Sunday, July 12, 2009

New Orleans Craft Mafia Welcomes Emily Davis of Sweet Olive Soapworks of New Orleans


~Please join the Crescent City Mafioso in welcoming Emily Davis of Sweet Olive Soapworks of New Orleans~


Some of you may know her from her etsy shop: www.sweetolivesoapworks.etsy.com or some of you may have been introduced to her products that flew off the shelves at our Triple Threat Birthday Bash, June 18, at Twisted Hair Salon.


Emily describes her process as " I organically grow the fruits, flowers, vegetables, and herbs that are used as additives, decoctions, and extra-virgin olive oil infusions in Sweet Olive's skin nourishing soap recipes.Excepting the occasional ingredients of milk, honey, and beeswax, no animal products are ever used, and only overly picky human subjects are rigorously bathed to ensure top quality."
To wit, her shop is full of delightful New Orleans inspired soap bliss. Be on the lookout for her soap voodoo dolls looking to hit the ETSY shelves A.S.A.P.

We are delighted to have this down to earth and vivacious indie business joining the New Orleans Craft Mafia! Check out her shop today.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Crafty Biz Tips - How To Pimp Your Twitter!

The Craft Mafia was originally started by some talented business-minded crafty ladies in Austin, Texas as a way to pool their resources and promote their own crafty businesses. We followed suit here in New Orleans and help each other out. Some of us are more computer savvy than others, some of us have experience selling our wares in a brick-and-mortar retail boutique, etc.

Heather of Unique Products recently asked for some help getting started with Twitter. Twitter is a great way to promote your business, and there are some really cool free applications out there to help you along the way.

If you have a blog, chances are that blog has an RSS feed. (That stands for Really Simple Syndication.) You know those orange buttons you see everywhere? Those are for RSS feeds. You can use that feed to automatically post links to your newest blog posts to your Twitter account using the free application twitterfeed.

Just sign up for a free account and add your RSS feed. The url to your RSS feed is probably something like this:
http://neworleanscraftmafia.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default
Or if you use Feedburner (which I highly recommend!), it should look sort of like this:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/NewOrleansCraftMafia

Now your Twitter account will be updated anytime you post to your blog with a link back to the post! It will look sort of like this on your Twitter page:


If you want to keep your Facebook friends up-to-date on your most important tweets, but not annoy them with every little thing you tweet about, check out the Selective Twitter Status application on Facebook. Just tell the Facebook app your Twitter username, and then anytime you want a tweet to be posted to Facebook as well, type in #fb at the end of your tweet. Simple!


If you want even more tips on getting started with Twitter and how to use it to promote your business, check out these resources:

13 Twitter Tips and Tutorials for Beginners
by TwiTip

7 Steps to Promote Your Business Using Twitter by StartupNation

How To Get More Twitter Followers, How To Use Twitter Without Looking Like A Total Jackass, and a free Twitter Tips pdf booklet by Indie Biz Chicks

And be sure to follow us on Twitter as well! http://twitter.com/nola_craftmafia

Monday, June 29, 2009

Bright…FUN…and FUNKY!!!!!!!

Circular Ring by greenKangaroo - $10.00
This bright, funky ring would be great with any summer outfit!!!


4 Sided Mask Pendant Mardi Gras bead Light by UP/Unique Products - $400
This light is 14 X 18” with a 6 ft cord! It's a great way to light up your home for the fun summer time and it makes a fabulous accessory during Mardi Gras season!


Sweet Olive Chemise by Bayou Salvage - $150
This vintage crochet lace and linen chemise in bright yellow and turquoise is a sweet and sexy accessory over a light tank top for the summer heat!


Green Polymer Clay Hairpins - Handmade Polymer Clay Flowers by Flambeaux Design Company sold individually for $12.
These are a wonderfully fun hair accessory while lounging in the sun or accessorizing that cool summer dress!


