Garden & Gun Made in the South Awards

We always want to let people know about new opportunities to get involved in the art and craft scene, and today we have a good one! You must check out the Garden and Gun Annual "Made in the South Awards."  This is an awesome chance to show off your handmade goods.

Check out the official information from their website:

Artists and designers, don't miss this great opportunity to share your work! If you live in the South and make amazing things that fall into one of these categories — food, sporting, fashion, home — then you need to enter this contest! Garden & Gun hosts the Made in the South Awards each year to celebrate "the rich cultural traditions of Southern craft, design and ingenuity." The deadline to enter is August 1st, so make sure you get your work in fast. Winners receive a cash prize as well as being featured in the Dec/Jan issue of Garden & Gun.

August 1st is coming up quick, so if you want to enter, be sure to do it quick. Check out the application here.

Also, take a look at some of the featured winners from last year. Some seriously gorgeous stuff here!

Leather bags from Emil Erwin

Handcrafted Furniture from Holler Designs

Lace designs from Gabrielle Jewelry

Featured Artist: Lightnest

Anybody on the hunt for the perfect tote bag? I know I always am--which makes me doubly excited that Paige Maitland of Lightnest is going to be at Indie Craft Parade. Her pieces are streamlined, modern, and express chic simplicity. And I love her fabric choices and use of jute for carry straps. Can't wait to see this booth! Want to see more of her gorgeous handbags? Check out the Lightnest Etsy Shop.

CoCraft This Upcoming Weekend

Just wanted to let everyone in the Greenville area know about a super-fun crafting opportunity coming up this week. This Saturday, July 23, is a CoCraft night hosted by Mandy Blankenship. You can either learn how to make cloth napkins or bring your own crafting supplies to work on personal projects. The party will be held at 514 Glenwood Ave. in Anderson, SC. Please RSVP here if you can make it! For further details, check out the CoCraft page.

Featured Artist: Tilson Sister Terrariums

Today's featured artists are two sisters who create these beautiful little terrariums. I was so thrilled when I saw this entry come through. I LOVE terrariums! And these mossy little woodlands are absolutely adorable.

When making the terrariums, they make sure that each piece is unique. They collect the moss, find the perfect container for each terrarium, and then craft and paint each figurine by hand. Although they started out by giving terrariums as gifts to friends and family members, they're now sharing these little gems with everyone else.

I particularly love how they show off the strata of the terrariums by using the apothecary jars to display their work. I think they're like perfect parfaits of earth and moss. And I can't wait to meet these girls at Indie Craft Parade!

Call for Musicians

Last year Indie Craft Parade had the pleasure of hosting a number of local bands to entertain guests as they shopped at our festival. This was a such a successful part of the event, and we know we absolutely must have it again! As we did last time, we're opening up this opportunity to musicians who would like to join the fun of the indie art scene. Good music helps complete the atmosphere of Indie Craft Parade, and we're on the hunt to find some new performers.

If you think your musical group would be a good fit for Indie Craft Parade (or if you know of a good band or solo artist), please contact us at info@indiecraftparade, or leave a comment on this post.  Tell us a little about yourself and attach a link to a clip of your music. We're interested to see what you have to offer! Spaces are limited, and will be allocated at the discretion of our directors.

Check out last year's awesome musicians in this post from 17 Dove Street.

Featured Artist: Sara Lee Parker Textiles

I'm so so excited because today is the first of our featured vendor posts for Indie Craft Parade. We've got such a talented lot, and I know you're going to love browsing the goods they have to offer. So without further ado, meet Sara Lee Parker Textiles. She's a textile printer and designer living just outside of Thomson, GA. She hand prints adorable designs onto sustainable fabrics which she makes into a variety of home goods such as aprons, napkins, and tea towels. (I am such a sucker for those.)

Sara Lee Parker also offers her fabric as yardage and in fat quarter form for sewing, quilting and other DIY projects. If you want to see more, check out her etsy shop. You might not be able to wait till September to purchase from her!

