Thanks to all the vendors and visitors for making the 8th annual Crafty Bastards another amazing show! Despite the rain and chilly weather, we had vendors tell us this was their best Crafty Bastards yet.

Please take a moment to fill out our Shopper Survey so we can make sure next year’s Crafty Bastards is even better!

Even though the show is over, there are still lots of ways to celebrate Crafty Bastards!

Add your photos to our Crafty Bastards Flickr pool! We wanna see what you bought, what you ate, who you met and how much fun you had.

Is there something that you meant to buy, but just didn’t get back to? You can still shop with our vendors via the Crafty Bastards Vendor Gallery.  You can also connect with your favorites on Facebook or Twitter, and make purchases from their online shops.

Also the winner of this year’s Craftiest Bastard contest will be announced soon. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook or sign up for our newsletter in order to find out who the winner is and get all our updates.

All photos courtesy of Rachel Carrier.

See you tomorrow at Crafty Bastards for some shopping and fun! If you’re not already following Crafty Bastards on Twitter make sure you follow it now, as tomorrow special deals from vendors will be tweeted out all during the fair.

Wondering how to get to the fair? Then check out this handy guide for directions and public transportation information.

Still need plan out your shopping route for tomorrow? Use this vendor map to help you plan how you’ll navigate the fair to hit up all of your favorite vendors.

While shopping tomorrow be sure to keep in mind who you would like to give your vote to in the Craftiest Bastard Contest. You can either vote when you get home and back in front of a computer here, or cast your vote in person at the fair at the Washington City Paper booth.

Don’t forget to visit the new additions to this year’s event like the Young & Crafty Vendors, the Crafty Farm and all the added amenities like the stroller valet.

Take a peek at what others are saying about Crafty Bastards, like The Washington Post‘s Going Out Guide, The Washington Times and TBD.

And don’t forget to pick up this week’s issue of Washington City Paper where you can snag the official Event Guide.

The following article is from the official Crafty Bastards Events Guide which you can pick up in this week’s Washington City Paper on stands now.

By Heather Morgan Shott

When Ashley English moved to D.C. in 1996, her aspirations didn’t include canning and preserving her own fruits and vegetables, making her own dairy products, or keeping her own bees and chickens. And they certainly didn’t include writing a series of books on the subjects. Yet she credits the District with putting her on the path toward not only living on an 11-acre Appalachian homestead, but also writing the Homemade Living guides Canning & Preserving, Home Dairy, Keeping Bees, and Keeping Chickens.

“I figured I’d eventually make my way to New York,” says the 35-year-old, who moved from Asheville, N.C., to her stepmother’s studio apartment in Foggy Bottom so she’d have a “stepping stone” to the big city and a career in fashion design. “But I got to D.C. and made some friends who were involved in kind of the left spectrum politically, and I changed my mind about wanting to become a fashion designer. I got really involved with nonprofit work, which inspired an interest in the intersection of economy and food.” English nurtured that interest by working at the Whole Foods in Arlington, Yes! Organic Market on Connecticut Avenue NW, and the now-shuttered Good Food store on 18th Street NW.

By 2000 she’d decided she missed Asheville enough to move back. Two degrees—one in natural health, the other in sociology—“a series of different odd jobs,” and work as a nutrition consultant and medical assistant at a local doctor’s office followed. English was satisfied “on a lot of levels” but still wasn’t sure exactly where she wanted to be in her life. “I knew I wanted to move a little bit closer to actually working with food,” she says, “both in the kitchen and in the soil.”

Everything finally clicked after she met her future husband, Glenn English, who happened to own land in nearby Candler, N.C. “The property…had been an organic edible-herb and -flower farm. So there were greenhouses; there was flat land,” English says. “I thought, Well, this is perfect for me. Let me figure out what I’m going to do out here.” English quit her job and started Small Measures, a blog about her life on the farm. In 2008, a close friend who’s an editor at Asheville publisher Lark Crafts invited her to write a series of books on contemporary homesteading. The idea was that English would, for the most part, learn by doing, passing that experience on to readers.

“I was like, ‘Holy crap, yes!’” recalls English. “‘That’s exactly what I’m supposed to be doing.’”

