13 March, 2008
Hurry Up Spring craft workshop!
Spring is right around the corner but we’re a little impatient over here at Norfolk Craft Mafia headquarters, so we’re throwing a little spring craft workshop to help usher it in a little early this year.
It’s gonna be way fun. Complete details at the craft mafia site.
19 February, 2008Learn to Crochet Workshop Report!
Sunday night the Norfolk Craft Mafia hosted yet another skill-sharing workshop: CROCHET! We had a great turnout and got a big start on crochet skills!
A huge thanks goes to Tasha, Mary and Amanda for sharing their knowledge of this fiber art. You guys were awesome teachers!
Like this… then like this…
Crochet concentration. Don’t miss our next skill-sharing workshop which will be held on April 6th in place of our regular monthly crafter’s roundup. Announcement on that coming soon!
Handmade Parade - Now a Major Motion Picture!
Thanks so much to Amanda for putting this great video together! Sorry for the shaky hands on the camera, that’s my fault. Grainy and amateur is how we roll. Very Blair Witch, don’t you think?
12 November, 2007Handmade Parade Report!
(awesome owl by Cassie at Twittering Bird)
Oh my goodness. What a weekend! Friday night was sort of a whirlwind setting everything up. Thank you so much to Jeannine, Mr. P, Jimmy, Cassie, Beth, Heidi, Rob, Maegan, Mom, Dad and David (I really hope I’m not forgetting anyone) for helping to set up tables and move chairs. We definitely could not have done it without you!
Saturday the show was a huge success. We had (my conservative estimate) about a thousand people turn out and got an amazing response from the crowd and vendors alike. I am so proud of our first show and so motivated to coordinate future events as well as just work on my own crafts. The creative energy was so contagious. I have a full report with photos over at the Norfolk Craft Mafia blog so check that out.
A final thank you goes out to my partner in crime, Amanda.She threw herself into this project wholeheartedly and gave selflessly to make it such an amazing event. I couldn’t have done half of what we did without you, and when I think back over all the work we had to do, she really did the lion’s share of it all. Thank you Amanda, I’m so stoked we met and I am priveliged to call you a friend. :)
Ok enough mushy stuff. Saturday the Norfolk Craft Mafia was featured on the cover of the Daily Break section of The Virginian Pilot! Thanks so much to Roberta and Genevieve for coming out to our monthly crafter’s roundup last week and interviewing us and taking pictures. The story was great press for Handmade Parade and we got a wonderful response about it from the crowd on Saturday! Click here to read the article online. Click here for a pdf file of the article with photographs.
I really laid low the rest of the weekend. I was completely exhausted Friday night and I’m so relieved it’s finally over. I couldn’t have asked for more.
07 November, 2007This Saturday! Invite your friends!
We are so excited, Saturday is rapidly approaching! Thanks so much to our friends and sponsors Pretty Tasty (an awesome messageboard for local creatives, you’ll find graphic designers, artists, photographers, programmers and the like) and AIGA Hampton Roads (the professional organization for those in the design industry). Give their sites a click!
Please bring your friends and come check out our show. We will have music by Substance DJs, raffle prizes, free face painting and more. It should be a blast. See you Saturday!
05 November, 2007We got Linked!
The Norfolk Craft Mafia is the cover story on today’s Link (a free local daily paper)! Click here to view a pdf of the full article.
Besides our totally sour expressions and the harsh reality of our pores being completely visible to all of Hampton Roads, we’re pretty excited about the piece.
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!
19 October, 2007Look ma, I’m on TV!
The Norfolk Craft Mafia made our television debut this morning! Check us out in a story by WVEC Channel 13’s Vanessa Coria. I love the clip. The ending of the online one is a little abrupt, when I upload the full version it doesn’t get cut off like that.
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. I wish the clip could have been a bit longer so we could have seen more details and shown more of the mafia’s items. They really only showed mine and Amanda’s in detail and they filmed for two hours and we went over everyone’s stuff! I guess that’s what happens in editing, oh well.