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Dinner Napkins

Fabric Samples

Tea Towels

Half Size Apron

It's Official! 2011 Participants Announced

Now that all of our accepted exhibitors are confirmed, we're so excited that we can finally share who's going to be participating in Indie Craft Parade this September! Our 2011 participants are a fantastic group with such varied goods, everything from letter-pressed paper goods to hand-spun yarn. Click here to see the exhibitor list and start exploring their individual websites. Stay tuned! Throughout the summer we'll be featuring a handful of these artists on the blog. You'll see a sampling of their work and hear a little more about them...just enough to get you excited about buying out their booths.

Thanks again to our jury for choosing such a fabulous lot!

Exciting Book Release

Here's some fun news from the world of design and crafting. Design*Sponge is releasing a book! For the past few years this enormously popular blog has inspired its followers with its posts on home decor, fashion, food, graphic design, and of course crafting and DIY projects. The new book features an entire section of Do It Yourself projects, providing tutorials on a variety of subjects. So, check out the book trailer below. It's beautifully produced. If you're already a D*S fan, you can imagine all the goodness that will come from this publication. If you're just now hearing about this blog, you'll want to check it out. You'll be amazed at the inspiration that's in store. http://vimeo.com/22861096

Featured Sponsor: Oh Snap!

Another reason to come to Indie Craft Parade this year--to join in on the fun provided by Oh Snap! Photobooth. They're another of our fabulous sponsors for the event, and we're so happy to have them back. Last year people loved using props and gathering friends to create the silliest and most creative pictures that captured the spirit of Indie Craft Parade.  We can't wait for all the fun pictures that will come out this year. The people from Oh Snap! were so great to work with. If you have an event such as a wedding or other party coming up, you should totally check them out here. You'll be so glad you did.

A couple shots from the 2010 Indie Craft Parade.

Meet the Jury: Michelle Radford

Michelle somehow manages to be an art professor, a serious artist/crafter, and full-time wife and mom (soon to be of three). Through all of this she still creates fresh, new works that have a flavor uniquely hers. And her fiber goods, such as her reworked fabric jewelry and pillows, are stunning. If jurors were allowed to have booths at Indie Craft Parade in September, she'd sell out quickly.  

Indie Craft Parade: In your art as well as crafts, you have a tendency to turn trash in to treasures. What's the oddest thing you've incorporated into one of your pieces?

Michelle: I don't know if these would seem particularly odd to people who practice mixed media: a little dutch boy had to give up his head to a brooch, and a little angel had to lose her wings...all for a good cause. I've stitched bones into a piece. The finished products look must less sinister than they sound. My work is anything but Halloween-ish, however.

Indie Craft Parade: The gap between art and craft is continually growing smaller. Is this a trend that you embrace in your own work, or do you think of your fine art work as a separate endeavor from your crafts?

Michelle: My paintings tend to look very different from my "crafts". I could see them merging more eventually, though. I don't think it is very useful or interesting to try to keep the arts and crafts apart if they want to intersect or blend. The most rewarding handmade objects to me--whether "arts" or "crafts"--are thought provoking, meaningful, well-executed, and have a little bit of wow-factor.

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Indie Craft Parade: Who is an artist that you currently find inspiring?

Michelle: As far as no-longer-living artists, I always really enjoy looking at the work of Rothko and Rauschenberg. I really like the way they used paint, and how their work makes you think of space, format, and materials. As far as living artists who make objects for everyday use, I'm always really captivated by the things the artists at ShopSCAD make. It's really fresh and fun.

Do It Yourself: Creative Wall Covering

New DIY Project for you. I learned  about this one while at the craft night we hosted a couple of weeks ago. Melinda, one of our participants, recently moved, and she was looking for a creative way to fix an unsightly wall in her bedroom. The previous renter had torn up the some of the wall, and there were bits of peeling paint all over the surface. So Melinda came up with the bright idea of using this tutorial to make tissue paper flowers from vintage sewing patters. Compiling the flowers with other odds and ends from the thrift store, she put together quite a lovely display and managed to cover any ugly splotches in the process. Thanks for sharing the paper flowers and the finished product!

Making the paper flowers at the Etsy Craft Party.

The Materials:

Various sizes of tissue paper flowers

Thrifted frames (contents and glass removed), spray painted a pearly off-white--some of the frames she filled with coordinating craft paper which turned out super cute!

Small nails for hanging the frames--1" nails for lightweight, empty frames work fine

Wall safe sticky tack--a tiny bit for holding the edges of the frames level

A level

Thumb tacks

The wall, tastefully covered.

