Momentum & Cycle Chic

I've got an adorable folding bike that I love to bits and I live in a city that's pretty progressive in providing bike lanes/routes (by North American standards).... so I've cycled here more than any other city I've lived in.

But the sporty style of bike accessories frustrated me. My cute bike and I deserved more! I'm not interested in going super fast and getting sweaty. I want to be relaxed and wear normal clothes and arrive at my destination relatively unsweaty. My desire for a more relaxed, stylish form of biking was fueled in a major way by this website - Copenhagen Cycle Chic, which documents the ease with which cycling fits into everyday life in Copenhagen. It's very inspiring - a glimpse into how things could be.



First, after much difficulty, I found a helmet that was in no way aerodynamic (I have no intentions of traveling at speeds where drag will be an issue, thank you), something with a bit of chic to it.






Then I made myself a few bike cuffs to keep my pants out of my chain while riding.










This month my humble little bike cuffs were featured in Momentum Magazine!

Momentum Magazine, a fabulous free magazine all about everyday person cycling (not sporty cycling), put out an issue all about the crafty DIY culture and how it intersects with bike culture. It's a fantastic magazine. If you can't find it in a bike store near you, request it. In the meantime, read it online here. And happy cycling!

(I've got ideas brewing for other bike accessories that could easily be more stylish (bike gloves!). If only I had more time. And magical sewing elves.)

Handmade Nation

I got my ticket to this event the day they went on sale.

It's going to be awesome. All the crafty people in the area will gather together and celebrate the awesomeness of making stuff. Join us!

Thursday, July 9th, 2009
Location: Rio Theatre, 1660 East Broadway @ Commercial Drive
Screening at 8:00pm, Craft Showcase at 7:00pm

Tickets & Info Here: http://gotcraft.com/handmadenation

Traveling across the world to sold out crowds, it is Vancouver’s turn to join the handmade revolution! Join Director Faythe Levine, July 9th, for Western Canada’s premier of Handmade Nation. Be the first in Vancouver to see the film, meet Faythe Levine and participate in a Q&A and book signing session after the screening.

Tagged as the ‘Ambassador of Handmade’, Faythe Levine has traveled 19,000 miles to document what has emerged as a marriage between historical technique, punk culture, and the D.I.Y. (do-it-yourself) ethos.

A companion book, Handmade Nation – The Rise of D.I.Y., Art, Craft, and Design, features 24 artists, their work environment, their process, their work, and discussions of how they got their start and what motivates them.

For more information, visit:
Handmade Nation’s official website
Faythe Levine’s blog

Header

Nobody panic, I'm experimenting with a new blog header here.... feel free to comment. Since sock monkeys are no longer a big part of what we do (they pop up rarely), we thought we should retire our sock monkey branding. We'll see how this one works out.

Hiatus In Progress

Hi crafty people of the internets!

Maked is on a hiatus while all of us pursue other things for the summer. We've still got lots of stuff available in our etsy shop, so keep an eye on that if you need to shop!

If you want some craft blog action - feel free to head over to Lisa's blog, Burrito West, which often features crafty adventures and has nothing at all to do with burritos.

The photo at left shows a top by my new favorite Etsy shop - a designer in Montreal, Ramona Lisa Designs. I'm in love. Go check her out.

Organic Cotton Goodness

We had a blast at Got Craft last week - it was busy and packed full of awesome vendors. We've got stuff left over that we're slowly listing in our etsy shop.

I've already listed a few of our silkscreened organic cotton totes. Megan and Rhiannon had a brilliant idea for these - they sewed ties on the top so you can tie closed the bag while in use, to keep your purchases safe AND you can roll up the bag and tie it into a tiny little package (see left) - which means it's easy to throw one in your purse. I think that's awesome.

Here's a sampling of our prints - keep an eye on our etsy shop if you want one! (Click photos for larger versions.)

Craft Hiatus

Hello world!

Maked is going to be at the best craft fair in Vancouver on Sunday, May 3 (11-5)! Got Craft - with 55 super awesome indie artists selling their fabulousness! Check it out - at the Legion Hall on Commercial Dr (@ E6th Ave).

This may be your last chance to buy Maked stuff in person, as our group is going on a bit of a hiatus afterwards. Not sure what the future brings, but everyone is busy with exciting stuff in their lives, so Maked is being put on the backburner. We may return one day.... no one knows!

Thanks to everyone for their interest and support - the four of us came together because of the awesome online craft community, so we really value the network of talented people out there in the internets! Craft on!

Screenprinting

Wednesday night Megan and I did a marathon screenprinting session to finish off our 2 new product lines for Got Craft.... and everything looks awesome, if I may say so myself.

We've got organic cotton tote bags which are strong enough to carry your goods, but light enough to squish up nice and small and not take up much space in your purse - you can always have it with you!

And, we've got thick, super long jersey scarves. I wore mine today, and good thing because Vancouver has decided to revert back to January temperatures! But I was snug as a bug with my super cute scarf.

We had a lot of fun working out the images for these, and hope they'll be really popular at the fair! (Whatever doesn't sell at the fair will eventually make its way into our Etsy shop.)

