A major issue for most designers and crafters is how to sell your stuff. Very few of us create stuff that is suddenly “discovered” and demanded for its great design and excellence of workmanship. Most of us have to be active and do something to expose and sell our craft.

An obvious possibility can be a stall at an art and craft fair. One of the largest fairs for arts and crafts in Denmark, called KIC, and takes place in a couple of weeks, October 26th – 28th in the centre of Aarhus.

The concept of this fair is developed by a group of craftsmen in cooperation with the local tourist organisation. It’s a commercial as well as an aesthetic and cultural event with participants from Denmark, England, Germany, Holland and Iceland working within the disciplines: jewellery, textiles, glass, ceramics and mixed media.

If you happen to live in Aarhus – or plan to make a visit – you can look here for further information of time and place etc.

If you live anywhere else: take a look around – are there any art/craft/design fairs in your area? If not – maybe you should pick up the glove, gather a group of colleagues and get one started! Agree upon a time and a place; maybe contact the local tourist and/or business organisations they might be interested in your project. Organizing a fair is great work – and great fun. Go give it a try.

Take a break: Allow yourself a cup of coffee and a moment totally absorbed in a new craft magazine: The premier issue of SEW Somerset sees light October 1. SEW is a brand new biannual publication from Stampington & Co that´ll focus at projects combining sewing with mixed-media. Artists and crafters show that stitching is no longer limited to just fabrics. It can be added to almost anything including paper, transparencies, canvas, foil, etc.

Have a look and get yourself some new inspiration. The headlines in this issue are: 1: Wearables – 2: Books, boxes & Folders – 3: Décor – 4: Mixed Media & Collage – 5: Cards, ATCs & Scrapbook Pages – and 6: Art Quilts.
Would you like to see your creations published – here’s an opportunity. Whether you sew by hand or machine you’re invited to submit your most innovative and imaginative art projects that incorporate sewing for the next volume.

For further information click here.

 Working as an artist can be a lonely post. Normally I enjoy both my creativity and my own company. However, I also do need the dialogue and the company of fellow artists. The net is very helpful in my daily life to feel connected – but of course it’s not sufficient.   For that reason I take part in two different art groups  Artrovert and X-piir both formed years back – to have a forum to meet, inspire and challenge each other, exchange information, give response at the artwork we ´re doing and in general share the experiences of our lives. We live in different geographical areas – one even abroad – but we try to meet at least 3 – 6 times a year to talk and to go and visit galleries, art centres, workshops – and cafés. It’s an excellent way to have new impressions – and it’s so much easier – and funnier – to get off when you have an appointment with your community of interest. 

The people in my groups are all active artists, always involved in new plans and projects. One can’t help getting sucked in. It´s like having a virtual vitamin injection to spend some hours together with these guys.  The net community is great – but going out for a rendezvous one Sunday afternoon at a real gallery and afterwards at a nice café with actual persons is great too! So if you are not in an artists group I suggest you create one. It doesn’t have to be in any way formal.      

Every summer 600 “vikings” from Denmark and abroad gather at the annual Moesgård Viking Moot Festival,

Scandinavia’s largest and probably oldest Viking market.It all started with some viking-style crafts courses in the 1970′ies and year by year the craftsmen attracted more and more attention and more and more people made a picnic out it and came from Århus to watch. The idea has developed to an event that has 25,000 visitors during the weekend. The date is always kept close to the Saint Olai Day at 29th of July known as the traditional marketday in the old Århus (Aros). As Moesgård is less than 8 km. away from where I live it´s an obvious opportunity to go and see what’s up. A unique source of inspiration within reach: A colourful and festive market just like it was more than 1000 years ago where you can meet and watch craftsmen, traders, warriors and riders of Icelandic horses acting out the life of the Vikings.

To most of the visitors the crowning moment is when the warriors engage in fierce fighting and when the riders show off their horse-riding skills, what they do twice a day – Saturday and Sunday – at 12 and 3 pm.

To me the highlight is the opportunity to enjoy all the varying crafts, especially the design of clothes and jewellery, and tools.

This weekend you’re all invited to visit the students´ exhibition at Skals Håndarbejdsskole in Denmark. Skals Håndarbejdsskole is a boarding school of needlecraft. The school is known for utilizing classical needlework techniques, good craft and excellent quality, but it’s also at the forefront when it comes to being innovative within the textile crafts.

Skals Håndarbejdsskole has 3 main classes: Clothing, Weaving and Embroidery where high professional standards combined with generation of ideas and drawing encourage students to develop their own creative skills.

Like all Danish Folk High Schools Skals is subsidised by the Danish state. In other words you get board, lodging and tutoring at a reasonable price. However, at Danish folk high school there’s always included elements of general education. That is the reason why history, literature, story-telling, art and cultural history are natural parts of the daily tutoring. And the reason why dialogue and socializing is regarded an important part of the students` stay.

Every year the school arranges a large student exhibition. The exhibition will take place on Friday 22 and Saturday 23 June, both days from 9:00 to 17:00. I plan to go – I hope to see some of you too!

