LA Printers Fair 2010

Here in LA, you can be sure there's always something happening somewhere between Santa Monica and Downtown Los Angeles whether you are into theatre, sports, literature, art, music, dancing, etcetera... this Saturday is extra busy for Dan and I with the Glow Festival, a bi-annual music and art festival at the Santa Monica Pier, Epicenter (another amazing music festival - this year's headliners Eminiem, Kiss, Buss and Blink-182), and Nocturnal Festival 2010 (which we've got free passes for thanks to Brad Athens of Insomniac Events). But there's one major event that I'm so heartborken to miss! It's the:

The museum itself - The International Printing Museum at any given day is a printing and paper addict's paradise which houses Ernest A. Lindner "Collection of Antique Printing Machinery considered by many authorities to be one of the largest, most comprehensive collections of historic graphic arts equpment in the world." It has the first iron printing press built in the 1800 by Lord Standhope; the second one built in 1813 by John Clymer; the Albion press in 1820; the Washington hand press of Samuel Rust in 1821........ and there's so much more! 

14x19 Albion

24x35 Washington

Columbian Press

6x9 Platen Jobber

This Saturday's fair will include over 100 vendors selling tasteful paper products and some will even sell classic printing presses. Click here for the vendor highlights. If you do make it you MUST blog about it! It's times like these I wish half of my Gemini self could materialize and be in two amazing events at once! That's double dose on happiness!

Well, wherever you will be this weekend, be safe, have fun with good company, good food and a ton of laughter!

Cindy Gonzales-Kujat

Renegade Crafts Los Angeles 2010

A couple of weekends ago, through some random article from Etsy, I found out about an annual crafts fair with stops in: Austin, Brooklyn, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago. Not having attended any big crafts fair before, I looked up http://www.renegadecrafts.com/ and marked my calendar. The event promised over 200 vendors, live music and workshops - a two day event.

So on a fine, hot Saturday, Dan and I cramped a couple of hours in our busy weekend to check out the fair. Though I came out of it (unbelievably) with not a single purchase, I walked away with a handful of business cards from several vendors. There were adorable terrarium's, fine jewelry, screen-printed t-shirts, fabrics, wool, aprons, pillowcases, but most sold paper goods like cute note cards, journals, stationery sets, art prints and posters. Of course, paper being a natural obsession of mine I found myself assembling what is now called Letter Parade, something I should have done a long time ago! Anyway, I left the venue inspired and exhilarated hoping silently that I could make time the next day to check out the second half because I must've only briskly checked out about 100 vendors or less.

Here are some of the photos from the fair. I am now a devotee and will not miss next year's for sure!

Upcoming crafts fair here in the LA area is the LACE EVENT. Happening on August 14 and 28, 2010 at the Chinatown.