Friday, September 28, 2007

Consider Me Bummed or The Good and Bad of LA Crafting

Well, Felt Club is a no go for me. It's a bummer. There is a list of the accepted vendors up on their website. My would be Felt Club table splitter Marianne thinks that most of the people accepted are people with fairly successful webshops/cottage industries. Double bummer! How are unexperienced littles like Marianne and I to move up in this crafty world? Boo. I'm down. LA is a place with plenty of hipsters willing to buy awesome crafts but the opportunities to get your stuff out there seem to be few and far between.
Since I was really gearing up mentally to craft my ass off for Felt Club I think that I need to redirect that energy into revitalizing my Etsy shop. Well maybe just vitalizing it. I don't think there is any "re" about it. That thing has been a sad sack since it's inception. Well no more! Robot Chicken Season 3 is coming to an end and I will have two glorious months to sew sew sew.
By the way, have you all met Marianne? She is a super talented graphic designer and crafter and she is married to a coworker of ours. I do not know of very many craft bloggers who live in LA so you can imagine how neat it is to know someone in the real world and then learn that they are all crafty and bloggy! Marianne's blog, Conejo/Coneja documents her forays into all sorts of crafts including some great video game inspired projects like this Megaman block print.

You can read this post and this post to find out a little about how she did this. It is very cool.
And speaking of craft bloggers in LA, I recently discovered Mari's blog. I was so excited to find someone in my area who makes such amazing, beautiful things! Mari's style is very clean and fresh, very Japanese inspired. She also works at the PurlSoho warehouse which makes me extremely jealous and has posted a great tutorial on the Purl Bee blog. Mari has even inspired me to do some pro cat knitting. Her pusses look so sweet in these little "kitty pies" that I feel I must go out to my local yarn shop asap (they open in one minute, better get dressed!) and knit myself some pi.
And while I'm on the subject of LA bloggers, I certainly can't leave out Mary Heather of Rainy Day Goods. Oddly enough, Mary Heather was one of the very first people (who I didn't know in real life) to ever notice my little old blog, way back when. She is an amazing knitter who has patterns published in several books including "Greetings from the Knit Cafe".
It is very strange that Mary Heather was one of the first people I connected with in the blog world and she happened to live around here. LA craft bloggers seem to be so few and far between. Or is it just me? These three ladies are the only one's I'm aware of. Am I wrong? I know you must be out there! I don't know why exactly be I really love to read about the exploits of people who I have something in common with and since I am a New England girl stuck in LA I love to read about other people experiencing this city along with me.
Oh! I just thought of another. Crazy Aunt Purl is a great LA blogger who always has lots of fun/ridiculous LA stories. Despite the name though, she is much more of a super funny self-helpy kind of blogger than a craft blogger. She does live in the San Fernando Valley though, as do I and posts beaucoup photos of her cats. I LOVE that!

5 comments:

  1. Sorry to hear about the felt club, they are definitely missing out on some great crafts from you.

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  2. Anonymous5:53 AM

    i have spent a decade of my life working in graphic design/art direction in medium to large advertising agencies. submitting to felt club (to me)sounds similar showing your book (portfolio) in an interview or pitching your campaign in a creative shoot out or internal review. just because they said no, really has no bearing on who you are, how nice your crafts are (which are lovely btw) or really anything about you at all. i don't know much about felt club, or what the response was from them, but i would say brush it off, keep trying, and if you want in, keep knocking on their door until they either 1) let you in or 2) call the cops. my bet is #1 will happen first. :)

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  3. Sorry about felt club. If the November one is anything like the last one you are probably lucky you didn't get a booth so you don't die of heat exhaustion.

    I live in LA (well Hermosa) and have a craft blog though it's not much of one and I pretty much no one reads it. I'm sure there are ton's of other LA craft bloggers out there.

    Anyway, I love your stuff. You should try for bizarre bazaar if the deadline hasn't already closed.

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  4. Total bummer on the felt club, but I'm glad to hear that you're going to be sewing lots in the next few months!

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  5. I know I'm commenting on a 3+ year old post -- hope you find my comment lurking on your dashboard! I found your blog while perusing the LAMQG site. I'm a native Valley Girl who now lives in the Denver area. I'm planning a trip back to LA next month, and I want to take a friend to a quilt shop that carries popular modern designs (Moda, Free Spirit, etc.). But it's been so long since I lived in LA, I don't know where to go! Can you point me in the direction of one or two shops that Modern Quilt-type people frequent, especially in the 213/323/818/626 area? Thank you so much if you can help! You can also email me if you'd like: mkarr [at] creativecraftsgroup [dot] com.
    Happy Thanksgiving!

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