SubZERO Festival Recap

Whew! This last couple of months have been busy! I worked an enormous amount of hours to put together an art show for the school I teach at. I tell you, hanging or displaying nearly 300 artworks, plus organizing their over 1,000 pieces for their individual portfolios is no easy task. It left me with a mere couple of weeks to prepare for the SubZERO Festival. I spent a few weeks making art prints, sewing up bags and figuring out how best to display my booth.

I didn't have much of a chance to leave my booth, so you should see the SubZERO Facebook page for great photos and videos of the event. I just have a few here.

Not sure if I knew this photo was being taken?! Haha. Photo by Cherri Lakey of Anno Domini

As you can see above, I had original paintings, art prints and textiles including scarves, bags and patches in my booth. I was really happy with using the lightweight canvas walls and all the 'furniture' was things that I had: wooden ladder, crate, easel. I thought I would have a chance to paint in my booth, but I felt busy much of the time. I also talked about preparing goods for SubZERO in my last post if you would like to read more.

Talking with visitors of my booth. Photo by Cherri Lakey.

I loved interacting with customers and visitors of my booth. You can see the banner above made from scraps of my bags and patches. They had sweetest things to say about my art and my booth itself. Some things I heard: "Your booth is so homey and welcoming", "your work really speaks to me" and more. It was a great experience and I was glad I finally displayed my work at the festival, after attending for many years.

Cellist Freya Seeburger

Okay, enough about me! Although I didn't get photos of anyone else, except for Freya Seeburger since I was glued to my booth, I was incredibly lucky to be across from her. I could watch her performances throughout the nights. When I watched her and her friends set up, I knew it would be something exquisite. I can tell you that San Jose really came through these two nights. Gorgeous costumes, wild performers and innovative art installations ruled the streets. Elaborate displays showed locals the kind of art, music and creativity that often hides below the surface in San Jose. With my art, I interact with people online much of the time, so it was really nice to be involved locally again. Be sure to check my events page for upcoming fairs and shows. Again, be sure to check the SubZERO Facebook page for great pics and videos.

A BIG thanks to everyone who came out! It was great to see familiar and new faces. Can't wait til next year!

SubZERO Festival - Textiles

I've been a busy little factory getting ready for the SubZERO Festival coming up June 6 & 7. My space will act like an open studio, with sketches, paintings, clutch zip bags and art prints in my booth. I'm making stuff as we speak, as well as starting to test out my display. You may have already seen that I made a temporary outdoor studio over the weekend so I could at least pretend I was celebrating Memorial Day weekend.

I could get used to this.

Since I had been preparing for my students' art show, I have had to pick up the pace these last few weeks for SubZERO. I started off by dyeing, printing and sewing clutch bags for the event. I had fabric left from last year so I decided to make a limited run for the event.

If you didn't know, I started making these bags because I inherited a bunch of vintage sewing supplies from my aunt Yolanda, an incredible creative and amazing artist. I had to put all the vintage metal zippers to use, so I decided to make some bags. I hand dyed cotton canvas, carved some block prints, and voila! I had made my first set of bags about a year ago. Interesting enough, this current batch used EXACTLY the last of the metal zippers!

Tangerine, lilac and avocado fabric drying.

Block printed fabric pre-construction

Sewing in the labels

Little helper Oscar

Almost done! Ready for the last step.

Multitasking. Getting booth ideas on Pinterest while arranging my bags.

I think the jacaranda petals have been influencing my color choices.

Stop by my booth at SubZERO and check them out!

Hope to see you there!

Nevada City Craft Fair Weekend

I had been looking forward to spending the weekend in Nevada City, CA for some time now. The Nevada City Craft Fair was my purpose for heading up north, but exploring the area was what I was most excited by. I love Gold Country towns: Jamestown, Columbia, Grass Valley, Shingle Springs and more. I've never been to this area in the winter, with the exception of being on a train a couple years ago, passing by the picturesque, snow-covered towns. This was my first time doing an art or craft fair out of the Bay Area. It was an interesting new experience, but I must say the fair was 8 hours long and took a whole day away from adventure. That being said, I had a great time in this historic area. It looked like a movie set with the elaborate Christmas decorations and remnants of snow still in town.

