emiko-o reware

Creating a New Craft Culture SAT 8:45 AM
Morning Keynote: Handmade 2.0 with Rob Walker

Rob Walker brooch by Harriete Berman

Another major reason why I plunked down serious $$$ to come to this conference: to meet Rob Walker, author of Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy and Who We Are (2008), and a contributing writer and columnist of Consumed for The New York Times Magazine. I had imagined him to be a hearty, super forthcoming older New York type man, but boy was I way off course. A wiry, quiet guy, much more Portland Oregon. He and Harriete Estel Berman have been in discourse (he interviewed her for his murketing.com blog–check the post; she also made his nametag in the image above), so we had the pleasure of sitting with him in the back of the room for the Friday morning presentations.

Harriete Berman & Rob Walker

His lecture was introduced as being about How Craft fit into this New Marketplace and the Broader Consumer Culture. His first remark was “I’m not sure there is a SINGLE craft culture, but craft CULTURES…the broad idea of craft is up for grabs, which is not a bad thing, it’s a good thing.” He went on to talk about his interest in the tensions of the marketplace and contradictions in consumers, like how people want to feel unique yet be a part of something bigger, and that the consumer demands the very best when they really demand the cheapest. What it really boils down to is “Am I getting my money’s worth?”

Again the issue of Quality, except in this economy quality has been trumped by Thrift and Frugality, as stated by the trend industry. Rob is quite the comedian and the mediator, as he knew from the Friday talks that we can be a touchy crowd, he often put up the slide of his super cute dog since “dogs put people in better moods” (strangely enough, this move was done by a few other presenters later on). Really though, speaking to his mediator role, his talk was perfect to start us all on the right foot for the day, as he presented a solution: it’s “good to avoid hard and fast definitions of craft, because otherwise it moves toward Exclusivity. Thus it’s a Good Time to be INCLUSIVE.” Insert ripple of applause.

ON NEW WAVE 2.0
I like this term for Indie Craft, New Wave 2.0 (reminds me of my favorite rock bands)–Rob brought to light a great observation of how supportive the indie community is towards each other, breaking the tension of Urge to Compete and Urge to Cooperate. This is something that has always struck me as well, the general open arms welcome of the makers I meet at MakerFaire and Renegade Craft Fair. But I don’t see that much of a difference in the metals community in the terms of inclusivity and sharing of information. I have remarked to students and emerging artists of how lucky we are to be a part of a creative community that helps each other for greater good of the field. It’s not cut-throat like advertising or high fashion.

THE IDEA OF STORY
Turns out that while Friday’s theme was Quality, Saturday’s theme is Story. Story is what differentiates mass produced products from craft. People value the story of the maker, the process, the concept of a piece and that’s why they shell out a little extra dough and energy to own craft. However, Rob gives it a new spin by saying, “the mistake people [i.e. makers] make is thinking the most important story is their own story but it isn’t…best when your story is relevant to others’ lives“, the story of the person you’re selling to. True, as artists we get a little tunneled visioned in our making and thinking it’s all about us, but I’ve found that my most successful pieces, whether it’s production work or exhibition pieces are the ones in which springboarded peoples’ personal experiences and nostaglia. And it’s this engaged feedback from people that motivates me to continue to make with this idea of story in mind.

Rob urges us to consider accepting multiple versions of Craft, and in doing so, become a bigger voice in the marketplace. To strive to understand each other and find common ground, and not expect the public to accept a “proper” definition of craft. Insert loud applause.

See Rob’s follow-up post here.
See what Harriete had to say here.

happy camper at Accessorize with Toys

The second day of Maker Faire was definitely less crazy than Saturday; much more laid back, giving us a chance to talk more with people. Our supplies were pretty wiped out by the end of the day, but amazingly our energy wasn’t. Hopefully next year we’ll be easier to find (apologies to those of you who couldn’t find us!).

We’re looking forward to bringing Accessorize with Toys to the Renegade Craft Fair, July 18-19 at SF’s Fort Mason’s Festival Pavilion. If you join us at Renegade, make sure to bring $5; as much as we want to offer it for free, we’ve got to cover our expenses so we can keep it going!

