Featured Artist: The Apothecarium

The Apothecarium is a carefully collected assortment of natural jewelry, screen-printed pieces, and wearable art based out of West Philly, and curated by Joëlle Workman.

This cabinet of curiosities provides a wide variety of affordable oddities for varying tastes and budgets

Featured Seller: Amy B. Jewelry

Amy B. makes fun and fanciful laser-cut acrylic jewelry. Her designs include custom word bubbles, Polaroid picture frames and my favorites, the paper airplanes! They can also be seen at VIX Emporium and a handful of other Philly boutiques.

Amy and her husband Paul are also responsible for organizing Crafty Balboa, South Philly's "knock-down, drag out craft event". Their Holiday show is December 17, so check it out for more handmade goodness, South Philly style!

Featured Artist: Fitbliss Organics

At Fitbliss Organics, we are a very picky bunch. We believe that putting only the best in natural ingredients on your skin is essential to a happy and healthy body.

Our scrubs and creams are chock full of only the best ingredients for glowing, vibrant skin. Fitbliss Organics focuses solely on certified organic ingredients, so you're getting only the best ingredients on your skin. The quickest return to innocence, with a dash of love peppered back in for good measure.

With scrumptious flavors like Chocolate & Almond , Coffee & Creme, Coconut & Lime and Orange & Spearmint in Body Butters, Scrubs and oils. Not to mention sumptuous Rosemary & Bergamot, Lavender & Lemon and Eucalyptus & Cedarwood creams and scrubs, there's an aroma for everyone.

Featured Artist: Corina Dross

West Philly artist Corina Dross has been showing her work at GO WEST! since the very beginning. (Here is her interview on this blog for last April's Fest.) She reproduces her meticulous line drawings on notecards, magnets and patches, and also does wood block prints and oil paintings. Three years in the making, her Portable Fortitude deck of illustrated playing cards, a series of 54 characteristically quirky images, was completed in 2010.

Corina's latest offering is another collection of images, 12 of them in fact -- a wall calendar. Inspired by the Mayan prophecy that the world will end in 2012, "The Last Calendar You'll Ever Need" was created in collaboration with her sister, painter Josie Mosser. They spent the summer channeling spectacular, oracular visions of the end times, like a slow loris stalking a sleeping city, crows dismantling prison towers, the oblique stare of an urban polar bear, and many more scenes from the coming year of mayhem and magic.

This amazing and extremely limited-edition calendar, along with the rest of Corina's creations, will be offered at this December's GO WEST! Craft Fest. But its official debut will be at the official launch party, "Magic & Mayhem" at VIX Emporium on Saturday, November 12. You are warmly invited to attend from 6-9 pm at the Emporium, 5009 Baltimore Avenue, to help us ring in the beginning of the end. Both artists will be in attendance to discuss their prophetic visions and enjoy some pre-apocalyptic revelry. We hope you can join us!

Featured Artist: Manor House Creations & Ellie's Attic

Mike and Wilder Scott-Straight
www.manorhousecreations.etsy.com

It all started when Mike broke one of Wilder’s favorite plates from 1903, an idea formed and the rest is history. Mike searches junk shops, flea markets and beyond for discarded vintage and antique plates to bring a new life to in his jewelry.

He’s especially interested in nautical themes, and loves it when he can get the perfect cut for a schooner or frigate! “If you look around our house it’s bursting with ships, and historical memorabilia.

“I love it that I can incorporate my love of history into my art,” Mike says.

Wilder also loves all things historical, from a fashion sense. “I love a little person retro look.

I hate the “adult” look of children’s clothes these days. I think kids should have fun comfortable clothes, that they can get dirty and still look really cool in”

Her daughter approves all the patches before hand. “She likes the “babydolls” the Matryoshka doll, and of course the owl and the pussycat in the boat!”

Wilder hand makes skirts, and upcycled sweater pants, and embellishes gently used baby and kid’s clothes with whimsical patches.

thanks!

The supposed rain turned into a warm sunny early autumn day. We had a blast, with great music and terrific artists. Thanks to everyone who came out!

