Monday, June 29, 2009

4th of July at Berkeley, CA

Hello everyone. Lisa and I are excited to announce that we will be at the 4th of July @ the Berkeley Marina -

This event is going to be fantastic! Lots of crafters and artists will be setup at the Berkeley marina near the beautiful San Francisco Bay. The organizers insist that ALL vendors at this event are the actual artists, so everything will be hand made by the person in each booth.

Its the perfect event for people who like supporting working artists by purchasing original, hand-crafted art.

There will be fireworks over the water around 9:30 PM--a perfect end to a perfect day.

Come out and meet us and have a great time! Lisa and I are very excited about this event. It is much bigger than anything else we have done so far and we feel our work will connect with a lot of people who live in the area.

Event web site:
http://www.anotherbullwinkelshow.com/4th-of-july/4th-of-july.html

Sunday, June 14, 2009

A Closer Economic Circle

Yesterday I (Joshua) worked a table selling our jewelry in a funky-cool little store in downtown Sacramento called Bows and Arrows, while Lisa took advantage of the time to work with the metals at home.

The store sells vintage items, clothing, jewelry, furniture, etc...but all in excellent, if offbeat taste. To get a true sense of the place you only have to read their own advertising cards which proudly announce "all the dope shit" right beneath the name of the store. The fact that they played two hours of rap music followed by five hours of 1960s French pop music might also tell you something about the place. Cool.

The event is called Sellout Buyout. Every three months they graciously open up the front half of their store to craftspeople like Lisa and I to set up a table. All we had to do was deliver their advertising cards to a couple of nearby businesses a few weeks ago. We were happy to do it and it turned out to be a great experience.

The money we made was very modest, but the people! Way cool. Very diverse, Very eclectic. Very interested in supporting local craftspeople. I met so many wonderful people who genuinely loved our work. (Thank you to all of you who stopped by!)

Anyway, today Lisa and I went to a local farm called Davis Ranch and used some of our cash from the Sellout Buyout event to purchase fresh (very fresh!) fruit and vegetables. That's when it struck me how great it felt to be supported by local people who like what we make...and in turn support local farmers whom we definitely appreciate. I mean, it felt really really good...like we were part of a community, all supporting one another.

It is a simpler way of life in some ways, but the human connections, face to face, make it a far wealthier experience.

A closer economic circle.

Peace.

Joshua