Winter Fling ... a Craft Thing - December 5, 2009 Toronto, Ontario

Royal Oak Review (MI)

IT'S A CRAFT THING
Spring Fling in Ferndale spotlights younger generation of craft artists
JEREMY SELWESKI C & G Staff Writer
Published: April 1, 2009

FERNDALE - Shannon McCarthy wants to make one thing perfectly clear: This isn't your grandmother's old-fashioned craft show. Her upcoming event, Spring Fling: A Craft Thing, will spotlight 20 vendors from all over metro Detroit who are part of a new wave of crafting.

"This is like Martha Stewart for a younger generation," said McCarthy, 31, of Ferndale. "People have started to get interested in modern crafting and embroidery with a hipper, edgier feel to it." Spring Fling will be held on April 4 at The Loving Touch, a new Ferndale pool hall. Admission is free, and there will be live music provided by guest DJs, including Ryan Allen of the Ferndale-based bands Thunderbirds Are Now! and Friendly Foes.

Because the majority of craft shows take place during the summer and at the end of the year, McCarthy said, she was looking to give a boost to vendors during the relatively idle spring season.

McCarthy - who, under the handle Comfortably Lovely, uses recycled paper to create items such as collages, greeting cards and notebooks - is also using the event to showcase artists with a similar environmentally friendly sensibility, which she called "a big part of the new craft movement." Making their name Another major component of Spring Fling is to create exposure for crafters whose work is less established and, in many cases, a little more off the beaten path.

"I wanted people who were craft show regulars, sure, but I also wanted others who are still making their name," McCarthy said.

One of those up-and-comers is the trio known as Silent Giants, who design handmade silkscreen posters for rock concerts, comedy shows, film festivals and other events. Though the group has been in existence for less than a year, they have already created posters, T-shirts and album artwork for local bands such as The Silent Years and The Hard Lessons, as well as indie rock favorites like Modest Mouse and Sigur Ros, among others.

"We color and texture all of our work by hand - it's kind of a rare thing," said Ed Knight, 23, of Royal Oak, one-third of the Silent Giants. "Most stuff is created digitally now, but ours really shows that handmade quality. It's a lot of work, but it's fun." Knight said that Silent Giants have found a great audience for their work at arts and crafts festivals, which led them to jump on board for Spring Fling.

Janna Bissett, who operates under the alias Lilac Pop, will be another featured new face. In fact, Spring Fling will mark only the second craft show for the 34-yearold Clawson resident.

Bissett said she likes to "dabble in a little bit of everything," but will be bringing along some of her knitted clothing items as well as her photography samples, which are printed on metallic paper to give them "a reflective, shiny look." The mother of two pointed out that now that her children are a little older, she has had more time to devote to her passion. "It's been one of the best things that could have happened to me at this point in my life," she said.

Bissett added that she was glad to be part of a show that embraces a more modern, green philosophy, noting that "taking something used and discarded and making it into something new and wonderful really excites me." Getting crafty One artist who exemplifies that green ethos is Taryn Boyd of Ferndale, a more established crafter who goes by the name Talking Squid. The 26-year-old will display various products - including rugs, purses, handbags, bandannas and accessories - made exclusively out of recycled T-shirts.

"I get all my shirts from local thrift stores," said Boyd, who first launched Talking Squid in 2006.

"It was really just me finding what was affordable, something that could keep the cost low enough to sustain a full-time business." Like McCarthy, Boyd considers herself part of a generation of younger, edgier crafters. "There has definitely been a different movement in the past five to eight years," she said. "For a long time, crafts were looked at as just a hobby, but it has definitely evolved into a business." McCarthy hopes that Spring Fling will be a step in the right direction toward re-establishing the do-it-yourself spirit of the craft community.

The amount of help she has received from volunteers in putting this together, she said, has given her hope that local crafters can survive the economic recession by banding together. As she put it, "the economy is tough, but what better way to combat that than buying locally from artists with no middle man?" And, Bissett said, that community has progressed to the point where people should rethink the way they label it. "Somewhere along the line, there will be a new term for what we do," she said.

"It's a new art movement - 'crafts' does not quite seem to fit." Spring Fling: A Craft Thing will take place from noon to 7 p.m. on April 4 at The Loving Touch, 22634 Woodward Ave., in downtown Ferndale.

For more information, contact Shannon McCarthy at comfortablylovely@gmail. com or visit www.myspace.com/ springflingacraftthing.