Crazy Dichroic Glass Pendant made by Kristina Renee Jewelry - $25
This pendant is the perfect piece to add some fun to any summer sun dress!


70119 Mid-City Sacred Heart Stencil Clock by artbymags! - $32
This cool clock made from a recycled vinyl record is sure to jazz up your home decor any time of year!

Friday, June 26, 2009

Handmade News Features New Orleans Craft Mafia



The group was really lucky to get a week long feature on the Handmade News.
Check out the latest interviews:

Rachelle Matherne of GreenKangaroo
http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=1237

and Kristina Renee of Kristina Renee Jewelry
http://www.handmadenews.org/article/index.php?id=1305

Thanks again Handmade News!

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Triple Threat Bash a HUGE SUCCESS. Thanks to TWISTED SALON, ANTI GRAVITY AND NOLA BREWING!



The NOLA Craft Mafia is deeply grateful to Leo from AntiGravity spinning tunes, Twisted Hair Salon for being the birthday host and NOLA Brewing for handcrafted libations. We ran out of beer and cake before the sun went down so it was all good at 4824 Prytania Street. Thanks to all the birthday celebrees and devotees of craft.We are still recovering from having such a good time.
Muchos gracias, Merci & Gratzi YALL!!!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Even More Press!

Since we posted yesterday's blog, there have been a few updates and even more press.

First of all, Heather and Mark of Unique Products are now the "Featured Artisans" on Handmade News. Keep tuning in every day for a new interview with one of our members!

Second, ABC26 has posted the full clips of yesterday's Good Morning New Orleans show segments with the New Orleans Craft Mafia - both the t-shirt demo segment and the product display segment. We're not sure how long they will stay up, so hop on over and take a look!

And lastly, we mentioned a forth-coming article on Nola.com from fashion editor Susan Langenhennig, and sure enough, we awoke to it this morning! It's a great article about the indie craft movement, craftivism and what we're trying to do with the New Orleans Craft Mafia. It features a lot of beautiful photos of our stuff, and they even plugged our party on Thursday!

Monday, June 15, 2009

NOCM Gets Great Press!

Ever since our appearance in the eco-village at the Bayou Boogaloo over Memorial Day weekend (when, you'll recall, members Heather MacFarlane, Mallory Whitfield, and Kerry Fitts staffed a demo tent where they showed Boogaloo-ers how to recycled their old - or even sometimes brand new! - t-shirts into new exciting creations), we've had an onslaught of positive press... and many requests to do t-shirt demos!

As we told you before, the article that started it off was featured on Nola.com's fashion blog, written by fashion editor Susan Langenhennig. They got such an amazing response from that article, Susan told us, that the Times-Picayune decided to run it in print a few days later, getting an even wider audience.

Well after that, we got a request to appear on ABC26's Good Morning New Orleans show, the broadcast of which just happened this morning at 6am, actually. Pictured above is a screen shot taken while watching members Mallory Whitfield and Rachelle Matherne interact with show host Cyndi Nguyen. (Kerry Fitts appeared in the first segment, a t-shirt recycling demo, of which we did not manage to get any photos, unfortunately.) Hopefully ABC26 will put a clip of it up online later, and if so, we'll be sure to let y'all know.

In the mean time, we'd been contacted by the Handmade News, an online site/blog associated with the new handmade marketplace Artfire.com. They did individual interviews with each of our members and also did an interview about the NOCM as a whole. The first of the "Featured Artisan" pieces went up late yesterday and features art by mags! Other articles with all the rest of our members will follow this week. The "Main Feature" on the NOCM will also remain up all week long, as Handmade News celebrates Mafia Month. Very exciting!

The Boogaloo demo tent apparently also got us noticed in the Consciously Rebuilding blog as well. Check out this cool blog about a new eco-conscious effort in New Orleans that we wish we knew more about. Thanks to Yasmin for stopping by the demo tent and sharing us with her readers.

