2010 Summit of Awesome Speakers

Promote the Summit * Register * Summit Info * The Show of Awesome * Schedule * Travel Info

The Summit of Awesome is three days of business and technical education seminars as well as hands-on workshops produced by the non-profit Hello Craft. Taking place in the Alberta Arts District of Portland, OR, from June 16 to 18, this year’s Summit is co-produced by Hello Craft’s event partners and PDX craft superstars, Crafty Wonderland and DIY Lounge. Summit seminar topics range from how to organize craft fairs and develop successful product lines to teaching crafters how to prepare taxes and form LLC’s. At the 2nd annual Summit, Craftnote speakers are crafty renaissance man Mark Montano and BuyOlympia founders Pat Castaldo and Aaron Tuller. Full speaker list can be found here. A special addition to this year’s event is the “Show of Awesome,” a 40-vendor craft show on Saturday, June 19, at Doug Fir Lounge.

• Susan Beal
West Coast Crafty

Susan Beal is a writer and crafter in Portland, Oregon and the author of Bead Simple and Button It Up (and the co-author of Super Crafty!). I also write a blog called West Coast Crafty, and have contributed to several of my favorite craft books, including Craft Corps, Applique Your Way, and Handmade Nation. I teach at Pacific Northwest College of Art and write for CRAFT:, Stitch, and other magazines and websites, and I love to drink coffee, make terrariums and sew cool things for my daughter Pearl.”

• Bridget Benton
Eyes Aflame

Bridget Benton founded Eyes Aflame in 2002 so that she could do what she loves – making stuff, and helping other people make stuff. She holds a Master’s Degree in Creative Studies, and has learned a lot about the creative process and how to make it work better in artmaking and business. Currently, Bridget shares her talents with the Small Business Development Center at Portland Community Collage, supporting entrepreneurs and creative businesses. She is also a passionate artist and crafter, working and teaching in encaustic and mixed media at events around the country. For more information about Bridget, visit http://www.eyesaflame.com or her blog at http://blogspot.eyesaflame.com.

•Ryan & Lucy Berkley
Berkley Illustration

Ryan Berkley creates comic book inspired art and prints for your walls or family photo albums. Perhaps best known for his “Animals in Suits” series, Ryan likes to tackle surreal subject matter in a very friendly way. He and Lucy, his wife, run their artsy-business together selling prints and other notions on Etsy and at craft shows.

They also license imagery to other businesses and they really love collaborating on gallery shows. They work from home in Portland, Oregon with their snuggly epileptic dog, Walker.

• Pat Castaldo & Aaron Tuller
BuyOlympia & Land Gallery

Pat and Aaron started buyolympia.com back in 1999, back before it was easy to setup a shop on the internet. They’ve grown their little operation from just 4 products to over 2,000 organically over the past ten years.

They feature an impressive array of artists, including Nikki McClure, Sarah Utter (Reading is Sexy fame), Jill Bliss, Trish Grantham and more. They were featured in the Handmade Nation film and distributed the DVD.

• Jamie Chan
Urban Fauna Studio & Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco

Jamie Marie Chan is a college educator, small business owner and fiber artist, native to the San Francisco Bay Area. She is founder of the indie craft show Bazaar Bizarre San Francisco. Jamie produces her own line of fiber art and craft kits, teaches art in the community, contributes to publications such as Craftzine and Indie Craft Gossip and was a founding member of the SF Craft Mafia.

She co-owns Urban Fauna Studio, which is the first fiber arts store to be certified as a SF Green Business. She recently co-founded the Conference of Creative Entrepreneurs (CCE), the west coast’s first indie business conference for people in the creative industries.

• Kari Chapin
Author, The Handmade Marketplace

Kari Chapin has spent the past 15 years in the professional world incorporating marketing, publicity, buyer, freelance writer, community relations and stylist as various job titles. As someone who spends a great deal of time with artisans and craftspeople, it wasn’t surprising that one day, a compact fluorescent light bulb went off above her head, and she sat down and wrote The Handmade Marketplace.

