emiko-o reware

Saturday, January 21, 2012, 10am-2pm
Accessorize with Toys Workshop at the Exploratorium
1-2pm Makers presentation with Dale Dougherty (Make Magazine)
The Tinkering Studio’s OPEN MAKE: Toys event

WATCH  the video of our presentation on YouTube

This Saturday, Shana and I will be featured as spotlighted Makers with our Accessorize with Toys workshop for the Exploratorium’s Open Make: Toys event! Other Makers that will be there: Nathan Sawaya (amazing LEGO® brick artist, super famous!), I-Wei Huang (Toys for Bob, Skylanders developer), and Marek Michalowski (BeatBots LLC). Crafting, robots, and LEGO®, oh my! Below is a screen shot of the webpage for the event:

From 10am-12:30pm we will lead our hands-on projects of Charm Bracelets (intermediate skill) and Expressive Name Badges (all levels). You can find us at the Tinkering Studio area (see map, green area). Then, from 1-2pm we’ll be in the McBean Theater (see map, red area) for presentations and interview with Dale Dougherty, founder and editor of MAKE Magazine and Maker Faire. Q&A with the audience to follow. It’s going to be sweeet! And it’s all included with general admission to the Exploratorium. A collaboration between the Exploratorium, MAKE Magazine, and Pixar Animation Studios, Open MAKE is a monthly program highlighting the tools, techniques, and ingenuity of local Makers.

Read up on all the Makers on the Tinkering Studio’s website; well done bios. Here’s a screen grab of part of ours, or you can check the full version online

And I never cease to be amazed by how far my photos go of my artwork. The museum decided to choose the image of my Blue Steel necklace, photographed by Aura O’Brien Photography!

This weekend,  July 9-10, Accessorize with Toys Workshop will be at Renegade Craft Fair SF at Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion. We’re bringing back the ever-popular Charm Bracelet project, and trying a new format with hourly seating for 10 participants. Make your own personalized charm bracelet from recycled toy and game parts – we provide all the parts, findings and tools, plus demos!

Sessions will be 45 minutes at the top of the hour, starting with a demo and should allow for more individual time with us. Fee is $10. Come a few minutes before the hour to get your spot! Find us up in the Mezzanine: sessions are Saturday 12-4pm, Sunday 1-5pm. Check out Renegade’s Website and Facebook page for more info on the fair.

See us on Renegade's home page!

About to head into the second day of the much anticipated, annual Maker Faire! Just when you think it can’t get any bigger or hold more people, it just blows you away! Our Accessorize with Toys workshop certainly has a following after 6 years of doing this event and we look forward to the creativity and enthusiasm for craft and reuse in our participants, from 3 yrs of age to 80.

This time we’re focusing on Expressive Name Badges, our favorite project so far with people of all ages and skills. A very personal project, people invest in making the badge (even as signs for their bedroom doors at home, genius, Lucy!), and are very proud to spread the word about upcycling afterwards. And so many terrific badges today–there must have been close to 150 projects made in a mere 4 hours today. Can you believe we were out of glue sticks by 4pm, yikes!

Great seeing our repeat AWT Fans – anyone coming back again today gets to make for free. We thank everyone who contributed funds towards our supplies costs, and who dontated toy/game parts.

Best Upcycled toy redo of the day. Sparkle Pants!

Find us in the EXPO HALL, #253 closer to the South Delaware St entrance. Right between LEGO (drool, drool) and the large, luminous CRAFT orb. Today from 12-4pm. Come early while the pickin’s best. 

For more info, go to our page on Maker Faire’s website.

It’s a non-stop fall season for me and my jewelry and workshop! This Saturday, Oct 2, from 10am-4pm I’ll be one of 12 artists selling work at The K11 Craft Sale over in Berkeley. K11 stands for Knit One One Studio which is normally a knitting studio/classroom and store run by Sile Convery. The Craft Sales are a monthly event, featuring different artists (this will be my first time showing here).  Sounds like it’s going to be a fun day, with refreshments provided for vendors and clients! Plus I’ve heard yummy things about Sweet Adeline Bakeshop which is a few doors down…

The other artists on board are: Koide Studio(ceramics), Jen Hewett Studio (printmaking/textiles), Hairphernalia (floral hairpieces), Fresh on Mondays (felted items), Clarine’s Florentines (florentines), HoneyComb Jewelry, Heathered, King Bag Company (recycled bags), Tinted Mint (eco friendly products), Peanoonies (vintage goods), Tiny Sparks Design (screen prints on wood).

I’ll have on hand some new merch such as Halloween earrings and minifig pendants for adults and kids, plus a ton more minifig earrings and slim pendants.

Here’s Jen, my awesome model from last week who I had a blast with photographing my work. She’s the new LEGO Girl Next Door, wouldn’t you say! She’s sporting quite a bit of new goods, including the minifig pendants, rainbow ss slim bracelet and the dreamy Aegean Limited Edition bracelet (inspired by my recent visits to Greece). Come to Berkeley and see for yourself!

