Crafty Bastards DC

this was a first for me attending Crafty Bastards DC Street Fair . i was pretty impressed with the turn out for this one day show. my intention was to see what kind of crafty goodness was at this show, who was exhibiting, what the foot traffic was like and if people were buying. being an attendee, it seemed there was a good turn out, pretty good variety of vendors and it was well organized. i came home with a few purchases from woolarina, spaghetti kiss & tasha mckelvey. other exhibitors that i didn't buy from this time but really liked were hats from rocks and salt, tee's by squidfire, leather cuffs by fistcuff, lunchbags by goshdarn knits as well as all the other vendors below i took pictures of.


Alitas Jewelry Booth-i loved his work but have a BIG criticism for his booth, it was well merchandised but there was no sign with the company name and no pricing so each person had to wait to ask questions about each product. oh well!

Pear Booth

Pear Booth

Pistol Stiched Booth

Shaghetti Kiss Booth

Something's Hiding in Here Booth

Something's Hiding in Here Booth-i think mustaches are going to be one of the next big image icon's (owls were still all around as well as mushrooms).

1 Girl 1 Boy Booth

1 Girl 1 Boy Booth

1 Girl 1 Boy Booth

Color Hive Booth

Cleo Dee's Squid Market Booth

Cleo Dee's Squid Market Booth-some clever props were used in this booth.

Claire McDermott Booth-all her jewelry shown was made from recycled skateboard platforms.

Claire McDermott Booth

The Small Object Booth-wonderfully clever items!

The Small Object Booth

The Small Object Booth

Greg Metal Booth-beautiful and unusual jewlry resembling enameling or cloisonne but made of more industrial materials. unfortunately he was almost sold out when we made it to his booth but i'll be on the lookout for him again.

Greg Metal Booth

Greenware Designs Booth

Biggs and Featherbelle Booth-their packaging and booth design was really well done. each assortment was well presented with fun colorful embellishing of ribbons and dots. simple, clean and cheerful.

Biggs and Featherbelle Booth
all the booths above with 1 or 2 exceptions were well merchandised and had good signage. i felt there were a lot of booths at this show that needed some work in this area, several vendors ran out of business cards as well but this is only the 3rd Crafty Bastards show (still folks-get it together). the quality of all the products seemed pretty high at the show but there were certain cagegories of product that were not well represented. it will be very interesting to see how well this show evolves and if it lasts. it hope so, it was a lot of fun and a good size. perhaps it could even expand into a 2 day event?

Craft Zine's Booth-making an l.e.d throwie
there were 3 demo's spread throughout the day and tables set up for each item. these little projects were fun and a good way to get out of the sun/or rain depending on when you were at the show.

Craft Zine's Booth-making an l.e.d throwie

Craft Zine's Booth-making an l.e.d throwie

Craft Zine's Booth-making button rings

Craft Zine's Booth-making button rings

Craft Zine's Booth-making button rings

More ACC Roundup

You probably thought I forgot... I've been sick and various other things have popped up but as promised I wanted to wrap up the highlights of what I found at the ACC show in Baltimore. This is by no means comprehensive and the ACC website has great photo's of exhibitors work by category (Wearable, Jewelry, Ceramics, Wood etc). A few things just had to come home with me, I'll start with those artists.

A pair of earrings similar to these from Rina Young . This shape (simple outline of a leaf) was EVERYWHERE!



This"Piccolo" clutch by Wendy Stevens ended up being my big splurge of the day. I needed an evening bag and if this isn't the modern woman's I don't know what would be!


Elyse Allen's fingerless gloves were being sported all over the show and they were our last stop of the day. I got a pair and so did my mom. I went for the studded version and my mom went for the swarovski crystal version, both very fashionable and fun to wear!

Her work has been featured in various magazines such as Selvedge (Issue #13), Fiberarts (Sept/Oct '04), Nylon, Vogue Knitting and others. She started as a weaver and has recently left her position of full time Textile professor at RISD to pursue her business, she is also a very nice person, very sweet!

And a pair of Bee earrings similar to these by Thomas Mann were an early (8 months!) birthday gift from my mom.


The rest didn't make it home with me this year but caught my eye!
This beautiful knotted vessel is by Joh Ricci~Earthwalk Studio
John Petrey's whimsical sculptures use all sorts of found objects.
Hats and scarves are a couple of the items by Elisabethan who makes almost all of their fashionable goods from recycled/reclaimed fabrics (old clothes etc). So cute and no guilt!
Mixed media artists Allyn Cantor

A few other things that I don't have photo's of are worth mentioning such as the felt and silver jewelry by Michele Friedman .
A beautiful gold rayon knit scarf by Younger Knits.
Silk jackets by Joyce Fogle

I'll try to post the same sort of round up for the upcoming Smithsonian Craft Show in Mid April.

ACC Baltimore Show Roundup 1 of 2

I've been attending the ACC show in Baltimore since moving back to DC metro and have always regarded it as THE show for the best in CRAFT. As a college student I began attending the shows when I could for inspiration and continued to attend the ACC show in ATL when living in GA. I even one a Student NICHE award while attending SCAD. I admire the creative exhibitors at this show and know that some of the most origional ideas and best quality work can be found because of the high standards of the jury procees. Below are photo's and links to some of my favorites from this years show. I find that the trends at this show are cyclical like all trends but this year there was some spectacular new work. Mixed media seems to be the latest trend, fibers with metal, glass with furniture, plastic jewlry, found objects incorporated or translated into pieces etc. There was also new signage indicating "Green Craft" which is a new category featuring artists using recycled, found, and/or other eco-friendly materials and tecniques. I hope you find their work as inspirational as I did.

"Searchlight Artists"

Jungyeon Choi, MFA, Fibers, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI


Andy Shaw Pottery, Philadelphia, PA




Someware Glass by Elizabeth Ware Perkins

These are CAST Glass Doilies, spectacular!





Chase Deforest Hosewares, Denver, CO ~GREENCRAFT~






Metalwork by Haley Reneé Bates MFA, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI



Sugar Jewlery by Ana Claudia Crisan Calabria of the UK


YES~Spun SUGAR!

Part 2 still to come, sculpture, jewelry and the hilights of what came home with me~