She likes tag sales, thrift stores, coffee, yarn, glitter, and paper. She lives in New England with her patient husband, two miniature dappled dachshunds, and one cranky orange cat. Meet Kari at her website, www.karichapin.com.

•Christine Claringbold
Eye Pop Art

Christine Claringbold started painting in 1994, and Eye Pop Art was launched in 2003. Christine loves to design mandalas and paint them on upcycled vinyl records, which she transforms into clocks, bowls, mirrors, cuffs, and garden pinwheels. She is also an art teacher and the mom of two teenagers. She loves to read and collect vintage psychedelic housewares (mainly coffee cups), and for fun she likes to dress up and rock out with the band.

Check out the cover story of the June Crafts Report, featuring Eye Pop Art!

Christine is also the program coordinator for the nonprofit organization Trillium Artisans. Trillium is a small business development program supporting local artisans who create with recycled and reclaimed materials, named Portland’s “Best Crafty Collective” by Willamette Week.

• Jena Coray
Modish

Jena is a full time blogapreneur (yes, she made that word up) You can find her daily blogging away on Modish, fulfilling her vintage shop owner dreams over at Miss Modish and helping fellow indie business owners learn how to better market themselves with the team at Aeolidia.

She has been blogging since April 2006, quit her dayjob in July 2007 and has never looked back. She works hard to maintain a lifestyle supported by her creative passions and thinks that finding a career you’re truly happy with and excited to do everyday is possible, and creating that for herself has become a priority in her life. She works from her couch, her bed and her vintage formica kitchen table while her cats nap, her dog romps and music plays. She can’t imagine having it any other way, and feels so grateful that this is what she gets to call “work.”

•Sara Dick
Hello Craft and Crafty Bastards

Sara likes to make stuff and help people make money. She has exhibited her work at various shows and is festival director for Crafty Bastards, a DC show with 150 vendors and 30,000 shoppers.

By day, Sara works at the Washington City Paper and has extensive experience in event production, project management, sales, marketing, coaching and growing online ad revenue. By night, she serves as CEO and Marketing Director for Hello Craft, a role that involves far more accounting work than she ever imagined.

Sara enjoys bumpy yarn, craft brews, and smart people. In her spare time, you’ll find her knitting and plotting her next project.

•Kimberly Dorn
Hello Craft and Crafty Bastards

Kimberly is one of the Festival Creators/Organizers behind the behemoth indie craft fair, Crafty Bastards.

With 10+ years experience producing a variety of events, and running her craft line Kitten Rocks Well, Kimberly combines her love of planning with her excitement in making, in Hello Craft.

• Christine Ernest
Hello Craft and Maganda Design

Christine Ernest is a maker and handmade enthusiast in Washington, D.C. and the Communications Director of Hello Craft. When not working in advertising at her day job, she is writing for the Crafty Bastards blog, documenting her thrift finds and crafty endeavors on her blog Maganda Design and crocheting one too many granny squares. Before joining Hello Craft, she worked as a publicist in the music industry.

She also organizes Knitting Avengers in D.C., a gathering of like-minded individuals with a passion for handmade, good conversation, beer and a desire to knit.

• Richard Fox
Sinister Concept and DIY Lounge

Richard suffers from Wanderlust and Business Personality Disorder. Over the past 15 years, he has lived in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York City, where he’s been a celebrity personal assistant, event producer, karaoke host, importer of Turkish goods, business owner and now Co-Host of DIY Lounge, a TV project profiling the handmade community.

He returned to Portland two years ago where he fell head first into it’s crafty goodness thanks to his childhood friend and co-host, Jennifer Neitzel. The huge amount of talent here is inspiring and he’s not only excited to be part of it but also to bring attention to it . When he’s not filming new footage for the show www.diylounge.com, or creating new product for his business, sinisterconcept.etsy.com, then he’s planning his next trip out of the country.

