Craft a Life

Just to keep you posted, here’s the juicy details.

opened on our last day in Indiana this summer

I’m a month into my Clinical Pastoral Education Unit, which began in September and ends in April. The class part is once a week and then I have ten clinical hours a week beyond that class time. It is mind blowing, consuming, super challenging, hard, sad, and a little thrilling. I have learned so much about myself and about how to be of service to people in crisis in just the last month, that I’m not sure how my brain and heart are going to hold everything that is yet to come. And belive me, there is more to learn than I could possibly have imagined.

Still figuring out what might be next. To be a board certified chaplain will require four units like the one I’m taking now, plus three years of theological school. Not to mention all the personal work and social networking that seems to also be important (like anything). But is being board certified the goal? Not sure.

one of a kind bag in stock!

I’ve decided to make CallieCo bags my sort of part time job. I’m spending about one day a week trying to sell some of the inventory I accumulated this summer to participate in the fairs and fleas. So you’ll see some one of a kind items pop up on Etsy, and you’ll see less of the custom work I’ve done in the past. I’m trying to keep the bag business simple and fun, so two new rules for me: no more custom work (except for loved ones, you know who you are), and no more selling at shows, fairs, or fleas. Yes, I am still selling things, but it is surprising how much easier it is when you take out the parts that make you cranky, and it is towards something you really care about.

grown with love

Our financial lives feel pretty bleak these days. I had some moments last week, some of those “this is an important moment and things will be different after this” kind of moments. But I’m strangely optimistic. I’m also working at my favorite yarn shop one day a week and last week the proprietor invited me to come build a yurt on her property if the poop really hits the fan. So I’m not too worried. We’ll grow tomatoes and dye yarn.

It has been a dastardly long time since I’ve posted. Frankly, I’ve been going through some interesting internal changes and haven’t known quite how to communicate them in blog format.

First the report:

Randy and I went to the zoo to visit the monkeys & the butterflies, both figured prominently in a rather vivid brain manifestation during meditation one day. It seems my subconscious is a monkey trying to keep my higher consciousness (a swarm of monarch butterflies) in a cage. Monkey was not doing a really good job. Needed retraining to release the butterflies. So off to the zoo for some research.

discovered the macro setting

all looking at us because of a sound from Randy's Polariod

A brief but hilarious and nourishing trip to Desert Hot Springs with my ladies, facilitated connecting with my inner 80 yr old retiree.

Leslie with palm wings

Horrible photo of me but you get the idea of the shangri-la setting

And before I knew it we were off again this time to Indiana for a family visit – both Randy’s and mine. Every year his Mom’s clan gathers at the “peach tree house” in Elkart County Indiana for a week or so of family and fixing. Everyone pitches in and works on something. I know that the ladies in his family are big quilters, so I though they might like to help me with my first attempt. Boy did they ever!

Randy's mom and aunt pinning the quilt sandwich into the frame

Randy's Mom & I discuss how to bind the edge

Lucky for me the peachtree house is just about an hour and a half from my Dad’s place in Indiana, so we got to soak up some of his brand of country living too.

I try not to miss farmers markets while traveling, Dad's is a winner

My sweet friend Cedar from high school got married in Los Altos, CA this summer so we were off to spend some time in the Bay Area, which was a lot like a home coming for me. Reconnecting with some of the people and places from my pre-grown-up life was incredible and confirmed for me how important it is for me to listen to my heart and go where it tells me to.

Me holding the kite at Natural Bridges State Beach

And just this week, we went to Chicago for the premier of my talented, smart, funny, charismatic brother’s play: Heros and Villians.

And now I’m ready to just be here. At the begining of the summer I realized something really important about myself. Something I’ve known in my head for a long time, but just finally got in my gut. I am a maker of things, but I am not a seller of things. In fact, I don’t really want to have anything to do with the buying or selling of anything any more. At least as far as my occupation is concerned. I resist it, I sabatoge it, every time I have an opportunity to sell things I make, somehow I thwart it either conciously or unconciously. Why am I fighting this clear truth so hard?

So I made a decision. I want to be a hospital chaplain. I know it might seem sort of random. But I don’t really care how it seems. The Church of Craft, the weddings, the joy I derive from everything about them, point clearly in the direction I need to go. I want the way I make my way in the world to be about serving others, not selling them something. I’m in for some re-training and a journey whose path and distination are nebulous to me right now at best. But I’ve set off. My interview to begin training is next week. I would begin the week after that. I can’t wait.

I am beside myself with my newest Esty purchase. These incredible custom fit jeans made by the incomparable TrapperJane. I am one of those women with a body that just defies ready-to-wear, so when I found these jeans on Etsy almost a year ago I lost my mind. I’ve saved my pennies and finally bought them. The photos only tell a fraction of this story. The details and craftsmanship are beyond any clothing item I have ever owned, and those who know me, know I have some doozies.

