Art For The Cash Poor = Gold Mine
Hopefully you all had a chance to experience the affordable art extravaganza that was Art For The Cash Poor 13 this weekend. If not, you should be kicking yourself right now as you missed out on a lot of cool shit.
Despite having gotten only a sampling of the 200 or so vendors during Friday night’s preview party on Friday night, I was pleasantly surprised by the selection. Considering how many local art festivals/craft shows I’ve attended the past few months, it was refreshing to see so many new faces. Plus, having spent my entire weekend allowance in just two hours, it’s probably best that I wasn’t exposed to the full shebang (you can never have too much handmade jewelry, right?). Fortunately, as per the beauty of the event, I got a lot of bang for my buck.
Here were a few of my favorite vendors and some of the awesome accessories I scored…
It took incredible self-restraint to walk away from Rhoda Crawford’s table of Steampunk treasures with only two items, especially since, with the exception of a few pieces, most of her jewelry was priced under $20. Even better: Crawford donates a portion of all of her sales to an animal rescue service. After deciding that I wanted a necklace, I was then left to choose from the array of ornaments—everything from monocles and compasses to hourglasses and deconstructed clock parts. I wound up going with this Sherlock Holmes solid brass magnifying glass necklace for just $15. I also got a wall hook rack adorned with super creepy wooden cut outs of vintage baby dolls (which apparently, I’m the only person that appreciates).
Although I was familiar Stitch Prism, it was great to finally meet KellyAnne Mifflin in the flesh. As it turns out, she is a gal of many talents. In addition to her jewelry, her tiny table showcased several hanging aerium gardens and a few pieces of embroidery work. Despite my newfound obsession with aerium gardens, I decided to go with something more practical that didn’t require any maintenance whatsoever: these bangin’ geometric gold earrings.
Penelope was actually one of my favorite vendors at last month’s Art Star Craft Bazaar. And while I didn’t remember her name, I most certainly remembered her stunning jewelry. Marked by unique, colorful glass murrini patterns, it’s hard to explain exactly what her pieces look like, but I assure you photos don’t do them justice. Although most of her jewelry is a bit too expensive for me, for the AFTCP preview event, Penelope was offering her “reject” stones for just $2-$5. Still perfectly amazing as far as I could tell, I rummaged through the collection for nearly an hour before finally settling on the best three I could find (which are not pictured here since they may or may not be a gift for someone).
Somewhere between goth and Steampunk, trendy and feminine, literally Sultana had something for every type of gal in her little corner. While it may seem odd that one designer would produce such a varied collection of jewelry–let alone one that includes a domino ring–after talking to Sultana for a few minutes, it all starts to make sense. Once again, I’m not sure how many people would really appreciate this ring, but having grown up playing Mexican dominoes, I was sold the moment I laid eyes on it.
PW’s Senior Editor, Nina Hoffmann also went home with a few goodies for her “little peanut-to-be”…
Whether its a stuffed animal, onesie, t-shirt, mug or pillow, everything designer Diane Koss makes is freakin’ ADORABLE. I’m not even expecting a kid anytime soon and I still considered getting one of her uber-cute monster hoodies (they come in adult sizes too!)
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