Indie Craft Parade is getting an office!

Though we love our job, we sometimes feel as though Indie Craft Parade makes migrants out of us. Our collection of events throughout the year is organized from our living rooms, local coffee shops, or a corner in our respective workplaces. However, when we learned that there was space available at The Forge in Downtown Greenville (the newest endeavor of the Iron Yard), we jumped at the opportunity. The Forge is currently under construction/renovation, so they've offered to let us tackle our new office space from the ground up. This afternoon our team went to our future location to take measurements and draw a rough plan. Our little 135 square feet has a long way to go, but we think it's going to be an awesome space to work and dream when it's finished.

View from outside office. mmmmm...purple...

Check out this crazy carpet!

And now for our vision of the space. Here's a glance at the inspiration for the new office. You can find these and lots more on our Pinterest Board!

We love the clean white spaces with touches of color.

Lovely craft organization and monochromatic wallpaper...but with ELEPHANTS!

Chair and chalkboard, oh yes.

No worries, we'll document the process as we go. You'll see us carry out a host of DIY projects we've been dreaming of.

Presenting The Makers Summit sponsors: MailChimp

The closer we get to the The Makers Summit, the more we want to tell you about the people who make the meet-up possible. We have worked with and used the services of MailChimp since the beginning of Indie Craft Parade, and they have proved time and again to be an indispensable resource.

MailChimp describes themselves as a way to help you: design email newletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. In short, they call themselves “your own personal publishing platform.” Besides keeping you and your followers organized, MailChimp provides beautiful design templates, loads of free advice and tutorials, and even ways to manage all of your features on the go. Best of all, you can get most of the MailChimp services for FREE! Their no-nonsence approach to mass communication combined with their fun personality and great design make MailChimp a great tool for anybody.

For The Makers Summit, not only has MailChimp shared their monetary support, but also they're sharing their staff. We are so, so excited to have Amy Ellis, the Head of Integrations and Partnerships at MailChimp, as one of our panelists. She is truly a girl after our own hearts. Besides helping people do awesome things with their businesses everyday, Amy is a regular speaker for crafty conferences, a foster parent for her neighborhood dogs, and an ardent fan of yarn bombing (so fun!).

For The Makers Summit, Amy will be sharing her wealth of knowledge about email marketing. She understands how overwhelming it can be to step away from the hands-on projects to promote yourself, so we can't wait to hear loads of tips and practical advice from her at the conference. For a sneak peek of her genius, check out this interview as part of Unbounce's Conversation Heroes.

Thank you again, MailChimp. We love working with you and so greatly appreciate everything you do for the making community.

Holiday Event you don't want to miss: December First Fridays, Kid Art show, and Joey Bradley Heirloom and ornament show

If you're weren't able to attend our Holiday Fair (or even if you did), here are a couple of great art events that are taking place this weekend. Tomorrow is the first Friday of the month, which means it's another great night for an art crawl. Studios up and down the streets of West Greenville will be open to the public, and two of our food favorites---Neue Southern and Asada---will be there to make it a party! In conjunction with the December First Fridays is a fabulous show (AND GIVEAWAY) by one of our long time artist friends--Joey Bradley. Joey has exhibited at Indie Craft Parade for the past two years, and we're continually amazed with the beauty of his work. At this event he'll be doing two giveaways, so be sure to check out the details on his Facebook page and attend the event for a chance to win some amazing fine art.

And to finish things off for tomorrow evening on Pendleton Street, you have to check out a show that will steal your heart. It's the annual Kid Art Show, featuring 5 young artists. The show will be hosted at the photography studio of Jeff Hall, Aaron Green, and Christine LeGrand. Here is a video from last year's show!

http://vimeo.com/14185061

Edit: Another great event we almost forgot to mention is the Art Bomb Luminary Christmas Show! The Art Bomb is a shared artist studio located just down the road from Joey Bradley and the Kid Art Show, at 1320 Pendleton Street. To find it, just follow the luminaries lining Pendleton Street. You can't miss it!

