I went, I worked, I shopped

Last year, Urban Craft Uprising was in a cramped art gallery down in SoDo:  smallish group of vendors, great crowd, extremely challenging space.  This year, the organizers doubled the size of the show & moved us to the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall, which made all the difference in the world.  Plus, it was pretty cool to see URBAN CRAFT UPRISING up on the marquee there.

Saturday was jam-packed with people, Sunday was mellower but with pretty steady traffic, & my booth was plenty busy.  I really enjoy interacting with customers at shows, so while it was an exhausting weekend, it was also a lot of fun.  My resin jewelry did well, even with all of the other super cool jewelry [ok, the last one isn't strictly jewelry, but I'm nuts for those belt buckles] at the show, so that was very satisfying.

I love watching which colors go first when I sell these bobby pins.  In Seattle, it's always blue & green, with mostly pink left at the end.  Chicago loves pink the most, & LA loves them all, the glitzier the better.

Usually at shows I am so wiped out when I get a chance to walk around that I miss out on all the cool stuff, & then really regret it after the fact when I see pictures of the amazing things other people found.  Especially when there are lots of vendors (& I'm wandering around totally dazed at 4pm on my first break of the day), it's easy for things to just turn into a big sparkly felty blur, so I'm feeling extra pleased with my purchases.

Those letterpress prints are from Double M Ranch -- she's a graphic designer by trade, & does prints on the side, with a mix of carved lino, custom plates, & antique type.  I love the prints so much that after I bought Palms Read on Saturday, I went back & picked up the chair on Sunday, which was also when I discovered those fantastic magnets.

Two things here:  a little carved lino donut print from Sewdorky's Stuart, which I love as much as I love the stuffed donut I got from him at last year's UCU (a lot).  Up on top is a little Seattle magnet from Cyncity, who has a cool series of map magnets & pendants (& she does Seattle neighborhoods, too, so fun!).

Vintage button ring from Schmancy.  I particularly loved this color combo & the big red flower button, but I will tell you, sifting through all of her rings & just looking at the buttons she uses is almost as much fun as wearing the one I finally picked.  (I attribute this purchase to my involvement in the craft blog community, because while I have admired these rings several times before, never have I been so completely enchanted by the whole vintage button gig.)

I can never slow down enough to really pay attention to clothes for myself when I'm working a show, but Texture's booth caught my eye with her simple shapes & great, rich, colors.  I particularly like this tee, but ended up settling on a fabric-scrap scarf instead. [The site only shows a fraction of the colors she offers -- check out her booth at the Ballard Market for a better selection.]

Other work I particularly liked:  Kimberly Sun Designs (hand-tooled leather cuffs, belts, & headbands), Construction for All (wonderful messenger/diaper bags), eight3one (excellent screenprinted baby/kid tees, check out the banana seat bike!), ilee custom invitations (beautiful work, plus an amazing little letterpressed calendar that I don't see on the site.  I know Venue carried last year's calendar -- locals, keep an eye out for it around town!), Jamie Irene (beautiful felted bags), & Mishmash (vinyl bags, but oh, she finds the best vinyls to use).  I know there was tons more great stuff at the show that I missed, so do check out the vendor list to see who else was there.

Comments

[meg]

thanks for all the eye candy and gift ideas! plus your booth looks great.

[lla]

Thanks for all the pics and links - it was nice to live vicariously through your trip!

Find it interesting that the Chicago girls are all about the pink...

Love your linoprint doughnut, and am still snickering over the fact that you are "nuts for those belt buckles"... (it's funny, since they're, well, made from nuts!)

[blair]

and I missed!

all that!

dang it!

[Penny Eachus]

Hello!
I bought a ring from you and I LOVE it!!! It is the one that matches the one you were wearing, only the colors are opposite. You were so sweet and shared a ton of great info with me, and I really appreciate it.
I can't wait until I can buy more jewelry from you!!!
Take good care, and please let's stay in touch.
xoxo
Penny

[pandora armband]

Thank you ,it's really useful.