Results tagged “christinaloff”

Alison Gordon -- crafter of WonderlandQ (http://www.wonderlandq.com), co-organizer of Bazaar Bizarre and Sampler Contributor Relations super hero very recently faced a medical emergency. Like many other independent artists and crafters, Alison is without health insurance.

Want to know how we spent our sunny Saturday afternoon? It involved some good friends, white wine, and lots of beads. We wanted to craft and enjoy the summer weather we were having, so we dragged our city feet over to the East Bay for a beading party. Not only was it warmer on the other side of the bay, but our friends over there have a nice big yard perfect for crafting in the sun. We brought our bins of beads, stopped off for some supplies on the way, and had a lovely afternoon. When you bead with friends not only can you swap beads and supplies, it's also the perfect time to share skills and teach each other different techniques. Start with an easy project like a necklace or drop earrings. We know that lots of people don't have time to make their own jewelry, but after you learn how to make a pair of earrings you'll never look at store bought ones the same way again. Once you get some basics down, you can make those $50 earrings for about $5, and feel proud showing off your handy work to everyone. We've been buying beads in the city for a while now, so we thought we should share some of our favorite places to get supplies. We'd love to hear about your favorite spots to buy beads, so feel free to leave comments with any places we didn't list and may not know about.

What, you don't believe in Santa Claus? Don't tell Dr.Lloyd Darrow, a self-proclaimed 'Santa-ologist', whose made it his life's mission to uncover the truth about this elusive fat man who visits us just once a year. Darrow's proof the jolly man exists include a lost video from a 1949 polar expedition, the Santa Papyrus dating from 1342 B.C., and an actual jingle bell found in the wreckage at Roswell, New Mexico.

Whether you knew him or were just moved by the Kim family tragedy this past December, the Kim family invites you to celebrate his life this Saturday in Golden Gate Park.

We hope you already know that two of the best craft and DIY magazines available right now are born and bred in our lovely backyard. Don't worry, we'll forgive you if you weren't aware that ReadyMade and Craft are both products of Northern California, but you've got no excuse if you don't make them both part of your regular magazine reads. ReadyMade, who recently moved its headquarters from Oakland to Berkeley, has had a spot on our bookshelves long before we started seeing copies of it for sale in Urban Outfitters. In classic magazine format, it features music and book reviews, eco friendly tips for you and your home, and pages of projects to build. Each issue is clearly themed, although recycling and reusing have been common threads throughout ReadyMade's life span. One of our favorite sections is the Macgyver page, which asks readers for suggestions on breathing new life into items you may be ready to toss. The most creative entry wins and is pictured in the magazine.

We saw our first Sampler two years ago while interning at the ReadyMade offices in Oakland. We looked on eagerly as a big thick envelope arrived stuffed with handmade goodies that included buttons, magnets, cards and other crafty items. You know the feeling of getting a nice handwritten letter from an old friend? Add that with Christmas and that's sort of what receiving the Sampler is like, except you also learn about new artists, crafters and DIY organizations in the process. An excellent resource for crafters who want to learn about other crafters, people who appreciate the arts but don't make them, and independent DIYer's trying to spread the word about what they're up to. Marie Kare is the woman behind the Sampler. A crafter herself, she's innovative and energetic, which, we imagine she has to be, she puts together hundreds of Sampler packages each month. Craftwork was lucky enough to steal some of Marie’s time recently, so read on and find out about the story behind the Sampler.

You feel important standing there, in the cold of the Tenderloin night, hitting the buzzer next to the intimidating big brown door, a group of friends behind you, all just like you—a little nervous and curious as to what will be behind that door, or if you will even be let in. When the door does crack open there’s a pretty hostess on the other side, looking the crowd of you over suspiciously, as if she were your paranoid aunt in Indiana, unsure of even answering the door so late at night. Except your not in Indiana, your smack in the middle of one of San Francisco’s ugliest neighborhoods, eagerly waiting to be given entry into the much talked about Bourbon & Branch. You’re let in only after you give the pretty gatekeeper the password, which none of you want to mutter, mostly because you feel like an asshole not being let into a bar before saying a password. To be clear, you can’t say, “Roger, party of six”, you have to say “Boogie Boogie”, or some equally ridiculous word or phrase given to you after you made your reservations at the exclusive Bourbon and Branch.

