from the john derian company, inc. the collection includes platters, coasters, bell jars. . . here are some of my favorites- i’m feeling the aquatic theme these days:

woah! thanks washington city paper for the great review of pile of craft! read the review here.

stay tuned for a holiday show announcement!

in an effort to clean out my studio, i’m going to try to go as paperless as possible.

today i started the very VERY big project of scanning in my inspiration tearouts/samples/images. (can you tell that i love projects?). i have binders and binders full of images from magazines, posters, postcards, scraps of fabric, you name it. it all feels unorganized to me. i hardly look at it because of this. soooo, being the filing freak that i am, i have started to scan images and file them away into categories such as: nature, pattern, tearouts, jewelry. . . we’ll see how many categories i end up with. the fun thing is, whenever i’m feeling like i need a dose of visual inspiration, i can pick a category and play a little slideshow for myself. i’m a nerd, i know, oh well- it’s no secret! “what are some things that you scanned in today?”, you ask?

from the book “leaves and pods” by josie iselin (photography) and mary ellen hannibal
and a japanese pattern book gifted to me by steve (i have volume 1, i believe)

i am very pleased with the results of my etching experiment. i didn’t have my favorite resist, pnp (Press N Peel Paper) handy, so i used some 99cent nail polish that i had lying around. (the potential of household products is just amazing isnt it?)

i drew three patterns on three pieces of copper (each piece is 1.25″ in diameter), immersed them in a room tempurature acid bath for about two hours, cleaned, and oxidized the pieces and got this:

next time i will 1.) heat the acid to speed up the results 2.) use pnp (easier cleanup, exact results)

it looks like our show calendar is empty for the month of july.

i wanted to take this month to focus on my studio work. i’ve been feeling inspired and creative since i’ve left my job :). i have many ideas in my head and on paper, but not yet in metal. i guess i’m a little confused as to how to start? where to start? i am overwhelmed at the possibilities!

steve set me in the right direction when he simply said, “just pick one idea and go with it!”. so, right now i am waiting for some pieces to finish etching. it’s been years since i’ve etched, but it is definitely my favorite surface technique (or a toss up between that and handpiercing). i guess i love the two so much because i can translate pattern design into metal simply that way. . . . while i have a background in metalsmithing, i believe i am more comfortable in 2-d still. . .

i can’t wait to show you the versatility of the gocco and the role that it can play in etching! that’s coming up next week. . .

as far as the shop goes, don’t worry, there will be new items from brand new designers arriving this week including wallets, memo pads, and new jewelry. . . exciting!

oh, and aside from all of this, i decided to dust off the good ‘old sewing machine again. this was my inspiration :

i picked up this book yesterday at fairly new neighborhood boutique, red tree.

wow!! thank you to EVERYONE who came out to pile of craft, who organized pile of craft, who sponsored pile of craft, who was a vendor at pile of craft. thank you thank you! it was more of a success than i could have imagined. saturday was about the happiest, funnest, and proudest moment i’ve had in a very long time. THREE CHEERS FOR BALTIMORE. THREE CHEERS FOR THE CHARM CITY CRAFT MAFIA! (wiping happy tear away).

as for photos, the mafia has set up a flickr! group here. a huge thanks to amber of the norfolk craft mafia for all of her awesome photos.

of course, i must do a purchase recap right? i was so busy that the only thing i walked away with was
1. biggs and featherbelle soap (handlebar)- what was i thinking only buying one bar of soap?? i’m going to get several and tuck them away in corners of my house to keep it smelling fresh
2. a print from undisign (the one i picked up is not pictured on the site)

i failed to purchase an awesome kirkature lamp (picture by amber):
woe is me!!

all over the press

wow! i spent the whole day doing design research on the web. i realized 2 things: i love my mac mini and i love the campfire goods site: chock full of bright tasty visuals and fun to navigate as well.

Over the weekend, I was lucky enough to have some time to chat with David and Maggie from BANG, two awesome designers based out of Brooklyn. I bought one of their shirts at the Art Star Craft Bazaar, and I like it so much, I decided to use my one yearly blog post to talk about them. I’m a big fan of their bold color selections, and layered prints, but they have a number of other styles if that’s not your taste. They won’t be at Pile of Craft, but they do their thing at the Market NYC and online.

just added (or soon to be added at least!)

adorable ink & wit postcard packs
new necklaces from the broken plate
cards from kate sutton and kaori kasai (not pictured- restock of lart’s “sugar balloon“)
the brand new hardback from nikki mcclure, “collect raindrops“- the largest collection of nikki’s work in one book.

enjoy! more coming soon. . .

i arrived at st. john’s church at the crack of dawn this morning (5:00 a.m.!) with members of the charm city craft mafia to tape three live segments for the local fox network on pile of craft! what fun! the live segments aired this morning at 6:10, 7:10 and 8:10.

after setting up and watching the first taping, i rushed home at 7:00 to take pictures of my television! each segment included demonstrations on applying decals to ceramics, screenprinting, knitting, and appliqueing. i am so proud! good job everyone!

the set up

what it looked like on tv!

that’s fort cloudy demo-ing and heather talking the show up.

and a beautiful image of the pile of craft venue from fort cloudy:

believe it or not, the only two things i picked up for myself at renegade were

1. a long coveted wooden ring from something’s hiding in here (see my post about the lovely couple on 2modern) and
2. a subscription to venus magazine - venus was right across the way from our booth. (earrings by me!)

it was much too hot for me to walk around to take pictures- here are the few that i did take:
-a lovely customer stopping by to say “hello!”- she is wearing my “bird friends” earrings purchased online (no longer available)!
-some booth shots

my favorite moment of all time was when goil of top design stopped in and made a purchase. yes, i squealed. yes, i jumped up and down. but NO, i have no pictures to share. sigh.

thank you brooklyn! and thank you to all of our brooklyn friends who put us up for the night and hung out with our sweaty selves! xoxo

wow! it’s already time to pack up and head to brooklyn for the renegade craft fair- how did that happen? if you’re in the area please stop by and say hi! we are booth number 82 (are you writing that down?). we will be debuting some new items that are not yet in the store including ink & wit stationary, broken plate jewelry, and jewelry made by me!

the store will be shut down this afternoon through monday morning, so if you have your eye on something- now’s the time to grab it!

of course, i will still be guest blogging at 2modern on sunday (you dont’ want to miss this one, i promise!). have a great weekend! xoxo

another fellow member of the charm city craft mafia is bake sale designs. no, bake sale designs isn’t exactly about cookies and scones (though rebecca does happen to make the BEST brownies). shop rebecca’s handmade creations including handbags, pins, scarves and more at the official store and see her regularly at her blog. she has quite the eye for vintage fabric (her main ingredient)!