If you can’t make it in July, mark your calendar for August 8 at S.C.R.A.P. SCRAP is launching their Family Day workshops and we’re glad to be a part of it. RSVP by emailing worshop@scrap-sf.org or call 415-647-1746 for this drop-in event.
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Accessorize with Toys at Maker Faire

The first day of Maker Faire 2009 San Mateo is done and whhew! are my dogs a’barkin’! This year our Accessorize with Toys workshop is in the Show Barn, our first year out of the Swaporamarama and on our own. If you’re looking for us, we’re in the same area as the awesome Tech Shop, and situated between the Metal Arts Guild and the Metals Arts Association of Silicon Valley.
What seemed like the highest attendance of all Maker Faires, we could barely keep up with the photo taking of participants and their projects. But the photos are up on Flickr, with much more to come after tomorrow. Here are some of our favorites.

Maker Faire, here we come again, this time you will find Accessorize with Toys outside of the Swaporamamrama. I had 3 lovely years with the Swap, but thought it was time we had our own billing. Hopefully we can fit all our recycled toy bits into the space allotted (we were spoiled with tons of space and chairs in the Swap room).

So, if you’re a fan of our workshop, stay tuned for more info on where we’ll be and what we’ve got in store….

Frances, our biggest fan!

Finally time to relive the beauty of craftin’ at Maker Faire: Day Uno. Can’t believe it was almost a week ago-egads! Happy to announce that the photos from our workshop are up on flickr (since it took me a year to upload last year’s photos…), so if you participated in our lovely event, go check out your mugshot.

Shana and I arrived at 9:30am and the lot was almost full, unbelievable-throngs of anxious makers-to-be were corralled behind the turnstiles, just waiting for the clock to strike 10am. By 2pm apparently there was no more parking, and the traffic on 101 was slooow toast.

Our little “U” shaped cubby home for the next 2 days, right before the eager jewelers descend upon us. Luckily we were early again this year and able to snag 4 tables and extra chairs to accommodate all the materials and provide workstations. The jewelry Sample board is a new addition (constructed from scrap materials conveniently laying around the apartment) to show off 3 years of jewelry workshop pieces. It was an effective lure to our table, as was the Uglu sample kiosk (generously donated by Justin of MACtac). Folks would come by just out of curiosity for the Uglu, their eyes pleading for the free samples and where they can buy it. Sadly, not available on the west coast yet, but hopefully soon.

Boy, was it BUSY all day long-standing room only for some folks (certainly for us; requiring major foot rubs by excellent boyfriend at the end of the night). Being tucked into the back corner of the Swap-O-RamaRama and next to the Bazaar Bizarre brought us a constant but manageable stream of people. We had all sorts of folks hangin out, making jewelry, sculptures, objects, embellishing clothing. Seemed to get a lot of dads with youngin’s, which was super cute (those moms that stayed home sure missed out-maker fair is more than just techie boy stuff)!

My favorite father/daughter team of the day. These two really worked together to create these elaborately decorated wood puzzle pieces; it was very impressive watching them make design decisions-I see a young artist in bloom.

Winner of the most adorable object of the day: this little soft sculpture owl. Most unique use of the jump rings-I want to make one! This gal came with her mom, and these two were the most artistic mother/daughter team.

Check our her mom’s sweet textile brooch. This family has got some art genes for sure!

The Fabulous Frances returns for Year 2 of recycled jewelry making at our table-wearing almost everything she’s made with us. What a rock star! Looks like someone might be getting grommeting pliers for christmas this year…

Next thing we know it is 5pm and everyone’s being herded out the doors-time to quickly semi-pack up and check out the rest of the Maker Faire. And lo and behold, what is this that awaits me outside, but the best way to end the day at the Faire: Matt and Funnel cake!

‘Twas the night before Maker Faire and all through the kitchen,
Every creature was crafting–and boy was it b_tchin’!
Shana and I getting ready for the Big Weekend of Recycled Jewelry Madness; going to Maker Day was just the medicine we needed to charge ourselves up for the crowds of eager burgeoning jewelers. Spent the afternoon taking inventory of the treasure tub of random collected pieces parts of toys, games, as well as investigating what each other has picked up in the last few weeks from Mission Thrift (5 Monoply games in one visit–pure gold!) and our favorite, inspirational supplier of recycled whatnot, SCRAP. Our goal: to make some new samples, namely, necklaces with the latest additions in jewelry findings from Rio Grande.

