Indie Craft Parade Treasury
My excitement for this year’s Indie Craft Parade is growing and growing, and this treasury of our 2011 Indie Craft Parade artists should provide a teeny glimpse into what I’m so excited about! We have 74 participating artists (view the complete list here), and about half of these are new this year!
Erin and I hung posters downtown this past Friday, and billboards start going up around Greenville tomorrow. Everything is starting to come together, and I can’t wait to see all these great artists and their work in September!
color, craft, IndieCraftParade, indie craft parade, handmade,hard graft.
Several months ago, I traded my old Apple laptop for a sleek new MacBook Air. I LOVE my new computer, and so began the task of finding a case suitable for it. I dug through page after page on Etsy, searching for just the right one. In fact, I was planning to do a roundup blog post on all the great cases I found.
Problem is, I couldn’t find enough I liked and would recommend!
I wanted a beautiful handmade case. And having sewn a few things over the years, I’m pretty picky about quality. I know that I could make myself a case, but I’d rather buy something that’s better quality than I can do at home on my sewing machine. None of the fabrics I saw were right (I have a hard time with patterns), and there are so many (expensive!) ones on the market with bad or uneven stitching!
After lots of searching online, I finally found the one I wanted. But it cost a fortune.
So for months now, I’ve been carrying around my new laptop in one of these (not even joking) while I saved up for the case I really wanted. And last Friday, it arrived!
I have to say, the packaging only confirmed my decision to splurge on this case. I took photos so I could share the Hard Graft experience.
Each case is handmade. Which means the attention to detail is unbelievable.
Aside from quality materials and construction, another factor that sold me on this case was the design. I needed something that covered the computer completely. The MacBook Air is super slim (aka kind of slippery) and I felt like a case with any open side would be risky since it could easily slide out.
There are many other similar cases on the market now, but I remembered this company and their products from years ago when they called themselves Working Class Heroes. Even then, their detailed but simple designs stood out to me, and they were the first company I saw creating industrial felt + leather computer cases. In a world of copycats, original ideas are worth honoring. And when a company is doing something so well, I don’t think there’s any reason to settle for someone else’s version. It was definitely worth saving up for!
design, handmade, products,last call.
Tomorrow night at midnight, the application period for this year’s Indie Craft Parade will close.
If you’re an artist yourself, make sure you get your application in for a chance to exhibit at this year’s event! And/or if you have a few favorite artists whose work you love, make sure they’ve heard about this opportunity. Anyone in the Southeast can apply!
pillowcase roundup.
We bought our current pillowcases (above) at the Knack Antiques on Augusta booth. If you live in Greenville, these and a few other designs are still available, so go check them out. They’re beautifully screen-printed by Branch Handmade and we use them so much they’re almost worn out! So it’s time to find a new set. Check out a few of my other pillowcase favorites below:
Clockwise from top: Tin Can pillows / embroidered mine & yours / embroidered Mrs. (& Mr.) / wake up pillows (unfortunately no longer for sale) / DIY glasses cases – via D*S / hand drawn YOU pillows
craft, handmade, products,speaking of handmade
You’ll want to read this thought provoking post from Etsy, tracing the history of fashion through the years. Two fascinating points:
· We now only make 3% of our apparel in the United States, down from 90% in 1955.
· In 1930, the average American woman owned an average of nine outfits.
Also, today you’ll find me interviewed at the Yellow Elm blog, so make sure you visit Elizabeth Blanton’s site to read it!
In other news:
· Applications for Indie Craft Parade are open — and are so much more efficient than last year, thanks to DUO Interactive!
· Indie Craft Parade now has its own blog.
· The Handmade Nation screening was a success. I particularly loved the discussion afterward! So many great questions and comments to think about.
· My garden is actually growing! Pictures to come.
handmade holidays.
I’m always a bit nervous to take the official handmade pledge. Mostly because I know that while I love hand-crafted goodness, not everyone has the same appreciation for handmade things. Plus, in years past, I would have tried to do all the hand-making myself, but I like to think I’ve become wiser this year, realizing (a) I’m not superwoman, and (b) there are a lot of really talented people out there making things much better than I ever could.
Also forefront in my mind this year was the fact that Andrew and I have been working to simplify and de-clutter our lives and our home. This made me look harder than ever to find meaningful and useful gifts for others. The great news is that when all the shopping was said and done, I’d given a lot more handmade gifts this year than I expected!
Because I’m a designer, and a bit of a nerd, I made a chart (using Daytum) that shows where the gifts we gave came from. I think visualizing data is the best way to understand it.