• Diane Gilleland aka Sister Diane
CraftyPod

Diane Gilleland is a writer, designer and publisher who loves to think about craft, the internet, and indie business. She produces CraftyPod, a blog and podcast about making stuff. Her ebooks and online classes help crafty entrepreneurs use the web more effectively.

And her first craft book, Kanzashi In Bloom, is available from Watson-Guptill. She has plastic canvas and is not afraid to use it.

•Rebecca Kerr
Co-Chair, I Heart Art: Portland and Slumptown Glass

Rebecca moved to Portland in 2006 with her husband, dog, cat, and glass studio in tow and instantly fell in love with its wonderful and supportive arts and craft community.

In those rare and spare moments when Rebecca isn’t working on I Heart Art: Portland, playing in her studio, or running Slumptown Glass, she’s earned degrees in architecture, devours literature, absorbs design publications, loves to build things, and is passionate about sustainable design.

•Kohel M. Haver
Swider Medeiros Haver, LLP

Kohel and his law firm, Swider Medeiros Haver LLP, represent many members of the Portland creative community. The firm provides services in contracts, copyright, licensing, literary, performance, entertainment, film, advertising, web, trademark, business, and non-profit law. Working with a variety of creative clients, Kohel assists with business formation, structure and management, contracts and licensing, review and negotiation, copyright and trademark registration, managing a business brand and litigation of infringement matters. Kohel is a small business advocate, counselor and advisor regarding what your can own with your copyright and trademarks and where one might slide into unfair business practices.

Kohel is the board president of Northwest Lawyers and Arts. As a frequent presenter, Kohel leads workshops for the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC), Oregon College of Arts and Craft, Pacific Northwest College of Art, The Art Institute of Portland, Portland Community College, Pacific University, and the Independent Publishing Resource Center. Additionally, he presents at continuing legal education programs and many national conferences around the country with the Washington and Oregon State Bar.

Kohel has written a book on Copyright and Video Production and published a Zine on Copyright, Fair Use, and Free Speech. His academic papers include topics such as the state of the music industry, challenges in the music industry, and free speech and copyright issues.

• Angie Heiney & Ali Wykhuis
Frock

Angie Heiney and Ali Wykhuis opened Frock in 2003 and continue to curate this fabulous and thriving retail establishment today. Born from a love of vintage fashions and a belief in radical self expression and inspired by their Burning Man camp, Black Rock Boutique, Frock has evolved to be a Mecca of independent designs and small runs of rare, unique, and handmade items as well as one-of-a-kind pieces.

Angie Heiney has a Masters in Business, a background in photography, and a passion for fashion and the retail experience. Ali Wykhuis who has a degree in apparel design is a creative force with an artistic eye for merchandising and fashion. Frock is committed to the local, living economy with a product mix consisting of 90% locally designed and produced items supplemented with 10% regional, independent, and other goods.

Whether you are 5 or 95 or anywhere in between and whether you spend $1, $10, or $100, everyone’s a winner at Frock. It is the most unique boutique experience without the steep boutique prices. You’ll find the perfect gift for anyone on your list or just let loose spoiling yourself with fun accessories, jewelry, fashion, art, baby & men’s items, and more.

• Jenn Hill
Robot Candy

Robot Candy was started in 2001 by Jenn Hill and Jenny Tiffany. Using recycled materials wherever possible, we carefully handcraft useful housewares that are visually pleasing, environmentally conscious and affordable.

Jenny Tiffany has a shop where she sells her art and soft toys, Plants and Animals. Jenn Hill runs Chet and Dot as well.

We are also new to chicken keeping, with 5 little bantam hens. You can find us at chetanddot.etsy.com, plantsandanimals.etsy.com, robotcandy.etsy.com.

