Handmade Mafia

Saturday, November 7, Sushi will be at Handmade Mafia. Specific location TBA -- it's either Savoy or Orange Hall. And some good news: admission is now free!

Sushi's First Swag

Tiny books are fun, and hopefully dancer-friendly too. On the weekend of Oct 16-18, I'll be putting some pocket-sized notebooks out into the world of swing dancing -- more specifically, the Lindy Harvest weekend workshop hosted by the ubiquitous Sugar Swing Dance Club. These books are will be for sale at the dance venues on Friday and Saturday night, and are intended to be fun and useful mementoes for the dancers attending. Useful because hardcore lindy-hoppers often take notes during a class, like any good student. Happily, these books are small enough to jam into your back pocket when it's time to get swingin' again.

Specs:

Almost all components of these books are recycled bits, from the thick cover stock to the patterned paper. In fact, the decorative paper comes from the offcuts of my larger books, and so does the text paper. The insides of the books have vinyl Sugar Swing stickers with contact info. All books are about 4" x 4", so not they're hard to write in but still nice and compact.

If you crave a tiny notebook but don't want to pose as a swinger for a weekend, you can look for similar ones, sans Sugar Swing propaganda, in my Etsy store or at upcoming craft shows.

Back from NOLA

I'm back from New Orleans; what a fun town.

And now it's time to show you new books! Starting today, I'll be adding items to my Etsy shop over the course of the month. These will also be available ay my upcoming craft shows. Check back often to see the latest fall/winter stuff!

Fall/winter lineup sneak preview, hooray!

Here's a preview of supercool books to come this fall and winter! I went nuts last weekend and made a whole bunch in prep for some Christmas shows.

This lineup features some really interesting papers. One batch uses this paper that feels like a painter's canvas, and is made of 70% recycled paper. Another batch features fancy UV glitter -- and it is glorious. I'm not usually the glitter type, whether it comes on clothes or chapstick or otherwise, but in this case it looks fantastic and festive. And the glorious part I mentioned: the glitter doesn't come off and shed on everything! Nope, after working with UV glitter paper for hours making books, I can truthfully say these sparkles (tiny bits of mylar, apparently) are stuck in place. I was hoping to locate some detailed info about chemistry of this stuff, for the sake of my nerdy peers in print design, but couldn't find.

These books will be launched officially in the second week of October. I'd do it

sooner but I'm leaving next week for New Orleans, so there's no point in putting a bunch of new stuff in my shop and then going on vacation. I'f you like more sneak peek photos, check out the Sushi Papercraft Facebook fan page -- there's a new album there. Feel welcome to leave any comments or questions!

Talking to Vendors

When I stepped into Edmonton's craft scene, I learned two things: 1) craft show vendors are rather nice people, and 2) craft show vendors have wisdom to share.

Last week I was at Handmade Mafia. I found it's really worthwhile getting to know other vendors; not only do you meet cool and creative people, but you also learn useful things about the handmade business. While spending time with the Family, I picked up some neato tips and insights on the scene. I'ma share a few of them:

• Research your audience before signing up for a big-bucks craft show; your sculptures or exquisite jewelry may not be a good fit for certain events, like fairs and festivals, where shoppers are mostly there for the mini donuts and not so much the art.
• Check out flyerland.ca and plan your supply shopping trips accordingly for great deals.
• Consider spreading out appearances at a certain venue. If you're in the same place every week for months on end, you'll be exposed to the same group of shoppers who frequent that venue. They'll buy from you once or twice, and then probably won't come back to you for quite a while. Some time apart between visits will keep you fresh and interesting.
• Try a Twitter account or Facebook fan page to market your stuff, and follow the 50/50 rule: 50% content about your business, 50% content about other people/things.
• Bring snacks to a craft show and save your dollars.

All for now! Thanks much to these super vendors for making the Handmade Mafia show a good time: Paz Y Flamenco, Crystal Cradle, Urban Goddess, and BFlirty.