Hello Craft » speaker

Meet Jaime Zollars

Kelly Rand — Fri, 01 May 2009 02:39:34 +0000

Jaime Zollars is an artist inspired by flea markets, fairy tales, and Flemish painters. She creates collage and acrylic paintings for children’s books, magazines, and gallery walls. She has been featured in many books and publications, including Communication Arts, DPI magazine, and Taschen’s Illustration Now. She also teaches illustration at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore.

Jaime began navigating the indie craft world when a printmaking class left her with a bunch of extra prints without homes. She was hooked, and four years later, Jaime is developing a line of prints, posters, and functional art for the retail and wholesale market, and is thrilled to be a part of this emerging and talented community of artists. When Jaime is not painting, teaching, or running after her one-year old, you may find her constructing little paper toys, or at least writing about them on her paper arts blog, paperforestblog.com

Jaime will be speaking at the Summit of Awesome on the Navigating the Art world with Craft panel and selling her beautiful illustrations at the Show of Awesome.

Meet Kasey and Kelly, Biggs and Featherbelle

tinaseamonster — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 03:50:09 +0000

Biggs & Featherbelle began in January 2003. A magazine article inspired the pair to make ‘melt and pour’ glycerin soaps as Christmas presents. With backgrounds in the Fine Arts and Fashion, the two had fun creating unique recipes, packaging and clever names for each item. The gifts were a big hit.

Their family had always been proponents of alternative healing practices and consumers of natural beauty products. So, it seemed fitting to continue exploring the benefits of botanicals. The innocent investigation soon turned to obsession. The sisters quit their day jobs and devoted every hour to research and invention, striving to create the products they couldn’t find on the shelves. Fueled by encouragement from friends and family, the word spread to local festivals, then regional fairs and eventually in stores throughout the U.S.

Today, armed with the collected experience and knowledge of essential oils and other critical ingredients, the mission is to create products with a purpose. Paying close attention to packaging and presentation of the company, the focus is on specific solutions for all skin types. Biggs & Featherbelle is committed to providing products that everyone enjoys and benefits from.

Kelly and Kasey will be speaking at the Summit of Awesome about Going out on a Limb and will be selling their great products at the Show of Awesome. Limited on site registration is currently available, but to secure a spot, you must register online before Friday. You can call 1-888-435-0204, toll free, if you have questions about registration.

Meet Esti Gerson, GersonCurse

Kelly Rand — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 14:47:07 +0000

Imagine a seven year old happily playing dress up with her miniature teddy bears. Then imagine that same little girl using big girl scissors and a sewing machine to create clay pastries and fabric furniture for a teddy bear tea party photoshoot! Looking back, I think that was about the time I heard the calling for a life of crafting and design! Since those fateful single digit years, I earned a degree in Industrial design from Philadelphia University and taught numerous Photoshop classes for National conferences. But to satisfy the crafty girl inside, my sister and I decided to create GersonCurse, the vehicle that would satiate our taste in fun & stylish stuff not found in stores! It paid off, because in 2006, we won the Baltimore City Paper “best designer,” and then I won the American Inhouse Design Award in 2008. Today I’m honored to be at the Summit, spreading the gospel of awesome!

Meet Esti in a workshop at the Summit of Awesome as she guides you through How to Make a Book.

Meet Jenny Hart, Sublime Stitching

Kelly Rand — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 14:30:48 +0000

Jenny Hart is the founder and creative director of Texas-based embroidery design company, Sublime Stitching. Jenny is an internationally published artist and illustrator, and an award-winning author of multiple titles for Chronicle Books.

So, needless to say we are uber excited to announce that Jenny will be speaking at the Summit of Awesome on Saturday May 2, 2009. How cool is that? We can hardly contain our excitement!

We will be revealing more amazing speakers and programing for our first ever Summit of Awesome right in this space, so stay tuned.*

A little refresher – the Summit of Awesome is 3-days filled with business seminars for artists and crafters, hands-on workshops, the D.C. premiere of the Indie Craft Documentary, Handmade Nation, and a Saturday night party. Through a partnership with the MidCity Business Association, all Summit seminars and workshops will take place in the wondrous and vibrant independent businesses in MidCity (14th and U Streets NW). There will be informal tours of DC’s coolest indie shops and a welcome reception for early arrivals on Thursday, April 30th. Register now!

*All programming is subject to change, but hopefully will not!

[photo by Kennith B. Gail]