• Justin Hocking
Independent Publishing Resource Center

Justin Hocking was hired as the IPRC’s Executive Director in the fall of 2006. He has an MFA in creative writing from Colorado State University, where he also taught as an instructor of writing and literature. Before coming to the IPRC, he worked in the New York City publishing industry. He is the author of numerous zines and thirteen books, including Life and Limb (Soft Skull Press 2004) and Beach 90th (Swift Season Press 2009). His writing has also appeared in Thrasher, Open City, the Portland Noir Anthology, Concrete Wave, Travel Oregon, The Normal School, Foulweather and others. He is currently at work on a memoir about surfing in New York City.

• Heidi Kenney
My Paper Crane

Heidi Kenney is a self-taught artist who creates plush and 3D soft sculptures, happy (& sometimes very sad) plush veggies, donuts, toilet paper rolls, and other everyday food & household items. Born in Washington DC, Heidi currently lives in Pennsylvania. She started her company and website, My Paper Crane, in 2001 so she would have a place to blog and showcase the plush toys she was making. She has worked closely with Kidrobot to create keychains, pillows, and clothing based on her food designs. Yummy Donuts and Yummy Breakfast. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Boston Globe, and Print magazine. She has participated in group exhibitions across the globe including Tokyo, Australia, and The United Kingdom. She recently had her third solo show “Seedlings, Sprouts, & Spores” in Chicago IL.

• Marlo M
Creative Arts Consulting

Marlo Miyashiro (a.k.a. IMakeCuteStuff) has been in the retail and wholesale handmade craft industries for over 20 years, creating and selling her work to over 200 stores across the country and abroad. She is a jeweler by trade, crafter of sewn things, teacher of techniques and mentor / arts business consultant for emerging artists. She is also one of the founding members and current organizer of EtsyRAIN.com – an active community of over 850 artists who reside in the Puget Sound region and own independent shops on Etsy. You can find some of her lighthearted work on Etsy at http://imakecutestuff.etsy.com and more info on her consulting services at http://CreativeArtsConsulting.com.

• Emily Martin
The Black Apple and Inside a Black Apple

Emily W. Martin is a painter, stitcher and scribbler who lives and works among the giant fir trees of Portland, OR. Together with her partner, Josiah, she runs the cottage industry known as The Black Apple.

She loves her kitten Miette, Little Golden Books, swans, and really good root beer.

Her forthcoming epic paper doll book, “The Black Apple’s Paper Doll Primer” will be available in November 2010.

• Danielle Maveal
Etsy’s Seller Education Coordinator

Danielle Maveal, Etsy’s Seller Education Coordinator, works to help artists, crafters and makers make a creative living selling their work. She shares tips on Etsy’s blog, in Etsy Success (a biweekly newsletter), and hosts live workshops through Etsy’s online classrooms, the Virtual Labs. Danielle started making and selling her etched jewelry on Etsy four years ago and has sold over 1,000 unique pieces. Since then she’s been featured in magazines and shopping blogs, and her work has been carried by over 50 galleries and boutiques worldwide. Her focus is to encourage, motivate, and educate crafters running their own small, independent businesses.

• Ryan McAbery
LittlePut Books

I’ve been a self supporting artist for over 9 years. Part of my success has stemmed from a great understanding of marketing and product development.

My original fame began with the Scrabble Tile pendant but I’ve moved on to bigger and better things, I really enjoy what I do and love being able to help others find success with what they love to do too.

• Scott McCarty
Locket 2 You LLC

Scott McCarty is the founder and co owner of Locket 2 You LLC, a Portland based Handmade Jewelry company. He works alongside his wife of eight years, Miranda Layton to create unique lockets.

His company Locket 2 You is currently in 75 stores across the country and continues to expand.

When Scott is not making lockets he spends his time listening to NPR, drinking way too much coffee, and playing with his two children Adriel and Elise.

