Rickshaw Bags Design Contest and Tour

Tuesday evening was the culmination event of our Rickshaw Bags design challenge and we celebrated SFEtsy style~creative friends, learning from our peers, wine and cookies...  Big thanks to our SFEtsy hosts Rebecca Saylor and Katy Atchison as well as Mark Dwight, Founder of Rickshaw Bags.

Our winner with the most likes for her design is Sarah Friedman of Birdbags.  She was bright eyed through the entire tour, her love for bags clearly visible.  Her design is based on the landscape of Sonoma and includes multiple appliques in vegan leather and machine embroidery.  As a special surpise, the runner up was also chosen to have her bag made!  Congrats to Usha of Usha Designs! Her bright flowers captured 21 shares on facebook during the contest.  Both designers have chosen their fabric and trims during our Rickshaw party and will be receiving their custom bags in a couple weeks.

Our winners Usha and Sarah in the Rickshaw sparkly pedicab!

Mark Dwight gave us a great tour through the manufacturing process of Rickshaw bags.  I saw many of our team members evaluating the scale, opportunities, and responsibilities of Rickshaw Bagworks (20 employees) in comparison with our own production levels.  It was great to hear some of Mark's challenges and successes.  We also talked about SF Made and it's potential as a service as a network for those in need of resources around scaling production of goods right here in San Francisco.  SF Etsy member Adra Valentine of Stone Valentine mentioned that she joined SF Made to find out who the cutters and sewers of the city are in case she needs them when increased orders come in for her cloth works.

Every designer present (and Jen by mail!) choose to have their original design made! It was a creative frenzy in the showroom as we chatted over fabric samples and helped each other find just the right match.  For each bag we choose the exterior fabric, interior fabric, and bag flap trim.  At one point we were all trying to fit a gorgeous seafoam into our designs and everyone loved the new herringbone fabrics (which are made in the USA from recycled bottles).  We'll all be getting our bags via mail or pick up within the next few weeks and Mark will be taking photos before they leave the factory.  We're looking forward to the group shot!

Katy and Mark working out her bag design options.

Mark reiterated his commitment to supporting local designers.  As SF Etsy team members, we now have the opportunity to design bag flaps and have the bags manufactured locally.  Please see Katy's original blog post to understand more about the process.  We all actually produced our own works in a suitable medium on fabric.  Purely printed designs can already be produced via Zazzle.com, which our members could use, but it's an entirely different scale to have custom artworks as well as the custom color choices.  The bag we all made is the Zero Messenger Bag, so named for it's very low amount of waste in cutting and manufacturing.  You can see Mark show how it's made in this video.

Thanks to all our participating designers and party goers! Lisa of TickleandSmash, Karen of Fabulry, Frances of Frances Marin Art, Fleur of ArteFleur, Jen of Mama's Magic Studio, Eve and Rick of Monkey and Seal, Toby of Savor the Date, Steph of Since Sass, Usha of Usha Designs, Sarah of Birdbags, Katy of Katy Atchison Illustrations, PJ of Wooliverse,  Eko of Eko Jewelry Design, Cristiana of Pebble and Fire, Nina of Neon Sprinkles Studio,  Adra of StoneValentine, Steph of Since Sass, Niana of SFlocal, and our colleagues and friends!

Bag design mini gallery!

If you've got great pictures to share or want to see more, do check out our tag #sfetsy on instagram and twitter!
Thanks again to our amazing creative instigator Rebecca Saylor! We all had a wonderful time and look forward to more~

Rebecca having a much deserved swoon after all the fun!

~Even

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!

Rickshaw Bags Design Contest ~ Works in Progress

Our collaborative contest with Rickshaw Bags is coming up to deadline this Saturday, September 15th. There's still time to participate and have your design made into a custom Rickshaw messenger bag! All the details are here.  All entries will be voted on via Facebook and shown at the celebration event:

WINNER ANNOUNCED DURING THE

SF ETSY EVENT @ RICKSHAW BAGS

SEPTEMBER 25th @6pm
904 22nd Street – San Francisco, CA

Right next to 22nd Street Cal Train Station

So, what are we making?  I asked our team to share their designs in progress and here's two ideas.  Feel free to share yours in the comments below or email me at evenhoward @ gmail.com and I'll add your photos too!

Sarah Friedman of Birdbags

"The design is sketched roughly, in chalk.  Lately, I have been missing home (New York) and have decided to make this flap in honor of our new home in Northern California, by celebrating all that the landscape has to offer.

Sarah's work in progress Rickshaw Bag Flap design drawn with inspiration photo.

My flap design is based on a photo that I took in Sonoma County, when we first moved here.  I will be using the colors and the design elements in the landscape to create an abstract version of the image on a piece of Turquoise "Vegan Leather" (Vinyl).  I will be machine embroidering the elements to create a "drawing" in thread.

Sarah's new Nightingale Handbag ~ check out her machine embroidery!

I've been experimenting with embroidery on vinyl to give an extra dimension to the fabric.  I'm having a lot of fun with it, so I am excited to push the limits in a more literal, pictorial way with this design."

Jen Johnson of Mama's Magic Studio

"Lately I’ve been playing with a “Bluebirds – Happiness” theme for collage quilts, and I continued the idea for my bag flap. I’m attaching a pic of the submission finished so far and a pic of my wall hanging quilt that started the series. I’m trying to decide if I want to include a heart above the two birds similar to the one in the wall hanging quilt. Leaning towards no, but still deciding and would love opinions!

