Craft Fairs, I'm Back!

After a little over a year off, in which I focused on teaching and job transitioning, I rejoined the craft fair game with San Francisco Center for the Book's annual Holiday Fair this past December (yes, yes, I am super late getting these images posted, don't hate me!). 

Since I no longer have a car, I have to rely on public transit (AC Transit, BART, and Muni here in the Bay Area) to schlep all my stuff to and fro. While it's obviously not ideal, I never back down from a challenge and one's display can always use improvement. 

Traveling on public transit also meant that I had to re-assess just how much I took both in terms of product quantity, and display materials. The card holders were a must but everything else I was bringing from items to sell to my tablecloth and 'Santa's cookies' all had to fit in a single rolling suitcase. This meant playing more with surface level display as opposed to building up with stands and supports.  

Instead of having back-up product stashed below the table, I actually used it to stack items on top of themselves within the table display to give a leveled/layered appearance. Finding a balance between looking professional and putting my products' best feet forward while maintaining a fun, slightly chaotic feel was a challenge with this set-up and I can definitely perfect what I've done for future set-ups. I do think this style adds to the 'garage sale' nature of my booth design which, with handmade chalk board price tags (made on playing cards this time), table cloth, etc, has been my aim for the most recent shows I've participated in. 

I found the show to be a lot of fun, and also a great success. Of course, a lot of this can be attributed to the lovely attendees to the event, but I'd like to think my display and design contributed to my success, at least a bit.

While I'm 'back in the game', I am still new to the art and craft world and the craft fair world. I don't as of yet have anything else booked for 2015 but don't worry, you can bet there will be more and more chances for you to see my work in person (and say hi!) in the future instead of being restricted only to my Etsy shop. 

An Update

Long time, no see, blog world! With a {somewhat} recent change in jobs and other life changes, I have been kept quite busy and, unfortunately, away from the computer.

Here's an update of some of the things I've been up to since my last post:

Still on a repurposing craze after the cereal box books I made for Craftcation, I created a new journal made from 6-pack containers; 

 

I was lucky enough to be a vendor at the spring Patchwork Oakland where neon sprinkles studio debuted a new display set-up and a new sign;

I taught a few more sessions of Introduction to Bookbinding at the San Francisco Center for the Book;

After class, I turned some of the scraps from our books into mini accordion books.

I moved. This photo was taken right after the move, I haven't had much time for unpacking so it's still pretty accurate...

 I decided I was tired of my mousy brown hair and had a little fun with hair dye;

I started working on hand-drawn patterns for some new products and a class that I will hopefully debut this fall;

And I took my first ever trip to a Russian grocery store. I couldn't read the packing but I could admire it.

Lately

Things have been quiet on the blog because I've been quite busy in the real world. 

At the end of April I taught a session of Introduction to Bookbinding at the San Francisco Center for the Book. I say this after every class but, April's workshop was the best one yet! One of the things I really enjoy about teaching bookmaking is that it's such a universal object form that everyone can understand (even the e-reader folks). In this particular workshop I had the pleasure to teach bankers, lawyers, art students, and even a database manager!

A few days after the workshop I was back at the San Francisco Center for the Book for an evening of simple bookmaking demos at the grand (re)opening (a big open house celebrating the move to a bigger and better building). 

I spent the night teaching visitors how to make maze, or meander, books. These are fun, simple structures made out of a single sheet of paper. I like them because they can open in any direction and have all these secret little spots to discover and they can also be flattened to view a single image all at once, instead of page by page (like this one, made out of a photocopied map of Michigan). 

Just some of the happy folks with their aMAZEing books!

Not sure if I remembered to mention it but, on Mother's Day, I will be a vendor at Patchwork Oakland! It will be the first time I have an entire booth space to myself and I couldn't be more excited. I've made some new products for the show (just wait until tomorrow's post) and Charlie even built me a folding wall to ramp up my display.

I've been working hard to get the word out about the show (I hope you'll stop by!) and one way I decided to invite folks was by seinding out customized event postcards. 

With scrap paper, washi tape, scissors, a hole punch, and some kitchen twine to tie it all together (craft pun alert!) I made these fun little invites. I have a few left over, if you'd like one of your very own, let me know!

Views from SF ZineFest 2012

I had the honor of spending this weekend vending at the SF ZineFest. It was great, as usual, my fellow vendors were friendly and the visitors were wonderful. 

This year I had a full table, with a lot more items to sell, and I also lead a workshop so, I was pretty busy and hardly had a chance to leave my table. Here are some shots of the views I had from behind my table.

Of course, what I saw most was my own table and wares. I used some old books to display items this time around.

Vending to my left was Annie Yu of Curbside Treasure. I love Annie, and she makes great stationary sets and zines. Her bubbly personality makes her a great co-vendor throughout the long days.

Just across the aisle was Monstark. Their monster images are a bit disturbing while also being well executed and fun. Their wolf head was also a great conversation starter.

Of course, how could I could home without getting some zines for myself? I got a pretty large stack, stay tuned this month as I read through them all and review them.

Holiday Fair Preparations

Card scoring station

On Saturday, December 10, I will be vending at the Holiday Fair at the San Francisco Center for the Book as neon sprinkles studio. So, for the past few days, I've been doing some prep: making new cards, scoring, sleeving, and labeling items. 

Pre-press

My little play on words/geometry

First color

I thought some cheerful cards were in order this holiday season