Maybe you’ve heard me talking about the line of skirts that I started with my friend Jocelyn or maybe you haven’t and so I’m telling you now.  I am making a new line of skirts that I am really proud of.  Super wearable and stylish.

photo by Little Paper Cities

This is the skirt you can feel hot in one night, eat and drink too much in and feel fat in the next day, but you’ll still look awesome! It’s cut to flatter, with simple, stylish designs all on the same gray, a line skirt.  We have 4 different designs right now that you can view currently on Etsy.  All skirts have machine stitching and felt detailing.

We had friends road test these skirts and give us feedback on the cut, fabric, design, construction integrity and they passed the test with flying colors!  The verdict was that these are skirts that are built to last with plenty of comfort and stylish designs that works on many different body types.

We had our first craft sale last week at the Lewis Garden Fair.  Here’s a glimpse of our booth.

If you’re interested in learning more about these skirts you can check out our Etsy stop and join our Facebook page.  You can also keep up with us and learn about our upcoming sales on Twitter.

by jen

Phew, this is a busy time of year!  Richard and I have both been selling our art at art and craft fairs all over Portland, Oregon.  I create my work under the label Knot Ugly Designs and Richard has been selling his work under the business name Sinister Concept.  Our art and  sales have really been the focal point for both of us for the last few months, which has left less time for DIY Lounge.

You might be wondering, what’s happening with DIY Lounge? Well, we’re working on a number of different projects, such as emceeing at the Scrap fundraiser, speaking on a panel about DIY culture and getting a new HD video camera.  Recently, we’ve decided to shift our focus away from the TV show concept and back in the direction of crafty videos.   We will definitely continue making craft videos featuring Richard and I, as well as online video tutorials.  We’ll still offering Birthday parties and other art parties at both collage locations in Portland Oregon, too.

This Saturday and Sunday Richard and I will be selling our work at Crafty Wonderland.  The sale hours are 11am – 5pm at the Convention Center in Portland Oregon.  We hope to see you there!

Eight years ago when I decided to start a small creative business there was one regular craft show that happened a couple of times a year.  If you wanted to get your wares into stores through either consigning or wholesale accounts you had to do all the leg work yourself.  First, you researched which stores might be a good fit for your product, pounded the pavement, set up appointments, hoped the store owner was available and best of all, they would want to carry your work.

That is why last night’s I Heart Art Mixer Match was so incredibly cool.  Think speed dating for artists, except instead of trying to get a date the artists were attempting to woo wholesale accounts with local store owners.

Artist (left) receiving feedback from local business owner Nicole Prevost, owner of Union Rose (right).

The event was put on by I Heart Art, which is a group devoted to advocacy, education and support for Portland’s vibrant community of makers.  This is a collaborative group between Etsy, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Museum of Contemporary Craft, and the Portland Etsy Team.

Store owner (left) meeting with Lea of LeaK Arts (right)

One thing that I thought was really interesting about this event was that there was a wide assortment of artists all looking to pitch their products to stores.  There were many new faces and many people who have been making and selling their product in stores for years.

New faces that are unknown to me.

Ordinarily pitching your work to anyone, especially a stranger, is a nerve-wracking experience.  As you can see this was practically a party.  I’m sure there were butterflies in the stomachs of some of the artists and yet this was an incredible opportunity for artists to connect with store owners, practice their pitch and grow their businesses.  This is one of the things I LOVE about Portland’s Crafty/DIY community – unique ideas and collaborations turning potentially painful situations into a good time.

More new faces.  I liked this shot because you can see the frenzy of store owners digging through this artist’s product.

In a perfect world artist walked away from this event with new stores to sell their wares, but in many cases it was just an initial contact.  A great way for stores to see what new locally handmade products are out there and for artist to have the opportunity to receive feedback about their work, their pitch and their overall presentation.

Left to right, Torie and Cathy owners of Crafty Wonderland meeting with the owners of Burdy Fly Away.

Not every artist had product that was a fit for every store owner.  In some cases when the store owner wasn’t interested in the product offered by the artist, so store owners gave constructive criticism with the goal of helping artists land that next wholesale account.  You could think of this as an opportunity for artists to have many informational interviews and brush up on their pitching skills.

Devi (standing) makes necklaces with bread tabs for charms, which are made of gold and silver.

In case you are wondering why the atmosphere is so unbelievably cool at this event, it was held at the Design Within Reach, which has some incredibly cool furniture.

Owner of  Moxie , (left) a local boutique in Portland, meeting with an artist looking to find some wholesale account love.

If you want to read more about this event check out  The Etsy Storque, Handmade in Portland, or The Garden of Leah.

by: Jen

Richard has been on vacation celebrating his Birthday, so there won’t be a vlog post this week.  Instead I’m going to show you what I’ve been up to.

Creativity isn’t tidy.  I am constantly surprised at the amount of mess that I can produce while crafting.  When I’m not working on the DIY Lounge TV show or on the DIY Lounge video tutorials, I’m making crocheted and reconstructed apparel and accessories under the name Knot Ugly Designs.   Right now I just have hats in my Etsy shop, but I make many other items, such as reconstructed sweaters, reconstructed shirts and I am working on a dress prototype right now.

I recently cleaned up my studio, which is a combination sewing studio and the DIY Lounge TV studio.  Something like a good old fashioned cleaning must be photographed because it might not happen again for a long time.  When you are creative you MUST live with a certain amount of mess, but here are some pictures of the momentary clean that is my studio.

The DIY Lounge sign is where the DIY Lounge TV studio is.  At the left is where my sweater collection lives.  I will cut the crap out of these sweaters in the very near future.

Here’s another perspective.  You can see the bathroom off to the right.

Here’s more sweaters that have been cut up, but still have a lot to offer, so I keep them for the next project.  I have them hung on a rolling rack with a lower rack set up so I can see all of my sweaters at a glance.  Off to the right you can see my sewing studio.  I’m not totally done decorating in there so I will leave that to photograph for another day.  Trust me, I don’t judge anyone else’s creative mess, but remember a little cleaning every once in awhile can really help keep you on task and can allow for more creativity.  Not to mention finding those items that you put in a that safe-place-so-you-would-remember-where-it-is-later and then promptly lost, or maybe that’s just me.

by: Jen

We are very excited that Morgan at Etsy offered me the opportunity to create a blog post describing our project, DIY Lounge.

It went live the other day and we’ve been receiving many compliments and well wishes.  We are hoping that this will invigorate our Kickstarter fundraising campaign.

If you haven’t read it yet please click on the link below.

There’s nothing like a good mixer, especially one with great people, interesting and dynamic content and free beer.  Did I just say that?

Jen and I attended I Heart Art: Portland, a collaborative effort between Etsy,  PNCA ( Pacific Northwest College of the Arts), Museum of Contemporary Craft, and the Portland Etsy Team on Friday, February 26th. This was a meet and greet affair introducing this collaboration to the denizens of the Portland Arts and Craft scene.

To me this seemed to be measurably different from many of these events.  You felt a strong sense that the goal was to bring together the myriad amount of makers that navigate in this creative and crazy city.  Many faces familiar to me were in attendance but so many that I had never met were also there.  It was a great excuse to break out of the box that we often find ourselves in our respective communities as well as a way to increase my growing business card collection.

I’d be hard pressed to shed any new light on their goals which include some amazing workshops at PNCA as well as more events yet to come.  Please spend a little time visiting their respective sites to find out more about this amazing collaboration.

Cheers,

Richard