I’d love some feedback on the video, what do you guys think?
11 October, 2007Good lookin’ group you got there!
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!
10 October, 2007
Don’t look into the camera!
What a morning! I’m still recovering from our little adventure. But I’ll stop talking in vague terms and just tell you what’s up! 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. I woke up with a huge zit this morning, naturally. I tried to MAC it into oblivion, I hope it wasn’t too bad.
Vanessa and her cameraman (I’m so embarrassed I don’t remember his name) were consummate professionals and made us feel totally at ease. Vanessa was so pretty and she had a fancy pedicure and orange croc stilettos!
I was surprised how much time and filming goes into what will ultimately be a two-minute segment. We were there nearly two hours! I did the “talking head” part of the interview and blabbered on about the craft mafia, handmade gifts and the craft community in general. I talk so fast, but maybe that’s finally a good thing if we have to squeeze it all into under two minutes. I didn’t get nervous until after, and then my face blushed bright red. Ha.
Then Amanda walked her through all the awesome handmade fantasticness that the Norfolk Craft Mafia has to offer. She was so great! Amanda’s a natural. As Twiggy says, “The camera loves you!”
Then we both demo’d how to make marble magnets/bookmarks/hair accessories. I guess I just sort of stood there dumbly while Amanda did it because then the camera man wanted me to “do something”. The horrible knitter that I am, I didn’t have any knitting with me. So Amanda tried to teach me to crochet on camera. We were brilliant. Hah.
Vanessa recorded her lead-in and then we wrapped things up!
It was a great experience and I’m so glad we had the opportunity. Thank you Vanessa!
And an extra-special thank you to all the 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.
Be sure to tune in to watch our TV debut! It 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. It will also re-air on LNC 5 from 7 a.m. to noon, so please check us out!
02 October, 2007Crafty Bastards! 2007
Finally, some pics from Crafty Bastards! Well the whole day was a blur. I started off with a bang, not even waking up til 5:52am, when I had to be in DC by 8 (a 3-ish hour drive)! I hurriedly tried to put on some semblance of an appearance and hopped in the car. The drive up was great until I got into the city (what is it about driving in DC proper that’s so nerve-wracking?), and the GPS system I was using (borrowed my mom’s car) kept sending me in circles. I finally got there and set up. Amanda already had all her cute stuff out. Check out these strawberry sachets. So adorable (and smell great too).
Her sister Kristina also had some awesome items like stationery and bike seat covers made from recycled sweaters!
Don’t you want a cute little birdie or mushroom for your hair? People were buying these up like mad!
Some of my dog collars. I have to find a better way to display these next time. The big collars were pretty popular. From what I hear there aren’t many stylish options for the full-figured doggies either. I feel your pain, sisters.
I also had some paw balm, stationery and leash bags (they hold the plastic poop pickup bags and attach to your leash - not ONE sold). There’s lots of these leftover so there will be an etsy shop update next week! You can see Amanda’s sweater creatures in the background, she sold almost all of them!
Our little booth. I’m so grateful Amanda’s mom provided us with the tent. It got HOT. Her whole family came along, it was fun hanging out with them!
Amanda’s gnomes and felted sweater tissue cozies. So cute. I’m so glad I own one now!
Her gorgeous hand dyed, screenprinted vintage slips. These were way popular.
Here’s my little dog friend Annabelle Blanche who stopped by to say hi and try on some collars. Yay for Bostons!!! Thanks to all my internet/blog friends who stopped by to say hi! Sorry I was so scatterbrained but it was awesome meeting all of you!
The crowds were insane. All day, the booth was packed. I was told that last year there were 15,000 people in attendance, and it wouldn’t surprise me to hear there was at least that many on Sunday. I’ve never, ever been to a show like this!
In addition to all the awesome crafty goodness, there were walking parades of people on stilts, a hip hop spoken word show, a fire breather, a snake lady, crafty workshops and demos all day, and a breakdancing competition which was so packed I couldn’t even see it.
So many cute, creative items!
