South Bay Crafty Computer Meet Up at Tech Shop San Jose!

Yesterday, some of our SF Etsy members got together at TechShop San Jose for a South Bay version of Katy's Crafty Computer Meet Up!

We had a great time meeting other crafty, creative folks -- always an energizing experience! (And especially so for me because I'd been cooped up with sick kids for several days! Happily, my husband was able to work from home for the morning so that I could attend the first two hours of the meeting!) It turns out that TechShop members can sponsor a meeting for up to 15 people for 2 hours, for free, so we were able to get together from 10 am to 2 pm, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Kathryn of Splendid Colors and Ilana of The Golden Gear. (Kathryn is an SF Etsy member, and her friend Ilana has now applied for membership!)

Here we all are:

From left to right:

Valerie of Valerie Preston Jewelry
Ilana of The Golden Gear
Devika of Devika's Art
Kathryn of Splendid Colors
Ruhi of Live Decor
Kate of This Charming Candy
Jen (yours truly!) of Mama's Magic Studio
Suhita of Sketch Away

We started off the meeting by logging in to the Tech Shop Wi Fi:

We did a little ice breaker introduction -- was really nice to be able to pull up people's shops and check them out as they introduced themselves! Here's Suhita sharing some of her sketches, showing them to Valerie.


We chatted about Etsy and the team, took a Tech Shop tour, and shared some tips for our shops. I've recently been playing around with the FotoFuze app, so we talked about that for a bit. (If you've been trying to take pics on a pure white background, but you've been frustrated with the results, this app is worth checking out! I'm definitely not savvy about all this stuff, yet even I could get good results most of the time.)

Tech Shop is full of creative goodness and amazing supplies, tools, machines -- and from what I hear, talented and helpful teachers to let you learn how to do it all. On the tour, we got to see their Bin Wall of supplies for members:

They have a woodworking shop, a metalshop, a 3D printer... all sorts of amazing things. Here's Kathryn next to the laser cutter that lets her make her gorgeous gears:

If you're interested in more, you can check out the rest of the pics I took here on Flickr.

Many thanks to those who came out for the meet up! We'll be planning more events in the South Bay and elsewhere soon -- so stay tuned!

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Jen from Mama's Magic Studio about joining SFEtsy!