Results tagged “crafts”

The Bay Bridged, Noise Pop,Tartufi, and WhizBang Fabrics bring you the 2nd annual Rock Make Street Festival this Sunday. The six-hour party will consist of approximately 60 Bay Area vendors selling their handicrafts, visual arts, and fashion, nestled between two stages featuring 12 local bands, including Tartufi, Music for Animals, The Don'ts, and the Odawas.

Another weekend full of fun events is soon upon us. FuncheapSF and The Squid List have exhaustive lists, and here are a few highlights.

FLASH MOB: Ok, folks, it's apparently time for yet another flash mob. This one will last five minutes, and everyone will be singing the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends" (in the key first note Ab). They suggest bringing a walkman or mp3 player to brush up on the song and to bring friends, of course.

We're not sure how much we buy into shopping as the panacea for economic woes, but it sure is fun. Two of our favorite shopping events of the year are upon us. Tonight get your fix of local DIY craftiness at the ReadyMade Magazine's Winter Ball and Craft Show. It runs 6:30-9:30 at the Verdi Club (2424 Mariposa St). Expect Indie radness, extreme craftiness, reasonable prices and a cash bar.

We already decided to only leave the house for essentials this weekend, like liquor and toothpaste, so we were thrilled to stumble upon one last 'best of' list for 2007. Craftster, the hub for all things handmade has compiled the most comprehensive list of the best craft projects from 2007. A bonus of this forum-based site is that most crafters post step-by-step instructions and photos for making the projects they list. We're bookmarking this for a little DIY inspiration in 2008.

Craft blogs are full of inspiring handmade gift ideas this month, here's a round-up of some of our favorites.

If you haven't made it to the Curiosity Shoppe yet, what are you waiting for? It's one of our new favorite shops on Valencia Street. After having an e-commerce site for a year we were thrilled to hear that owners Lauren Smith and Derek Fagerstrom were setting up a brick and mortar spot in our fair city. Not only do we adore the choice of products for sale in the shop, we're big fans of their blog, Smarts & Crafts. Lauren and Derek have also been posting every Wednesday over at Design Sponge , sharing great project ideas for fixing up any space. And now they've teamed up with Todd Oldham to host a holiday crafting challenge on You Tube. Or at least that's Todd up there in their shop asking people to send in videos of their favorite holiday crafts and DIY projects. Winners will be posted on the You Tube homepage so get out that camera and get crafting.

Originally starting out as a postcard show, the LAB now invites artists to sell anything they can fit in a small box provided by them. Original pieces ranging from $1-$30.

The DIY cool kids are having their holiday bash tonight, and you, yes you, can get in on the action. We like ReadyMade parties because of all the style tips we get by gawking at all the hipness that surrounds us. The holiday party is especially great because local merchants, makers, and creative people hock their wares for the first two hours. It's the perfect place to pick up a unique and cool present. Follow SFist's shopping credo, "one for you, one for me". Somehow we think even Reverend Billy might approve.

Intimated by Martha Stewart? Of course you are. But Apartment Therapy has a nice round up of Thanksgiving Table settings they found on Flickr. These are worth browsing for some last minute inspiration.

This lifted our sad, oil soaked hearts. The Craft Gym will be hosting their 2nd annual Craft-Off competition this Friday. Following the model of Iron Chef, there will be a secret 'ingredient' revealed to teams before the 30-minute DIY battle begins. A random assortment of craft supplies and tools will be available for teams to use in the creation of their creative masterpieces. Prizes will be awarded to the winning team, who will be...

No not Plushies, you perv. Softies. Who doesn't like watching cute handmade creatures come to life? Created by Andrew Moran and yours truly. Happy Friday....

If you missed the great piece on decor stores that also act as galleries in yesterdays SF Chron be sure to check it out here. Anh-Minh Le does a great job of profiling some unique shops that support local artists and crafters. And as if shopping in these stores wasn't enough, this weekend presents itself with some great excuses to visit. Folklore: Drawings and Paintings by Diana Fayt Tonight! 6:30-8:30pm Candy Store - 3153...

