Promotion 101
Etsy Success Reading List
While Etsy is busy revising their internal advertising platform, daniellexo, has put together a great list of sites that contain a plethora of promotional tips to help anyone in indie biz. From building and marketing a Facebook page to creating a marketing calendar, promoting products via social networking and more, this is a great list to take note of of in the Etsy Forums.

Knit Fix
Martha Stewart Living Blog Tour: Mending Knits
CRAFT: Magazine was the first stop on the Martha Stewart Blog Tour with an article excerpt from Martha Stewart Living’s January issue about how to mend knits. Included is a free PDF download that highlights handy tidbits about how to repair tears in your favorite sweaters and fix ripped button holes. There’s even great must-have tool list that anyone who works with yarn should keep around.

Daily Handmade Picks
Created Treats
Being busy bodies at Hello Craft means that we don’t often have as much time as we’d like to scour the online craft community for the coolest goods… so we love it when folks like Christy Petterson do the leg work for us.  In her newest project, Created Treats, Petterson highlights her handmade picks of the day in this online portfolio. As a blogger, jewelry maker, organizer of the Indie Craft Experience and PR person by day, Petterson has a good eye for design as well as great taste for a variety of crafts. We recommend adding Created Treats to your RSS Feed for a daily dose of awesome.

Coolest, Teeny-Tiny Stop-Motion Animation
Dot
In this latest short, stop-motion film titled after it’s tiny heroine Dot, Aardman Animations has created one heck of a cute world that mixes adventure with craft notions. Shot entirely on a Nokia N8 with a CellScope, Dot is the winner of Guinness World Record for “Smallest stop-motion animation character in a film”. Hello Craft highly recommends watching this for inspiration during crafting sessions or at anytime you want to smile hard.

When To Work For Peanuts
Should I Work for Free?
Sometimes working on projects for free has it’s perks… and sometimes shelling out your skills for no dough will end up being the most dreadful, never-ending experience of your life. Anyone working in the world of freelance knows this fine line all too well, and should use this Should I Work for Free info graphic as a reminder of why and how to value your work.

Below are some of my favorite calendars. The Writing Women Calendar from groovygirl includes quotes from famous female writers like Sylvia Plath, Anais Nin and Gertrude Stein. Also, as I’ve been a bit obsessed with llamas lately, I’m particularly attracted to the Macchu Picchu image included in bruboo’s calendar, which features images of toy models the artist captured during her travels. Some of them, like the ones from AfricanGray and PaperSubmarine, allow you to customize the calendar by coloring or embellishing with your own design. No matter what your style, there are plenty of calendars to chose from. If I left one out, please share in the comments.

‘2011 Printable Calendars’

Printable 2011 postcard… flrwnx $3.00	2011 PRINTABLE CALENDAR… bubbo $9.00	DIY Tidepool Calendar 2… AfricanGrey $9.50
2011 Printable Writing … groovygrrl $5.00	2011 Fun Cubes Printabl… Reworkshop $4.50	cut-out – 2011 printabl… bialakura $6.00
2011 Printable Calendar… bluetricycle $5.00	2011 calendar – print a… ALittleHut $5.00	Eat More Veg 2011 Calen… LaurieCoyleDes… $20.00
DIY Blank Printable 201… PaperSubmarine $3.00	2011 Printable Write In… TheArtOfJoy $7.00	NEW Large 2011 Town Cal… TheSketchedBoo… $27.00
Creative Inspiration – … empapers $10.00	2011 Calendar Printable… printableproje… $5.00	2011 dodecahedral calen… Paper2Download $5.00

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

This weeks picks:

Online Magazine
UK Handmade Winter Issue
If you’re curious about what’s going on in the handmade community across the pond, this lovely online  magazine is worth a read. Their winter issue is a great place to get crafty ideas for yourself as well as your digs. Check out their latest winter issue for holiday crafting ideas.