I am MOST EXCITED about this generous shipment of UGlu samples from my fellow Clevelander, Justin, over at MACtac, an adhesives company. This stuff is the greatest, non-toxic, STRONG (but not take-off-the-paint-on-your-walls strong), semi-permanent adhesive I’ve ever worked with (no small beans, as there are two tubs full of adhesives drying out in the back workroom as we speak). Shana and I met Justin a few months back at her friend Susan’s house for a focus group, where he had us brainstorm about tapes and glues. Most memorable was he stuck a full bottle of beer to the wall with this stuff and it stayed there all night. It was That Strong.

Anyhow, I really wanted to use it for our workshop at Maker, so now we have enough to hand out a package to each person–no more toxic goopy glues. Should be perfect for the kids!

Look at all the goodies (good thing you can’t see the rest of the room, it’s like a small monsoon hit)–here we are making samples, me taking way to long to make one necklace while Shana makes the cutest cat hairclip ever!

Cute in that Amy Sedaris kind of way, as Shana pointed out. Too bad we don’t have an entire bag of cat figurines….

You must see the whole picture to really appreciate its charm:

12 hours later, the suitcases are packed by the front door with care, knowing that Maker Faire day soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
Dang, I should be too, but I’m blogging instead….

Hope to see you fellow Makers in San Mateo!

What an inspirational, revelational way to kick off Maker Faire–this will be my 3rd year as a Maker, but my 1st time attending Maker Day, thanks to the invite from organizers Sherry Huss and Dale. Fellow Maker, Shana Astrachan and I drove down to my ol’ stompin’ grounds of San Mateo for an afternoon of presentations by innovative minds on the Future of Making.

We arrived just in time to catch Garth Johnson’s talk on Extreme Crafts, a curatorial collage of craft artists who are pushing the envelope–topics such as Craft Extending its Middlefinger and ManCraft, to Cozies and OMG WTF? The eternal debate of Craft vs. Art: “Craft is the greatest Trojan horse out there”, says Johnson, “craft masquerading as art”. Why can’t it simply Be Art? That question aside, I could have listened to another hour of Garth, and so you see his blog is in my “craft must see” links.

Next up, the co-editor of Boing Boing and editor of Make Magazine, the mighty David Pescovitz guides us through The Future of Making map, which I’m eager to see in print. Representing the Institute for the Future, IFTF has created a map outlining future drivers and trends in Making. He summed up with these 6 concepts for success: Network your Organization, Reward Solution Seekers, Err on the Side of Openness, Go Transparent, Engage Actively, and Celebrate Hackers.

A few speakers later, String Theory’s Autumn Wiggin showed us a glimpse Cradle to Cradle philosophy and how indie crafting can be a vehicle for change in consumerism. Being conscious of our environmental footprint with the supplies we buy, sourcing our materials in alternative ways to hopefully turn the heads of big corporations our way to what we really want to see as consumers. The concept of Bio Craft–making goods that will decompose and actually enrich the earth, not poison it. You go, girl–enlighten the Midwest for us, please!

Break time! Maker Media had a full on photo set up in the front entrance of Fiesta Hall, to shoot Makers such as ourselves. check out the other photos on flickr.

One of the last speakers (where did the last 4 hours go!?!) was Mister Jalopy, seen here to the right of Dale, who MC’d the afternoon. Man of various talents & businesses, Jalopy’s talk, Authentic Innovation, touched upon many of the day’s recurring themes, the major points being: 1. Design for Life–make original, quality items that will last; 2. Authentic Innovation=Shared Innovation, as he says, “Admit you are not good at everything–collaborate”; 3. Build Honest; 4. Build Open; 5. Circle back the the True Believers. His final words still resonate in my brain, “When you build Open, your success comes from individuals connecting Beyond Consuming”.

There you have it, folks. My 1st blog post ever–it was well worth the wait. Time to put this cold to bed–12 hours from now we’ll have Maker Prep madness in the kitchen!