• Lee Meredith
Leethal

Lee Meredith is a maker of things, doer of stuff, designing knit accessories and crafting whatever inspires her, under the business name leethal. With a background in photography and art, and a love of color, puzzles, and experimentation, she brings all these elements into her creative work, as well as into her writing on her blog, do stuff! A life-long maker of crafted things, Lee has written tutorials for Craft: magazine, CraftStylish website, Threadbanger website (where she is a regular contributor), the Photojojo book, a couple of upcoming books, regularly publishes popular tutorials on her own blog, and has designed several knitting patterns for knitty.com. Lee self-publishes most of her knitting patterns, including ebooks and a monthly knitting club, uses recycled materials in her creations whenever possible, and generally keeps an independent attitude towards her business and career as a designer and crafter. She works at her home in southeast Portland, Oregon, where she lives with her partner, Pete, and her cat, Garbanzo.

•Mark Montano
Author and TV Personality

Mark Montano is an energetic and undeniably cool designer. A true ‘craft’man, he makes the mundane insane with his endless creativity and use of accessible, everyday products. Montano’s award winning books, television shows, highly acclaimed runway shows and motivational skills make him a household name representing originality and creativity. With a fashion pedigree and decorator’s touch, he is a refreshing example of innovation and a beacon of do-it-yourself inspiration.

In 2008, Mark Montano launched the “Big Ass Book” series with The Big Ass Book of Crafts published by Simon and Schuster. With 200 crafts expertly detailed, his writing technique and keen personality truly inspired adults (young and old) to be creative in their daily lives. In it’s 8th printing, averaging 300-500 copies a week in sales, The Big Ass Book of Crafts has made Montano a sensation of “hip-cycling” (recycling with a twist). The book is still the best-selling craft book at Urban Outfitters and the top-selling craft book on Amazon. The second in the series, The Big Ass Book of Home Décor, launched April 1, 2010 and went into it’s 2nd printing after 3 weeks on the shelves.

• Jen Neitzel
DIY Lounge

Jen Neitzel began Knot Ugly Designs in 2001, which is a knit, crochet and reconstructed clothing business. Once she began to discover all of the talented artists and the incredible world of handmade she started DIY Lounge. DIY Lounge operated as a creative classroom space for 4 years. Now DIY Lounge is heading in the direction of online classes and a TV show concept, with the help of her friend Richard Fox and the award winning cinematographer, Patrick Cummings. Jen sees DIY Lounge as a love child with the do-it-yourself community. With the intention to create and maintain momentum for local artists and share the outcomes with the masses, DIY lounge spreads knowledge and connects people with their inner innovators with new and unusual classes in an online platform. Jen wants to help people connect with the art of making things. In response to the increasing disconnection that society tends to have with the products they buy she offers the ultimate gift: knowledge. The more information you have about how to make things the more choices you can make about what you choose to buy.

•Elizabeth Newell
Newell Business Law LLC and Handmade Portland

Elizabeth Newell (Bettie New) is a lawyer, a professionally-amateur crafter, a mother and a woman in perpetual transition who left her secure, well-paying job at a large law firm in May 2010 to pursue what she hopes will be a balanced life. She recently formed Newell Business Law, a solo firm focusing on providing practical advice to small, locally-owned businesses in order to utilize her previous legal experience to assist other local business owners in achieving their goals.
Bettie is the co-founder of Handmade Portland, a new venture dedicated to the awe inspiring craft and arts community in Portland, Oregon, set to launch in late summer 2010. If the crafty goddesses smile upon her, her own handmade business (Ready Bettie Go) will be up and running in time for the holidays. In between the two daughters, the two little dogs, the relationship, the on-again/off-again yoga practice, the starring role as domestic goddess, and the multiple projects, she somehow finds time to write, take photos, draw, sew and blog about all of the above (albeit somewhat inconsistently) at www.becomingbettie.blogspot.com.

