I spent the weekend at CraftCon, a business development conference for the craft community. There were craft fair organizers, online and real world publishers and authors, Etsy shop owners and more there to learn and share. Before the first hour of the event had run, I had my THEMES for the weekend; they held with every valuable person I met:
TRUTH - STORY - MAKER - DO
That is every individual showed up in an authentic way, sharing their own TRUTH.
Each of us had a STORY to share that others wanted to hear.
Whether we use tools or our hands, we are the MAKERS of our lives and our crafts.
We were there as attendees and presenters because we believe that Craft is what we DO. It's Active not passive. It's process more than product.
Rather than yammer on about my experience, I'd like to instead simply introduce you to some of the fabulous folk I met this weekend. Please click through on every link and fall in love in the people I spent this weekend with.
First contact: Show organizer, shop owner, crafter and power woman extraordinaire is Rachel Lyra Hodspodor. Online, you can find Rachel at Medium Reality. There you will notice her shop info, Pandora's Trunk, her studio log and her paintings. Rachel is the embodiment of Make and Do. I stand in awe of her competence and grace.
First Love: Betsy Greer of Craftivism. Warm, intelligent, engaging, obscene, opinionated, honest, approachable, funny, believable. Now If you ever meet her, give her a big warm smack for me.
Now in no particular order:
Reverend Callie Janoff from the Church of Craft.. Beautiful, confident, engaging.
Garth Johnson from Extreme Craft. I kept thinking that Garth and Mo Rocca were separated at birth. That might explain it all.
The Pittsburg Contingent. My brain (and body) was freezing, but let's see: he travel to camps to work with hemophiliac kids and makes shrinky-dink art from recycled plastic. She in the middle just closed her Pittsburgh shop and can't wait to open a new one. And Jessica is all the warmth.
Jeanee Ledoux is the author of a book and co designer for Honeydoux jewelry.
Julia Cosgrove from ReadyMade Magazine. Spoke about getting published and gave us all hope.
Natalie Zee Drieu, Senior Editor of CRAFT.
Autumn Wiggins. Owner of Etsy shop String Theory, creator of websites extra-ordinaire (she designed CraftCon including the cute button button!), one of the show organizers. She can half-a-dozen hats at once and do so with grace.
Faythe Levine. I didn't actually meet Faythe (my disappointment), but she showed a new clip from the movie Handmade Nation that I've written about before. Faythe hopes to enter it into maybe SXSW or SunDance next year; let's cheer that she gets accepted! Here's a preview of the movie that's been running on YouTube:
Girl on the Rocks. She knits, she's a geologist, she likes cocktails. If you are a real life knitter friend (you know who you are Pickle pals and Blogher Babes...) STOP READING NOW. (are they gone yet? Good.) The rest of you go see her Etsy shop because she makes knit markers with instructions on them. (like a kitchener stitch marker), and I think that many of my friends should get these; yet I want to them always wonder who my "top secret source" is.
This is it so far. Some of the people I met. They are all passionate and wonderful and seem to be living out my take away from the meeting: They Tell, Make, Do. And let me tell ya, they have stories!
BTW, the sessions that were held in the main theater were recorded and will eventually be available as podcasts for everyone to hear. I'll keep ya posted as that happens. My little session was in the second theater (no recording) but Vanessa from Etsy live-blogged the weekend. Her wrap is published as part of Etsy's Storque.
And, I think I rocked it.
I also blog at: Deb's Daily Distractions and BlogHer on Mondays and Saturdays.
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