Brokelyn

Photo by CheeseNPickles

What do you get when you cross an artist and a recession? The answer could be $100 if you throw in this Artists and the Economic Recession Survey (username: ART922). The artist-support non-profit Fractured Atlas and the national artist-welfare initiative LINC are teaming up to find out how artists are dealing with the tough times (Are you using less water this year to wash your paintbrushes?). By filling out the “15-minute” survey, you’ll be entered into a drawing for one of four $100 prizes. And don’t pretend you’ve never tried the whole survey-for-cash thing.

[via the skint]

Brooklyn's Tracie Howarth, an Etsy success story. Photo by Patrick Fagan.

Maybe you knit or throw pottery. Or make jewelry out of Phillips screw heads. Or crochet hamster huts (that makes three of you). Maybe all you ever wanted was to sell your handiwork and never work for anyone else, ever.

You may have heard that all you have to do is open your own shop on Etsy.com, the online marketplace that aims to provide artists with the technology they need to “make a living, making things.” You simply upload product shots, tack on prices, write cute captions, then wait for those millions of members to start placing orders.

It sounds perfect. And easy. But it’s not. Read the rest of this entry »

Making things and selling them at craft fairs—that’s the stuff dreams are made of, especially layoff-fueled “Plan B” dreams. But from looks of things at the Renegade Craft Fair over the weekend, one might need genuine artistic talent to pull this one off. Like Kristen Aronsson of Williamsburg, an eyeglass designer by day who was at the fair selling these cut-leather necklaces at left for $40 and bags for $60 to $300. Find out more about her on www.kristenaronsson.com.

Here, a quick look at what some of the other Brooklyn-based artists are up to.

Read the rest of this entry »

We must be in the mood to shop today. Maybe that’s because this weekend is The Renegade Craft Fair—Art Basel for the Etsy crowd—where you could fill a whole Airstream with the DIY cloth purses, agro onesies and vintage-print aprons that will be filling the 250-plus foldup tables at McCarren Park. But what’s the really good stuff? We asked our design-editor friend Mary Kate for a highly opinionated preview. Read the rest of this entry »