One Of A Kind Show 2010

After attending a focus meeting at school, I scampered off to the Merchandise Mart for a few hours, to see what I could find at the One Of A Kind Show, and discovered a wealth of folks making great stuff.

There were many, many makers of jewelry and garments there, as well as a sea of artists and woodworkers - far more than I could ever connect with in a few hours - many of which appeared to be doing this full-time or coming close to it.

Among the makers I chatted with was Elly Green, the creator of Clothing Brand Experiment, which makes their hoodies and other products entirely in Toronto, and Bob McNally, inventor and maker of the Strumstick, a beautifully simple stringed instrument, and Eric Rose of River Valley Kitchens, which grows and handmakes small batches of salsa and pickled veggies. I was also really geeked to run across Kellee and Matt of Overdue Industries, whom I mentioned earlier, and they said they'll be happy to give me a scoop on what they're doing these days, once the madness of December is over.

Then I had a really nice chat with Kimm Alfonso and some other staffers at Etsy, who happened to have a substantial chunk of real estate there, and they were rather impressed with my research and agenda in running this blog.

As it turns out, this is a pretty busy time for me, as well, but I'll try my best to document some progress every week until January kicks in.

BTW - Make 4A Living has a Facebook page you can follow!

DIY Trunk Show

This past Saturday I had time before class to drop into a hotbed of craftiness, where well over 100 people were displaying their hand-made wares. As is often the case at tradeshows, some makers were sharing a space with others (I remember doing the same at ICFF in 2004).

The Chicago Craft Mafia has been holding the DIY Trunk Show for several years now, and the energy and crowd at the event - considering it's far from the only craft fair this season - is quite impressive.

After chatting with a couple people I knew, such as Stephanie Keller, I mustered the courage to finally chat up someone new, and as it turned out, it was Cinnamon Cooper, one of the Mafia founders. She pointed me in the direction of Rebeca Mojica and Beth Cummings, and told me I needed to have words with Gapers Block, who was sitting there next to the DJ on stage.

To my great surprise, none of them bit my nose off, nor shooshed me away. In fact, they seemed eager to be interviewed for my research, and each got one of my 12 tiny business cards that I churned out an hour before arriving.

I clearly needed about ten times as many.