English immediately got to work on Keeping Chickens and Canning & Preserving, both published in 2010. The chickens would be an entirely new adventure, but canning was something she’d always known. “My grandmother Ruby was a big canner,” she says. “She had a big pick-your-own blueberry farm in Chesapeake, Va., and a big garden with her second husband, so they did lots of canning. I can recall with great clarity her making and canning grape juice in her kitchen, bread-and-butter pickles, all sorts of things.”

English’s book covers all the basics and offers recipes ranging from strawberry jam to curried-winter-squash chutney. “Canning and preserving are absolutely a cinch because you just have to acquire whatever raw material you’re using,” she says. “You turn on your stove and you’re good to go.”

Keeping chickens turned out to be a little more involved, despite English’s assertion that it’s not too different from having a house cat: “You have to feed them every day and provide them with water, and if somebody gets sick, you have to take care of that.” There were some inevitable chicken causalities along the way. “There’s undeveloped land all around us, so that makes for lots of predators that would love a chicken dinner,” she says. “We would like chicken eggs, so our chicken coop is now fortified—we call it Chicken Fort Knox.”

Once English and her husband returned from running errands and, thanks to a faulty gate latch, “saw all the chickens in the yard” at the same time their German shepherd, Buffy, did. Most of the chickens ran back to the coop when the dog began chasing them, she says, but one wasn’t so fortunate. “My dog actually ripped the whole back off of one of them,” says English, who saved the injured bird by dousing it with hydrogen peroxide and stroking it to calm its nerves. The next day, the vet gave English medicine for the chicken—and inadvertently prompted a D.C. flashback.

“I was in the chicken coop…thinking, I used to hang out at the Pharmacy Bar drinking gin and tonics and reading the Washington Post, and now I’m giving my chicken antibiotics by beak,” she recalls. “I was like, Wow, my life is really different now.”

Next came the bees. English attended beginning beekeeping classes for two years before writing Keeping Bees, published in March this year. Today she has two hives and has never been stung. “I am one of those people who always wears gloves and always wears a veil and jacket,” she says. “Some people want to…feel the bees and feel the rhythm of the buzzing and humming while they’re in there, so they go in bare-handed, and that’s when you’re more likely to be injured.”

English says her precaution is more practical than anything else. (“I use my hands all the time as a writer and a cook…I don’t really have the time to get stung.”) But wearing protective gear can have disadvantages, especially in mountainous Candler, as English discovered in the summer of 2009, when, in bee suit and rubber boots, she fled a black bear. “Fled is actually an inappropriate descriptor,” she wrote on Small Measures. “[T]rudged, plodded, and clumsily, heavily ran are much more fitting descriptions of my attempt to high-tail it back up the hill to my house.”

In the book English writes about how to harvest honey, but she says she keeps bees mainly as a way to be environmentally responsible. “For me it’s not so much about the honey. It’s stewardship for pollination purposes. The output of my garden has increased exponentially having honey bees around.”

English’s latest homesteading adventure is chronicled in Home Dairy. Making her own cheese, yogurt, and ice cream has been surprisingly easy, she says. “I think there’s this whole shroud of mystery behind homemade dairy products. The veil became very thin when I was working on that book.” One of her main challenges was finding the correct type of milk for making mozzarella—which, she says, “has to have not been ultra-heat-treated in order to get all smooth and glossy and pliant.” She ended up going through several gallons’ worth of “mishaps” before discovering the perfect product.

Next up, English says, she’s hoping to launch a second food-related book series—“a spinoff in another direction.” She declined to discuss details but says she’s also thinking of exploring merchandising opportunities for the books she’s already written. “I’d really love to have a line of really cool canning lids.”

“I feel really fortunate to live the life that I do,” she adds. “It’s like serendipity has smiled at me in a lot of different ways.”

The following article is from the official Crafty Bastards Events Guide which you can pick up in this week’s Washington City Paper on stands now.