Next Saturday it’s world-wide-knit-in-public-day (w.w.k.i.p. day) Hundreds – or thousands – of knitters will meet to knit, talk, exchange ideas, information and inspiration and you’re hereby invited! Please, go and check out here – and hopefully you´ll find a meeting place in the neighbourhood.

If you happen to live in Denmark – near Århus – I’d like to invite you to come and join my little gathering from 13 – 16 at the Århus Music House.

If it’s summer like and the sun shines we’ll be knitting outside at the lawn/ in the small park and you’re encouraged to bring your tea, lunch and knitting gear. If the weather turns out to be bad we’ll meet inside at the Balcony Gallery. Inside is also a nice café where you can buy coffee, lunch etc. in case you haven’t brought your own along…

By the way, as I’m not a knitting fundamentalist all sorts of textile crafts are welcome, so feel free to show up even though you prefer crotchet to knitting…

See you 9th June!

As a lot of us are seriously working in a cross over field between arts and crafts, mixed media, clip art, journaling, collage making, whatever, I’d like to, please, draw your attention to the 4th International Collage Exhibition Vilnius 2008. 

Deadline for submission of works is June 22 - in less than one month. The theme is: “Every night the same”. What that means is entirely up to your interpretation. You are welcomed to send 2 collages, any dimensions are accepted – there’s no size limit. However, the exhibition is censored; works will have to pass a jury. Participating fee is 50 euro or 65 USD and the exhibition will take place in Gallery Arka  – a very central and highly estimated gallery in Vilnius in April 2008. 

I know the gallery as well as the organizer and curator of the exhibition as I have been in

Vilnius three times before to attend the collage exhibition as well as the exhibition of Artists´ Books. Last year I was even invited to make a personal exhibition at Gallery Arka. It was the reward that followed a Main Prize I was nominated for. I´m still most grateful for the honour, the interest for my work – and for the very experience. Now I hope to hear some of you report back here or at my blog that you´ve decided to give it a go!

Application forms and further information see: www.bokartas.lt 

More photoes from

Vilnius: http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthiesen/sets/72157594413308445/ 

Look what I created last week: homemade jiffy pots made out of 100% recycled paper.

I needed some little pots for pre-sprouting and as I´m not very found of thee little green plastic ones from the super market I started experimenting with newspaper by wrapping some newspaper around this “thing”. I really don’t know what it’s called in English – it’s not to find in my dictionary. However, it’s a kitchen tool – a zinc cylinder with a hole in the bottom and a wooden part that fit’s into the cylinder. Traditionally used for making balls or dumplings for the soup – and to form dough into vanilla cookies. But now it’s also a gardener’s tool!

Anyway, this is what how to do it, it´s very simple: You wrap the paper around the wooden part, sprinkle the paper with water, squeezed it a little, removed the “thing” – and voila: a nice little jiffy pot for pre-sprouting made out of 100 % recycled materials!

And the recycling goes on: so one day when your pre-sprouted plants are ready to set out, you just dig a whole in the soil and place your plant, jiffy pot included. Don’t bother to remove the pot – the roots of the plant will easily penetrate the paper, and at the same time the paper will disintegrate and vanish into the soil.

May I introduce to you: Somerset Life, a brand new publication from StampingtonThe inaugural issue’s out now these days.

A very inspirational issue loaded with impressive photos and reports on how to infuse your daily life with simple pleasures, art, romance, creativity and beauty. The superior idea is to make every day extraordinary!

I’ve been especially curious to see the first chapter focusing on creative blogging because I was invited to tell about my blog Heaven & Earth – together with Corey Amaro´s Tongue in Cheek and Michelle Ward´s It’s my site – and it is always extra exciting to see how things work out when you’re personally involved…

Maybe you’d like to try? Somerset Life is actually seeking submissions for future issues. They have some general themes:

Discovering: Creative blogs, flea markets findings, etc.

Creating: Artistic touches and ideas for letter writing, special celebration banners and other decorations for family traditions etc.

Giving: Ways to present gifts to celebrate friendships, birthdays etc.

Getting Together: Ideas for setting the perfect table, packing the perfect picnic, elevating the ordinary brown bag lunch, creating projects to celebrate the joys of childhood, and more.

Decorating: Pretty touches to interior living, embellishing your furniture and surroundings, etc

I suggest you check out their Writers’ Submission Guidelines and go for it – it´s a great challenge!

Yesterday I got the loveliest little book featuring the work of Julie Arkell, a British mixed media artist who creates these funny, humorous and sort of naïve dolls, creatures and objects out of humble materials such as papier-mâché, fabric, yarn and haberdashery.

 

The book also offers you glimpses of Julie Arkell´s studio where she – as an inveterate collector of discarded toys, textiles and ephemera – works with stuff that’s worn, torn, used and read. And as you can probably guess – her shelves are a wonderful mixture of storage and display a great source of inspiration!