Summit of Awesome, Day Two Part Two - We Don’t Stop Rockin’
This post was guest written by Christiane Knight of Three Ravens and The World of Xiane.
Approaching the rest of the afternoon’s worth of Summit, I thought it would be pretty tough to top the Craftnote talk with Jay McCarroll. But the great thing about it is that every session and workshop just built upon what came before, creating a complete package of viewpoints and experience to draw from.
My first afternoon session was “How and When to Hire Help,” which is definitely not a place I’m at yet, but hope eventually to be, just as so many of us crafty business-folk are. My thought was: you will need this info eventually, and this is a great group from which to learn!
The session was led by a panel: belt-maker extraordinaire Jon Wye, Elijah + Rhonda Wyman of the highly successful shop Figs + Ginger, and Willo O’Brien of WilloToons. Each of the speakers had different experiences and insight to share about hiring help, both paid and intern types. There was some interesting discussion about what happens when you hire a designer in your own field to work for you, and protecting yourself and your hires through having insurance, liability coverage.
Colleges, Craigslist, Job Fairs, and random emails were all ways that the speakers had searched for help, and occasionally they found real gems that added great value to their businesses.
One of the best arguments given for hiring help when the time is right is a very compelling one: to work ON your business, not FOR your business. It is much easier to grow your line if you have the time to work on new concepts - but if you are putting all your efforts into just keeping the day-to-day things flowing, there’s much less time to actually be creative. And isn’t that why we’re doing this?
Next up was a workshop about Brainstorming and Recording Stories, with the powerhouse that is Tina Seamonster hosting and leading us in our creative storytelling. I have to admit that I attended everything by her that I could, because really - she’s just that good. Her passion for getting folks to talk about their craft is infectious!
The goal for this workshop was to find a story about our handmade craft, hone it, and then tell it. The group taking the workshop was a very enthusiastic one, with many really compelling stories to share! We talked about some of our own personal experiences dealing with things like our crafty inspiration, what thing we would most want to make it we could make anything, our earliest memories of making things. One of the funniest topics was our crafting disasters - I think everyone can relate to those hilarious tragedies. [Mine? Oh, just a six foot long, uneven, MUSTARD colored scarf, made of horribly scratchy acrylic yarn, that my preschooler self spent a million hours industriously knitting. Mom kept it for future humiliations. Thanks, Mom!]
This was a great activity that you can explore at any time. And if you have a great story, you should contact Tina and share it with her. You might end up on her podcast!
The final workshop of the day was a treat for me, and for everyone who participated. Rania Hassan of Goshdarnknit demonstrated the almost-lost art of Gocco printing in the cleverly titled workshop: Let’s Gocco Like It’s 2004!
Gocco is a fun and simple way to print small designs on paper or cloth using the now out of production Print Gocco - a toy screen printing device from Japan that was hugely popular outside of Japan long after the Japanese tired of it. Finding the gear for Print Gocco becomes more difficult each year, so having the opportunity to try one in person was a treat. Full disclosure: I own a Print Gocco but have never used it, because the instructions are in Japanese, and besides, I do much better learning through observation and hands-on trials. This workshop was the perfect place to get both!
Some of the attendees had never heard of Gocco, or had never seen one in person. We were all charmed by the relative simplicity, and the clear way that Rania explained how to create the sort of details that she achieves in her own Gocco’ed items that she sells. She showed how to burn and mask a screen, ink the screen, align the paper for proper printing, and create both a single and multi-layered image. Everyone took a turn or two making prints, with Rania’s patient help, and I left the workshop confident that I now can use my Print Gocco to make prints quite easily. Yay!
I can’t believe that there’s only one day left. I don’t want the Summit to end!
Tune in tomorrow for the last day of Awesome!