Stuff from Woolarina and the Cupcake Girls - who were giving out free cupcakes, how cool is that?!
You know I made off with some of these awesome letterpress postcards. Love!
Saint Bob and an awesome monster.
Cards & things from a bardis and vinyl zippered pouches from Miss Alison (I got one of these, I love it).
We had a blast, thanks to everyone who came by and supported the Norfolk Craft Mafia! We would LOVE to do this show next year, and if you’ve never been I highly recommend checking it out!! The City Paper did a great job with it. I only hope Handmade Parade is half as awesome!
26 September, 2007Daily Click - Crafty Bastards Edition!
Crafty Bastards! 2007 is coming up on Sunday in Washington, DC and I’m more than stoked to be one of the lucky vendors at this totally kickbutt event. Looking over the vendor list makes me very nervous since I’m a huge fan of many of the people involved. I’m so not worthy! I decided to put together a little vendor-preview showcase. Check out just a few of the (over 100) vendors that will be there!
If you’re in the DC area, come check out the show, it should be awesome! It’s this Sunday, 10am - 5pm in the Adams Morgan neighborhood in DC. More info at the Crafty Bastards site.
- Adorable cupcake vinyl wristlet ($25) from Barry’s Farm.
- I can see myself buying a ton of stuff from Brookadelphia, like this ice necklace ($35). Sassy!
- Barlesque soap ($4.49) by Biggs and Featherbelle. Love this stuff, I picked some up at Pile of Craft.
- No. 488 Pink Passion ($55) is so adorable. She’s a Little Small Clothespin Person by The Small Object.
- Jutta Head ($20) is so cute!! Heidi always comes up with the best stuff. Check out these legs!
- Amanda of A.Bel Studio is dyeing more vintage slips! I saw these in person the other day and she has some deliciously luscious fall colors. She’s screenprinting them tonight and I can’t wait to see them finished! She’ll be reppin’ the Norfolk Craft Mafia with me at the show. Check her etsy shop next week, there will be new stuff, I’m bettin!
- This Vinyl Paper Crane brooch ($7.20) from Art School Dropout is so cute!
- This insect wing lariat ($52) by imogene is pierced from a sheet of 20 gauge sterling silver. So cool. They are our booth-neighbors!
Handmade Parade - one more week to apply!
Wow! We are so thrilled over the huge response from our call for vendors for The Norfolk Craft Mafia’s first show, Handmade Parade! As we inch closer to the deadline, we have decided to move back the cut off date to make sure that everyone interested in participating has one more week to get their applications in! Due to the high volume and quality of the applicants, we are considering leasing an adjacent area of the venue to make room for more crafty goodness!
Even so, there probably will not be room for everyone, so please get your application to the Craft Mafia no later that October 3rd. You can find information about the show and how to apply by clicking here. The Mafia will review all applications and everyone will be notified by October 5th. Thank you so much for supporting this event, we are very excited! Spread the word!
(parade photo by Oli Bryant, thank you!)
05 September, 2007We’re featured in PortFolio Weekly!
We’re just tickled to announce that the Norfolk Craft Mafia was featured in PortFolio Weekly’s Fall Arts Preview! Check out profiles on the mafia, as well as members Elizabeth Henry and Amanda Page Stephens – you can read the text of the article online, or view the entire article with pictures (pdf file).
Also, don’t forget, this Sunday, September 9th is our Monthly Crafter’s Roundup at Drawn to Art in Ghent. It’s free and open to the public! Bring a craft and a snack to share and come mingle with the most creative people in the area! Check our events page for more details.
Handmade Parade!
The Norfolk Craft Mafia is extremely excited to announce our first annual holiday arts & crafts bazaar: Handmade Parade!
Handmade Parade will provide great holiday shopping for those who are looking for one-of-a-kind gifts while avoiding the mass-produced and supporting independent entrepreneurs instead! We will offer a wide variety of fine art, accessories, jewelry, pottery, house wares, baked goods, baby items, clothing and more!
When and where is it happening?
