July 11, 2008
Before we show you the official press release, we thought we’d mention that- even though time is short- anyone who enters this contest has a chance at winning the grand prize of $1000! As you probably already know, that can buy a lot of supplies for a craft addict!
So get your creative juices flowing and grab your video camera- its time to enter the Spread The Craft contest!
MindBites (www.MindBites.com), a unique social marketplace and publishing platform for video instructional content, officially announced the launch of its “Spread the Craft” contest. Submissions to “Spread the Craft” should be instructional crafting videos, and winners will be chosen based upon content, quality, originality.
Entrants have until July 21, 2008, to submit an instructional crafting video for consideration in the contest. Voting will run through August 1, 2008, and winners will be announced on August 5, 2008. The grand prize for the contest, $1000, will be awarded by a group of MindBites representatives looking for video originality, material content, and instructional value. Another $500 prize will go to the video with the most user votes. Users can return to the website daily to vote on their favorite video.
MindBites has built a comprehensive set of resources to help authors turn expert knowledge into valuable instructional content, including an author toolkit, author forums and free video lessons on digital media production.
About MindBites
MindBites is your place on the web to learn directly from other real people and share what you know with the world. A social marketplace and publishing platform for video instructional content, MindBites enables anyone to share their knowledge, skills and passions through video lessons, earning money for themselves or for charity. The result is a unique community of discovery with content that simply can’t be found anywhere else. MindBites promises to revolutionize the way the world shares knowledge.
MindBites has been open to the public since October of 2007, has more than 100 authors, and offers more than 300 lessons across such areas as Arts and Craft, Parenting, DIY, and Digital Media.
For more information, visit www.MindBites.com. For additional details on the Spread the Craft contest, or to vote for submissions, visit http://www.mindbites.com/spreadthecraft.
May 15, 2008
Hey everyone!
The next L.A. Craft mafia meetup will be at 7pm on Tuesday May 27th at Saints and Sinners Lounge in West L.A. This month’s meetup will feature author and all around crafty lady Sonya Nimri hosting a bead demo. Sonya is the author of “Just for the Frill of It” and the new “Beadalicious”. You may also know her from her fun website www.sonyastyle.com
What is an L.A. Craft Mafia Meetup? It’s a free monthly evening of fun with the goal of spreading crafty love throughout our community! You don’t need to be a member, anyone with a crafty spirit is welcome. Come out, grab a drink from the bar and join us for fun and craft! Go to our site www.losangelescraftmafia.com and join our mailing list to receive a weekly email about our meetups, upcoming indie craft shows and MORE. Tell your crafty friends!
L.A. Craft Mafia Meetup!
Tues May 27th 2008 @ 7:00pm
Saints and Sinners Lounge (21+)
10899 Venice Blvd
W. Los Angeles, Ca 90034
www.SaintsAndSinnersLounge.net
There’s plenty of parking on the neighboring residential streets
See you there!
May 7, 2008
Apply now for the AltCraft section at the American Craft Show in San Francisco at the Fort Mason Center, August 15-17.
Ten makers will be juried into this bustling section, which celebrates the renewed handmade movement. Artists who have never exhibited at an American Craft Show may apply.
Located on the San Francisco waterfront between Fisherman’s Wharf and the Golden Gate Bridge, this show serves a well-established audience of Bay Area craft devotees. The show also features wine tastings and live demonstrations. As part of the Council’s commitment to indie crafters, the cost of participation is just $300, which includes a 10-ft table in a shared loft space. Plus, there’s no application fee!
The deadline is Friday, May 23. Please submit:
- (3) low-resolution images of your work
- A brief description of your work (materials, dimensions, techniques)
- Your contact information (mailing and email addresses)
Send submissions and inquiries to Erika at ebrown@craftcouncil.org.
The subject line should be: San Fran AltCraft Application
Finalists will be announced in June.
April 29, 2008
Get ready to give “crafty” a whole new meaning. The HANDMADE BRIGADE is coming to town!Definitely NOT your typical doilies and lace craft show experience, the family owned and operated independent craft store, Tall Mouse Arts and Crafts, will be hosting an Indie craft fair. The event will be held at the Tall Mouse in Cerritos on Saturday July 12, 2008 (13233E. South St. Cerritos, Ca 90703).
Click the image above to visit the website and learn all about this upcoming event!
April 15, 2008
In the hands of guerrilla street artists, yarn graffiti snakes around telephone posts, through barbed wire fences, and over abandoned cars. Originally created by a crew in Texas, knit graffiti has become an international movement embraced by crafters of all ages and nationalities. Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit Graffiti is a book about the history of yarn graffiti in urban spaces and future plans for world yarn domination, and will teach knitters how they can join the revolution.
