New Orleans Craft Mafia wants your swag!

The New Orleans Craft Mafia is proud to sponsor the Alternative Media Expo, presented by Antigravity Magazine.

This will be the sixth edition of the Expo, and this year's event will feature over 70 exhibitors with 'zines, comics, films, crafts, photography and handmade clothing, independent record labels and artists with CDs and records, indie and grassroots organizations, filmmakers and much more!

The Expo will take place on Saturday, February 23rd, 2008 from noon-7pm at the Contemporary Arts Center (900 Camp St.) in New Orleans, LA. The admission fee for this all-ages event will be $5.

The first 150 paid attendees through the doors will receive limited edition cotton tote swag bags, courtesy of the New Orleans Craft Mafia, filled with freebies and product samples. These bags present a great opportunity to get the word out about your business, band, or organization. Vendors exhibiting at the Expo are also encouraged to participate in the swag bags.

Some swag suggestions include, but are not limited to: coupons, stickers, buttons, magnets, pens, etc. We ask that you do send actual swag items and not just promotional materials such as business cards or flyers. You may attach business cards, etc., to any donated swag, of course. If you are interested in sending in swag material, we ask that you send in the full amount of 150 items.

We will also be accepting product samples, which may include, but are not limited to: CD/DVD samplers, comics and zines, small jewelry or accessory samples, t-shirts, blank notecards or stationary, or other small samples of your products. If you choose to send in samples, we ask that you send a minimum of 25 samples.

The deadline for sending in swag & samples is Friday, February 15th, 2008.
Items may be sent to:

New Orleans Craft Mafia swag bags
c/o Claverie Crafts
P.O. Box 9399
Metairie LA 70055-9399

For more information on contributing to the swag bags, please email mallory [AT] neworleanscraftmafia.com

Benefit For Dawn's Boys

I just learned about a local Etsy artist who was killed last week in a motorcycle accident. Dawn Habisreitinger was a Slidell, Louisiana resident who made jewelry and lampwork beads and who was an active member of both the Etsy and eBay communities. She was 30 years old and had two young sons. Below are some of her lampwork beads:

Her friends in the crafting community have come together to create a fund for Dawn’s sons. Many Etsy sellers have already created listings for which they will donate proceeds towards the fund for Dawn’s boys. Individual listings can be found here, or check out the forum thread for more information, including shops donating multiple items or doing store-wide donations. There is a full list of items that have already been sold for this benefit here.

If you would like to donate directly to the fund, the Paypal address to do so is: fund_for_dawns_boys [!at] yahoo.com

reposted from my blog at MissMalaprop.com

DJ Mags from the New Orleans Craft Mafia will be at Festivus

The latest Scoop is that DJ Mags will be returning to the Festivus Roost for the the 2007 Festivus season. Hail Festivus! Soon to be seen around the complaint pole will be these goodies :


Silkscreened clocks

Silk Screened ties

and silkscreened tidings of good cheer. Hail Festivus and welcome back home DJ Mags. Cant wait to scoop up some of these recycled goodies!

The Festivus Celebration is coming to New Orleans on Sundays Dec. 2,9 & 16th at the Crescent City Farmer's Market Saturday Market location at Julia and Magazine from 12-5pm.

Louisiana Etsy Artist Event review Maker Faire Austin Texas

Hey yall. Have been working on a new feature where a local Louisiana Etsy Artist reviews an event. The latest review comes from Heather Macfarlane and Unique Products.
The Name of the Event was Maker Faire. It was held in Austin TX.
The theme/focus/nexus of the event was making stuff.
Our booth space was approx 10 by 10 and we decorated it like NOLA.

Interesting artists/booths/vendors I liked : there were too many to list - let me think not that many craft booths.
The crowd was best described as family / crafters/ geeks.
Our best customers were evacuees or people who love NOLA
The event cost free to participate and was juried.
Our advice about doing this kind of event is that this is not a selling event but make of a demo / ideas sharing - so we demoed 3 different projects

Our next market/event is swamp fest, this weekend at the New Orleans Zoo, November 3-4, 2007.
Our websites are www.letsgetup.com , www.etsy.com/uniqueproducts


This Artist/maker interview is copyright by Kerry Fitts and covered by a Creative Commons Copyright.It may not be used without my written permission, nor may the questions be used without my permission, thanks.

New Forums & Website for Etsy Louisiana

Just a little update, we've now got a brand new forum for Etsy lovers here in Louisiana. Not to replace our Yahoo group (which is great for announcements, but maybe not so much for carrying on longer discussions), please let me know what you think of the new forum. Any missing categories? Join in the fun here.

I'm also working on a new website for this group. It's still in progress, but you can check it out and let me know what you think at www.EtsyLouisiana.com.

I've created a member shops page to list all of the known Louisiana based Etsy shops & sellers. If you're a Louisiana Etsy seller, please check the list and make sure you're on it. It's organized by categories, based on the main categories that Etsy uses, with an additional Recycled category. Each shop may be listed in up to 3 categories on this page. I tried to organize this as best I could, but if you feel your shop should be listed under a different category, please let me know.