Masonic Temple
7001 Granby St.
Norfolk, Virginia 23505
Saturday, November 10, 2007
10am - 5pm
Thanks so much to the wonderful and talented Matt Clack for sharing his talent with us. Wait til you see the posters! Look for em around town!
Please repost and link up to the Norfolk Craft Mafia site! Email it to friends, post it on your myspace/facebook/livejournal, promote to your favorite crafty blogs, put it on messageboards, just get the word out! Applications are flying in and this is going to be a great show!
10 August, 2007Handmade Parade!
The Norfolk Craft Mafia is extremely excited to announce our first annual holiday art & craft bazaar, Handmade Parade! This will be the first of many events hosted by the Norfolk Craft Mafia. Handmade Parade will be an annual holiday bazaar showcasing quality, local artists and crafters. This show will provide great holiday shopping for those who are looking for one-of-a-kind gifts while avoiding the mass-produced and supporting independent entrepreneurs instead! We will offer a wide variety of fine art, accessories, jewelry, pottery, house wares, baked goods, baby items, clothing and more!
The show will be held on Saturday, November 10 at the Masonic Temple on Granby St. in Norfolk! We are thrilled to be able to host this awesome event and look forward to seeing all the talent we attract! Applications are coming in already.
If you’re interested in applying for a booth, please go here to fill out an application and get the full details.The craft mafia is meeting next weekend and after that you can be sure you’ll see this thing being promoted everywhere! *Thanks to Matt Clack for designing our little Lily bird mascot. More Lily-awesomeness coming soon!*
06 August, 2007Swappy goodness!
Thanks to everyone who showed up last night and made our first ever Art & Craft Swap Meet a huge hit! We saw a wide variety of talent as well as some new faces!
A special thanks goes out to Drawn To Art for graciously hosting the event, as well as Bill Manley from Link for checking us out!
We made an exciting announcement last night, our first annual holiday art & craft bazaar, Handmade Parade, will be held on Saturday, November 10 at the Masonic Temple on Granby St. in Norfolk! We are extremely thrilled to be able to host this awesome event and look forward to seeing all the talent we attract! Applications for vendor spaces will be online in just a bit so please check back for that!
Thanks again for everyone who showed up, and welcome to our new members! Check the “meet the mob” page later for updates!
Art & Craft Swap Meet!
This event is free and open to the public! Please come out! If you have any questions, leave a comment!
We’re Crafty Bastards!
Guess what, guys?! The Norfolk Craft Mafia is pleased to announce that we have been selected from over 400 applicants to have a space at the 4th annual Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair in Washington, DC! Amanda of A. Bel Studio and I will be reppin’ the Norfolk Craft Mafia at this awesome event.
Now in its 4th year, Crafty Bastards Arts & Crafts Fair is an exhibition and sale of handmade alternative arts and crafts from independent artists presented by the Washington City Paper. The fair is all-day, outdoors, free to attend, and will offer goods for sale, food, entertainment, prizes, and more!
For more info, check out the Crafty Bastards website here. And if you are in the DC area, you better be coming out to see me!
25 June, 2007Pile of Craft!
Oh my gosh I’m short. Pile of Craft went exceedingly well. I was so impressed with the show!
Here are a couple pictures of the stuff I had for sale. I ran out of business cards and promo buttons way too early and my addled, doofus self forgot to put my etsy shop address on a zillion tags (GRR) but other than that things went swimmingly!
I sold about half the lip balm I brought. Two new flavors: Cotton Candy and Bubble Pop! Check the etsy shop later this week for updates!
I had a ton of pins, hair clips and earrings all made with vintage buttons and materials. I sold quite a few of these, but I have some left for the etsy shop too!
I thought my bags would have sold better (only sold one) but there were a LOT of people there selling bags so these will go online and I’m giving a few as gifts. These were really fun to make. Most of the fabric is either Martha Stewart dish towels or vintage sheets and all the zippers are vintage.
Here’s an apron and matching patchwork kitchen towel that didn’t sell either. I might just keep this. The tennis racket fabric is vintage curtains that I repurposed. I just love it.