2012 Scholarship Winner!

Thank you to all of the teachers who applied for the 2012 Indie Craft Parade Scholarship Program. We received some really great applications from schools around the Greenville area. And as always, we wish we could help every single one of them. But we're happy to announce that this year's winner of the scholarship is Gateway Elementary School in Traveler's Rest. Joanne, the school's art teacher, shared with us that her classes are the only creative outlet for many of her students, who don't typically have access to art supplies at home. Also because of severe budgeting, her own program is lacking in many resources. We're so happy that we were able to more than double her yearly budget with our scholarship.

We can't wait to see what great things her students will produce. And we're looking forward to sharing that with you in the near future!

Indie Craft Parade Holiday Fair: The official details

What: Indie Craft Parade Holiday Fair When: Saturday December 1, 10 am – 5 pm Where: A smaller, more intimate venue in the Pendleton Street Arts District Artisan Traders, 1274 Pendleton Street, Greenville, SC 29611

We're less than a month away from our first annual Christmas event, and we're getting ready to celebrate a handmade holiday! Please share the word with friends, family, and anyone else you know who would love Indie Craft Parade.

New Venue! For our smaller, one day event, please note the change in venue from the Huguenot Mill. Here's a map to the new location.

We're so excited about all of the artists who are on board for the show. Here they are!

2D

Emily Jeffords Cory Godbey Shed Labs Chris Koelle

3D

Rachel Feece Pottery

Fiber Arts

Heather Keew Merciful Hearts Farm Once Again Sam Teri Goddard Handweaving Heartfelt

To Wear

17 Dove Street found*ling Hand Printed by Matt Butler Fox to the Opera Parachute The Cordial Churchman Audrey Laine Jewelry 

Paper Goods

Quill and Arrow Press The Gilded Fete Royal Buffet

Everything Else

canoo juxtaposition The Herb Garden The Chubby Cupcake Annie Koelle

**We're not joking about helping us spread the word. We've got stacks of postcards ready to share. Please email jen@indiecraftparade.com if you'd like some to put out at your work, school, local coffee shop or anywhere else.

The Makers Summit

Registration for The Makers Summit is now open!

Check out TheMakersSummit.com to purchase tickets, see the schedule , and meet our amazing speakers.

All the details are there, but here's a brief run-down:

What: A one-day conference for the art, craft, and design world.

When & Where: February 2, 2013 in Greenville, SC

Who should attend: Any creative individual who wants to start or grow their businesses.

What is the cost: Conference tickets are $100 and include breakfast and lunch. Our evening event, The Best Craft Party Ever, will feature an amazing supper followed by a time of crafting, and is $50 to attend.

Head over to see all the wonderful details!

Greenville Open Studios 2012 this weekend

Many of you probably work or live right around the corner from a Greenville artist, and you don’t even know it. Local artists don’t always work out of galleries or official studios, which is why you should take advantage of Greenville’s annual Open Studios. This event not only gives the community a chance to meet more of Greenville’s artists but also to tour their work spaces, to get to know their processes, and to connect on a more personal level. Open Studios is THIS WEEKEND! Saturday, November 3, 10am – 6pm & Sunday, November 4, Noon – 6pm. A few artists are even open on Friday evening.

About Greenville Open Studios from the Metropolitan Arts Council: Now in its eleventh year, Greenville Open Studios began as an idea cast about during a casual conversation between a small group of artists several years ago; they discussed doing something to raise awareness in the greater community of the tremendous creative energy in the area. The idea has evolved into a full-fledged annual event.

The 2012 self-guided tour will feature 140 artists and their studios this year.  Studio locations vary throughout a 15-mile radius of downtown Greenville with Easley, Greer, Travelers Rest and Dacusville included. Catalogues are available at MAC as well as at each artist’s studio. 

Open Studios even has a smart phone app that you can use to guide you to the artists and tell you about their work. Check it out at greenvilleopenstudios.com.

Indie Craft Parade Holiday Fair

It's time to announce yet another fun project we've had up our sleeve. This December, we'll be hosting the very first Indie Craft Parade Holiday Fair! This will be a much smaller scale version of our main event, featuring 25 previous Indie Craft Parade participants.

The Fair will be held at Artisan Traders in Greenville's art district (see map below) and will be open from 10am - 5pm Saturday, December 1. Come support local artists and give one-of-a-kind gifts this year.

Admission is free, so mark your calendars and plan to bring your friends and family! More details will be coming soon.

