The Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair is coming to Silver Spring, MD on Saturday, June, 28th, and they need volunteers to help them make this Crafty Bastards the best yet!

Check out the Crafty Blog for all the information on volunteering! Hope to see you there!

Posted by tina at 3:26 PM | Permalink

SILVERDOCS 2008 is June 16-13, 2008
and the International Documentary Conference is June 17 - 21, 2008.

Film lovers, film geeks, and filmmakers rejoice! AFI and Discovery Communications bring the DIY aesthetic to the DC area with the annual documentary film fest that is world-renowned.

There are some exciting new announcements, such as the fact that this year SILVERDOCS will honor Spike Lee at the Charles Guggenheim Symposium.

Passes are on sale now and tickets are available to the public on May 27th.

Posted by Joy_C at 12:57 AM | Permalink

The first thing you might notice is that it's not in a kitchen -- it's in my basement. Nor is in on 8th Street. My first batch of soap was made in my kitchen on 8th Street in Brooklyn, circa 2000, so at the time the name was accurate. I never seriously expected my soap to get into the hands of anyone but friends and family; at the time I wasn't exactly concerned about the longevity of the name. But the name stuck.

The biggest compliment I've ever gotten was from my friend's daughter, Clara. She lives across the alley from me, so she knows my house isn't on 8th Street here. I recently discovered that for the last 2 years she'd been operating on the assumption that every day morning when I left for work, I was going to some big soap factory on 8th Street (where I most likely employed scores of oompa-loompahs). She looked so disappointed when she saw the real "factory"! Still, I like it. Christmas lights make it cozy, and I can crank the tunes and make a mess whenever I want.

What does your workspace look like, my fellow Mutineers?

Posted by jen at 11:22 AM | Permalink

so this year was going to be more relaxed! I was going to take it easy! Right....

I have the craft fair bug, I guess. There was a lack of crazy hectic crafting between January and April, so I had to do something about it! When chatting with some other local yarn dyers and spinners on ravelry, we came up with the brilliant idea to have a yarn party! to sell stuff! (totally not as stressful as a craft fair, right?)

Only, heh - wow. It kept me busy for an entire month. Getting someone to design postcards, distributing the cards, getting sponsorship from local yarn shops, getting paid by sponsors and vendors, getting someone to design a program. And wrangling vendors! I'm sure it's often the case, but there was some crazy last-minute switcheroos that were totally stressful. Oh, and the entire **not getting into the building until AFTER the party/fair was supposed to have started!!** was totally crazy! Not to mention that we had no idea if people would actually join us (and shop!)!

But once we let those first customers in, and the rest of line going out the door... wow! People were so excited and so happy for the craft fair to be happening! I've never seen so many thankful people glad for all the hard work that went into it! That feeling of happiness totally makes it worth it to take chances on craft fairs, to go the extra mile, to dream big! :) If you have rad products, organize a craft fair! Get it out there into the world!

(taken after the masses had died down and my table cleared out!)

Posted by woolarina at 7:01 PM | Permalink

I'm a little behind on making new stuff for my etsy shop because I've been a little busy!
This is the 4th public art sculpture I've done. I did a panda for DC's Pandamania:

a turtle for University of Maryland's Fear the Turtle campaign, and most recently I participated in Crystal City's Crystal Flight project.
I have to hand it to Crystal City, they are really sticking their necks out to entice artists (and restaurants and shoppers) to cross the Potomac and have a poke around. In about 2 weeks, you'll see 50 planes (25 jet fighters and 25 vintage styled planes) "land" on various street corners.
You'll see this one at the corner of 20th and Bell. Across from the Marriott Hotel and a Metro entrance. If you take your picture with it, feel free to send it along to me! I got a kick out of seeing people with my panda and turtle!

Posted by beth b. at 12:06 PM | Permalink

Exciting news about DC's best indie craft event! This year there will be two Crafty Bastards shows! One in June and one in September. From the Washington CityPaper website:

The show will be held Saturday, June 28th at Pyramid Atlantic Arts Center on Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring, MD. Crafty Bastards Silver Spring will have a focus on learning, an emphasis on craft workshops, and highlight up-and-coming artists and those newer to the indie craft scene. There are 50 10ft.x10ft. booth spaces available. Applications will be accepted through April 16, 2008. The jury will review the entries and we will notify everyone of their status via email by April 22.