Are you a knitter or crochetier? Do you design (or want to design) unusual pieces of street art out of yarn?
If so, you should design a pattern for Yarn Bombing: The Art of Knit Graffiti, to be published by Arsenal Pulp Press in fall 2009.
A DIY guide to the art of yarn graffiti and a history of hand-crafted textile street art, Yarn-Bombing will feature patterns such as street-smart disguises, useful wearable tools like gloves and tool belts, street art such as knit car cozies, bike covers and headlight toques, and outdoor installations such as crochet shawls for leafy trees. The sky’s the limit as long as it’s knit or crocheted! Projects should be fun, colorful and a little bit wacky.
Designers are asked to submit a sketch and detailed description of their project, along with a brief bio, by the submission deadline of May 15, 2008.
There is no entry fee, and you are encouraged to submit multiple designs. Please include your complete contact information (email and mailing addresses) with your submission. Hard-copy submissions will not be returned unless an SASE or International Mailing Coupon is provided.
Digital sketches (under 2MB) can be emailed to mandy@yarnbombing.com, or hard copy sketches can be mailed to:
Leanne Prain
203-884 Bute Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6E 1Y5
You will be notified via email if your design has been selected for publication. Selected designs will need to be knit or crocheted by their designers over the months of June-August, and mailed to the publisher for photography and editing by August 30, 2008. Patterns and any accompanying diagrams must be mailed to mandy@yarnbombing.com by the same date. Designers who are chosen to participate will receive the yarn necessary to complete their project, an honorarium, a free copy of the book, and credit for taking part in the book.
For more information, please visit Arsenal Pulp Press (arsenalpulp.com) or the Yarn Bombing Blog (yarnbombing.com).
If you have any questions or concerns regarding submissions, please contact Leanne (leanne@yarnbombing.com) or Mandy (mandy@yarnbombing.com)
The Authors
A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, Mandy Moore now lives in Vancouver, BC with her small family of husband and cat. She is the technical editrix of popular online knitting magazine Knitty.com, and of various other knitting and crochet books and publications. She is a hardcore making-things evangelist, and will probably try to convince you that you should try (knitting, crocheting, sewing, painting) too! You can find her online at yarnageddon.com.
Upon learning to knit, Leanne Prain co-founded a stitch and bitch called Knitting and Beer in order to expand her skills while knitting at the pub. While the group has disbanded, she continues to be amazed at what can be created with two needles and a bit of yarn. A professional graphic designer, Leanne holds degrees in creative writing, art history and publishing. She lives and knits in Vancouver, BC.
March 18, 2008
I am just passing on a request for you to take this quick, anonymous survey in the name of Craft Con 2008 ! By completing 7 multiple choice questions, you can help give the organizers a clearer picture of how the indie craft community at large acquires it’s supplies. Results will be posted on craftcon.org shortly after the close of the event!
In case you didn’t catch our earlier blog about this, 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.
March 14, 2008
Harmony Hammond is an artist, art writer, and independent curator who lives and works in Galisteo, New Mexico. A pioneer of the feminist art movement, she lectures, writes and publishes on feminist art, lesbian art, and the cultural representation of “difference”.
Hammond attended the University of Minnesota from 1963-67 (B.A., 1967). In 1969, she moved to Manhattan where she was a co-founder of A.I.R., the first women’s cooperative art gallery in New York, (1972), and co-editor of Heresies: A Feminist Publication on Art & Politics, (1976). In 1984, she moved to New Mexico. As a tenured full Professor, Hammond taught painting, combined media and graduate critiques at the University of Arizona (Tucson), from 1988-2005. Currently she teaches classes and workshops from time to time as a Visiting Artist at: Skowhegan, Anderson Ranch, the Santa Fe Art Institute and the Vermont Studio Center.
She has had over 30 solo exhibitions and her work has been shown internationally in venues such as Site Santa Fe; New Museum, NYC; Smack Mellon Studios, Brooklyn; National Academy Museum, NYC; Bronx Museum; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe; P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City, Queens; Tucson Museum of Art; The Downtown Whitney Museum, NYC; Weatherspoon Art Gallery, Greensboro, NC; White Columns, NYC; Brooklyn Museum; Armand Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; the Vancouver Art Gallery; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City; The American Center, Paris; Neue Galerie, Graz, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Arts, Havana; Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City; and the Haags Gementemuseum, the Hague.
