Prepare for the throngs of seamstresses ready to take LA by storm! Between Christine Haynes’ Intro to Sewing classes and Shannon Richards’ Pleated Clutch and Cosmetic Bag classes, dozens of crafters are now roaming the streets with handmade accessories and pillows for their homes!

Last week, Victoria and I had the amazing opportunity to teach Zine and Screenprinting workshops at the first annual Rock ‘N Roll Camp For Girls Los Angeles.

Over 50 girls ages 8-17 formed bands, wrote their own songs, learned how to and played all their own instruments and had a finale performance at the Troubador this past Saturday. Camp directors Mona and Becky were amazing leaders, along with a group of talented and accomplished female volunteers. One volunteer instructor was Allison Wolfe of Bratmobile, a Riot Grrrl whose music, zines and presence in Olympia was super influential to me and my growth as an artist.

The girls were split into two groups depending on their ages. In our zine workshop they created a collaborative zine that was passed out to each girl at the end of camp. In our screenprinting workshop, each band designed their own logo and we created contact paper stencils that we then attached to screens and printed in their favorite colors. Lucky for you, the entire week was documented and you can watch the wrap up video by clicking on the link below!

Rock and Roll Camp For Girls Los Angeles

On the second Thursday of every month the UCC hosts the American Sewing Guild, a meeting of the creative minds of several seamstresses in the Los Angeles area. At this month’s meeting on August 12th, we’re lucky enough to have Stefanie Girard, a local author/blogger and crafter extraordinaire come and be our special guest speaker. Armed with her die cutter and a few recycled wool sweaters, Stefanie is prepared to demo some of the techniques from her book Sweater Surgery that have made her such a dynamic part of the LA crafting community.

Kids Craft Camp came to a close a couple of weeks ago but we can’t stop talking about how much fun we had with our 13 campers every day. All of these exceptionally talented young ladies, ages 8-12, learned new skills and took their projects far beyond what we anticipated. Workshops in sewing, embroidery, zines and comics, mixed media art journaling and jewelry making kept everyone busy no matter what their skill levels were. We’ve had lots of requests for another session in August (which is just a bit too soon for us to plan), but don’t fret, we are already planning for a Winter Break craft camp with more information to come!

Congratulations ladies on all of your super crafty achievements!!

In case you missed us at the Renegade Craft Fair last weekend, here are a few captured moments.

Here’s a view of our patchwork tent from the main thoroughfare!

Inside our cozy 10 x 10’s!

Feather Headband Workshop!

Gocco Screen Printing Workshop!

Circuit Bending Workshop with special guest teacher Andy Ben! Circuit Bending is the creative rewiring of musical toys, for more information check out our two session class starting August 15th!

Bookbinding Workshop!

All in all, Renegade was AMAZING!!!! So many great vendors and people! Our patchwork tent cover came out beautifully, thanks to Amy and out intern Rachel. The string balloon lanterns Rhea made really added to the decor and made our tents feel like a home away from the UCC. If you missed it this year do not fret, Renegade 2011 is on it’s way.

We hope to see you soon, Luv The UCC

April Winchell, author of Regretsy, hosted Club Etsy last night and it was an amazing turnout! The club night is usually about celebrating what people create and in a way, last night was about that too. It was also about poking fun at the ways we sometimes take ourselves and our ideas too seriously.

The most frequently asked question I get at our club nights is “how do I get my Etsy store noticed?”

One of April’s main points during her presentation was that while her website and book draw attention to people’s creations in a critical way, the response from people who embrace what is featured on her site often brings more attention to these artists and crafters than they might receive on their own. Personally, I’ve always been fascinated with counterculture and its ability to blur the line between low and high art.

April is no stranger to outsider culture herself. She hosted a radio show for several years, sharing unconventional music to her listeners that may never have been heard on a large scale. She genuinely appreciates what she points out as weird or terrible and in fact, her presentation included a slideshow of over 20 items featured on her site that now sit comfortably in her home.

If you haven’t picked up a copy of her book, we have several autographed ones for sale in the store! We even made April a gift in true Regretsy form. Just before we got to take a staff photo with her, April let me know that our gift to her had been “mysteriously stolen” during her book signing! While I wish we could have gotten a group photo with her wearing it, luckily, we snapped several photos of her right when I presented the very special gift, one of which you can see below.

Thanks again to April and everyone who made it out last night! We hope to see you at upcoming Club Etsy meetings on the second Wednesday of every month from 6-8pm.

Last night we held our FIRST EVER sock monkey class at the Urban Craft Center! Each participant brought with them a pair of socks that were transformed into these kitschy little creatures. The studio space was full of creative energy and conversation as we worked into the evening. Everyone in the class went home with a new friend and the know-how to create their own sock monkey in the future! Be sure to join in on our next sock monkey making madness on August 25th from 5-9 pm!

Hi! I'm Rachel

I am the first intern here at the Urban Craft Center. I am currently a senior studying textile design and art history at Moore College of Art and Design in Philadelphia, PA. I grew up in Idaho and while I love living on the east coast, felt like I needed to return to some open space. I decided that the perfect place for me to spend a summer would be in sunny California. Luckily I stumbled across the U.C.C and what can I say, it was love at first sight! I feel so very lucky to be chosen as the intern and was ecstatic when I got the call. I love the wonderful ladies who work here, the beautiful and inspiring space and the feeling of community that the combination of these two elements create. Look forward to a weekly update of projects I am working on for the U.C.C.

Along with interning at the U.C.C this summer, I also had the opportunity to travel to Nepal. While there I worked with a woman’s empowerment group called the Chetana Women’s Skill Development Project. This project in Pokhara, Nepal provides underprivileged women with an opportunity to learn design, weaving and sewing skills. With these skills the women are able to find work and therefore provide their children with better education and health care. I spent a month working on the project with the founder Tara Tilminshina. I worked to help them develop their product designs, improve the working conditions for the women and develop a marketing strategy. I will be launching a website for the project in August. It hasn’t even been a week yet since I have been back in the US. While my body is here, my mind still seems to be with the women and children of the CWSDP.

If you are interested in reading more about this project and my travels to Nepal and Africa to empower women through textiles, check out my blog: http://loveoneanothertoday.blogspot.com/