The sugar scrub was the most popular item, I sold out of them! I also sold a lot of the little cards I made. I took old letterpress designs and colored them on the computer, then just printed them on my desktop printer. They look really nice. I found the cards and envelopes at a yard sale.
I think our booth looked awesome (thanks to Amanda for about 99.9% of that!) and she had some really great stuff for sale too and made bank off this show! Check the A. Bel Studio etsy shop later this week for some updates. Yall are gonna like this stuff!
The beach combers were really popular. She found vintage slips and hand dyed them, then screen printed each one with a Chesapeake-bay themed design. My favorite was the ship’s wheel but she also had seahorses, crabs and starfish.
People went NUTS over her gnome stuff. She had ADORABLE magnet sets nestled into a flowerpot with a cute ribbon, label and mushroom charm. She sold out of those, I wasn’t surprised. The guardian gnomes were a huge hit too, and each one had its own hilarious and cheesy story on the back. I couldn’t shut up about them.
I bet these will be going up in her etsy store soon!
More awesome stuff from her. Pins, limited edition stickers and brooches.
This was the first show put on by the Charm City Craft Mafia, and they did an amazing job! The turnout was spectacular and the space (an old stone church with awesome windows and high ceilings) was oh so cool. They also held a raffle and were selling screenprinted posters. There were two rooms full of vendors and there were a great variety of different craft disciplines represented.
For lots more photos, go over to my set on Flickr. There’s also a Pile of Craft group where people are dumping photos.
I had a really great time, and definitely would love to do it again!
Thank you to everyone who stopped by, and the cool people I got to meet! Please go see the rest of the photos on Flickr!
PILE OF CRAFT! TOMORROW!
Don’t forget, if you live in the DC/Baltimore area, please come out tomorrow to PILE OF CRAFT, a big ol’ DIY & craft show being put on by the Charm City Craft Mafia! The show runs from 10am to 5pm and I will be there along with Amanda of A. Bel Studio reppin’ the Norfolk Craft Mafia so please come by and say hi if you end up going!
This show has gotten a lot of press and has some big sponsors (Etsy, BUST) so it should be pretty awesome! I’m driving up tonight and crashing with Amanda and her sister, then gettin’ up bright and early to set things up! Please come out! Click here for directions and a list of vendors!
THE PILE
Frantically getting myself organized and making yummy new goodies for Pile of Craft, which is rapidly approaching.
You should see me and my little checklist and schedule, which dictates that I have something to do every single day up until next Friday. I’m pretty excited and it sort of blows my mind that I’m in the same craft show as awesome people like My Paper Crane. Haha, I’m so not worthy.
I’m going to a wedding tomorrow and dressing up in a red polka dot dress. It should be hot. There may be pictures. Also to be posted soon, my tattoo, finished and healed, finally.
Have a great weekend, y’all!
Norfolk Craft Mafia SKILL SHARING WORKSHOP!
Hey crafty mafiosas, it’s time for our first Norfolk Craft Mafia skill-sharing workshop! The workshop is entitled GET YR CRAFT ON(LINE): Photo hosting, blogs and Etsy.
At this workshop, you’ll learn how to upload photos to a free photo hosting service, set up a free blog and set up an online store at Etsy.com!
The workshop will be held at my house on Sunday, July 1st at 6:30pm and is free to all Norfolk Craft Mafia members. Non-members may attend the workshop for a $15 fee (but why not just join up for an extra $5 and get the full membership benefits)!
If you have a laptop, please bring it. It will help to have more than one person able to get online at once! I have a wireless connection so we can all get online at the same time. Please also bring a CD with some photos on it so you can upload them!
If you plan on attending, please email me at amber AT myaimistrue DOT com and I’ll send you directions and my phone number!
Let me know if you have any questions!
11 May, 2007Pile of Craft
I’m pleased to announce that Amanda of A. Bel Studio, Jennida of Appleseed Art and I will be officially reppin’ the Norfolk Craft Mafia at the first annual Pile of Craft show & sale! It’s a juried show and we were one of the booths who were accepted. Go us!