Craft Show
Craftland Shop
This annual holiday shop is a favorite stop for many Rhode Islanders during the holiday season. At this month-long store, shoppers can get their mittens on super cool handmade goods from 170 artists. If you’re in the area be sure to register for their Farm Fresh RI Arts + Eats event, only $20 and includes yummy food and booze. Craftland Shop is located at 235 Westminster Street, Providence RI 02903.

Buy This
Boxsal
I love when functionality meets cute in a nice, neat way. Which is why I’m in love with Boxsal. This Texas-based company creates eco-friendly picnic boxes made from post-consumer waste. Their boxes are not only printed with stylish, clean designs, but they contain everything you need to have a a picnic wherever, whenever. And best of all- the utensils that come with the boxes are all compostable, making this a cute and environmentally-sound holiday gift.

Book Event
Pitch for Chairity
Ever dreamed about writing your own book? The folks at Chronicle Books might be able to help you out. This Wednesday, December 8th, from 3-5 p.m., go to their San Francisco office to pitch your book idea. You’ll receive in-person feedback from a Chronicle Books editor, and if they like what they hear and the project is a match, you might have a new career as a Chronicle author. This is an exciting offer from a great publishing company, so take a chance and get out there! A suggested donation of $10 will go to Habitat for Humanity.

PR for Hire
Miss Modish
One of our favorite Summit of Awesome speakers and blogger of all things kitch has a PR Firm geared toward us independent makers. Modish creator Jenna Coray has started Miss Modish- her own firm that can help those in the indie biz with all of their social networking and marketing needs, as well as general consulting and banner ad design. Coray is a true blogging force in the handmade community, so check Miss Modish out.

Secrets of Success
Keri Smith
As we all bounce around from one project to another, and from craft show to craft show, it’s easy to get lost in the stress fray and lose sight of the joys that got you started making stuff in the first place. In her 11/27 blog post, illustrator Keri Smith dishes on the mental tools that creative folks need to be successful and keep their success. This post is crazy peaceful, and although it was originally geared towards students in her Illustration class, her words of wisdom should ring true for every type of crafter.

The Future of Social Networking
TechCrunch
We all know that Facebook will take over the world even after the zombie apocalypse has come and gone, but who will it share its throne with? This and other questions (for the pre-zombie apocalyptic future), are discussed in the last installment of this TechCrunch series by Mark Suster.  As a majority of folks in the handmade community need to be on one networking platform or another to stay in business, it’s important to know where this information highway is headed. Suster points out some possible prospects that you can bet we’ll start to see within the next few years.

Since I heard that story, I have been captivated by the idea of the Narwhal. And it looks like I am not the only one. Indie craft seems to be exploding with images of the magical horned whale. Here are some of my favorites.

A Narwhal named Gob, by SquidInkKollective:

Don’t Forget the Donuts Print by NoosedKitty

NARWHAL Hand Cut Sterling Silver Pendant by Metalsmitten

Narwhal notebook on seafoam blue by Juliepeach

The wicked cool Narwhal makes owls look downright boring. Go Narwhal!

I read about the Just Work collective over on Poppytalk last week, and I immediately knew I needed to write about them. Here’s why: I spend a lot of time talking about sustainable craft, but generally the focus is on the sustainable materials it is made from, not how the work itself is sustaining people, or sustaining community.

Just Work is a non-profit organization located in Vancouver, British Columbia (Canada),
that gives people, often homeless or facing mental illness or addiction, a much-needed creative outlet. These people want to work, and through Just Work have a place to come, connect with people, be creative, and eventually gain skills that may help them re-enter the traditional work force.

From their website: The studio’s mission is to provide studio space, instruction, support, and employment opportunities for people in the neighbourhood who, due to economic or social barriers, have no access to a creative space.

I think we all know, especially as creatives, how frustrating it can be sometimes to not have any kind of outlet, to not feel like you are being productive, or contributing or helping yourself. Fostering creativity, giving people the chance to make something from scratch—with their own hands—and giving people a place to feel good about what they are doing—all of these are valuable, commendable contributions to the surrounding community, and the products coming out of Just Work are lovely, to boot. I am so happy to know that there are places like this out there. Does anybody know of any others?

