Holly and I to start this group. We had high hopes of establishing a strong group here in Burlington that would help grow and support the crafting community. Holly has been an amazing member of the BCM. I have learned so much from her and she has done even more to bring this group to where it is today. She will be greatly missed. We wish her all the luck on her journey. Thanks for everything Holly!

WCM Trunk Show

2007-10-11T04:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks so much to everyone who came out to our trunk show at Bloom (& to Mimi for hosting us)! We had a great turnout and a lot of really positive feedback for our group and all our work.

Erica of Anneliese & Jen of Tilting Swiftly

Viva Metal Jewelry & Jen of SoulDivine

Jessy (right) of Jessy's Dolls

photos by Darrell Jesonis

Norfolk Craft Mafia TV Debut!

2007-10-10T10:41:00.000-07:00

The Norfolk Craft Mafia is making our TV debut! We (we being myself and Amanda) filmed a little segment this morning with Vanessa Coria from WVEC Channel 13 about handmade gifts and the Norfolk Craft Mafia!

I got an email last week from Vanessa saying that she was doing a story about holiday gift giving on a budget, she had stumbled across our website and wanted to do a segment about handmade! With a trembling voice I called Amanda and blurted out, "Do ya wanna be on TV?!?!" We decided to do it and I called all the mafia troops together to get some great handmade items to show off.

We filmed it all at Amanda's house this morning. Here she is getting mic'd up like a pro.

Vanessa and her cameraman (I'm so embarrassed I don't remember his name) were consummate professionals and made us feel totally at ease.

We had an awesome showing from our mafia members, who rallied so quickly to get me their lovely handmade items! We had mixed media collage by Jeannine, handmade plush and a quilted pillow by Cassie, more plush and accessories by Charmaine, pottery by Ashley, knitwear by Tasha, everything from tissue cozies to hair clips to plush by Amanda and also a few of my doggie items.

It was a great experience and I'm so glad we had the opportunity. The story will air next Friday, October 19th on WVEC Channel 13 as part of their Daybreak show. Vanessa's segment is at 5:23 and 6:24 a.m. We will post the video as soon as it's online!

See more pictures from the filming right here!

Stitch Rock Roundup

2007-10-09T11:46:00.001-07:00

The Hollywood Craft Mafia packed up and headed north this weekend for the Stitch Rock indie craft fair and bazaar in Delray Beach, FL -- and we're so glad we did! The show was a real testament to the thriving indie arts scene in the Sunshine State, with a line of shoppers forming outside even before the doors opened. The show was also a great chance for all of us to meet in person many of the designers and businesspeople who we'd been admiring from afar on Etsy or other online outlets. Add in a fashion show, rockin' music throughout the day, and truly exceptional catering (with cupcakes!), and you've got the equation for one of the best craft fairs in the area. Check it out:

A really, really full house in downtown Delray

Kachina Herbs' sweet-smelling setup

Journals, jewelry and more from Dragonfly Crafts

Ciara Loves You!'s cat toys and clutches (and hey, is that free candy?)

Here's hoping the awesome Amanda (http://withsugarontop.etsy.com) organizes yet another successful event next year!

Mama Mia! Cookin' with the Petaluma Craft Mafia

2007-10-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

It's no secret the crafty chicks in Petaluma love cooking, which is a good thing, 'cause we also love eating. Though we've posted tantalizing hints at our cookbook on the PCM web site almost two months ago, our famiglia has decided to change our cookbook a bit and include the entire community of Petaluma.

We figured that since so many of us have been touched by cancer in some way, (I lost my 62-year old mother to cancer late last February), that so many people in our community might want to donate recipes and stories about their family. And they are pouring in, along with some awesome photos!
Our only concern is that the book is gonna be G-normous, so we might have to get selective and pare it down, and perhaps do our own craft famiglia book separately.

If you're just itchin' to add to your cookbook collection, this is gonna be one big spicy meatball of a cookbook - but don't fret- there are plenty of vegetarian recipes too!

Our goal is to raise awareness about the cancer that "whispers" - Ovarian Cancer. Never did I think somebody so close to me could fall to cancer let alone ovarian cancer. And ladies, ovarian cancer does not run in my family nor does it's gene related cousin breast cancer, it is one of the deadliest cancers and spreads very quickly with barely a symptom until it's at the later stages.

If you check out the symptoms at ocrf.org and find yourself experiencing them, and your doctor casually dismisses them - please get a second opinion or insist on an ultrasound and CA-125 test. It could save your life. Unfortunately, my adorable mother is a cattle rancher's daughter, and is unusually stoic and stubborn. Couple my mother's stoic stubborness with her internist's casualness = disaster. She was finally diagnosed a year later at stage 3. By this time her symptoms couldn't be ignored and she was in such deep pain.

Okay, I'm down from my soap box. I feel very passionate about this. Heck of a way to start my first Craft Mafia blog, isn't it?

We're donating our profits from our cookbook to the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, ocrf.org, and Hospice of Petaluma. The cookbook should be ready by early next year.

Happy October, and happy birthday all you Librans. Hope you've all been better at staying out of the Halloween candy than I have! :)

Ciao Bellas

The Sacramento Craft mafia makes their TV debut

2007-10-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

At 7am a bunch of us arrived at Sampino's Deli to get ready for a spot on Good Day Sacramento! The people at Sampino's were really nice. They made us some excellent cappuccinos and provided us with some yummy muffins and pastries.

We were interviewed by the lovely and talented Lisa Gonzales. She was a hoot! She fit right in. Part of the segment is up on the Good Day Sacramento web site. There's a part where Lisa kisses my ring! Anyway, you have to watch...

Check it out at http://cbs13.com/video/?id=25572@kovr.dayport.com!

Burlington Craft Mafia Trunk Show

2007-09-27T05:38:00.000-07:00

Mark your calendars! In just two weeks the Burlington Craft Mafia will be holding an event at swanky Red Square in downtown Burlington. Come have a few drinks, listen to Colin Cleary and a Magog and check out our Traveling Trunk Show. The event is free and open to the public.

Most of the mafia will be there with a selection of their goods. Please stop by and say hello!