What: Indie Craft Parade Holiday Fair When: Saturday December 1, 10 am – 5 pm Where: A smaller, more intimate venue in the Pendleton Street Arts District Artisan Traders, 1274 Pendleton Street, Greenville, SC 29611

The Lamp Post Guild on Kickstarter

We love sharing with our community the newest resources and trends in the world of making, which is why I nearly flipped when I saw this new Kickstarter project called The Lamp Post Guild. Three professional illustrators from Greenville (2 of which have been Indie Craft Parade vendors) have created an online course to teach people how to turn their passion of art/illustration into a career.

Statement of purpose from The Lamp Post Guild:

Every kid drew pictures until someone told them they couldn’t.Millions of people wanted to become artists when they grew up,but they were told that being an artist is not a "real job."Only a few of them will actually make it as professional artists.It doesn't have to end this way.

We want to make this story end differently for these aspiring illustrators and artists by teaching online courses that will help them improve their craft and earn a living doing what they love.

This presentation is done beautifully, and if you have people in your life who would benefit from taking these classes, you should seriously consider supporting!

Knack Studio Grand Opening This Weekend!

We love this time of year in the arts and craft world. It seems like between now and the new year, every week there is a show, a market, a gallery crawl, or (as in this announcement) a studio grand opening! We've got so many events to tell you about in the coming weeks, so make sure you're checking back with us. Today I want to share an upcoming event for the creative genius that is Knack Studio--Barb Blair. She's been a long time friend of Indie Craft Parade, serving as an exhibitor as well as a jury and board member. Not to mention, she's a foundational piece of the arts scene here in Greenville. Barb specializes in remaking antique furniture, often finding beauty in pieces long overlooked. Not to mention she has an impeccable decorative sense which means she has a wonderfully curated line of "found goodness" for sale. Over the past few months she's been renovating a new studio that has its Grand Opening this Friday night! We've had a sneak peek into the new venue, and let us tell you--it's worth going to see.

The new studio opening will be in conjunction with another Indie Craft Parade friend, Lily Pottery. To check out the details, head on over to Barb's blog. We can't wait to go!

Advertise with us!

One of Indie Craft Parade’s goals is to serve our greater community. We want to help you tell the world about your business, and we can do that by offering advertising space on our blog. Since we're no longer in peak season, our prices for blog advertising has dropped. But that doesn't mean that your ad won't be seen by hundreds or even thousands of people. Our website traffic will continue to be high through the holiday season as people are looking for handmade gifts from our artists and learning more about the upcoming Maker's Summit. We’re offering competitive pricing and great exposure for your business–so click on the image below to get more information and see how advantageous this opportunity can be!

Reminder: Etsy Craft Party!

Don't forget, the Etsy Global Craft Party is tomorrow night!

Friday, August 24th from 7 - 9 pm at the studio of J. Aaron Greene (1252 Pendleton Street Greenville, SC 29611)

Please join us for this night of BYO Crafts. It's a perfect time to start, further, or finish a project you haven't been able to get to. Just bring your supplies, and get to work.

To participate in this one night of crafting awesomeness, simply sign up at Meetup.com.

Martha Stewart's American Made Awards

Are you the owner of a small creative business looking to expand and bring more attention to your craft? Well, today I'm sharing one fabulous opportunity with you. Martha Stewart has created the American Made Awards, where she will be recognizing a number of artisans. See the details from her website.

Martha and the editors of Martha Stewart Living magazine are searching for the rising stars in a new generation of small-business owners. Ten American Makers will be selected. Their work will share the quality, beauty, inspiration, possibility, and creativity embodied by Martha.

One American Maker will be selected by our audience and will be given the Audience Choice Award. If you have your own small business, shop, or Etsy shop and are doing innovative, high-quality work, nominate yourself (or someone you know) for the Audience Choice award.

The winner will be honored at the American Made event in New York City, will appear in Martha Stewart Living magazine, and will receive $10,000 to further his or her business.

So if you want to showcase yourself as the next American maker, check out the simple application form. Or, if you know of a really great business who should be recognized, you can refer a friend. If nothing else, this is a great way to get your business listed on Martha Stewart's website.

And this is great news...Indie Craft Parade veteran Sarah Mandell of Once Again Sam has already been nominated. We'd really love to see more friends and participants of Indie Craft Parade on the list.

