SF Etsy Folks and More! At Taste for Artisans

I had such a great time last night at the Taste for Artisans Handmade Ho Down party! Good ol' fashioned fun, fantastic shopping, and best of all I got to meet a bunch of SF Etsy folks and see their beautiful handcrafts in person. What a treat! (Plus, it's always fun to introduce myself as Jen from Mama's Magic Studio and have people know what I mean!)

Kudos to Rebecca (Jim Dandy's) and Erin (Eristotle), the talented women behind Mini Marizipan -- the ones who teamed up with East Bay Express to organize such a fabulous evening.
I really enjoyed browsing the craft booths and shaking hands with so many SF Etsy people. I tried to make it around to meet as many people as I could; apologies if I missed you! I'd gone armed with a list of shop names to check out, but it soon got overwhelming trying to track everybody down, so I just did the best I could.

I recognized Sheila's work (of SheilaSatin) right away -- I Dig Crystals has such a distinctive look!


I had a lovely chat with one of our newest SF Etsy members -- Hilary of A Slice of Delight. Her soaps smelled super yummy and were stunningly vibrant.


Velvet Otterhound's "vintage glam" is always a treat for the eyes. Tara told me about one of her pieces that was accompanied by a picture of the original owner (on the white bust in the center of the photograph below) which was just too amazingly cool.


As I was wandering around, enjoying myself and trying to meet as many people as possible, I thought (not for the first time) that one of the things we could really use is a fun, easy way to identify ourselves as SF Etsy members at these kinds of events. Happily, the SF Etsy marketing team is working on exactly that -- stay tuned for details! (Want to join the marketing team? Zip me an email or come to our meeting in the Etsy chat rooms tomorrow night, Monday April 5th at 8:30 p.m.)

Briana & Kim gave me a friendly welcome at the booth being shared by Briana's Look What I Made and Brandi's The Crows Nest. It's always impressive when a shared booth works well with two complementary shops. While she's not (yet!) an SF Etsy member, Kim runs an Etsy shop as well (Kim Jensen Mosaics) and was covering for Brandi for the evening.


Amy of Me Make Stuff told me that the event was her First Real Craft Show! Congrats, Amy -- hope you had a great evening!


Carrie of Moonpath Designs (purple shirt on the left) was having a very busy evening -- helping out with her own booth and also running the neighboring booth, whose shop name I alas neglected to jot down (I don't think it was an SF Etsy person...?) but which had some great Day of the Dead stuff like that mirror in the lower left. I have to say that my heartstrings tugged a bit when I saw Moonpath's Nurse to Live, Live to Nurse design in person. I'm still very proud of all the time and energy it took to nurse both my kids, though that time is now well and done.

Taryn of Taryn Lin Design had the pretty sparkly eye candy thing going on at her booth. My pocket camera definitely did not do justice to her exquisite jewelry, but it caught her smiling face!
I enjoyed talking with Nina of Gooseberry Press about her love of travel and her unique, map-inspired designs.


Amy of Left Bank had another one of those booths that I recognized immediately, though it was the first time I'd had a chance to meet the woman behind the work -- her bold, colorful, fanciful designs are definitely memorable.

After all that shopping and chatting, I wandered over to catch some of the other stuff going on. I tell ya, Mini Marzipan really knows how to throw a party!

Both my parents hail from San Antonio -- so while I was raised on the East Coast, I spent a lot of time Deep in the Heart of Texas. Little wonder, then, that the wholesome entertainment made me feel right at home. I wasn't up to riding the mechanical bull, but I had a blast watching other folks. This gal looked like she knew what she was doing:


The music was toe-tapping good, though I wasn't able to stay long enough to hear the whole lineup. Kit and the Branded Men were in tune for sure.


And I loved watching these little girls dancing. Obviously, the folks in the crowd were enjoying themselves thoroughly!


The square dancing sure brought back memories -- many a summer, we'd have a block party with the neighbors and hire a guy to call the steps. Good times.


And who doesn't love a good pie eating contest?


As if all that wasn't fabulous enough, there was another great angle on the evening -- it was a fundraiser for DrawBridge, the program that provides art programs for homeless and other vulnerable children in the Bay Area. They had a display of the children's art, and it brought tears to my eyes, thinking about the lives of kids who might benefit from such a program. I especially liked this drawing by Brooke:

Rumor has it that Mini Marizpan is planning many other first-class events in the future, and we're planning to continue the SF Etsy involvement. Because we'd be crazy not to; these gals sure know what they're doing! We'll be sharing details as soon as they are available, but trust me: there's lots of great stuff coming soon.