If you've been using that awesome crafty google map of San Francisco you have Leslie Yang to thank. Leslie is a member of the San Francisco Craft Mafia, and runs Feisty Elle where she sells her sassy handmade accessories. Craftwork recently talked to Leslie about running a small business in San Francisco, the community here, and some of her favorite local crafty spots.

View Larger Map

Ever think of starting your own crafty business? Want to meet a bunch of people who have, including a local author who wrote a book on the topic? Or maybe you just want to surround yourself with booze and cute people? Whatever your flavor, head downtown to 111 Minna tomorrow night for the book-launch party of Craft, Inc. by Meg Mateo Ilasco. The party is being hosted by Rare Device, a hip housewares store in Brooklyn, which will open its doors on Market Street at the end of the month.

With a crafty event happening every day this weekend there's no reason to stay inside, so take your pick or hit up all three of these excellent events.

We wanted to make a matchbook out of our July fast pass. We saw the pictures in our head and everything, how fitting, right? Well, that project will have to wait for another month, because our friends over at Readymade Magazine sent us some very cool Shrinky Sheets and we couldn't wait to rip into them.

Looking to do some crafty shopping or have something you've been making that you want to share with the world? Here are a few ways to get your fix. Modern Times, one of our favorite independent bookstores in the city, will be hosting their first ever craft fair in August and there's still time to register to sell your crafty goods. For up to the minute registration forms and info check out their myspace page. When: August 11th Noon-8pm Registration deadline: August 1st We've already told you how much we love the SF Craft Mafia, meet them for yourself and do some crafting with them on August 12th at Stitch Lounge. The event will feature DIY activities, including jewelry making, clothing customization, and cupcake makeovers.

Oooh, we love giving stuff away -- and this one's for the dedicated craftster/stoner crowd -- the good folks at the hip DIY local publisher Chronicle Books want to teach you how to build your own bong. Duuuuuuuude!

Once a month we're going to start giving you a crafty idea for what to do with the previous month's fast pass. We're calling it '"Muni Makeover," but we're totally open to a title change, so let us know if you have any suggestions. Also, we know lots of people who have done clever things with old BART tickets, fast passes, and bus transfers. If you're one of them, send pictures of your projects to sfist.crafts@gmail.com and we'll post them here. And if you make something we post about here, we'd love to see a picture of your final project, so send it along!

Who needs the Sopranos when there’s the San Francisco Craft Mafia? That’s right, we said craft mafia. You got a problem with that? We hope not, because this group is taking over the city, organizing crafters of all stripes, helping to build up a community and a movement that’s showing no signs of slowing down.

We know you're inundated with craft fairs these days. And while we're not complaining either, once in a while we want something a little different, which is why we're excited about the Maven Fair happening this Saturday in San Francisco. Maven Fair is described as an urban design and craft fair devoted exclusively to promoting the work of women artists, with a special emphasis on emerging women of color designers. The fair promises to bring innovative, quirky and exquisite goods, one of a kind jewelry, housewares, baby goods, accessories and clothes and judging from the sneak peak of what will be on sale they aren't lying. Could we pull off wearing this eyehand necklace? We're not really sure, but we love the weathered look of it and it's so very different than all the charm necklaces we're seeing around these days. We're also fans of these bingo bobby pins, made from vintage bingo playing pieces, created by the organizer of the fair you can also by them at her online shop, The Weekend Store. But maybe you just want something simple and pretty for mom? Looks like there will be lots of simple and pretty in the form of earrings, necklaces and tote bags. Maven Fair is this Saturday, May 12th from 11am-4pm at 1021 Sanchez street.

