Mokuyobi Threads goes to Europe

It's been a very crazy month with the Kickstarter and everything going on.  Today I leave for Europe with my friend Dustin.  We're traveling to Stockholm: Sweden, Copenhagen: Denmark, Paris: France, and London: England.  I'm on a mission to find more stores to stock the Mokuyobi Threads Bedford bag (and perhaps do a little shopping along the way).  I'm going to be posting about awesome finds that I discover in all of the cities that I visit in the next two weeks so stay tuned, it's going to be quite a ride!

Here we go!!!

Renegade Craft Fair Brooklyn Shop Finds

The Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair is always an awesome time for meeting people, networking, and getting customer feedback but not so good for my wallet.  Especially this year.  I felt like there were WAY more interesting new things and less 'put a bird on it'.  Here are some of the awesome shops and what I bought from them:

RHLS (Ruffeo Hearts Lil Snotty)

If you're looking for the most awesome talented coolest people ever, you found them.  Look at this shamazing dress.  They do a lot of color blocking and sew everything right here in Brooklyn.  So fancy.  They also do AMAZING photo shoots.

Mega ETC

Giant jewelry wearers look no further!  Sarah is behind this larger than life jewelry company that incorporates big beads and awesome rope.  This nechlace may look small out of context but it is GIANT and that's what make is so amazing!  I wore it right out of her booth.

Andrew Zangerle

Triple Amazing hand painted wood signs.  I already have one of his signs if you remember my post about my framed wall, it was the treasure sign.  These will only add to the awesomeness.  Seriously cool, look at those things.  There are no words.  He said he was going to be painting more signs like this soon so keep a lookout for that!!!

Shorts People

Casual shorts are basically my thing.  And these shorts are not only great for just wearing on a summer day as a lady, they're also great swim shorts for men!!  Totally loving this fish pattern.  So much so that I wore them to the second day of Renegade after I bought them the first day.  Look at those fish!!

Thief & Bandit

I've seen these guys a few times at Renegade and they're always coming out with awesome new stuff.  I'm totally digging these crop tanks.  The orange one on the right is actually bright neon orange which apparently doesn't capture well in photos.  They do a lot of sweet jewelry as well, you should definitely check them out!

Ktaadn

Ktaadn is a company from Maine that makes super soft tea towels with bright snazzy screen prints.  They were another new booth addition.  They're also doing Renegade Chicago in September so look for them if you're going.  They also gave me this geometric tote with my purchase, score!!

Hook & Matter

The lovely Aimée runs this awesomely playful jewelry brand and she is pretty much the sweetest girl ever.  Lots of bright acrylic jewelry and also some neat delicate metal earrings and more!!  Definitely check this girl out.

Helveta Vyotlag

Building blocks for adults in the form of jewelry!!  Another Renegade newbie with ridiculously giant jewelry.  I got these sweet asymmetrical earrings but totally wanted this crazy pointy ring she had but wasn't sure if I could pull it off.  Definitely haven't seen anything like this before.  I'm hoping she'll be in future craft fairs.

Mukee

My buddy Derek runs this awesome brand that makes jewelry: earrings, necklaces, and belt buckles from recycled skateboards making each piece totally unique and fun.  I'm all about casual jewelry, I totally dig this.  I end up buying something from him every craft fair I see him at.  It's dangerous.

We See Stars

Clearly I went way overboard on the jewelry this year.  I'm always looking for colorful studs since my ear lobes don't frequent dangly earrings.  These earrings are painted leather which I don't think I've seen before.  Obviously I had to get 3 pairs for my 3 ear holes.  They look pretty sweet when I rock them together.  Clearly a winner.

See you next time at the10th annual Renegade Craft Fair Chicago!!  September 8+9 7am-11pm both days.  Come check out the Mokuyobi Threads booth as well as some of the aforementioned artists that will be in attendance!

Price Blocks

The Renegade Craft Fair is coming up and I'm always stumped about how to display items without making it look completely temporary and cheap while keeping the crafty theme.  After doing an embroidered book called Front & Back where I embroidered letters on a cardboard cover; I thought why not do it with numbers but into wood with holes drilled in it.  The perfect price display item: Price Blocks!  

I thought they would be better suited with a little stand since stuff is always falling at craft fairs from the wind and kids pushing stuff over.  I made some paper mock ups, gathered up some wood, and got to it!

Here I made shapes in illustrator mocking up the look of the block and printed them out on card stock for a heavier weight template and more perfectly curved edges.

Here's the wood as I got it in larger pieces.  I started with the actual price blocks cutting them on a table saw into the correct widths depending on the number of digits used.

Then I cross cut the strips into the smaller 2 and 3 digit block sizes.

Half of the blocks cut and stacked.

Then I started on the stands cutting them into 1" strips.

Using the table saw and dado blades I cut an indent in the stands where the price blocks would sit.

I cut those strips into smaller stand sizes for each block.  Then I sanded all of the edges and rounded the corners of all of the cut pieces.

Here are all of the stands cut and sanded.  The 2 digit blocks are finished and have rounded edges.  Still have to drill the holes in the 3 digit blocks and rounds the corners.

Drawing the rounded corners from the template on the larger pieces as a guide on the circular sander.

Sanded the 3 digit block corners and now drilling the number holes with a drill press.

Laser cutting the dollar sign into the finished wood blocks.

Finished embroidered price blocks with stands. 

Two pieces shown separately.

Unstitched blocks.  The color options are endless!!  See them up close at the Mokuyobi Threads Renegade Craft Fair booth #161

You can purchase the price blocks in my etsy shop