We arrived at night, which worked out perfectly since it was all lit up with Christmas lights. It was really cold, but definitely invigorating since the air is so much better up here.

One of the many beautiful homes in Nevada City.

We made ourselves at home at the Outside Inn for the weekend. Each room is themed and we were in the River Room.
 

Seriously, it was like the North Pole here. This was the scene behind our hotel. A creek ran behind it and everything was decked out in lights.

Houses along the walk to downtown Nevada City
 

The National Hotel is said to be haunted. Of course we had to stop in.

The Mine Shaft, a very cool looking bar. We didn't stop in, but I'm sure it's great. We ventured around downtown and stopped at Matteo's for a glass of wine.

The morning was totally promising, crystal clear and just perfect out.

I was almost late to the craft fair because I had to have a waffle piled with strawberries, bananas and agave syrup from Cafe Mekka. On the second morning, we went to the South Pine Cafe, which I highly recommend.

Here's my booth setup at the Nevada City Craft Fair.

The day after the fair, we drove out to South Yuba State Park. Near the entrance, is the Bridgeport Bridge, the longest freestanding covered bridge.

Another view of the Bridgeport Bridge

A view of the visitor's center at the South Yuba River State Park. This area reminded me of the East Coast. I can't wait to come back in the summer.

Yelp Elite Holiday Party

Last night, I taught a marbled paper gift tag workshop for the Yelp Elite holiday party at the Zero 1 Garage. I had never lead an activity or workshop for this many people before and luckily I came prepared because it was a huge success! The crowd was really enthusiastic and loved watching the process. To be honest with you, I didn't think so many people dressed so nicely would want to get so messy, but they did. Everyone was so thankful for learning this process and even those that said they weren't creative felt like artists for the night. My table was very crowded so I didn't get all the pictures I wanted, but I'll also post a link from Yelp when their post about it is up. Note that the lighting in these photos is a bit moody since it was a party. Here's a look at the night.

As I worked with the Community Manager from Yelp to prepare, we talked about how maybe 50-75 guests would be interested in the activity, but I believe it was way more than that. I pre-cut round and scalloped gift tags, made the floating carrageenan liquid in advance, watered down the acrylic paint, brought already finished tags for those that didn't want to get messy and provided a variety of sparkly string to attach.

Marbling is a technique that can be applied to paper, fabric or clay. It is the result of paint being suspended on a liquid surface. You can swirl the paint with sticks, combs, or just about anything with a point. The paper was prepared with alum to help the paint stick. When you set the paper on the liquid surface, it picks up the paint exactly as it was. You rinse off the carrageenan, allow the paper to dry and you're done!

The table is all setup for the gift tag workshop.

Another view of my table prior to the guest's arrival.

Some party goers starting to create designs with the paint.

Here, you can see the paint floating on the surface, ready for paper to absorb it.

The tag has been placed facedown to receive the patterned paint.

They are so excited by the results!

The final result! These lovely and unique tags are sure to dress up your holiday packaging.

Although it is much easier to print a whole sheet at once, I cut down the tags ahead of time so it would be easier for guests. I even brought a letter stamp kit so some participants wrote words like "merry" over the marbled paint.  The night went smoothly, thank to a lot of preparation and the surprise appearance of my friend Vickie who helped out. Please be sure to check out her jewelry here.

Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Luncheon

I was thrilled to be invited to the Women's Initiative Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards luncheon at the Berkeley City Club. It was a great event, held in a stunning historic hotel to raise money to for the organization so more women can learn to start and run their own businesses. The array of businesses started by W.I. is astounding. The women who attended graciously donated money for the East Bay location. Each of us vendors donated a portion as well. See who won at the end of the post!

The pristine Berkeley City Club entrance.

The view through the courtyard to the outdoor patio from the name tag table.

My table set up! I thought I did a bang up job on the tablecloth arrangement. Wink, wink. 

The view from my booth while the ladies are setting up. Yes, that is a violinist performing in the corner.

Vendors nearly set up outside. It looks so inviting, but it was a really windy day and not so good for tabletop displays!

I fell in love with these handmade wood burned journals by M-Squarepress. The maker was so sweet.

One of two award winners was Tanya Holland. She owns two restaurants in Oakland, writes cookbooks and has appeared on all kinds of national television, including her own show, Melting Pot Soul Kitchen. Go Tanya!