We did our screenprinting at a place in Vancouver called Blim, which is a great resource - they are a Community Based Art Resource Center which facilitates screen-printing, button making, drawing, knitting, local underground audio, film screenings, animation, video, dance, spoken word, visual art, creative workshops, and crafts in the independent field. You can take workshops to learn everything you need to know about screenprinting, and you can book time in their studio space. For us urbanites living in apartments, it's perfect- we can do all the messy stuff at Blim! Definitely a place to check out if you're local and wanting to learn about screenprinting.

Clothing Swap Love

One of my favorite Vancouver events of the year is coming up this weekend (April 19) - Swap o Rama Rama!! I love this event!! I've volunteered the past 2 years and will do so again this year.... that's how much I believe in the awesomeness of this event - I want to help make it happen! The organizing torch has been passed this year to the organizer of Got Craft (best craft fair in town) in partnership with the Vancouver Craft Mafia, so I think it's going to hit a new level of awesome. (Can I set a new record for the use of the word awesome in one blog post do you think?)

The gist of the event is that you bring all your unwanted clothes - do a good spring cleaning of the closet and get rid of those things that don't fit, that you don't like, that you never wear, etc - you hand them over at the door (with an admission fee to pay for venue rental n stuff), go into the swap area, grab as much stuff as you want from the heaping piles of clothes.... then you can go to one of the craft stations and work some crafty magic on your new find. Screenprinting, sewing, stencilling, embellishments, whatever you fancy. Crafty people are on hand to assist. At the end of the day all the left over clothing goes to charity. I love it. I get rid of clothes taking up space in my wardobe (I do not have space to spare), and I get to bring home fun new stuff which saves me from having to go shopping - yay! And because all the clothes are free, I can grab some funky stuff that I probably wouldn't buy but want to try.

To find a Swap-o-rama-rama near you, check this link.

It's really seriously awesome. I highly recommend clothing swaps - even if there isn't a big swap-o-rama-rama event in your area (they happen in a couple cities), you can organize a little clothing swap amongst your friends (helps if you're all generally the same size). I did this once with some friends here and I still have a skirt and top from it that I love.... and my friends were happy to see their neglected clothing being loved by someone. It's funny how fun it is to give away your clothes to someone who LOVES it. =) Something that was buried in a drawer and never saw the light of day becomes a featured part of someone else's wardrobe - that's awesome. A cheap and fun way for everyone to renew their wardrobes.

Epsom Salts

A few months ago I acquired a single skein of Noro Silk Garden Lite in pinks, greys and purples. I decided to make a bowl and felt it. I could display pretty things in a pretty bowl. This seemed like a better idea than a hat that I wouldn't wear.

Here is the bowl:


what I didn't count on was Silk Garden not felting. There's too much silk and too little wool, then combined with my cold-water-only washing machine, I was hooped. Basically instead of getting smaller and stiff, I got a larger and floppy bowl.



This sat on my craft table for a few weeks. had thoughts of starching it but there was no starch in my house. I could have bought starch, but food and more yarn ranked higher on my priority list.
But then Ravelry came to my rescue. There were other things you could use instead of starch to stiffen projects.

1. White glue and water. Con: Can go yellow. Didn't have glue in house.
2. Sugar and water. Con: can attract bus and critters.

But the one I used was Epsom Salts! I had a tons of these because they are great to put in the bath to relieve sore and tired muscles, or mixed with a skin friendly oil as a body scrub. Wiithin 10 minutes I was boiling 6 cups of water and 6 cups of epsom salts.


While this was happening I covered a tupperware container with plastic bags and saran wrap to make a properly sized and shaped form for the bowl to dry on. I placed it on a tray covered in was paper.


Once the mixture boiled for a few minutes, I took it off the burner and let it cool down. Once it was cool enough to put my hand in, I put the bowl in the mixture until it was soaked through. The wet bowl then went onto my mold and dried overnight.

The next morning the bowl was dry and kind of firm. It could have held small ad light stuff but nothing too heavy. But by 2 days later it was completely hardened. I filled it with stray lip glosses, eye shadows and bobby pins, and placed it centrally in my room.



Overall I am really happy with this method and would definitely use it again. The drying process does take a few days, but the boiling part is really quite quick. It's also cheap and gives me another use for something I always keep in the house anyway. I had a few crystals on the rim of the bowl but they were easy to dab off with a wet cloth. I keep think of the possibilities of lace bowls, and anything that gets me thinking of a next project is a definite winner.

Sun!

You might be wondering where is Maked and why aren't they blogging about awesome crafty stuff? Our blog posts have become somewhat sparse.... are we frantically preparing for the upcoming GotCraft? Busy with orders from our Etsy shop? Well, yes, kind of a little of each of those... but, to be honest.... the sun came out in Vancouver and along with it came proper warm spring temperatures. It's been a loooooong winter, so we've all been making the most of the good weather. And, 1/4 of Maked had a birthday! Happy Birthday Megan! (Check out her brand new Etsy shop - you can see where Maked gets its cheeky sense of humour.)

We'll be back at it soon!


In the meantime, I'm pulling a project from my archives to share - one of my favorites - the Tiramisu Blanket. It's a crochet pattern by Posie Gets Cozy - you can find it here (pdf). I love the texture of the finished blanket, and the ribbon detail. I made this for friends who struggled for a long time to have a baby, so when it all finally worked out for them, it was extra special. I'm hoping the blanket gets used up until it falls apart. Made with superwash wool from Knitpics in a great buttery yellow colour. Great yarn, great pattern and I love the finished product!