And, after the initial Nola.com piece about us at the Boogaloo, fashion editor Susan Langenhennig asked to interview more of us in the NOCM about the group and will be doing a larger piece on Nola.com (which will hopefully run in the T/P as well!) about the indie craft movement across the country and its impact here in New Orleans, using the NOCM as an example. Look for that this week sometime, as she hoped to have it published before our Thursday Birthday Bash.

So, as you see, the momentum is building for our big bash on Thursday. Come meet all of us, discover our funky, one-of-a-kind handmade creations, and see what all the fuss is about!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Crescent City Mafioso on a bye this week- getting ready for our birthday bash on June 18th!

The Mafia are beating the summer heat this week and getting some rest from markets and festivals. We are getting ready for our:

Triple Threat Birthday Bash
Thursday, June 18, 6:00 - 10:00pm
Celebrating the anniversaries of the New Orleans Craft Mafia, Antigravity Magazine, and Twisted Hair Salon.
Join us at Twisted Hair Salon for food, drinks, and music.

sign up for our party R.S.V.P.
on facebook,myspace & twitter yall!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

New Orleans Craft Mafia heads to Hotlanta for I.C.E.

It's Indie Craft Experience time in Atlanta and you will find the New Orleans Craft Mafia representin' 504 madness in style.




Rachelle from greenKangaroo will be sporting her resin jewelry & *more* at
Indie Craft Experience (ICE)
Saturday, May 30 and Sunday, May 31, 11:00am - 7:00pm
Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta (265 Park Ave West N.W.)
http://www.ice-atlanta.com
participating NOCM members: greenKangaroo

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

T-Shirt Reconstruction

This post was originally posted at MissMalaprop.com by NOCM member Mallory.

I spent all day Saturday sewing and teaching people at Bayou Boogaloo how to turn their old t-shirts into cute halter tops, tote bags and more. It was so much fun and a BIG hit! Even people who didn't think they had the slightest crafty bone in their body realized that there are some really simple things that you can do to reinvent your old tees!

I think between the three of us (Heather from Unique Products, Kerry from Bayou Salvage, and myself), we must have helped at least 100 people turn t-shirts into cute halter tops! Not to mention the tote bags and a few more elaborate projects we helped with.

the gURL guide to customizing a tshirt

Want to know what to do with your old tees? Check out the gURL guide to customizing a t-shirt, which features tutorials by Megan Nicolay (author of Generation T: 108 ways to transform a t-shirt), or find many more t-shirt and clothing tutorials at WhatTheCraft and Cut Out + Keep.

You can also turn your old t-shirts into cute underwear, or make a t-shirt bikini. The guys at Threadbanger will even show you how to make a pair of swim trunks out of an old suit:



Threadbanger has loads more tutorials on how to reinvent your old clothes, including t-shirts. You can also check out the long-running community over at t-shirt surgery to see what people have done with their old tees.

Raquel Allegra is an up-and-coming designer famous for her couture shredded t-shirts recycled from Los Angeles County Jail clothing. The amazing OustaPop of Finland has come up with a tutorial on how to recreate this shredded t-shirt look. She has more trashion tutorials on her blog and at Cut Out + Keep.

99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim, and Tie Your T-Shirt into Something SpecialYou can pick up 99 Ways to Cut, Sew, Trim, and Tie Your T-Shirt into Something Special or Tease: Inspired T-shirt Transformations by Superstars of Art, Craft, & Design for even more t-shirt tutorials!

Do you have tutorials on how to recycle your old clothes or anything else for that matter? I would LOVE to see them and share them at MissMalaprop.com. Please let me know, because I'd love to start sharing more tutorials with you guys, but I need your help! If you've got tutorials that you've written, preferably with a few pictures, please email me at mallory [AT] missmalaprop.com!

Would you like to host a similar event with NOCM members? We got some great feedback while doing this event, and we'd love to teach even more people how easy it can be to turn trash into treasure! Let us know if you have a space to host us for a tutorial session or have an upcoming event and want to make us a part of it!