Awesome! Go here to apply.

You can also read my application tips on the Crafty Blog. If you have any questions about applying, leave them in the comments and I will answer them!

Posted by tina at 11:41 AM | Permalink

Every once in a while you stumble upon some art that blows your mind. Meet the work of Eric Freitas

I love rust. i love mechanics. i love clocks. i love metal. his stuff has all that.

Here is what he has to say for himself
I'm an artist who ambitiously dove into the dying realm of clockmaking to execute an idea, and show a slice of a world I wish existed- a dark, decaying hyper mechanistic world where gears are grown, machines have souls, and even something as logical and precise as a clock can be compromised by ungoverned subconscious thought.

You can buy his work on Esty

Posted by sean at 8:02 PM | Permalink

Mutineers lovingly hand craft everything from cool-kid friendly clothes, to beautiful art to kitschy wonders of imagination, One thing we embrace is diversity.

Demonika Clothing is an Alternative Lifestyle/ Culture Canadian based company that employs everything from a slick website to street teams to spread the word about their off-kilter DIY clothes and accessories.

For the third year, they are hosting a wild show, complete with (straight from their e-blast): "fashion showcases, rollergirls, piercing demonstrations, burlesque dancers, etc."

As always, they have a call for submissions from vendors for swag in exchange for in-kind marketing mentions. Check back for details here: here!

Posted by Joy_C at 9:27 PM | Permalink

When I'm not stitching up coffee sleeves or gocco printing on little shirts, I like to organize rock shows for parents and their kids. Rock-n-Romp has been a labor of love the past 6 years, and it's still going strong with new cities coming on board every year! It's pretty exciting. A couple of weeks ago I held two shows in one day which was, in retrospect, pretty stupid (what am I, Superwoman??), but they were both amazing thanks in part to the awesome crafty skillz of the Mutiny and our comrades Charm City Craft Mafia! There were temporary tattoos, facepainting, coloring and little make-your-own-tambourine stations! It was rad, and I think the Mutineers and Mafia folks had just as much fun as the kids did. Since both the Mutiny and Rock-n-Romp are things I love to be a part of, to combine the two seems natural, and I hope to do more shows with a crafty element!

Extra-special thanks and smooches to Rachel [Red Prairie Press] (and her husband!), Ann [Little Mouse Vintage] and Jennifer [Cotton Monster] for romping with us in Baltimore, and Beth [MagpieDC], Joy [Charming Vices] and Jenny [8th Street Soap Kitchen] for rocking out in Silver Spring! All awesomely nice people with amazing talent, so go check out their work!

Posted by debbie at 7:18 AM | Permalink

I think for a lot of us, the holiday craft season was overwhelming! back to back to back shows, lots of driving, planning and hosting a craft fair, meeting new crafty folks, making even more stuff to sell.. super fun, but man was I happy to have the holidays to make stuff for me me me! (and maybe a few handknit gifts!) I told myself I would finish *me* projects, and hopefully that sweater my husband keeps asking about, which only needs a measly sleeve sewn on! Well, that didn't work!

I made it a couple weeks into January when I started knitting more hats. To sell, eventually. Then I started plotting with a friend. The end of January it was discussed with some others on ravelry. And now? Haha. Now I am obsessed! With making more stuff, planning new things, deciding what to bake, thinking how we can get more people involved!

Part of me wishes I could just. stop. making. But...

the fun!!

(postcard by storm moon knits!)

A bunch of crafty yarnsters are getting together next month to wreak colorful wooly havoc on the city of Takoma Park. There will be yarn! Fiber! Friends! and COOKIES! And lots of fun people! The best part is free admission! :) Check out the blog for coming details!

sigh... so I will be making! Until then, at least! ;)

Posted by woolarina at 8:10 PM | Permalink