By Kieca Mahoney

Just about all of us dream of making ourselves a home, of creating a domestic space that suits exactly who we are. Christina Brown’s dream, however, is a little more ambitious than most. “I’m so obsessed with log cabins, and I’m determined to build one in my lifetime,” she says. “And everyone looks at me like I’m crazy when I tell them I don’t want to use power tools or anything. I want to do it all with hand tools. I’m probably not physically capable, but I’m going to try.”

Until then, the 27-year-old Fredericksburg, Va., native contents herself with building on a somewhat smaller scale. Since 2008, she’s made more than 300 ceramic “shelf cities,” each composed of a dozen model buildings no taller than five-eighths of an inch. Every one is cut and detailed by hand, then glazed dull white and fired. Some are inspired by structures she remembers from childhood. Others are more purely imaginative. In either case, she says, “Coming up with a new house is like, Hmm, what are you? Or Who are you?”

Brown fell into making clay buildings while working on terrariums, hoping simply to create some accessories for her plantings. “I just went to Michaels and bought this cheap clay and was thinking, I hope this doesn’t fall apart in this wet terrarium, which it did. It was urban decay after a while, and people would call me like, ‘My house melted!’” Within a few months, Brown had mastered her materials, and earlier this year she left her job at a plant nursery to work on her craft full time. Her shelf cities have now found their way to Australia, Japan, and Sweden, among other countries.

Brown’s latest planned project, however, is a bit closer to home. It involves Kenmore, the Fredericksburg home of George Washington’s sister Betty Washington Lewis. “It has a brick wall around the outside of it, divoted in spots where the bricks are old and caved in, and I want to set [my houses] up in there,” she says. “Imagine a kid walking by and seeing that, and the mom being like, ‘Not yours!’ But it has this tag that says, ‘Finders keepers.’…I imagine these people quietly taking them and putting them in their pocket and bringing it out later, this exciting little thing.”

“It’s that that makes me like it,” Brown says of her work. “Not the thing itself, but the idea of discovery.”

In her home/studio, a charming house once owned by her grandmother, Brown talks about the importance of childlike wonder, imaginary architecture, and little plastic flagpole finials.

How do you make your buildings? I throw out a big slab and then use an X-Acto knife to cut the rough shapes. And then all my tools are, like, a bobby pin and a needle…The best tool I have is the little plastic finial off one of those little flags, for the window. It makes a perfect square. I used to use it attached to the flag still, but I finally went ahead and broke it off. I’ll probably die if I lose it.

What is it that makes you create these cities over and over? I get bored sometimes making the same ones over and over again, but I’ll make a lot of, you know, more unique ones for myself. Other people don’t tend to get those more interesting ones…Part of it, admittedly, is that I like it when people think I make cool things, so it’s a confidence booster. But yeah, I get lost in daydreaming a lot. I need that time to, I don’t know, think of things that don’t matter…I think about farms a lot. I want a farm more than anything. I plan it…Whichever one [my husband and I have] fallen in love with at the time, I plan every inch of it and where every tree and chicken will go.

Read more Small-Town Girl: Christina Brown Builds the 1:600-Scale Cities of Her Dreams

The following article is from the official Crafty Bastards Events Guide which you can pick up in this week’s Washington City Paper on stands now.

By Mimi Kirk

Eleven years ago, when Hillery Sproatt was 15, she and her mother, Debby Weiss, then 44, went to the Los Angeles County courthouse to apply for a business license. They didn’t know what they were going to make and sell, but they knew they were going to do something artistic—together. “I felt that if I didn’t jump into it then, I would never do it,” says Weiss, who worked in a doctor’s office at the time but had been trained in textile design at UC Davis. “And Hillery was my inspiration. I saw her talent and wanted her to be passionate about it.” Sproatt, however, wishes the trip had been undertaken a little differently: “My mom is very impulsive,” she laughs. “There should have been lots more planning.”

The mother-daughter team ultimately started designing bags and clothing for their new business, Rebe. They’d discussdesigns together, and Sproatt would draw the patterns. At first, they simply made clothes that Weiss, Sproatt, and Sproatt’s two younger sisters wanted to wear themselves. These days, says Weiss, who now runs the line on her own, “The designs are at a much more mature level.” They include slouchy, layerable skirts, dresses, and coats that often incorporate Empire waists, Peter Pan collars, and other details from a range of fashion eras.