Pile of Craft is being put on by the Charm City Craft Mafia and will be held on June 23 in Baltimore. If you’re in the area, please stop by and see me, and spend some money with a ton of creative and talented crafters!
07 May, 2007May Crafter’s Roundup!
Last night was the (now monthly!) crafter’s roundup of the Norfolk Craft Mafia. That’s right we decided this will be a monthly event. You can find us at Drawn To Art in the Ghent section of Norfolk on the first Sunday of each month at 6pm. It will always be an informal event where we hang out, work on crafts and share food potluck style! Please join us next time!
We got a good start on a fun little project — Jennida’s idea — embellished letters that will make an awesome “Norfolk Craft Mafia.com” garland.
We also had some really great discussion about how we think the mafia should be run, moneywise, as well as deciding that we will be hosting our first annual holiday-ish show and sale the week after Thanksgiving! Stoked!
I enjoyed meeting some new people and seeing old faces (well not OLD faces but you know what I mean). I am really excited about where we can go with this, and see the craft mafia doing a lot of cool things in the coming months.
Hey, why don’t you join us next month for the crafter’s round up? We’d love to have you!
New website is UP UP UP!
I’m pleased to announce the very latest chapter of the Craft Mafia familia — the Norfolk Craft Mafia — now has a brand spankin’ new website.
Please check it out, I’d love any feedback you might have. Plus, if you’re in the Hampton Roads area, and are arty or crafty, perhaps you’d like to become a mafiosa?
30 April, 2007Norfolk Craft Mafia!
Calling all Hampton Roads artists, crafters and independent business owners! The Norfolk Craft Mafia wants YOU!
The Craft Mafia™ is an organization of independent crafters, artists and business owners who represent multiple creative disciplines in fashion, jewelry, handmade goods, fine art, writing and craft design. We serve as an assembly for entrepreneurs to amplify their individual visions through the power of a collective. Please join up and support your local craft scene! Crafters from all cities in Hampton Roads are welcome!
The new website is coming very soon. In the meantime please sign up for the messageboard and introduce yourself!
We also have a crafty roundup happening Sunday, May 6th at 6pm at Drawn To Art in Ghent (Norfolk). Bring a craft to work on and a snack to share, or just bring yourself! Everyone is welcome!
If you have any questions let me know! Now let’s get crafty.
23 April, 2007Spring bada bing!
Yesterday morning Deva and I headed up to Richmond bright n early for the Spring Bada Bing! craft show, put on by the Richmond Craft Mafia.
What an awesome show. I had a great time, got to meet a lot of creative and cool people, and brought home some new goodies!
The show had a pretty good turnout. We were there from 10 to about noon and the place was pretty packed the whole time! Lots of variety and nearly everything was impeccable, top quality stuff.
I got to see my friend Valerie of Holland Cox. She was there with some great little zippered pouches, purses, keychains, etc. Good seeing you girl!
The gorgeous Amanda of A. Bel Studio had her booth there, lookin mighty spiffy, with all sorts of new goodies!
Her sweater creatures turned out ADORABLE and I overheard a couple people talking about them while walking around the show.
She also had brand new drawstring picnic bags with cute little felt appliques. I love these. I need to make a drawstring bag already.
As you can see I got away with a ton of stuff, including a stack of coupons and postcards that I didn’t photograph. I love the things I brought home and I can’t wait to wear them or display them around the house. Click the photo through to the Flickr page to see notes of what things are.
Some of the smaller creatures I brought home with me.
My birthday haul from Amanda. Thank you soooo much! I love the little vintage lanterns, they are going up in my craft room asap and now I have a new knitting tote as well! It’s so sturdy and the lining is gorgeous vintage fabric. And I’m cherishing my little sweater cutie. I need to name him.
After I got home, I went to Mom’s and chilled for a while. It was gorgeous outside, we took Kyla on a long walk and then hung out in the backyard with Heidi, Grace, Mom and Maegan. We got some sun and read, studied and I burned the crap out of my fingers repeatedly with a glue gun. I made a ton of things and my etsy store will have a huge update later.