Louisiana Etsy Duo... Multi-talented Teena and Phil Whitmore

This Spring at the Wednesdays at the Square in downtown New Orleans I finally got to meet Teena & Phil (whose work I had seen on Etsy and loved but hadnt run into them at the art markets yet). First to greet you in their market space may be one of their two precious dogs (Marley is the one pictured here)who love to have vistors in the booth.
It was great to finally see their work in person. Phil does screen printed graphics and linoleum wood cut prints: http://inexplicableconfetti.etsy.com & http://pbwhitmore.etsy.com.
Teena works with art photography (along with textiles and other arts) and polaroid transfers that are just stunning,

http://whitmorephotos.etsy.com.
Finally they agreed to submit an interview and introduce themselves to the group.It took a while. And I had to listen to Phil's violent femmes covers on his ukelele while waiting. Not really but he is a gearing up for a big ukelele show at the Neutral Ground Coffee House tomorrow night (Monday October 8) from 7-9pm.

Phil Says:
We live in Uptown New Orleans, But we have only lived here a year and a half (so we've never said Y'all). We create silkscreend images on T-shirts (mostly).
All of the designs are original and created by me Phillip Whitmore with the influence of my wonderful wife Teena. We will print on anything made of cloth. We have done baby onesies, aprons, napkins, pillow cases, and although I haven't done them yet, someone just asked if I could print on womens underwear for their band and I said yes.My main creative influence has always been my suroundings. Ilove to travel, and when I paint, draw, or design screens, I am considering my surroundings. Sadly I haven't really done much travelling this year, So my influence would mainly be New Orleans.

My silkscreens are shown at Freret Street Market, New Orleans Art Council Market, and this week I will begin selling them at Storyville near LSU in beautiful Red Stick. You can also visit www.inexplicableconfetti.etsy.com I joined Etsy one year ago this week. Without Etsy I probably wouldn't have decided to do this business. I used to do it for fun for my friends, then someone considered ETSY, and now I have a business. Etsy has also cured my leprasy, and when my wife left and took the kids I thought all was lost. When I joined Etsy, she came back, and now she works to pay the bills. She even gets a baby sitter during the day so I can work on my bowling score. Wow Etsy has sure changed my life.

Some advice for new sellers:
#1 Check out others selling what you are, and try and make your items somewhat your own.
#2 Heart lots of people.
#3 Talk to local Etsiers and find ways to work together to promote as a group.
#4 Buy lots of Inexplicableconfetti shirts (They make you look better, and they make business run smoother.

Teena Says:

1.Please tell us where you/yall live
I live in New Orleans

2. What kind of work do you do?
Black and White, Altered, Hand-Colored Photos, and Photographic Fabric Collages.

3. What do you consider your main creative influences?minor?
Things from a simpler time. I was born in the wrong decade, I am inspired by the
early 1900s.

4. What Markets do you participate in in the area/region/state/nationally?
Bywater art market, occasionally the North Shore art market.

5. When did you join Etsy and how has it impacted your business?
I joined in September 2006.and I can't say it has made a big difference in my sales,
but it has helped me keep a current inventory online and it is a great community.

6. Any advice for new sellers?
Don't get discouraged just because you don't sell a lot on etsy. There are a lot of
artists out there with great stuff who aren't selling, and vice-versa.


Teena and Phil will be appearing next at the Bywater Art Market on Saturday October 20, Royal at Piety Street,9am-4pm, http://bywaterartmarket.com.Come check out their work and pick up some handmade New Orleans prints and gorgeous photography.

Etsy Louisiana at St. Roch

This past Friday I hung out at the new Friday on the Roch market to represent the Etsy Louisiana Street Team and spread the Etsy love. I’d made a fun tablecloth/sign for us to use at events like this one, and I even brought my dog along to help spread the word (she’s rockin’ an awesome Etsy bandana that I picked up last May at the Maker Faire).

Miss Kathy of betweenpeityanddesire is one of the fabulous organizers of this event (which I really hope takes off, because they’re trying to revive the St. Roch Market as a community marketplace — it’s one of my favorite buildings in town). I also got to chat with other local Etsyians GypsyCharmsJewelry and I picked up an amazing one of a kind acrylic seahorse necklace from yabettasupadont. (She said she plans to make more like it soon. Though I’ll admit, I was also swooning over her hummingbird earrings.)

If you’re in the New Orleans area and missed this event, many of the same artists will be at the new Freret Market this Saturday. My fellow Craft Mafioso art by mags! will also be in town for the event, though I will not be unfortunately. I’m headed to New Jersey later this week with my friend Gwen from Sigh Co. Graphics (a local NOLA company -- I keep trying to recruit her to Etsy!) to help her out at Chiller Theatre.

(this post has been cross-posted from my blog, MissMalaprop.com)