Re-Cover-Ry

Whew. Craft Con was a blast. We are slowly posting wrap-ups and ongoing information on the website, still working out what happens next. Upcoming is Maker Faire, where Autumn (one of my main honchos on the project) is going to be presenting the Crafting Green information she shared at Craft Con. Since she's coming back, Lz and EJ (the weebley force behind Your Mom's from the Pittsburgh area) are too so we're going to represent Craft Con at Maker Faire, tabling and even I believe presenting onstage about the project. Maker Faire is May 3 and 4 and I hope to see you there, either when I am wearing my Craft Con hat or when I switch to Pandora's Trunk organizer. Whew.

Meanwhile, this weekend I am taking part in Alchemy, sure to be a rockin good time.

~aLchemy~
http://www.false-profit.com/2008/04/26/alchemy/
Saturday, April 26th
9pm-2am
CELLspace
$15
full bar

featuring...

-Styles of Magic fashion show by Missing Piece at 10pm
-Phantoccino, a magic show by Keith Boudreau
-Art Gallery by Will Chase Arts
-Alchemical Afforestation, an interactive steel sculpture by Shira Loa -Digital Paint Mash-Up by Dangermarc
-Pyrocardium, a heartbeat-powered candelabra by False Profit Labs
-Web of (de)Construction, a live textile piece by Medium Reality
-Identity Tapestry by Mary Corey March
-Flame Tree Building Workshop by False Profit Labs
-Phoenix Aviary, a reactive video installation
-Writing Photos, an intersection of writing and photography
-Altered Paintings, reworking thrift-store finds
-Interactive Lights & Magnets, Photo Booth, Lego Robots, origami, and more.

--------------------------------------------------

San Francisco – Activity erupted the floor of the Stock Exchange and the Artsy Index soared as False Profit, LLC and Missing Piece announced the second incarnation of Alchemy. This flood of activity, however, was not the usual buying and selling.

Several men in business casual were spotted making origami while a large circle of traders watched a walk-off between representatives from several Fortune 500s. Easels sprouted up in the atrium while fortunes built on towers of Legos rose and fell. One bewildered Exchange administrator was heard shouting, "Ok. Who here brought the arc welder?!" It was the most activity the Exchange has ever seen.

"My mind is melting like a Dali clock," observed one trader, overwhelmed by the unprecedented rise in the Artsy Index. "So I guess that's what I'll be painting at Alchemy."

When asked to describe Alchemy, Stephanie Tholand, Lead Structural Engineer at False Profit, LLC offered this explanation: "It's really a collaboration built atop a series of collaborations which are themselves collaborations. I assure you, it's quite unstable and vulnerable to unexpected quakes of artistry."

Some people are indeed expecting the unexpected: "I've heard the Missing Piece fashion show is basically magic," said an anonymous source from deep within the fashion industry.

Both False Profit, LLC and Missing Piece declined to comment on the details of Alchemy, citing the impossibility of predicting what the attendees will do.

Alchemy, an interactive art event, is commencing on April 26th at
CELLspace in San Francisco and a great flurry of artiness is expected.

http://www.false-profit.com/2008/04/26/alchemy/

Here Goes Nothin

We're over budget (hellloooo, credit cards), I've been sleeping 4 hours a night, it's too late for me to get my dry cleaning done, and I think I've already committed to doing this again next year. Am I crazy? Probably. Come see!

Craft Con and Pandora's Trunk present
Saturday, April 5 8-11:30pm

Crafty Style Gala

Urban Art Farm SF
1345A 17th St @ Connecticut
MUNI 19/22/T
http://craftcon.org/gala

Live Music - Cake and Sake - Live Art
$4 formalwear or costume / $7 general admission



Live art and fashion construction by Onerary and Architect G from Pandora’s Trunk

Magical realist paintings by Alfonso Kellenberger

Live ambient soundscapes quartet with Mika Pontecorvo
electric cello, guitar/flute, electronics/percussion and drums

Photobooth (play dress-up)

DIY craft station (make yer own souvenirs)

Food and drink

Meet n Greet indie artists from nationwide
Savvy indie artists and artisans from all over the country are visiting in town to attend Craft Con, http://craftcon.org, a business development conference for the craft community. The Crafty Style Gala is an opportunity for San Francisco's unique local arts scene to meet the nationwide leaders of the recent craft resurgence and show them what is unique about our culture!
http://craftcon.org/gala

Craft Con: one week

I said the phrase out loud two different times today before I believed it "The conference is in one week". The second time, when I let myself realize it was true, my voice went a little hoarse for a second. It is getting close and things are coming together beautifully in places and falling apart all over the place elsewhere, although that second part is amazingly diminishing. Tonight I massaged and trimmed the budgets and spreadsheet columns to a place where, with the people who are already registered, if i put my thumb over what is left in the contingency budget (not much at this point) the numbers match and the project breaks even. Let's have a happy moment of silence for that one; its not the end but I can sleep a little at night. Well, it's 2:30am but i will go to sleep soon i am pretty sure.

Not everyone who has committed to pay and come will do the former or the latter but I figured out a way to leave registration open for much of next week so hopefully we will get a few new people in to tip the scales back again. Making and arranging budgets is not as cut-and-dried as people would think. It's really interesting to me to take the budget management skills i learned in school for lumber and steel and welding and apply them to a myriad of different kinds of projects... everything seems to track. Biggest baddest rule demonstrated in this project? The less you know the bigger a margin for error you leave yourself. Thankfully i got that one right... so far.

Craft Con o Rama

Craft Con is less than two weeks away now and the hours are just evaporating out from under me! I feel like a juggler, and if I only drop every third ball I have to think I'm doing ok. I've been fielding very interesting phone calls lately, from faythe levine to the american craft council... and that's just today!

Here you can read on etsy's blog about Craft Con. Hopefully the word has spread far enough that the numbers in my spreadsheet are accurate. This in a lot of ways has been a far riskier proposition financially than any of my previous endeavors... with my phone number in the hands of the vendors and much of the event resting uneasy on the backs of volunteers... it's nearly that time, though, close enough to the culmination of such a large project that it feels like jumping off a cliff with your eyes closed. when you open them you'll be there, for better or worse.

Swept Away

We're two weeks out now, wow that was fast! Tons of interest in Craft Con, the business development conference for the craft community that I am hosting here in San Francisco April 4-6. Everything is coming together and falling apart at the usual rates, I don't know why I am surprised each time by both things occurring. Having a few good level heads to work with makes almost all problems go away. Well, diminish in importance.

I just got a phone call from Velvet Da Vinci and am all excited now about the high vs low craft debate coming to roost at our conference. Maybe you didn't know about this divide? as if it weren't enough for 'fine art people' and 'craftspeople' to be split from each other, there is a divide also between fine craftspeople and uppity internet crafters who yes, sometimes use hot glue guns. some of them.

Me and (oh god, uh... Mike?) from VdV had a great conversation about the ways that good (and bad) things can be found everywhere you look and the way that hacker-craft can enable fine-craft in all sorts of awesome ways.