No one loves mold. No one, except Elinart, that is. Elinart adorns purses, pillows and wall art with some pretty convincing mold. Take a look:

Mouldy wall art, $45

Ok. Now I have to stop messing around and go clean the fridge.

Hello crafty friends!

I am brimming with excitement and inspiration after attending/exhibiting at the Maker Faire and Bazaar Bizarre recently.  The Maker Faire is a place where science and art collide creating an amazing festival of interesting ideas and otherworldly contraptions.  Or as my friend pointed out “It’s like Burning Man without the sandstorms and  naked people.”

This blog post is not about the Maker Faire per se, but I will say that the gift that Maker Faire gave me was that I left there feeling the desire to do more, to think bigger.

Sometimes thinking bigger can mean making smaller.  So I wanted to share a few amazingly tiny or rather, seemingly tiny things.

Above are oil paintings by Amy Bennett.  I love the fact that Amy’s paintings look almost like miniature dioramas.

(via Booooooom)

Michael Samuels is a UK artist who made a series of mixed media miniature sculptures on resin seascapes.

If you are at all like me and have a desire to see absolutely everything in miniature then check out these tilt-shift videos.

(thanks to my brother for the link)

I recently found and can’t stop thinking about these awesome converted toy guns by River Wraith.

Can you believe this is a converted Nerf gun, made of plastic? It has been painted, aged, and sealed with a gloss. The gun no longer fires Nerf bullets. It is strictly a prop or costume gun. For just $28.00, this gun makes me want to write and film my own little space opera.

And look at this one!

Seriously, these are amazing. Check out River Wraith for even more.

Sometimes I feel bad when my friends come out to see me at a show because I worry that they are bored seeing the same things over and over again. So I was interested when Jonah sorta brought this up. He mentioned to me that while he is really excited by the DIY spirit of the handmade movement, he is interested in buying more “useful” items. That he would like to be able to find handmade hub cabs or whatever he may actually need. That while he loves things like badges and t-shirts, he doesn’t feel like he needs anymore of those. I pressed him a little on what kinds of things he is looking for and we all sorta drew a blank.

So I decided to search for some useful things for Jonah. Here’s what I found.

1. Remodeling the bathroom? You may need this Wall Mount Pine Double Roll Toilet Paper Holder / Magazine Rack by ctmillwork for just $34.99. Screw you, Home Depot.

2. More remodeling to do? How about this Unicorns are People Too Switch Plate by nowvember for $8.

3. Replace the plastic bags forever with SIX PACK Paper or Plastic No Thank You upcycled t-shirt grocery bags by zJayne.

4. I don’t know anyone who wears a tie unless they have to. So if you have to wear a tie for that event, there’s no reason to just get one in a store. Check out Toybreaker for handmade ties that don’t suck like this one for $30.

5. Everyone needs deodorant, right? I love the soap products from New Jersey based Bunny Butt Apothecary. But it looks like they are now in the deodorant business, too.

6. Why pick up a boring thumb drive at Best Buy when you can get one made with a real stick like this 4gb flash drive from Woodtec ($62)?

7. Need a new dog collar? Totally get a handmade one for $15.50 from Retro Animals.

8. I never know that I need a clip board until the minute that I do, so I picked up one of these circuit board clip boards ($18.50) from Debby Arem Designs

Finding this list has made me think more about what handmade items I want vs. the ones that I actually need. Hopefully it will make me make my handmade shopping more “need-based” in the future. But when it comes to handmade stuffs, the “wants” are so awesome it is hard to say no!

It is Luke in the dead Tauntaun from Star Wars. She writes that this piece is for a show later this summer called Stitch Wars .

Is it just me, or doesn’t this piece need blood? Isn’t it interesting that she leaves the blood out?

Check out Heidi’s blog for more photos of this amazing piece.