At 19, Sproatt left California for the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where she began to produce her own collections of objects, now mostly whimsical, hand-embroidered dolls and mobiles. The dolls have a distinctly folk-art look, and because each is decorated with a different character on the front and back, they also suggest fairy-tale narratives. But Sproatt credits her mother as their original inspiration. “My mom made dolls when I was little,” she says. “My sisters and I loved them, and they were living somewhere inside me, I guess. When I went to create, they came out.”

Despite Sproatt’s growth as an artist in her own right, mother and daughter are still “best friends,” says Weiss. They often share booths at craft fairs, and Weiss even has a secret plan for another mother-daughter business: “My dream has always been to have a bed and breakfast with an art gallery and boutique,” she says. “I’d love to do it with Hillery.” Her imagined partner’s real-life response? “That’s good, Mom.”

Over the phone from Los Angeles and Baltimore, Weiss and Sproatt speak about how family members—and National Geographic—can serve as artistic inspiration.

What do each of you consider the biggest artistic influence you’ve received from the other? Sproatt: It goes back to the projects my sisters and I did growing up, sewing and embroidery and working with textiles in general. Things that my mom was excited about. She tried to make and surround herself with beautiful and special objects. It’s a gatherer’s sensibility, I think, and I inherited that sensibility—though I’m a little more choosy about what I gather! Weiss: Hillery originally gave me the courage to start the business, since she had the talent to draw the handbag and clothing designs. More recently, she’s encouraged me to look at myself as more of an artist. I’ve started making wall art using vintage fabrics…I always dreamed of having a gallery show but because of my background never really went about it. Hillery has given me the perspective to see that I’m creating pieces of fine art that could hang in a gallery someday.

Read more Cut From the Same Cloth: Former Mother-Daughter Team Still Stiched Together

The following article is from the official Crafty Bastards Events Guide which you can pick up in this week’s Washington City Paper on stands now.

By Garth Johnson

Ian Henderson makes jewelry inspired by nature. But that doesn’t mean he has a thing for sweet little flowers, leaves, or birds. Instead, the 31-year-old Bostonian says, “The insect world, the deep-under-sea-plant world, the world of things underground, under rocks, or in holes are an inspiration to me. The other thing that I’m attracted to are…claws, spines, stingers, fangs, and myriad other natural armaments that appear…on creatures in hidden and hard-to-reach places.”

His Zoa Chimerum line is a veritable natural history museum of defensive forms, bristling with overlapping spikes. But surfaces that at first glance seem hard, unyielding, and threatening are actually soft, pliable, and inviting. Henderson’s materials of choice are silicone insulation tubing and aluminum grounding wire, both repurposed from the electronics industry. They’re things that “are hardly ever used like this,” he says—but also things you can buy at the hardware store. Read more Dude, Where’s My Carapace? Ian Henderson Finds Jewelry-Making Inspiration in the Exoskeletal

The following article is from the official Crafty Bastards Events Guide which you can pick up in this week’s Washington City Paper on stands now.

By Bridget Elmer of Impractical Labor in Service of the Speculative Arts

Best Evidence that Bright Ideas Should Never Be Left on the Shelf: Household-Appliance Lamp by Minda’s Art
Here’s the problem with household collectibles: They’re hardly ever household “usables.” Sure, that vintage tea kettle or beehive blender may look great just sitting there, but it’s not lifting a Bakelite finger to help out with the chores. D.C. artist Melinda “Minda” Merinsky has an enlightening solution: Turn said slacker appliance into a keep-earning, warmly glowing lamp. She can do the same to land-line phones, nondigital cameras, even mason jars—any old knickknack that can accommodate a bulb, some wire, and her expansively witty design sensibility. She takes commissions, too—and aren’t chances good that your workhorse of a coffeepot is ready to be liberated from the never-ending task of keeping you caffeinated? Minda invites you to flip its switch and give it a chance to shine. [Visit Minda's Art in the Vendor Gallery]