The Process:

First Melinda laid out all of the frames on the floor to see which arrangement she liked best. It's always a good idea to play with composition before you start nailing things to the wall. After she tacked the frames in place and made sure they were level, she thumbtacked the paper flowers over the nasty wall splotches to hide remaining evidences of peeling paint. The entire project was quite easy, about 4 hours from start to finish. And it looks absolutely great!

Indie Craft Parade Participants Chosen!!

The wait is over! The participants for Indie Craft Parade have been chosen! This past Saturday our jury reviewed nearly 350 applications for Indie Craft Parade. After many hours of careful discussion, they finalized the list of vendors accepted to represent their work this September. Our jury is a group of 5 professional artists with expertise in many genres, and we're very happy to hand over this difficult task to them. They juried each category separately and judged individual applications on how well they matched the vision of Indie Craft Parade, as well as their  originality, quality, uniqueness, and innovation. All applications were reviewed anonymously to avoid any bias. Each jury member viewed an applicant's description of their work, along with the 4 photos they submitted. They briefly discussed the merits of the application, and then voted whether or not it should be accepted. The jurying is a tedious process, but this thoroughness is essential for selecting just the right mix of exhibitors.

So what happens next? Today we're sending out email notifications to all of our applicants. If you haven't received yours yet, please be patient. We're writing individual emails, not a mass mailing, so it takes several hours. When applicable, we're including comments from the jury as to why a work was not accepted or how to refine work that was. The official list of accepted exhibitors will be posted on our website once they've all confirmed their reservations.

To be honest, this day is the hardest for us at Indie Craft Parade. We hate writing rejection letters! But we only have room for 70-80 vendors, and with nearly 350 applicants, there simply is not room for everyone. Many of our applicants showed great skill in their work, but they were not the best fit for our festival or we just had too many similar entries in some categories. Indie Craft Parade represents all the genres of art and craft--so we can't limit ourselves to showing just fine art or just jewelry, etc. So please, if you were not accepted for this year's event, don't let that discourage you from entering again. Keep working to make your goods better and more original, and we'd love to see your entry next year!

One other change to expect this year: Most of our applicants requested full-sized booths. Unfortunately, we can't accommodate that many full booths without significantly reducing the number of exhibitors represented. So, several applicants were asked to downsize their booths in an effort to fit all of the accepted artists--something we didn't have to do last year.

Thank you again to everyone who applied! Your work is vital to the Greenville and greater Southeast art community, and we're so grateful that you chose to share it with us.

Do It Yourself: Herb Gardening

The DIY ethic is the heart of America's craft movement. This ever growing spirit of "I can do that" inspires people to better living where they waste less and frequently spend less. Indie Craft Parade whole heartedly embraces ventures that help people become more independent, so we're going to include a series of posts where we help you make your own accessories and home decor, or enhance your life using tools you already have, or as in today's post, help you grow your own food. Now I'm not talking about becoming independent of the food industry or even digging up your backyard to plant a full vegetable garden. We're starting at the simplest level of food provision--planting an herb garden.

Photos courtesy of this post from the very inspiring photography blog From Me to You.

I love herbs! I have a small container garden just off our back porch, and few things make me happier in the summer than clipping off those fragrant greens to stir into dinner at the last minute. The best thing is, many herbs are ridiculously easy to take care of (even for us with the blackest of thumbs), and making a little container garden is so stinking cheap! For the price of buying fresh herbs at the grocery store, you can make an herb planter that will last you the entire season. Herbs also provide some basic health benefits. They're a great way to add flavor while cutting back on fats and salt.

You probably already have most (if not all) of the materials you need for starting your own herb garden. But here is a basic list:

1) Small containers--at least 6" in diameter so your plants have room to grow (recycled cans with holes poked in the bottom work great if you don't already have cast off flower pots)

2) Fine potting soil

3) Seeds or starter plants--this late in the season, I would definitely recommend starter plants

4) A sunny spot such as a porch, patio, or even a window sill that receives a few hours of good sunlight every day

5) Watering device--herbs don't need a ton of water, but they do like to have it consistently (if you want to get all fancy, you can buy an inexpensive watering systems at your local hardware store)

Now, I'm by no means a knowledgable gardener, but I have had great luck with my herbs. Here is a list of herbs that I have found to grow well in the hot summers of South Carolina: Basil, Rosemary, Oregano (mine comes back year after year now), Thyme, Parsley, Tarragon, and Mint. I have NOT had any luck with Cilantro or Chamomile. I think the heat just does them in too early in the season.