About a year ago (right around the time I first spied these jeans) I made a commitment to consume dramatically less than I had grown accustomed to. This was both a financial decision, and a political one. One of the “rules” I made for my self was not to purchase any new clothing made in a factory. It has been really hard!! I still do get some underwear, socks, shoes, & coats new on a very limited basis, and even that is becoming less and less as I get better at knitting socks and closer to that illusive perfect t-shirt underwear pattern.

I love this life where the things I do purchase with my precious (few) pennies are worth so much more to me.

I’ll be back at the Brooklyn Flea this Sunday 6/8. Don’t miss the Flea this summer: it is so awesome. Come early or the line for the food will be one million people long. I’ll be sharing with Erica from Species by the Thousands and Reine.

Also you won’t want to miss this year’s Renegade Craft Fair in Williamsburg Brooklyn June 14 & 15. Incredible vendors from all over bring their handmade stuff to this fair – and so do I! I’ll be sharing a booth with Cal Patch from Hodgepodge Farm – look for us right smack in the middle.

I’ve received some wise advice: diversify my selling opportunities. So now you can buy rad bags online at my Etsy Shop, buy them direct from me at the Brooklyn Flea & at the Renegade Craft Fair and also at the brand new store called Fact & Fancy, here in beautiful Brooklyn! My friends Danielle & Christine have decided to go for it: they feature hand picked high quality handmade items including my rad bags & wallets! Go visit: Friday, Saturday & Monday 12-7 and Sunday 12-6 75 Hoyt St. between Atlantic & State.

I’ve been selling rad bags the last two Sundays at New York’s newest flea market with other sellers from Supermarket, the online independent design marketplace. The weather hasn’t been too cooperative, but it is still super fun.

Wow! I haven’t had too many opportunities to sell direct to the public my self but it’s great! It is fun to interact with folks and get feedback about the stuff I’ve been making direct from the people who want them. I’ve learned so much, and have so much more to learn about selling and retail. I’m looking forward to using all this new found info at the Renegade Craft Fair this June in Williamsburg Brooklyn.

The Flea itself is awesome. The people are really friendly and interesting/interested. The sellers are all over the place, there is really something for everyone. I saw people holding frames and mirrors, records, waffles, odd metal bits (a cross, a bug), clothes & jewels from $1 to $300, and odds and ends of every description; hand made, made in Bali, vintage, & junk. If you haven’t been yet, it is worth the trip!! Everyone selling there is an independent business person, people who would love and can really use your support.

I’ll be there this coming Sunday from 10-5 at the Esty booth, selling my bags and promoting Church of Craft meetings at the Etsy Labs, just a few blocks away. Come visit! We will be right next to the food tents at the back of the market.

I’ll be selling some Rad Bags 4/13 & 4/20 at the Supermarket booth at the Fort Greene Brooklyn Flea! This thing has gotten a lot of buzz and my fellow Supermarketers had a great time on opening day. I’ll also be there 4/27 at the Etsy booth selling my stuff and talking to folks about the Church of Craft meetings we have there once a month. I’ll be debuting my newest bag design! Photos soon, promise. Would love to see you and I think it will be really fun.

I’m off to Craft Con 2008!! You can expect a full report after I return (and recover). I’m looking forward to lots of feisty discussion and giant burritos.

All this bag stuff started years ago when my friend Jane Dickson saved a few of her canvas scraps for me, because she knows I’m crafty & recycle-y. I tucked them away and some stray moment months later pulled them out and started thinking about them. Folded this way it’s like a bag side, folded this way it’s like a bag strap and if I cut and sew here then there’s a built in pocket. I pulled out a bit of upholstery vinyl for the bottom and decided I liked it so much that I should make another one! In just a few hours I had these two simple, comfortable, machine washable bags. They were somewhere between a high slung messenger bag, a tote, and a shoulder bag. And it was almost my friend Leslie Baum’s birthday! One of fashion’s early adopters, I suspected it would be right up her alley. It was! She proceeded to take it to yoga twice a week and and every trip she took for the next three years.

I used mine just as much if not more. I would often get stopped on the street and asked about my unusual bag and enjoyed cooing that I had made it my self thank you!

I would even have people suggest that I really should make and sell them. I dismissed these suggestions as idle flattery. And besides, everyone knows that handmade just doesn’t ever pay what it should for the time it takes to make, right?

It wasn’t until years later when I had finally let go of my last client (I used to do business management for artists and small creative businesses) that my thoughts turned back to Leslie’s bag. I was exhausted of making other people’s creative dreams come true, only to come home to wiped out to even turn on my sewing machine, let alone try to wrap my mind around making Art.

I needed to change my way of making money to something(s) that I really loved doing, and I didn’t want to work for anyone else any more. Why not just try it, try making and selling something you really love? I made five more bags in different sizes took photos of them and posted them to my new free Etsy Shop. Then I gave them to my friends for field testing. It took a few months, but I finally sold a bag on Etsy! Elated. Then I sold another!

Leslie finally requested a new bag in leather please, but otherwise exactly the same. Delighted, this was what I came up with:

My Dear friend ScottiRobotti on his Brooklyn rooftop. Can you believe he wants to move?