Best Gift for the Closet Drinker: Hangovers by Hogmalion & Company
“No! Wire! Hangers!” Sorry, Joan, but I like having those paper-covered pieces of art

in my closet. Every day their reassuring logos remind me of how much pride my dry cleaners take in their work. Jason Higgins of Baltimore’s Hogmalion & Company clearly understands how I feel. His screen-printed Hangovers not only provide a handy way to store our sassiest pantsuits—they also tap into the wire hanger’s potential for self-expression. Emblazoned with “WE ♥ OUR BOOZE” and other important adult-beverage-related declarations, they’re the perfect way for my dry cleaners to ensure my loyalty even more. I’ll just drop off a case or two with my next batch of dirty laundry and wait for them to return. After all, what customer can resist a wire-framed message meant just for her—especially when that message is “Tequila!”? Perhaps even Mommie Dearest would consider a policy change. [Visit Hogmalion & Company in the Vendor Gallery]

Best Reason to Stare Deeply Into a Pair of Glass Taxidermy Eyes: Plush by Horrible Adorables
Given their relentless, doe-eyed cuteness, you don’t expect much in terms of emotional depth from the foam-stuffed, plush-covered creatures you meet at craft fairs. But after staring into the glass eyes of Sweasel Kit, Pimly Pom, or one of Jordan Elise Perme’s other faux-taxidermy mounts, you’ll be forced to reconsider. Sure, this Cleveland crafter’s impeccable technique could probably hold your gaze on its own. But her creatures’ big, soulful eyes, made with real glass taxidermy orbs, draw you in even more than their gracefully curving antlers and perfectly coiffed felt pelts. Once a Horrible Adorable catches your eye, you simply can’t look away. It’s as if these guys are somehow aware of the dissonance of it all—of the hint of sudden death peering out from their lively, colorful little faces. Now that’s deep. [Visit Horrible Adorables in the Vendor Gallery]

Best Invitation to Get Close and Personal: Smell Me! Perfume Oils by Bunny Butt Apothecary
“OK, OK! I’ll totally smell you!” It’s probably the last thing you’d want to say to any product having to do with a leporid posterior. But you won’t be able to help yourself after an encounter with the gorgeous design, clever wordplay, and tantalizing essential oils of Bunny Butt Apothecary. As the moniker implies, owners Anya Pokazanyeva and Scott Robinson add an irresistible dash of silliness to their line of health-conscious bath and body products handcrafted in Maplewood, N.J. “Because bunny butts smell like a spring meadow, didn’t you know?” No we didn’t, but we’re sold on Bunny Butt fragrances like Chai Town, a spicy mix of cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, black pepper, and vanilla, and Lycheerous, a tart blend of fresh lychee and honeyed rooibos tea—not to mention Hunnysuckle, A-Peeled, and Currant Events. The crafters and their two rabbits, Bunny and Other, may take “a firm stance against animal cruelty,” but they’re simply inhumane when it comes to making us choose. [Visit Bunny Butt Apothecary in the Vendor Gallery]

Best—and Possibly Only—Reason to Put On a Tie: Neck Fashions by ReVamp ReWear
I’ve never really been into the kind of man who dons a tie. As for the kind of woman who does—well, we all can’t be Marlene Dietrich, can we? But hold the phone. An ascot? Who knew that a frilly, dated piece of neck fashion could change my mind in a heartbeat? Kristen Swenson and Erin Derge, that’s who. The pair, who met in the apparel-technologies program at Minneapolis Community and Technical College, run Ginger Root Design on U Street NW, where they offer tailoring services and showcase their own ReVamp ReWear line. And technologically speaking, their ascots, Lady Ties, and Outlined Neckties are H-O-double-T! Expertly tailored from vintage silk, these neck-cessories are unisexy enough to make anybody feel like tying one on. [Visit ReVamp ReWear in the Vendor Gallery]

Read more Craftiest Bastardy: Crafty Superlatives Chosen By Bridget Elmer

The Crafty Food Awards is uncovering Washington’s best craft foods: flavorful, creative, responsible products from home food crafters. While the supermarket shelves are lined with America’s biggest brands, independent artisans are transforming great ingredients into artisanal products in their home kitchens.