Hopefully you're inspired to go out and try a little gardening of your own. Here are a few parting tips that will make your experience even better.

If you don't mind doing a little research, the Clemson Extension website has this awesome guide on growing and harvesting a variety of herbs.

Meet the Jury: Teresa Roche

Teresa Roche's Art and Light gallery is often at the center of attention for Greenville's artist community events. Besides the numerous tasks that come with running a chic art boutique that boasts some of the best finds in town, Teresa manages to produce her own work. She's best known for her whimsical mixed media pieces. Next chance you get, visit her gallery in the Pendleton Arts District. You won't be disappointed.

Indie Craft Parade: You love using found objects as a basis for some of your art. What is one of your favorite finds yet?

Teresa: I love using vintage fabrics and wallpapers in my mix media pieces.  My favorite is a café curtain made from a fabulous 1950's bark cloth. The vivid chartreuse color is my all time favorite color, and it was a total fluke that I found it in a thrift store in New York.

Indie Craft Parade: Your gallery is in the heart of the Greenville art district. What kind of growth and development would you like to see in Greenville's art future?

Teresa: I would love to see the Pendleton Street Art's District grow with the addition of a great artsy café and other service businesses that would be open for daily retail hours. That way when customers come to the district they can grab lunch and run other errands within the area. The art, artists, talent and quality is already there. I think that it's so important for small business owners to come together with a concentrated marketing plan and a commitment to spend the marketing dollars and commit to the sweaty equity involved in trail blazing in order to have long term consistent growth.

Indie Craft Parade: As an artist and savvy businesswoman, do you have any suggestions for start-up artists or crafters?

Teresa: Yes, the importance of a business plan.  It doesn't matter how small or how big you start - without a business plan you can find yourself floundering.  Artists and crafters also need to be very thick skinned, willing to put the work out there and to get professional assistance in the areas they have weaknesses (i.e., marketing, accounting, merchandising, sales). It takes all of these things to run a business. And you have to remember that being a successful artist or crafter is a business.

Indie Craft Parade Deadline

Please don't forget!!

The application deadline for Indie Craft Parade is tomorrow night at midnight! You're running out of time to show us your fabulous art or crafts. We've made the application process super easy, so please don't delay any longer.

Late applications will not be accepted. Also, unfinished applications will not be accepted, so if you have yet to finish your application or upload your photos, please do so immediately!

Interview with our Jury: Barb Blair

Today's jury interview is with Barb Blair, a lady who can do marvels with cast-off furniture. She's made quite a name for herself in both the home design community and the blogisphere, with features in many publications. Her design aesthetic is fabulous, and I'd love to fill my house with all sorts of goodies from her shop. You can visit her studio in the Pendleton Arts District of Greenville or follow her blog, to keep up with all her projects and fun finds.  

Indie Craft Parade: You're contributing to a book coming out! That's super exciting. What can readers expect to see?

Barb: The book is called Design*Sponge at Home, it comes out September 13th. It is basically a large book featuring a lot of the content that makes up the website, and it shows readers how to incorporate the ideas into their homes. There will be lots of people featured in the book, and I will be in the before and after section. My projects will be featured as tutorials on how to transform furniture.

Indie Craft Parade: You exhibited at Indie Craft Parade last year and had such a cute booth. Do you have any advice for this year's vendors for setting up a creative display?

Barb: As far as a creative booth display. I think you should keep your booth consistent with your brand. Incorporate elements that tell your personal brand story without having to say a word. I think another really important thing is to have plenty of product. A full booth sells, and giving people lots of options is key to attracting a variety of buyers.

Indie Craft Parade: What is a quick summary of your creative process for restoring furniture? Do you have usually have a vision for a piece as soon as you see it?

Barb: When I pick up a piece of furniture I am always looking for interesting details that will stand out when painted. Or I look for furniture that I can add interesting detail to, such as wallpaper, stripes, and/or shiny new hardware. I check to make sure the piece is structurally sound and that all repairs (if necessary) are within my means to repair or can be repaired by a professional without taking too much off my bottom line. Once all of the repairs are made and the piece has been sanded and prepped for paint, I get to work executing my design plan. Speaking of design plans, I usually know right away what I will do to a piece when I see it, but there is the occasional piece that sits and stares at me in the studio for a few months before the plan hits me.