•Torie Nguyen
Crafty Wonderland & Totinette

Torie Nguyen is one half of the duo behind Crafty Wonderland, Portland’s monthly art + craft extravaganza.

She makes jewelry under the name Totinette…but hasn’t had much time for it since her daughter was born!

She’s also a member of the collective Portland Super Crafty and sells real estate as her day job. She’s passionate about handmade goods, mid-century modern architecture, tea, and planting flowers.

• Willo O’Brien
WilloToons

Willo O’Brien is a designer, illustrator & music lover based in San Francisco, California. Inspired by the intersection of geekery and guitars, she combined passion and skill with her commitment to the planet, and created WilloToons – an eco-conscious gift line, where geek meets rock ‘n roll! Both personally and professionally, Willo strives to celebrate, inspire and empower individuality and expression. A geek at heart, Willo has always been an early adopter of social media technologies, and quickly became a leading innovator in community building. Willo cultivates authentic communities, both online and off, to market and grow her small business. She’s shared this experience within the community by leading workshops, and speaking on panels for SXSW, the Small Business Administration (SBA), The Fashion Industry Network, Fashion Business, Inc., and the inaugural Summit of Awesome 2009.

• Rebecca Pearcy
Queen Bee Creations, Chickpea Baby & Rebecca Pearcy Textiles

Rebecca Pearcy grew up getting crafty with her artist Mom. After making & selling her wares through high school & college, Rebecca officially launched Queen Bee Creations in 1996 when she was 23 years old. Rebecca started creating her colorful bags, wallets, and accessories from a corner in her bedroom, and slowly grew the business as demand increased. Queen Bee now employs 14 skilled staff members who crank out the goods at “the Hive” on North Williams in Portland, Oregon. Visitors to the studio shop can see production in action from the store, offering an unusual connection between buyer and maker.

Queen Bee & Chickpea Baby goods are sold to retail & wholesale customers throughout the country & world and are recognizable for their trademark colorful appliqué, contrast stitching, and high-quality construction. Rebecca is excited to be launching her next project, Rebecca Pearcy Textiles, a line of hand-printed textile goods for home & life. These products showcase her love of color, bold pattern, and domestic usefulness.

•Leah Pellegrini
Leah Glass

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Leah moved to Portland Oregon in 2000 after graduating from College. She found her love for hot glass while getting her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.

Leah has worked as a full time artist playing with glass since 2001 and taught classes in torchworking glass since 2003. You can find her most weekends in her booth at the Portland Saturday Market and take classes from Leah at the Aquila Glass School in North Portland.

• Christy Petterson
a bardis

Christy Petterson hails from Atlanta, where she creates a line of jewelry, hair accessories and stationary called a bardis. She loves creating repeating patterns for her screen-printed earrings, fabric button hairpins and postcards. Christy also works full time as a Public Relations professional and since 2005 has organized the Indie Craft Experience, Atlanta’s indie craft market. Over the course of the past six years, Christy has participated in many craft markets, including Crafty Bastards in Washington, D.C., Renegade Craft Fair in Chicago and Brooklyn, Bazaar Bizarre in Boston, Craftland in Providence and various local events in Atlanta. Christy is also a writer and has contributed to ReadyMade magazine, VenusZine, CRAFT magazine, CROQ Zine, GetCrafty.com, the Crafty Bastards website, CraftZine.com, VenusZine.com and to three books: Bead Simple, Button It Up and 1,000 Ideas for Creative Reuse. Christy has been featured, quoted or mentioned in/on The New York Times, Etsy.com, HGTV.com, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, HelloCraft.com, VenusZine, Creative Loafing, HGTV’s That’s Clever, Handmade Nation (the book and documentary), Adorn magazine, CraftZine.com, VenusZine.com, Murketing.com, PBA30’s This is Atlanta, BeadStyleMag.com and more. She posts frequently about crafts, debt, her hometown and good times on her blog abardis.com.