While we should have been writing this post we spent a little too much time getting lost in the fabulousness that is Naughty Secretary Club. We suggest you head on over there and reward your desk sitting butts by taking advantage of their annual Administrative Assistants Week sale happening from April 22-28th. Everything on the site is 25% off. And they've also just added over 100 new items. Just in case you needed another distraction today. And if anyone wants to buy our desk sitting butts anything we're totally in love with the blue beehive ring. We all know about Wikipedia. But now us crafters have our very own wiki (can anyone say that word without feeling the like comic book guy from the Simpson’s?) to turn to. Craftacular is just getting started but it's striving to be a great community driven site, which includes not just definitions but also knowledge, patterns, and resource links. You can start a new page, edit an existing one or offer up a tutorial an original pattern. Pretty neat. So are these Microscope Slide Brooches we found by Robin Beam while spending some time on Craftacular.

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.

We're tired. The kind of tired you can only get from walking a trade show floor. If you've never been to a trade show imagine a mall full of things you actually want to buy, things you just need to have. And just when you think your feet are ready to give out, your over stimulated brain gives them one last push to walk the never ending floor. This is how we felt last night when we got a sneak peak at the Bead Expo, one of the largest consumer bead shows in the country- right in our backyard for the entire weekend at the Oakland Convention Center. We settled on a fine loot of vintage beads, pearls, chain so cheap we don't know how we only bought a yard's worth, tons of charms and lots of beads we know we don't really need but couldn't pass up for the price. We had wholesaler badges, but it didn't seem to matter at most booths, except for the one where we were told some wire we were looking at was $64 a spool but then when our badge was seen the price went down to $32, we didn't need wire that badly. If you are a wholesaler you can buy in large quantities and get a great discount at the show, but the public is also welcome and the prices are still great.

We know this is very Martha Stewart of us and we'll admit maybe we were a little brain washed on our recent Jet Blue flight, where we got to watch hours of Martha on direct TV (and how excited are we that Jet Blue will be flying out of SFO starting May 3rd? SO excited), but holidays are a great excuse for some crafty activity. So pull out the ugly wicker baskets and peeps. Truth be told we were never huge fans of oversized chocolate bunnies, but we're coveting these faux ones from Jek in the Box, looks like there are only a few left in her Etsy shop, but these would also be really fun to try and make.

In the spirit of the plastic bag ban we thought we'd weigh in with some of our own suggestions. We think CNN's Glenn Beck needs a new dress. Maybe when he sends all the plastic bags he's so sweetly collecting for San Francisco we can knit him one. The Craft blog always has what we're looking for and that's where we saw this amazing 1950's dress knit completely out of plastic grocery bags, wouldn't it just be darling on Beck? The dress was made by Cathy Kasdan, she created it for her thesis project and we encourage you to read her explanation of it on the Craft blog. Craft also has links to some fantastic tuturials on how to make yarn out of plastic bags you can read about them here and here. You can also read a great tuturial on how to crochet with plastic bags over at Craft Central . And because the things people have created out of plastic bags are so impressive (and we're still a little jet lagged from our trip back east) we thought we'd stop typing and just give you some pictures of what we found. . .

We just saw The Science of Sleep, please don't fault us for it. Please don't tell us how we're oh so late in mentioning this brillant movie. You'll just ruin the high we still have from seeing it. We loved every second of it, the characters, the cellophane water, the music, but most of all we couldn't get over the craft of it. We do mean to give a nod here to the amazing Michel Gondry, but really we want to talk about the woman behind the creatures that brought the dream seqeunces to life, Lauri Faggioni. How have so many people talked to us about this film and not mentioned Faggoni's creations? Her birds, ponies, and plush typewriters? No matter, we're just thrilled we know about her fabulous fiber art now. The Science of Sleep got our minds racing in so many ways, we thought about how nice it was to see craft used in film, how essential it was in creating all the many surreal layers of the movie. But after watching the little featurette on Lauri Faggioni in her studio, talking about all of her projects, we sort of got obsessed with the idea of making creatures and stuffed phones ourselves, and then we did some digging for more inspiration. Here's some of what we found. Flock of mini-chicks created and photographed by Stephanie Barnes of Little Birds.