Accepting Applications for the next GO WEST Craft Fest onSeptember 10th

Artists & Craftspeople may now apply for the next GO WEST! Craft Fest, on September 10th in Cedar Park, (on Baltimore Ave between 49th & 50th). Vendors must be selling their own original work, or that of a local artist they represent. (i.e. the artist may send a friend to sell their work). Categories include, but are not limited to jewelry, homewares, clothing and accessories, papergoods, fine art and childeren's items. Please email pertinent details, such as photos, links and descriptions of your work, along with your preferred space size (see vendor information) to gowestcraftfest@gmail.com. The rain date is Sunday, September 11. We're looking forward to a fun, family friendly Festival in the park!

thanks!

Everyone had a great time and the weather was perfect! Thanks so much to all our vendors, show organizers, musicians and customers who helped make the day such a great success!

Julie, aka Foxglove Factory

Mike Scott-Straight

Corina Dross

more photos on flickr...

Featured Artist: Leah Creation

Leah Creation’s latest line is inspired from vintage vinyl records; the artwork, the artist and songs all play a part in her designs. In this current economic situation Leah wanted to make affordable jewelry for all to enjoy. This collection is nostalgic, green and there are pieces for all to find a connection. They are strategically hand pierced and finished using a clear coat of U-V and moisture protection on the paper album artwork to help protect them from the elements. Included in the vintage vinyl collection are earrings, necklaces, bracelets, belt buckles, tie clips and cuff links.
www.leahcreation.com

Featured Artist: Paperishness

These stylish envelopes are the creation of Lindsay Granger. Culling through old magazines she finds the unique photographs that deserve a second life. They deserve to be "recycled awesome" she says!
www.etsy.com/shop/paperishness

Featured Artist: Girlyfied Gear

Shera Simon is the designer and owner of Girlyfied Gear. In her own words...I spent my childhood in the beautiful deep south and later moved to the artistically glorious Philadelphia, PA. That makes me a southern lady at heart and a city gal in practice. My work truly represents me, my background, my surroundings, and my influences. I believe all girlyfied girls from Japanese geishas to Victorian princesses to Rock and Roll mamas should live on in our wardrobes!

I started creating things because I never saw my ideas of style and beauty reflected in retail stores. I never saw models that weren't paper thin. I never saw femininity played up and not over-produced. I never saw the line were modest yet sexy intersected. So, I began to sew in high school. I took a clothing design course and made both my prom and winter formal dresses that year. They were amazing. No one had anything like it and I was teased mercilessly for having not shopped at the mall like everyone else and had avoided the repeated faux pas of someone else wearing the same dress. A designer was born in that moment!
www.etsy.com/shop/girlyfied

Featured Artist: Material Poetry

Dana Davis of Material Poetry is a Steampunks dream.










Her jewelry has a vintage flair with a modern interpretation. All items are handmade with eclectic materials like lace, pearls, feathers and up-cycled vintage and antique jewelry, watch parts and keys.
www.etsy.com/shop/MaterialPoetry

Featured Artist: Jay Sand

This post is not about a craftsperson, but one of our musical guests, Jay Sand. Since being bitten by the travel bug, Jay and his guitar have wandered far and wide, through North America, Europe, Africa and Asia as well as South America and the Middle East. Now settled in West Philly with a wife and three young daughters, he does not have the opportunity to pick up a backpack and hit the road like he used to. So he is doing the next best thing: sharing songs, games and stories of many cultures with children and their caregivers, through his All Around This World music classes.

The series of international music appreciation classes, designed for children aged 0-8, explores a different region in each 11-week session. Currently he is focusing on East and Southeast Asia, with songs and instruments originating from China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and Indonesia among others. Last season was Eastern Europe and the Baltics, and next fall will be West Asia, India and the Middle East. Most importantly, the children have fun and participate in the music through movement, voice and rhythm, with Jay's playful and engaging guidance. (Our own two-year-old has attended his classes since last fall and she absolutely loves it!)

We are so happy to welcome Jay to our Craft Fest. Bring the kids to Cedar Park at 3:30 April 9 for some hand-clapping, foot-stomping, song-singing fun. Kids and grown-ups alike are in for a treat!

Featured Artist: Real Fruit Jewelry

Zoe Einbreiner makes jewelry from delicious slices of real fruit! She carefully preserves the fresh beauty of nature in her jewelry designs. After all, she says what else can compare to the exquisite style of nature?

Real Fruit Jewelry is sealed with a hard, waterproof coating before being joyfully made into your earrings or necklaces. The finished piece is durable and absolutely unique - you won't find anyone in the world with the exact piece of jewelry.

www.etsy.com/shop/realfruitjewelry

Featured Artist: Suzanne Francis

Suzanne Francis has been selling her paintings and prints in Philadelphia for 15 years. She has pursued interests in paper ephemera, pattern design, local history, horticulture, architecture, and miniature painting techniques. She finds the local landscapes, flora, and fauna, compelling.