•Caitlin Phillips
Rebound Designs

Caitlin Phillips, the brains behind Rebound Designs, makes purses and wallets out of old books. Your first editions are safe, she primarily uses unwanted and discarded books, recycling them into novel accessories. Her inspiration for Rebound Designs came from her days working in a used bookstore after high school, witnessing firsthand how many books were thrown away. She has always been passionate about crafting, having been raised by a mother who was both a quilter and Girl Scout Leader, but her creative endeavors took a detour while she became one of the leading salespeople for Cutco Cutlery. However, this intensive sales experience proved invaluable when the alluring call of Craft became impossible to resist, and she created her dream job with Rebound Designs.
Caitlin has been a regular vendor at the historic Eastern Market in Washington DC since creating the first Book Purse in 2004. In addition, Caitlin has sold her work at amazing indie shows like Crafty Bastards and Renegade Craft Fair, as well as at the prestigious American Craft Council show. All told, she has done over 300 arts and craft shows. Caitlin has been interviewed on NPR’s “All Things Considered” and her work has been featured in/on the Washington Post, New York Times, Boston Globe, Paris Elle, Italian Vogue, Swedish Cosmopolitan, Boing Boing, HGTV’s “Crafters Coast to Coast,” Samantha Brown’s “Passports to Great Weekends,” and more. She is thrilled to speak again at the Summit of Awesome, and share her experience to help more crafters succeed at their dream jobs.

• Cathy Pitters
Bossa Nova Baby and Crafty Wonderland

Cathy Pitters is a mom, artist and seamstress who lives in North Portland with her husband, 12-year-old son and two cats. She runs her business, Bossa Nova Baby, out of her flamingo pink craft bunker in her basement. She creates one of a kind, vintage-inspired clothing and accessories that she sells in shops and craft fairs across the country. She is co-founder + organizer of Crafty Wonderland, an art + craft event that, over the last four years, has evolved from a smaller monthly show to a large scale twice yearly event. She is also one-forth of the women’s craft collective PDX Super Crafty, who wrote a how-to book entitled Super Crafty in 2005. In her spare time, Cathy can be found digging for treasure at thrift stores and drinking coffee.

•Kelly Rand
Hello Craft and Crafting A Green World

Kelly is fearless in her crafting and keeps too large a “to craft items,” while she compulsively finds and knits projects in her attempt to thin out her yarn stash.

Kelly covers visual arts in and around Washington, DC for DCist and is editor of Crafting a Green World. Kelly has also been published by Bust Magazine and you can find her byline at Indie Fixx and Etsy’s Storque and has taught in Etsy’s virtual lab on the topic of green crafting.

Kelly helps organize Crafty Bastards: Arts and Crafts Fair, one of the largest indie craft fairs on the East coast and has served on the Craft Bastard’s jury since 2007. Kelly is also co-founder of Hello Craft and her responsibilities as a Director of the organization include programming for the Summit of Awesome and coordinator of the membership program. Kelly resides in Washington, D.C. and believes that handmade will save the world.

• Amanda Siska
Bread and Badger®

After a few false career starts (tattoo artist, children’s book illustrator, comic book artist, shoe salesperson, beaded jewelry creator), Amanda discovered glass etching with a rotary tool and fell in love with the artform. She’s since turned to sandblasting, which has given her an opportunity to make a living creating art that she loves. Her artistic inspirations include tattoo art, classic motifs from around the world, pop art and geek culture. In her spare time, Amanda enjoys audio books, comics, video games, cooking, knitting, and learning things on the internet. She grew up in Massachusetts, and currently resides in Portland, Oregon with her husband, two cats, and a lot of fish. Honey badgers are her favorite animal, and continue to inspire her with their fearlessness.

