Stage MC - Ken Vegas
Crafty DJ - DJ Saggiatore
10:30am Taffety Punk Theatre Company
11:30am Rock 'n Romp featuring Fever
12:40pm Statehood
1:35pm The Chinese Martial Arts Institute
2:30pm B-Boy Battle hosted by Alloutparty.com
All Day - Crafty Mutiny Supply Swap
All Day - Free Bike Valet & Crafty Bike Contest hosted by Washington Area Bicyclist Association
Check out the full Entertainment line up.
CRAFT: Zine Maker Square (#128 on the tennis courts)
All Day Make your very own button rings, paper beads and LED throwies. Hosted by CRAFT: Zine
Knitting Workshop Knit-A-Gogo Booth (#1).
10:30am-11:30am, 12:30pm-1:30pm Learn to Knit
3pm-4pm Entrelac Knitting Workshop
Get Crafty Ipso Crafto Booth (#7)
All Day, 10am-4pm*
Make felt pins and mini disco balls, design your own stamp, and have fun with Crafty Bastards paint-by-number.
*these workshops are free and while supplies last. Children may participate if accompanied the entire time by a parent or guardian
Bicycle Safety The Bike Rack Booth (#59)
10am, 2pm Basic Bike Maintenance
12pm Riding Your Bike Safely In The City (meet in front of the Maker Square Workshop Area)
Yoga Silk Road Yoga Booth (#106). All day.
Stop by the Silk Road Yoga booth to watch yoga demos by the experts.
Pottery Wheel Demos Hinckley Pottery Booth (#82). All day.
Check out the clay magicians of Hinckley Pottery who can transform lumps of clay into functi onal objects. Instructors from Hinckley Pottery's studio will use the potter's wheel to make cups, bowls, and other simple and complex forms.
Skateboarding Aplomb Clothing Booth (#147). All day. Fun box demos.
Check out the Aplomb Skate Team grind, slide and nollie at the mini-park in the tennis court.
Hope to see you there!
Remember laying on your back and looking into the sky to see what you could see in the clouds? I always saw a rabbit (maybe it was the fluffy tail?) and I always loved that everyone could find something different and that if you closed one eye, or squinted just right, you could see what they saw too. This idea of just laying back and using your imagination inspired a new ring, the "Imagination" ring. I like to wear things that bring memories or thoughts to mind when I look at them. When I wear this ring, I remember to use my imagination to make my world more interesting and to never forget to enjoy simple things like the clouds (and the rabbits in the sky).
Where do you tend to find inspiration for your art pieces?
Here is a little follow-up to my post about displays. I was able to get some great pictures of the displays of some BEST members from Allison of Tigerlillyshop.etsy. Please take a look at the creative use of different items for display purposes. Again, please use these displays as inspiration and do not just copy their ideas. All of us have put a lot of time and thought into our table set-ups and you should do the same! After browsing through the displays, take some time to browse their Etsy shops too. Just click the photo to be take directly to their shop.
First up is Littlest Bean - jenmenkhaus.etsy. Great use of color, height and vintage items! I am seriously in love with her table covering.
Bowerboxpress.etsy Uses height and some creative card holders to display her wares. She also has a great sign which you can't see in this photo. Another clean, fresh display that makes her journals and cards the centerpiece.
jennyjen42.etsy has a really fun display. Some of the great features are storage bins on their side as shelves for her pillows, a decorative rack to hold pillows and purses, an easel like board to hold more bags and a picnic basket to hold her eyeglass cases. Everything is clearly organized and displayed for easy shopping.
feel of her pottery.
Update: I found a pic of Shannon's display from Artscape. It's a great shot of the branch hanger I mentioned earlier. She also uses a clothesline and clothespins to hang her adorable dresses. I really love how she has the hats displayed to show off their points . Too cute. The whole look is very inviting.
The ladies of BEST and I had a great day at Hampdenfest over the weekend. It was a hot long day, but doing it as a group made all bearable. It started slow, but I ended the day with a pretty nice profit. I only had my little table , so I had to do some creative arranging to fit everything in. I actually ended up liking the rather crowded table. I thought the layering of items and displays was interesting and now I am trying to figure out how to keep that look with the 3 tables I have for Crafty Bastards at the end of the month. I am kicking myself now becasue I didn't go around and pictures of everyone's displays. They were all creative and each complemented the feel the artist was trying to convey with their work. Here are some shots of my display. Sorry for the terrible pictures, but the sun was on us all day and by the time it started to go down I was too tired to take another picture.
These days crafters/artists are very competitive and it can be difficult to stand out. A creative eye-catching display can pull people into your booth where they can get a better look at your items which obviously can lead to more sales. The strategy is simple, the more people you bring in, the more sales you will likely get. My displays are a mixture of my own creations, traditional displays, wall boxes and tablewear. When looking for display items, let your imagination run wild and don't forget to look at items that are not traditionalyl used as displays. Houseware stores, craft stores, thrift stores and hardware stores make great places to look for non-traditional displays. Just always keep functionality in mind. Make sure that it will show off your items while also keeping them in place. Feel free to share some of your display ideas in the comments. I'd love to hear about the creative ways people are displaying their wares. As always, please use this these ideas as inspiration and don't just copy what others are doing. Make your diplay your own and use it to reflect your style.
If you remember from my last post, we were also collecting art supplies for Art with a Heart in Baltimore to help replenish supplies that a middle school lost in a fire over the summer. I am happy to report that we were able to collect a large box of supplies and our blog post about the collection even led one reader to begin volunteering with Art with a Heart. So thanks to all the BEST members, wonderful customers and blog readers who donated some supplies! I also wanted to say thanks to all my customers and all the lovely people I talked to on Saturday. It was wonderful to meet you all.
When I can, I will try to create a piece inspired by some of the themes discussed here and of course I will share it with you. Here is a new ACEO I created with texture as a large part of the inspiration. The texture is created with the circles as well as the distressing and even the raised hills and trees create a relief texture. I really enjoy creating things that you can feel as well as see. I need a name for this piece too. A name usually comes to me by the time I finish a piece, but this one is stumping me. The word "layers" repeats in my mind whenever I look at it, but I'm curious to hear some suggestions from my readers.