We are proud to announce the winner of the first ever Crafty Brewers Award. Drum roll please. The winner is: Brian Bennett with his Wild Yeast IPA.  Congratulations, Brian. Sam Wineka took second place for his Dog Days Pilsner. Mitchell West’s Strawberry Trippel took third.

In addition to beer, the Crafty Food Awards will crown the best preserves and pickles. Join us for the public ‘taste off’ and judging at Crafty Bastards Farm, starting at 3pm this coming Saturday.  Judges will rate on flavor, originality, and responsibility.

Thank you to all who participated in the first-ever Crafty Food Awards. Please make sure to join us Saturday at the Crafty Bastards Farm for the ‘taste-off’ and awards ceremony.

See you at the Fair!

All attendees of this year’s Crafty Bastards Arts and Crafts Fair are invited to take part in the Neighborhood Stampede.

In this week’s issue of the Washington City Paper is the game piece for this year’s Neighborhood Stampede. The rules are simple. Take your game piece to 4 of the 12 businesses listed and receive a stamp at each of the locations. Once you collect 4 stamps, fill out your contact info and then drop it off at The City Paper Booth, Skynear, Adams Inn or Little Shop of Flowers.

Be sure to then go to the Adams Morgan Partnership booth at the front of the fair to pick up their wristband to get discounts all day at businesses in the Adams Morgan neighborhood.

The grand prize winner of the Neighborhood Stampede a prize pack worth $800 consisting of tickets to David Sedaris, 10 Landmark movie passes, gift certificates from each of the 12 participating businesses, one limited edition Crafty Bastards t-shirt, one limited edition tote bag and more goodies!

Here’s a list of the participating locations:
1. Tattoo Paradise, 2444 18th St. NW
2. Adams Inn, 1746 Lanier Place NW
3. Skynear, 2122 18th Street NW
4. Idle Time Books, 2467 18th St NW
5. Lunar Massage, 1768 Columbia Rd NW 2nd Floor
6. Brass Knob, 2311 18th Street NW
7. Violet Boutique, 2439 18th Street NW
8. Smash Records, 2314 18th ST NW
9. AM Wine Shoppe, 2122 18th Street NW
10. Little Shop of Flowers, 2421 18th Street NW
11. XYZ Salon, 1807 Florida Avenue NW
12. Tryst, 2459 18th Street NW

More information and the ability to download a game piece now is online here.

As an 8 year (!) veteran of Crafty Bastards, I have seen many vendors come and go from the fair. Every year, I eagerly check the vendor gallery for new faces, but I find that I am just as excited to see what old timers (like me!) are coming up with. Crafty Bastards is such a unique opportunity for makers and artists to push themselves to try new things and move in bold new directions. This year is no different. Some of my favorite vendors at the fair will be showing some awesome new work.

Caitlin from Rebound Designs (Booth #51) has been doing the fair almost as long as I have and I can’t tell you how excited I was to see her add paperback book wallets to her line of book purses. These babies are durable and fun. I have one in my pocket right now!

Wanna know what I always check out first, though? Final Approach (Booth #143). This dude’s cases are so cool. I love to see his booth before anything has sold. It is like a little gallery show.

Shannon at Sweet Pepita (Booth #141) continues to wow me with her upcycled kid’s clothing. Her work is so well made and it is always exciting to see the new stuff she has come up with. She is also the loveliest person you will ever meet. I am not even exaggerating about that!

I am sure serious that if you don’t have a Kristina Bilonick (Booth #106) screen printed scarf this fall, you are totally doomed. I have been waiting for this weather to break just so I could put mine on. No idea if she will have the buffalo print, but dude, that one is ace.

Heidi from My Paper Crane (Booth #31) is the original Crafty Bastard (OG!) if you ask me. The silent loveliness of her Mushroom Terrariums cannot be missed.

Oh, what about me, you say? Well, I am so excited to debut my new line of tote bags in booth #71. Look!

Crafty Bastards is really a great opportunity for makers (new and old) to push themselves to new territory. Supporting real people who make stuff is so fun. Hope you find something awesome this Saturday at the fair!