Image from My Paper Crane It's been a productive year for us. Between knitting and cupcakes, we've been crafting up a storm. But our favorite new craft has absolutely no function other than looking cute. We're talking about softies, soft homemade (although they don't have to be) toys that may not be all that functional but are certainly fun to make and coo at. For inspiration head on over to my paper crane, where master softie maker Heidi Kenney has an incredible gallery of softies for sale. Flickr of course has a great gallery of softies as well as some fabulous pictures of amigurumi. Amigurumi is the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed toys. These beauties take a little more skill and time, but they're certainly fun to look at. We made our first softie this weekend and although it took most of the afternoon, we're going to blame that on our hangover and not the skill level required to make a softie. A cupcake may have been a bit ambitious for our first ever hand sewn toy, but it made a cute birthday present and Richard seemed to appreciate its homemade appeal.

In case you don't think there's anything crafty about baking a batch of cupcakes, we've got the pictures to prove you wrong. And we've had so much sugar today, we doubt you would really want to argue with us. Maybe it was the decadent cakes and sweets we saw inMarie Antoinette, our hero Amy Sedaris's cupcake obsession, the new book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, cupcake blogs, or our own local cupcakeries, but we've been itching to make cupcakes for months now. Lucky for us we have a good friend who happens to be a pastry chef (not that you need a pastry chef in your life to make cupcakes, we're just less baking savvy then most). Sure, part of crafting is the satisfaction of planning, playing, and making something permanent with your hands. But baking is as much an art as any craft out there. And there's something just as satisfying in mixing, measuring, baking and then eating your creation. Cupcakes are the perfect palate for some edible artistry.

Before we go into our craft blog round-up for the week we wanted to be sure to give a nod to the great work Lisa Congdon and her family did on the art auction for the Kim family. Lisa, Gerrie Congdon, and Stephanie Barnes organized an amazingly successful auction which raised a total of $16,899.11. The generosity of both the people who bid and the talented artists who donated their work was astounding. All of the money will be donated to the James Kim Memorial Fund, and anyone who would like to give but didn’t get a chance to can donate money directly to the fund.

There was no shortage of craft books on the market this year. From knitting to t-shirt reconstructing more and more crafters are sharing their ideas with the world.

Feeling inspired from all the amazing arts and crafts you've been seeing every weekend in December? We know we are. While we love supporting our local artists we also don't mind pulling up our sleeves and getting some glitter and glue under our fingernails once in a while. Home made gifts don't have to be perfect, after all, part of their charm is that your little hands made them and not someone else's.

We're sure you're familiar with the brooding dark haired girl known as Emily the Strange. Clothing, shoes, comic books, calendars, CD's, you name it, Emily's done it. And Sfist is proud to call Emily a native to the Bay Area. Rob Reger and an illustrator for Emily, Buzz Parker, will be signing books at Things From Another World this Saturday at their Metreon location in San Francisco, be sure to go and get something signed. In case you don't already have an Emily book to bring, Chronicle Books has offered free books and journals to three lucky SFist readers.

If the Chillin' show at the Mezzanine was any indication of how busy this years crop of Craft shows is going to be, we're in for a great December. With about 60 designers, several DJ's and what seemed like thousands of people, Saturday's show was one big, bumpin' party. At times it got a little too crowded for our tastes, making it hard for people to get to tables and actually see what designers were selling. But most of the designers seemed pretty happy, and really, it was just the beginning for many of them.

We're just as taken with the shiny new mall downtown as you are, but once you're inside it you may as well be in Wayne, New Jersey. Charm your friends and family this holiday season with some gifts you can only get in our lovely city, and rest easy knowing that you're helping local businesses and crafters thrive. Don't know all the local talent San Francisco has to offer, or where to shop for it? We're here for you.