“I believe that it is the Artist’s role to step in and help us gain a clearer picture of ourselves, our environment, and our place in time. I seek to reflect the story of Philadelphia; its founding, development, deindustrialization, urban flight, and urban revival. To show the 19th Century building in the 21st Century landscape; a survivor of the vulgarities and economic disparities that have ravaged our city and parks. Yet much survives, the sentiment expressed by the Victorians and ourselves, that our city would prosper and be a place of beauty, abides.

"Having myself purchased and renovated an abandoned row-home, I have encountered the effect of the built human landscape and it connection to quality of life. Allowing myself to be geographically rooted rewarded me with an opportunity to reflect on Philadelphia’s seasons, landmarks, architecture, history, and to feel a part of that history. Baudelaire wrote of the ‘true painter’, who would be able to ‘Latch on to the epic character of the contemporary life and comprehend how great and epic we are...’. By choosing my surroundings as subjects for my art, I hope to prove myself worthy of that role.”

 A resident of West Philadelphia's Parkside neighborhood, Suzanne spends her time cultivating gardens and fixing up her house when she is not making art. She strives to make her art affordable to everyone by offering hand-colored prints of her own hand carved linoleum blocks, in addition to one-of-a-kind originals. Check out her cards and framed works at GO WEST! Craft Fest in Cedar Park, right across the street from the Firehouse building shown here. It's home to Dock Street Brewing Co, Satellite Cafe, Philadelphia Community Acupuncture, and Firehouse Bikes (stop by there too, they're having a sale!)

Suzanne's work is also carried by VIX Emporium and a handful of other boutiques in Philadelphia.

Featured Artist: Communitea Clothing

Communitea is run by Justin Arawjo in friendly West Philadelphia. He and his partner offer original clothing, accessories, and posters, hand printed with 100% non-toxic, environmentally friendly inks.

http://www.etsy.com/shop/communiteaclothing

Featured Artist: Corina Dross

Quietly but steadily, Corina Dross's finely detailed, haunting images have earned her a strong presence in Philadelphia's DIY art scene. I met Ms. Dross in 2007 when she began showing some of her work, wood block prints and small magnetized reproductions of pen and ink drawings, at VIX Emporium. At that time, she had completed a handful of "protection" illustrations, each meant to be one in a deck of magical playing cards. The full set of 54 illustrated cards, Portable Fortitude, was finally published last fall, and the protection spread like wildfire. It's already almost out of stock (the feature on Daily Candy certainly helped); but never fear, a reprint is in the works.

Corina will be vending her wares at GO WEST! on April 9 and has been kind enough to answer a few questions for this post.

Where are you from originally? 

"I grew up in Chicago where my mother, also an artist, took me to life drawing classes from a very young age. I remember drawing animal skeletons in a dark, vast museum as part of a class through the Art Institute of Chicago and thinking, finally, something interesting." 

How long have you lived in Philadelphia?

"I moved to Philly in 2004 and lived in a few warehouses dedicated to studio and show space before I settled in West Philly. I've found my family here; it feels more like home than anywhere else I've lived."

How would you describe your artistic process and/or inspiration?

"When I was growing up my best friends were books, and I always intended be a writer so I could pick up and continue the kind of intimate conversation that happens when you read a book...as an artist I mostly make work that you can hold in your hand, like a book, and most of it you can read... I think my creative urge is bound up with intimacy and continuing a conversation from the voices who have shaped me. I'm also very inspired by my friends in Philadelphia -- the artists, musicians, writers, performers, activists...people here are making some imaginative, daring, and technically accomplished work coming from a very different place than the art I've seen in other cities. I'm grateful to be part of it."

What else would you like people to know about you or your work?

"I work very, very slowly. It takes a long time to get an idea right, and I have more ideas than I can ever develop in one lifetime. I keep a book of schemes to hand off to whoever's around when I die, in case they want to make any of them. Oh, and I love doing commissioned work, but as I said, I work slowly."

Many thanks to Corina for the interview. Come out to GO WEST! April 9 to see her work in person.


PS. We're planning a solo show for Corina at VIX Emporium on June 11 - stay tuned for details.