We also had a visitor on top of the house that quacked at us all afternoon. I really need to clean my house tonight, it’s a hot mess, but my dad is having shoulder surgery tonight and may have to spend the night at the hospital, depending on how it goes. So I might be going to visit him. If you pray, send one his way please.
10 April, 2007My first craft show
The Renewal art opening was Friday night and things went swimmingly. The 7 Cities Craft Mafia also had a sale area and I participated in my first craft show! I had handmade lip balm and sugar scrub, along with a few sewn and knitted goodies and my (apparently famous) vegan cupcakes. Amanda lent me a beautiful vintage cake plate to display them.
Check me out with all my warez. By the way, my etsy shop will be updated today with new goodies for your perusal. Please check it out.
The warehouse looked great, and the event was packed to the gills. I saw a few people from ODU and my ceramics teacher seems really excited about getting involved with the craft mafia and hosting some workshops!
It was a great turnout with a really diverse crowd and I really wanted to thank Jennida for making it such a success. You are awesome, lady!
Hopefully a few of us will be making our way to Richmond for the Spring Bada Bing, which is being hosted by the Richmond Craft Mafia (and which Amanda will be selling at!).
Overall it was a great event and a good first craft show experience. I hope I get the chance to do a few more, and that we continue to grow as a group.
04 April, 2007ART & CRAFT EVENT: Renewal Art Show!
This Friday night, the 7 Cities Craft Mafia will be hosting a juried art show and indie craft market at the new Warehouse in Norfolk. The deadline to submit work to the juried show has passed, but indie crafters are welcome to sell their wares day of the opening (free to set up, but please show up early, 5pm is preferred).
There will be some live music (Kevin Ferguson, Rev Chloe, The Lazlo Project, Kid Camaro & Candy-O) as well as the Substance DJ folks. Come out and support the first event at the Warehouse!
As an aside, I will be setting up shop and selling some of my hand made cosmetics as well as delicious vegan cupcakes. Please come visit me! The Warehouse is at 1229 W Olney Rd. in Norfolk.
Directions from Va. Beach:
Take 264 W toward Norfolk. Take the Brambleton Ave. exit and continue down Brambleton. After you cross Colley Ave., go up over the bridge heading toward the midtown tunnel. At the bottom of the bridge, make a left on Claremont Ave. Make a right on W. Olney Rd. and you’re there!
From Norfolk/ODU area:
Come down Hampton Blvd. towards midtown tunnel. Make a right on Redgate. Left on Orapax. Left on Olney.
7 Cities Craft Mafia
Last night the coolest women around gathered for a potluck and some craftin’. I don’t think I’ve mentioned it on here yet, but Tidewater now has their own chapter of the Craft Mafia. Basically we exist to provide a network for art & crafters, sharing resources and supporting each other in our creative pursuits. It’s an extremely diverse group so far.
Last night we had photographers, costume makers, bead workers, knitters, sewists, quilters, fine artists, collage artists, and I’m sure several more I can’t think of. If you think you might want to join up with us, check out 7 Cities Craft Mafia.com, which right now links to our Myspace profile (add us!), and soon will be a website with all the fixin’s. You can also sign up for the 7 Cities Craft Mafia Google group, which will keep you updated by email anytime a member posts about an event, workshop, etc.
Last night we met at the brand new Drawn to Art studio space (thanks Laura for having us). Check out her website and sign up for a class. Some events are already being planned for the Craft Mafia including a free sewing workshop on March 24th (check the Google group for more info), and a juried art show on April 6th.
I’m really excited that we’re finally getting something going like this. I hope that some of my knitting ladies will come to an event one of these days (hint hint Joanne, Deva, Tasha). I also have had requests to host a knitting workshop as well as a Photoshop/Illustrator workshop, so we will see what happens! Anyway, sign up for the Google group so you don’t miss out on the next event. Good times!