Her work is represented by Dwight Hackett projects, in Santa Fe.
Her work has been reproduced, discussed, and reviewed in The New York Times, Art in America, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, New York Magazine, Art Forum, Art News, Art Papers, Art on Paper, The Art Journal, Arts Magazine, the New Art Examiner and many other publications.
Hammond’s work is in the permanent collections of many museums including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; the Museum of Modern Art, NYC; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN, the Brooklyn Museum; the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; the Art Institute of Chicago; the Phoenix Art Museum; the New Mexico Museum of Fine Arts, Santa FE, NM; and the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CN.
Her book Wrappings: Essays on Feminism, Art & the Martial Arts, (TSL Press, 1984), a classic on 70s feminist art, is out-of-print. Her ground-breaking book Lesbian Art in America: A Contemporary History (Rizzoli, 2000) received a Lambda Literary Award.
March 5, 2008
The 100 Picture Challenge is a Flickr group hosted by Craft Revolution. Like a scavenger hunt through your own creativity, the challenge is simply to take a picture that represents each of 100 various themes. The themes range from emotions to characters common in movies, such as vampires.
Artists and crafters, feel free to create a piece of artwork or an item you have crafted that matches the theme and upload a picture of it!
Here are the challenge rules:
1.) Take 100 pictures, each picture having one of the themes listed on the group website. Each picture should have ONE and only ONE theme to it.
2.) There is no time limit on the challenge, so have fun
Once you have a picture ready for the challenge, simply submit it to the group. When you’ve completed all 100, start a discussion and show off your challenge set!
We look forward to seeing everyone’s interpretations of the themes!
Here’s an inspirational picture to get you started:
Theme: #34, Patriotism
We’d like to invite you to attend Craft Con 2008, a business
development conference for the craft community. This remarkable
gathering of leaders and organizers in the evolving craft and design
movement will be held in San Francisco April 4-6. 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.
Craft Con 2008 heralds huge growth for the project, bringing together
event promoters, internet entrepreneurs, authors, store owners, craft
teachers, and businesspeople to network, talk about the future of
craft, and strengthen the community’s voice. With the explosive
popularity of countless craft-related business ventures, the crafting
world is poised to keep getting bigger and better - the question is,
where do we want to go from here? This is our chance to help shape the
future of the handmade movement and its place in society - we hope
you’ll join us!
Craft Con 2008 | April 4-6 2008, San Francisco CA
http://craftcon.org
March 3, 2008
Call for Artists & Writers for Largest Plush Show in the World
St. Louis, MO—On June, 6, 13, 20 and 27, you’ll find the largest collection of plushies and stuffies in some of St. Louis’ hottest shops from artists and crafters all around the world. Organizers seek ardent fans of plush to submit essays and hand made plush goods for inclusion in a show and comprehensive book, Crammed Organisms, to be published this spring. Artwork and essays should align with the theme: Fairy, Folk and Fable. The published book will be for sale during the show. What is plush? Plush is the modern word for stuffed animals (no, we’re not talking about taxidermy…), also known as stuffies, plushies and now Crammed Organisms.
Accepted artists will need to submit a minimum four plush items for the show for display in the four venues (described below). Show-goers may purchase the exhibited plush items and pick them up at the completion of the four-week show.
WHAT: Crammed Organisms—the Largest Plush Show in the World
Call for Artists & Writers
WHEN: Fridays, June 6, 13, 20 and 27, from 7 to 11 p.m.
Artist application due: March 29
WHERE:
June 6- Star Clipper Comics
6392 Delmar Avenue, University City Loop, St. Louis
June 13- Cranky Yellow Boutique
2122 Cherokee Street, St. Louis
June 20- Subterranean Books & Gallery
6275 Delmar Avenue, University City Loop, St. Louis
June 27- Apop Records
2831 Cherokee Street, St. Louis
FEES, ETC: Free to apply, $35 fee for accepted artists. No fee for book copy submissions. Visit www.crammedorganisms.com for rules and details. Artists need not be present at the show. Organizers will donate 10% of the show’s proceeds to American Forests (www.americanforests.org). They work to protect, restore and enhance the natural capital of trees and forests because healthy forests filter water, remove air pollution, sequester carbon, and provide homes for wildlife.
Show organizer David Wolk of Cranky Yellow Publications expects submissions from around the world, “I say bring it! This show is going to rock the cosmic world and showcase talented, creative thinkers, hopefully encouraging the public to buy hand made items and patronize individually-owned shops.”
For more information, visit www.crammedorganisms.com