Indie Craft Parade: What new and exciting things can we expect to see from your studio in the near future?

Barb: One other cool thing is that I have just designed and had built my first piece of furniture! It will be the start to my new Knack couture line which will consist mainly of wallpapered and highly design intensive pieces. Other than that I am painting away in the studio, shipping pieces all over the country. And I just recently shipped my first international piece to TOKYO!

2010 Overview

In case you're looking for a quick overview of last year's event, this will help! Using Daytum, a beautiful data collection tool, we created a few (only somewhat nerdy) graphs to help us visualize several statistics from last year.

At a glance, you can see how people heard about our 2010 event, and the number of applications we received in each category. My personal favorite graph shows how much experience our vendors had before participating in Indie Craft Parade. You can visit our Daytum page here to see that one and more!

Worth a Thousand Words: Impressive Product Photography with Very Few Tools (Part 2)

In part one of this photo tip series, we discussed the importance of lighting and staging your products. To wrap things up, we're going to go over some simple principles concerning using your camera and editing your photos.

Working with Your Camera

Regardless of the model of camera you have, you can take good quality photos. Key to achieving this is simply getting to know how your camera works. Read the manual and play with the settings. Also, if you have a popular type of camera, there's a good chance you can find an online forum (such as this one) for trouble shooting.

Here are a couple of good principles to follow regardless the type of camera you shoot with:

1) Check your white balance settings. White balance refers to the neutral colors (such as whites or grays) in your photograph. You want to keep those colors true to real life, creating the most pleasing photos. The white balance is affected by the type of external lighting you have. If the white balance is not adjusted, the picture can appear discolored. See example below.

Adjusting the white balance is simple. Go into your camera's white balance settings and adjust the light setting to match the conditions you're shooting in.

2) Use a tripod. I don't care how steady you think you're hands are. Any movement in the camera will result in a lesser quality photo.

3) Keep the ISO on your camera low.  A lower ISO will slow down your shutter speed, but the image will be less grainy. Most digital cameras have an ISO adjustment. If yours does, keep it as low as possible for the kind of light you're shooting in.

Editing Your Photos

Before you upload your product photos right out of the camera, consider these suggestions to put the finishing touches on your photos.

1) Crop your photos. There's usually not a need for a lot of background or white space around your object. Make clear what's being sold, and keep the attention away from what's surrounding your product. Depending on the item you're shooting, it might be a good idea to keep the focus of the picture away from the direct center. Try to crop it on the 2/3 line for a pleasing effect.

2) Sharpen and brighten your images as necessary. If your photo turns out a little darker or less clear than you like, these are good ways to achieve the pleasing effects you want. I know that can sound a little daunting if you have no photo editing experience. So I highly recommend checking out Picnik. It's a free online photo editing program that will do most of the work for you. You can either play with your photos settings yourself or use the auto-fix feature that does a really good job. The program is easy to follow and quite fun when you see the end result.

Just a final word of advice, keep practicing and playing with your product photos. You'll soon find the exact look you want, and the process will become faster and easier as you go.

Weekend Fun: Crafting Party

Thank you every one who came out to our craft party on Friday night. We had such a good time meeting new Greenville crafters and reconnecting with ones we already knew. And the crafts...we had super cute paper wreaths and flowers, fused glass, father's day cards, as well as handmade baby and bridal shower decor to show off at the end of the night. Stay tuned, we'd love to host another party in the future. You'll want to be there when we do.

To see the rest of the pictures from Friday night's fun, check out our Facebook album.

Don't Forget! Craft Party Tomorrow Night!

Crafty Gathering Found on 100 Layer Cake

Friends of Etsy and Indie Craft Parade are gathering at Dapper Ink tomorrow night for an evening of making crafty goodies. Please join us --even if you don't have a craft to work on. We're bringing some inspirational craft books as well as some card making/collaging supplies to share. RSVP here!

Hope to see you there!

7-10 PM; 207 Wade Hampton Blvd., Greenville, SC 29609; 864-551-3115