• Becky Striepe
Glue and Glitter

My name is Becky Striepe, and I am an independent crafter and freelance blogger living in Atlanta, Georgia. My passion is working with vintage fabric and salvaged materials. There’s just something about giving found objects a brand new life that really appeals to me. They lend their own stories to everything I make! My indie business, Glue and Glitter, is all about using existing materials in products that help folks waste less without feeling deprived. I believe in the power of little changes: using cloth napkins instead of paper or a reusable bag instead of a plastic one. Things like this add up to make a big impact! Even the act of cooking is so much greener than takeout when you consider all of the packaging and whatnot involved in ordering that Chinese delivery. If a Lunch Kit would get you packing your lunch for work or school, or a cute apron encourages you to get in the kitchen and put a meal together, I hope that I can make one to inspire you! I do freelance writing and editing for Important Media, a community of blogs dedicated to sustainable living, greenUPGRADER, and at Care2. You can subscribe to my posts at Important Media here or check out my posts for greenUPGRADER and Care2!

• Jenny Tiffany
Robot Candy

Jenny Tiffany has a shop where she sells her art and soft toys, Plants and Animals. Jenn Hill runs Chet and Dot as well.

We are also new to chicken keeping, with 5 little bantam hens. You can find us at chetanddot.etsy.com, plantsandanimals.etsy.com, robotcandy.etsy.com.

•Isaac B. Watson Co-Chair, I Heart Art: Portland

When he’s not helping I Heart Art: Portland get off the ground or upcycling broken camera parts into jewelry as Focal Length Designs, Isaac gets his kicks as a design nerd, typography critic, camera whore, grammar nazi, and culinary hobbyist all wrapped in a shamelessly egocentric yet deeply loyal shell. With a passion for social exchange and mutual success, his favorite part about Craft Culture is that everyone wants nothing more than for everyone else to succeed!

•Stephanie Weber
SCRAP and Pickle Things

Stephanie Weber is one of the many people to move to Portland and get sucked into the flourishing arts and crafts scene. Two years ago, she started her business Pickle Things making felt play food and accessories out of recycled and second hand-materials.

Stephanie also works at Scrap, a non-profit that promotes the arts and environment by making second-hand art supplies available to artists, teachers and the community. Working at Scrap has allowed her to feed her need to create things out of discarded awesomeness, reduce the waste of the world, meet other amazing artists, and increase the size of her vintage fabric collection.

• Kim Werker
Mighty Ugly

Kim Werker is an astigmatic expat writer, blogger, editor, speaker and insatiable brainstormer. She’s the former editor of Interweave Crochet magazine and she’s written six crochet books including Crochet Me: Designs to Fuel the Crochet Revolution and, most recently, Crocheted Gifts. Her newest project is Mighty Ugly, a challenge to all people – crafty or not – to take a couple of hours to make something truly hideous and then talk about it. She lives in Vancouver, BC, where she reads lots of fiction and watches lots of sci-fi when she’s not concocting grand plans for her craft scraps. Catch up with her at kimwerker.com and mightyugly.com.

• Namita Wiggers
Museum of Contemporary Craft

Namita Gupta Wiggers is curator at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in partnership with Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, Oregon, where she directs the exhibition, collection and public programming. Her recent projects include “Land Art: David Shaner,” “Call + Response,””The Academy is Full of Craft,” and “New Embroidery: Not Your Grandma’s Doily.” Wiggers’ writing projects include: Ken Shores: Clay Has the Last Word, Unpacking the Collection: Selections from the Museum of Contemporary Craft, and editing “How Envy Killed the Crafts Movement: An Autopsy in Two Parts” by Garth Clark. Currently, she is working with Judith Leemann and Shannon Stratton on the exhibition and forthcoming publication Gestures of Resistance. She has published essays and articles in Metalsmith, Artlies and The Journal of Museum Education, and contributed writing to publications by the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston and the Ceramic Research Center, Arizona State University. Her curatorial practice focuses on the exhibition as a site and space for inquiry; she considers how craft and design function as subjects by combining experience and training as an art historian, museum educator, ethnographer, teacher and studio artist.