COMING UP in OCT:
Oct 1, 6-8pm Opening Reception for The Plastic Show, Velvet da Vinci SF
Oct 7, 6-8pm: Accessorize with Toys Workshop at CA Academy of Sciences
Oct 24, 10am-5pm: Accessorize with Toys Workshop at East Bay Mini Maker Faire, Temescal

I’m super excited that we’ll be doing our Accessorize with Toys Workshop for the 2nd time at SCRAP! Happening this Saturday, Aug 28 from 1-4pm at SCRAP’s main location 801 Toland St @ Newcomb (off of Bayshore). We just went last week to SCRAP to scrounge around for precious toy parts and we scored BIG, so come to the workshop and partake in our trashures!

Continuing the fun of charm bracelets, key chains, expressive name badges, and necklaces — learn how to cold connect alternative materials, whether it be riveting, grometting or wire working. We’ll help you actualize your vision. Bring personal, special  pieces from home to incorporate into your wearable projects. Read more on SCRAP’s webpage (they recently redesigned their site and it’s mighty attractive!).

Next on the workshop front: Power Hour Lunch workshop at Green Zebra, Thurs, Sept 23 from 11:30am-1:30pm. $10 fee. Drop-ins welcome. Bring a friend and spread the crafting love!

It’s that time of year again for the awe-inspiring, 2-day extravaganza that is Maker Faire! May 22-23 at the San Mateo Event Center. And yes, Accessorize with Toys workshop will be there for its 5th year, and finally this time in the Expo Hall where we best belong! We’re going to be in the craft section of the hall, somewhat near LEGO (very fitting for me, yes indeed). I know many of you missed us last year as we were in the Show Barn with Tech Shop, but this year we should be much more accessible.

And now Accessorize has a FACEBOOK FAN PAGE! Can you believe it – well, you can help us out right now by becoming a fan so that we can get our URL. We only need 44 more to go!

This year we have some projects for people to create: Personalized Name Badges, key chains (level: Easy), and Expressive Charm Bracelets (level: Advanced). To cover our costs so we can continue to bring the workshop to you, we’re asking people for a donation of $3 per project made. So don’t forget to bring some change with you! And of course bring some of your favorite toy or plastic parts from home to incorporate into your projects or just bring to donate. Nowadays Goodwill and other thrift stores are not accepting toy donations, so bring them to us – as long as they are smaller than 2″.

Here’s the skinny on the event:
When: Saturday, May 22, 11am-6pm; Sunday, May 23, Noon-5pm
Where: San Mateo Expo Center (where the county fair takes place). Parking is $17 (yikes!) but free parking is a 15 min walk away at Franklin Templeton. Check out the Maker Faire link on getting there. Carpool with your peeps! Caltrain and Sam Trans buses are great ways to take public transit there.
Cost: entry to Maker Faire starts at $20 for advance adult tickets, less for youth and students, MORE if you purchase at the gate. To make a project with us is a suggested donation of $3 per project.

Hope to see you there!

For all you wanting to get your crafting fix on, join our Accessorize with Toys! Workshop at the CA Academy of Sciences March 18, 6-10pm. Part of the Academy’s weekly NightLife Thursdays (a club-like atmosphere with DJs), this one highlights SCRAP who is sponsoring us to do our Charmed! bracelet project. Shana and I are bringing primo game and toy parts, so come on out and make a super fabulous charm bracelet! Other SCRAP projects will be masks and cards from recyclable materials.

DJs on deck are shOOey, playing house and breaks, and shissla of SpaceCowboys. Sounds like a booty-shaking time to be had.

Take note that this is a 21+up event, and tix are $12 general admin, $10 for museum members. Best to get tix in advance, I hear that these Thurs. night events can sell out. Get tix here.

charm bracelet by Shana Astrachan

Here we are in May already–full speed ahead! It’s going to be a CRAZY art-filled month, starting May 15 with the Accessorize with Toys workshop at the Palo Alto Art Center for their signature Circle of 75 event. Shana and I will be showing participants how to make charm bracelets and keychains with recycled toy parts and basic jewelry findings and tools. Painter Tim Craighead is the other workshop artist of the evening. The event starts off with cocktails and cuisine from 6-7pm, with the workshops from 7-9pm.
Join us by RSVP to Lisa.Gordon@cityofpaloalto.org or call 650.617.3143.
Stay tuned for more events on the e-train express!

Much has developed in the last week on the upcoming exhibition space at the SF Museum of Craft + Design. I’m developing the MakeArt Gallery: Jewelry and Other Objects activity table for the back room; a simplified version of the Accessorize with Toys workshop that Shana Astrachan and I will be conducting on November 15 in that same space. So for those who can’t make that Nov 15 date, you’ll have the entire run of the exhibition to stop in and create something of your own.

Complimenting that in that space the Critique Collective will be showing a BRAND new Group Project in an exhibition co-curated by Christine Dhein and Christoph Koch called, Re-Purpose, Re-Use, Re-CREATE! We’re all super pumped up and ready to get others on the Green Train. Hopefully I will get a chance to update the crit collective website to include the press release on that. Until then, click here to grab the pdf.

What’s this: A. Abstract depiction of California in an earthquake; B. The inside of an old computer I scavenged at SCRAP; or C. Future Man-thong.
If you chose C, you are Correct! Cher thong ensemble will be showing in the above crit show, and she will have a partner in crime. Here is a sneak peak of the parts I cut up a few hours ago. Think electronic jock strap. So far the title that strikes me is “Population Control 2.0″. Definitely conceptual, but will be wearable/lifesize. Commentary on how constant laptop use on male laps is being linked to impotence, using technology to create genetically superior offspring….