Hot off the press...

Crafty Business on Monday 1 March is all about design and print, and once again we are enjoying the hospitality of Our City O-Tautahi, on the corner of Worcester Boulevard and Oxford Terrace, from 7pm onward.

This month we're taking a casual approach – we're keen to get some discussion going and make sure we manage to answer your burning questions about kitting out your business with printed material, whether it be catalogues and business cards or swing tags and packaging.

We'll kick things off with some tips on working with a graphic designer: what your designer needs from you, what you can expect from them, and how to reach an outcome that achieves what you want it to. We'll look at how the standard design process works, from forming a design brief to preparing for print.

Mark Swanson from Verve Digital will be joining us to give an overview of the pros and cons of different types of printing and how to choose the appropriate type for your project. Mark has years of experience in the print industry both here in New Zealand and in the UK. He's extremely knowledgeable about print and happy to answer any questions you may have, so do come prepared to pick his brains!

Last month we had a couple of requests to start a little later. We don't want to be keeping anyone out late on a school night, so we're going to stick with the usual start time of 7pm, but we'll keep that first half hour strictly social and get down to business at 7.30pm. I hope that eases the timing a bit!

Come along on Monday for a glass of wine and your monthly dose of business inspiration and crafty company. Hope to see you there!

Help spread the word: Handmade Nation is coming!

The only Christchurch screening of Handmade Nation is drawing closer, and tickets are still available from Miss Millie on Felt – http://missmillie.felt.co.nz.

If you've got a local noticeboard or window that you feel might benefit from being adorned with a Handmade Nation poster, or a local cafe or shop that would be open to popping some flyers on their counter, we've made up PDF versions that you can download here to print:

• Click here to download a PDF of the A4 Handmade Nation poster
• Click here to download a PDF of 4 x A6 Handmade Nation flyers
  

We've also created a few graphics in nice bloggable sizes for those of you who are keen to spread the word online. Right click on any of these images to save them to your hard drive or copy the image location:





Last but not least, we've set up a Facebook event for the screening. It's an open event so anybody can click "invite people to come" and send an invitation to friends – click here to check out the Facebook event.

Thanks for all your support in spreading the word!

Handmade Nation comes to Christchurch!

Lucy and I are bringing the Handmade Nation documentary to Christchurch! We're pretty excited and we hope you will be too.

Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design
A Documentary By Faythe Levine

Thursday March 4th
The Hollywood Cinema, Sumner
Doors open 7pm. Movie starts 7.30pm

Tickets are $20 per seat and your ticket price includes a glass of wine and nibbles on arrival (Wine can only be served to those 18+ so please bring your ID if you think you might look underage).

This is sure to be a highlight on the 2010 Canterbury crafty calendar so don't miss out on the chance to see Handmade Nation on the big screen. There is only one screening so be quick!

Handmade Nation documents the new wave of art, craft and design that is capturing the attention of the nation. It is the feature film debut of director, author, artist and curator Faythe Levine. Levine traveled to 15 cities and covered more than 19,000 miles to interview artists, crafters, makers, curators and community members.

Today’s craft world has emerged as a synthesis of historical technique, punk culture, and the DIY ethos, also influenced by traditional handiwork, modern aesthetics, politics, feminism and art.

Director Faythe Levine captured the tightly knit community that exists through websites, blogs, and online stores that connect to the greater public through independent boutiques, galleries and craft fairs.

Interviews were conducted on-location in artist studios, homes, boutiques, offices and craft fairs, giving the public an exclusive and rarely seen look into the lives of these creative individuals.

See the movie trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH2HWPfwpOw

Tickets and further information available from Felt: http://www.missmillie.felt.co.nz

Swap-O-Rama-Rama Lyttelton, Saturday 20 February

Swap-O-Rama-Rama is here! It all happens on Saturday 20 February at the Lyttelton Rec Centre. This the first time this event has come to New Zealand and it's going to be awesome!

Here’s how it works:
Participants bring a bag of clothes (and $10) to get in the door. From there, volunteer sorters put the clothes into piles of like garments (getting first dibs, of course!) Then it's swap to your heart’s content. There’s no limit on how much you can take.



But here’s the really good part.
Volunteers sewers will be at machines throughout the event to help people look at ways to re-purpose the clothes they find. The idea is to help people create unique garments and to be inspired to look at second hand clothes in a new, more creative way. There will also be screenprinting stations and a workshop series.



This is a community event (all proceeds go to Project Lyttelton) so it depends on volunteers – people willing to share their skills to pull off a fantastic event in Lyttelton.

Want to get involved?
Kris is looking for experienced crafters to help out teaching basic sewing skills and running simple workshops. You get free entry to the event and the roster is broken up into one-hour shifts so you can take on a shift or two and still have plenty of time to scope the wares yourself, plus it's a chance to promote your own business. Sound like fun? Sign up here.

Swap-O-Rama-Rama is also looking for materials donations (thread, ribbon, stuffing, buttons, etc). If you can help out with anything along these lines, Kris would love to hear from you and can be contacted at kris@font.net.nz.

Thank you Jenna-Lea!

Crafty Business had a great start to 2010 last night, with a most interesting presentation by Jenna-Lea which sparked some great discussion about where craft is at in the UK and the future of craft in New Zealand. I think we're very lucky to have Jenna back in NZ bringing her knowledge and energy with her!

Jenna's list of UK craft websites and resources is available for download in PDF format here in case you didn't get a copy.

If you'd like to get in touch with Jenna-Lea, you can contact her through Felt as jencreative or on 022 615 3669.

It was also awesome to get some suggestions for Crafty Business topics this year – thank you to everyone who contributed ideas. As Millie mentioned in the previous post, we would love to know if there's a subject you'd like us to cover or a speaker you'd be interested in. We are more than happy to invite anyone along to speak, but we need to know who. If it's a topic we've done before but there's demand to run it again or cover it in more depth, that's cool too. We're really keen to get your feedback so we can make Crafty Business as relevant and interesting as possible.

Our next Crafty Business is at 7pm on Monday 1 March and is also at Our City O-Tautahi. The topic is yet to be confirmed, so we'll get back to you on that soon!