Applications close on August 25th, so hurry on over there to apply or just to see who's in the running. There are some really gorgeous businesses to browse.

Behind the scenes of Indie craft parade: the evolution of our mascot

I've got a treat for you today. Of all the things people note about Indie Craft Parade, our mascot--Hugo--gets a lot of attention. Our adorable little elephant perfectly embodies the whimsical spirit of Indie Craft Parade, and we thought you might like to know a little more about him.

With all of the indie craft fairs across the country, we worked tirelessly to make sure our name and branding stood apart. We labored over the name, and once we settled on Indie Craft Parade, it didn't take long to decide that we needed a mascot that could match our excitement about the event. An elephant was perfect: marching, leading our parade, like a fabulous circus. We named him Hugo, after the location of our event, the Huguenot Mill.

Below are some of the many versions of Hugo that were drafted by the ever talented Cory Godbey. We thought you'd really enjoy seeing this.

And one of our final versions that we still use today:

Sponsor Feature: Vagabond Barista

We've got a real treat for any coffee lovers at this year's event. Will Shurtz founder of the Vagabond Barista is setting up his mobile coffee bar as one of our sponsors and food vendors. He'll be donating his services for the VIP Gala event (in case you need yet another reason to attend), and he'll also be among our food vendors on Saturday and Sunday of the event.

After working as a local barista for the past 3 years, Will realized a gap in Greenville's coffee/breakfast culture, namely that precious few places brewed coffee using methods such as siphon and chemex brews, and you certainly wouldn't be able to find anything this specialized at local events. Besides making one seriously good cup of joe, Will is a coffee guru. He has a deep knowledge about the beans he's serving, and he only sources coffees that are top quality from planting to roasting.

Will currently brews for various events about town. You can contact him via Facebook or Twitter if you're interested in having at your next event. Otherwise, you can visit him at Cowork Greenville where he's brewing on a weekly basis. The processes through which he makes cups of coffee are both beautiful and delicious. We're so excited to introduce yet another handcrafted element of Indie Craft Parade.

Behind the scenes of indie craft parade: why greenville?

Within the past decade, there has been a rebirth of the handmade, DIY ethic. Now in cities across the nation you can find huge communities of part-time and professional artists, as well as a population of non-artists willing to support them. Three years ago we saw this trend developing in places like San Francisco, Brooklyn, Austin, and Portland and decided we needed to bring it to Greenville, South Carolina. photo by Mike Burton

Why Greenville? It certainly doesn't have the population of a large city, and South Carolina as a whole doesn't necessarily have the reputation as a trend setting state. Nonetheless, our little city has caught the attention of many outsiders. Within the past year, Greenville has been listed among Forbes' "best downtowns" and CNN's "fastest growing cities." Greenville has even impressed the New York Times,which has taken note of our developments. On top of that, Greenville for many years has boasted a thriving fine art community.

We've lived and worked in Greenville for a number of years, fell in love with the city and all it has to offer, and decided that it would be the perfect location for an Indie art fair--just like all those big creative cities.

We frequently get asked if Indie Craft Parade is part of a franchise or a larger national craft fair. We're so happy to reply--no! Indie Craft Parade is an independent event, created specifically for the city we love. Most of our sponsors and nearly all of our volunteers come from right here in the Upstate. And while we invite people from our surrounding states to visit our event, even our attendees hail mostly from here.

We're so thankful to be going into our third year as Indie Craft Parade--so thankful to the people in our town for supporting us! And we think it's pretty awesome that Indie Craft Parade is making a contribution to the national crafting movement.

"Love Greenville" tee created by Indie Craft Parade vendor Parachute Clothing

Sponsor Feature: MailChimp

The closer we get to the main event, the more we want to tell you about the people who make the festival possible. Today, I want to share all the goodness of MailChimp with you. If you're a business owner, event coordinator, or leader of any group that takes a lot of communication, MailChimp could be an indispensable tool for you.

MailChimp describes themselves as a way to help you: design email newletters, share them on social networks, integrate with services you already use, and track your results. In short, they call themselves "your own personal publishing platform." Besides keeping you and your followers organized, MailChimp provides beautiful design templates, loads of free advice and tutorials, and even ways to manage all of your features on the go. Best of all, you can get most of the MailChimp services for FREE! Their no-nonsence approach to mass communication combined with their fun personality and great design make MailChimp a great tool for anybody.