Jen's Rickshaw Bag Flap Design ~ entirely made from FabMo fabrics. 

Oh, and one more thing that might be of interest – my submission was created entirely from upcycled designer fabric remnants obtained through the recent SF Etsy fabric distribution at FabMo!"

Jen Johnson's Birds of Happiness quilted panel~her bag inspiration!

Jen's "Mother Bird Nest Pendant" from her Etsy Shop

I'm working on a colorful thread crochet flap; I hope with a graphic black and white element. Betsy is using Spoonflower to print her own fabric.  The possiblities are endless!  Looking forward to seeing more of what our team creates!  Questions about the bag contest can be directed to our fearless Captain Katy.

~Even

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!

Treasury Team Presents: Getting to Know You!

I was so inspired by the SF Etsy Team Gallery Show at Studio today!  Of course our team wowed with art, craft, and baked treats of all kinds, and was what newly enjoyable for me was hearing more about the daily lives of our team members.  The stories of how we manage life in the Bay Area, balance day jobs and families, and keep our own creative sparks burning was truly awesome.

In this spirit, I'd love to launch our next Treasury Team Challenge with a Getting to Know You theme.  Please create a treasury with a few SF Etsy team members (search for the tag "sfetsy") and curate your own visual art show sharing an element of your own life balance.  It can be the celebration of a hobby, a place you love to go for inspiration, honoring family support, a timeline of how you got here... imagine it's a virtual cocktail party and we all have a chance for a lively chat.  Please tag your treasury with "SFEtsy Treasury Team" so others can find you, give a link back to the blog, and describe your treasury a bit (you can do this in the comments if there is not room in the description area).  You can share your treasury everywhere you like, including the comments section of this post!

I'd also like to honor the lovely Sarah Friedman of Birdbags as she is a second time winner of our Treasury Team Challenge~ having gained the most views, comments, and favorites in our last set of treasuries.  Check out her adorable iphone cases (also at Studio Gallery)!

envelope style iphone case from Sarah Friedman aka Birdbags as seen in the Studio Gallery Show!

Here's an example from my getting to know treasury, it's about a summer project dream that I finally got to complete with some help from my grandparents and a long lasting summer in Montana...

'I built a boat; I wore a dress.' by nadene

Last summer I built a mahogany boat, a wineglass wherry. As part of our San Francisco Etsy Treasury Team Getting to Know You series, I give you this illustrated snippet of my creative life!

suziesvintage $89.00	MimiHammer $46.00	Crafterall $40.00
JewelryByMaeBe... $18.00	Marewo $33.00	woolicious $25.00
lindadonohue $265.00	yankeegirl $15.00	cabininthehear... $25.00
marissavogl $47.00	katyatchison $50.00	Thrush $89.00
TickledFancies $50.00	ItalianGirlinG... $30.00

Looking forward to getting to know more of our team! Let's have two weeks of entries, a 'winner' with the most views, favorites, and comments will have their shop and treasury featured in the next blog post.  Questions?  Email me @ evenhoward@gmail.com.

~Even

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!

Treasury Team Presents: Tell your story!

This week we made treasuries around the theme of telling our stories~ stories of our journey on Etsy and imagined stories too.  Lisa of TickleAndSmash, Sarah of thebirdbags, and MosVintageCloset all participated. Thanks to everyone who participated, including sharing and viewing our treasuries!  Feel free to join in, our next theme is at the bottom of this post. With over 300 views, clicks, comments, and favorites, Sarah created our winning treasury!

Her Birdbags shop carries made in the bay handbags, clutches and accessories featuring lovely prints and coordinating trims.  I love how her work is sophisticated and easy at the same time!  One of my new favorites is this "Puffin" handbag-the pockets and details are so well thought out, it could definitely be a well-loved everyday bag.

"Puffin" Handbag by Sarah of thebirdbags on Etsy.

Small Bird in a Big Sky by thebirdbags

Don't forget that to be successful you have to keep creating! Sometimes I feel like a very small, faceless bird in a large, never ending sky..but I'll never stop flying, meeting new people, learning new things...& creatingEnjoy, Sarahsfetsy 

selflesh $30.00	FoxtailCreekSt... $25.50	DecoFox $18.00
HumanScaleStud... $95.00	BeautySpot $24.00	lefrenchshop $18.00
MarcoSuarez $60.00	tparty $72.90	FishboneDeco $52.00
decoylab $84.00	LaurelAndLime $23.00	sarapaloma $340.00
esoneofone $79.00	backgarage $25.00	ingridArtStudi... $83.00

This week's theme: Dream Holiday

~I'm thinking share your spring and summer travel ideas, near or far, real or imagined.  Think of landscapes, moods, solitude or companions, travel accessories, summer foods...

Participation is open to all!  Please remember to: 

• include the items of at least 4 team members
• mention our blog or facebook page address in your description, or comment if you need more space
• tag your treasury with "sfetsy treasury team" so I (and other team members) can find you
• share your treasury widely and invite featured sellers to do the same
• tag your own items with "sfetsy" so that treasury makers can find you!

Questions?  email Even via Etsy or evenhoward@gmail.com

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If you're an Etsy seller in the San Francisco Bay Area, contact Katy or Steph about joining SFEtsy!