emiko-o reware

Whirlwind upon whirlwind! Seems like just yesterday I was at the ACC Fort Mason show in my new “garden” store of LEGO® wonder! Well, this weekend you can find me for the first time at Artspan SF Open Studios for the Mission District Weekend 1. Ten members of the Metal Arts Guild SF (included yours truly) have banded together in a great shop/gallery space in the Valencia St/18 St corridor run by Jeff Burwell of Burwell Arts. All of us are metal artists/jewelers/sculptors living in the city and making really fresh work. No where else in Open Studios are you going to see so much in one stop in one room!

And even better, Daily Candy featured our group as the poster child for Open Studios in The Weekend Guide which came out yesterday. Check out the post. Couldn’t ask for better promo to peeps who live in the neighborhood!

Tonight, Friday, Sept 30 from 6-8pm is our Opening Reception, so this is a great chance to scope out our entire lines before we start selling like gangbusters this weekend! Everyone is welcome.

Artists are: Kelly Nedderman, Rebecca Deans, Jenny Reeves, Masami Kelly, Raissa Bump, me, Derek Duncan, Shana Astrachan, Jeff Burwell, Jenny Windler

Here are the details:
What: Open Studios with 10 Members of the Metal Arts Guild
Where:  724 Studios in the Mission
724 Valencia St @ 18th St (next to Mission Cheese), SF CA 94110  googlemap here
When:  Opening Reception Fri, Sept 30, 6-8pm
Sat, Oct 1, 12-7pm
Sun, Oct 2, 12-5pm

Also find our event on Facebook !

me and Rebecca Deans at Opening Reception

Creating a New Craft Culture SAT 9:45 AM
Round Table Discussion: “Riding the Long Tail”: Marketing Craft on the Internet
Namita Gupta Wiggers, moderator; Maria Thomas, Lisa Bayne, Amy Shaw, panelists

The moment was ripe for this discussion–Namita Gupta Wiggers (Museum of Contemporary Craft, Portland, OR) had brought together the CEO of Etsy–Maria Thomas, CEO of Artful.home (owned by Guild.com)–Lisa Bayne, and owner of the former Greenjeans store and webstore–Amy Shaw. Now we could get to down to the nitty gritty and hear from figureheads of 2 factions of craft. Unfortunately since Amy’s business was defunct, the questions and interest was more or less focused on the 2 CEOs. Honestly, it was a shame that this panel wasn’t given more time. None of the panels had been slotted enough time; one hour doesn’t cut it when there are 3+ voices to be heard plus audience interaction.

What the heck is a “Long Tail”, you ask? It really is a business term, referring to the curve of goods sold in a company. In the big retailers, 80% of their sales are from only 20% of goods in the store, which represents the high end of the curve. The goods that sell in lower quantities, at the low end of the curve is referred to as the “long tail”. Brick and mortar stores don’t have enough room to stock all of the long tail products, unlike websites. Research has shown that for online stores, the the total sales of these long tail products far exceeds the sales from the traditional top 20% of the curve. And what products are at this long tail end: Craft.

Maria Thomas

A few months ago I had attended an Esty Meet-up in SF, where Maria and heads of her staff invited local Etsy sellers to gather for a Q&A session. The turnout was impressive and the crowd was eager and hungry for the inside scoop. It felt like a family reunion of sorts. I was super impressed by the level of transparency in the company and especially how attentive Maria was to each question and person.

Here there wasn’t time for a proper Q&A, and now I see just how crucial it is for these craft factions to understand each other better and be properly introduced under neutral circumstances. (INSIDER TIP: the Metal Arts Guild San Francisco will be holding a one-day symposium in fall 2011 on the theme “Community”, and this may just be the springboard for such a meeting of the minds, especially since I’m in on the planning.)

I didn’t learn anything new and ground-breaking with what turned out to be a general explanation of how each company runs, but this is a hot topic right now, and it will be interesting to see how selling craft on the web evolves over the next few years.

Below are quotes by the panelists that sum up the hour:
Maria: “Esty never set out to be an expert filter [on the issue of Quality] but to help people make a living…connecting makers and buyers.”
Lisa: “DIY has been a lightening rod in the media. It’s not the only thing in craft happening today.”
Amy echoes Rob’s advice: “We all need to work together, collectively as we’re all working towards the same goals.”

Word loudly heard from the audience:”AMEN.”

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.