We at Indie Craft Parade have used MailChimp to organize our newsletters and campaigns for the past few years, and we're so happy to say they've joined forces with us this year. The generous donations of this creative company truly makes it possible for us to continue putting on the high caliber event we give Greenville each year. We're so thankful that MailChimp supports the creative community!

Join us for the Etsy Global Craft Party

We're so excited to be helping again with the local manifestation of Etsy's Global Craft Party. Last year we had so much fun meeting new crafters, sharing our current projects, and learning more about art and craft in Greenville. Well, it's that time of year again. We're partnering with the local Etsy Street Team to bring you this fun (and FREE) event. Even though the party is still over a month away, we want to give you plenty of time to put this on your calendar.

Not sure what the Etsy Craft Party is? Here's what Etsy has to say about it: Craft Party is a time to get to know your neighbors and exercise your creative spirit. Craft Parties take place around the world when communities come together to participate in art, craft, design and DIY in every form. Anyone can organize a Craft Party and anyone can participate — the power is literally in your hands!

So join us for a night of BYO Crafts. It's a perfect time to start, further, or finish a project you haven't been able to get to. Just bring your supplies, and get to work. Or you can participate in the global theme for the night: "Wish You Were Here." Etsy is encouraging everyone to make crafts inspired by their hometowns.

To participate in this one night of crafting awesomeness, simply sign up at Meetup.com. And the sooner you sign up the better. If we have 25 participants committed by August 12, Michael's will donate a box of craft supplies for us to share the night of the party. So don't drag your feet. Get over to the Meetup page and sign up. You can always find updates for the event on our Facebook Page.

Sponsor Feature: Lark Crafts

We've officially entered festival season! Only 9 short weeks and Indie Craft Parade will be here--9 weeks, can you believe it? We've got so much to share with you between now and then: featured vendors, new things to expect this year, details about the VIP Gala...the list goes on and on. But today, we're excited to share with you one of our fabulous sponsors--Lark Crafts--a resource you need to have in your crafty arsenal. From their website: Lark Crafts is a creative publishing group based in the beautiful and artistic mountain town of Asheville, NC. We love showcasing the best the craft world has to offer through how-to projects, comprehensive technique guides, spectacular visual galleries, and everything in between. Lark has been in the business of providing crafters with information and inspiration for 25 years, so we’re steeped in tradition. We’re also enthusiastically engaged in where crafting is going. We’ve been an integral part of how the craft community has grown, changed, and evolved over the last couple of decades—and how it has recently exploded in size and expanded in all kinds of exciting new directions. 

For the 2012 Indie Craft Parade, Lark Crafts is generously sharing from their stores of crafty knowledge by donating over 100 books to the event. That means over the course of the festival we're able to give away all of those books to our attendees, pushing crafty inspiration even further into our community. Just take a look at some of the titles that we have access to!

Making Mini Books

Hand in Hand

Soapmaking the Natural Way

Simple Stitches: Sewing

Paper Cuts

Stash Happy: Felt

Easy Concrete

Doodle Stitching

So, if you didn't already have a million reasons to attend Indie Craft Parade this September, come to win one of these amazing books! Just a note: your chances of winning a book are greater when attending the VIP Gala, so stay tuned to know when tickets become available.

Inside Look: The Jurying Process

Our jury will be meeting this weekend to review all the applications we received. Here's an inside look on the jurying process. The 2012 jury is Marco Suarez, Barb Blair, Teresa Roche, Doug Young, and Mollie Greene. These talented individuals are 5 professional artists with expertise in many genres, and we're very happy to hand over this difficult task to them. They jury each category separately and judge individual applications on how well they match the vision of Indie Craft Parade, as well as their  originality, quality, uniqueness, and innovation. All applications are reviewed anonymously to avoid any bias. Each jury member views an applicant's description of their work, along with the 4 photos they submitted. They briefly discuss the merits of the application, and then vote on 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.

Work featured above is from Marco Suarez's 2011 application. Jury members are not allowed to exhibit at Indie Craft Parade if they are currently on the the jury.

We can't wait to see all the wonderful submissions! All applicants will be notified on Monday, July 2 with their status.