Nashville magazines feature linenlaid&felt and Porter Flea Holiday Market

Porter Flea Holiday Market has finally arrived — 11 to 6 on Saturday — capping off a great wave of positive publicity in recent weeks, including a handful of features that included photos and write-ups of my handmade books.

Nashville's newest magazine, Native, got things started with a photoshoot of Porter Flea artisan items. For the photos, I brought my books to Moonbase, which is a quirky collaborative work space inside one of Nashville's coolest renovated buildings, Marathon Village, which once was an auto manufacturing plant (pre-1920s). That's also where Porter Flea will take place.

As you can see, three of my little red suede books, with vintage map pages, made it into the magazine.

It wasn't long before my books appeared in three other magazines, starting with Nashville Lifestyles, which kindly described each of my custom books as "an honest-to-goodness work of art." So kind of them.

Amid all of my busy preparations for Porter Flea, I have also been teaching, which caught the attention of another of Nashville's magazines, The East Nashvillian, which featured my handmade book ornament class in its December issue.

In mid-November, The City Paper published a feature story, "A better brand of Flea," in which I helped to explain what has made Porter Flea such a unique and successful show: 

"Unlike most other craft fairs," I told the paper, "Porter Flea includes a strong showing from male artists, bringing diversity to the show with handmade wood furniture, letterpress posters, screen-printed T-shirts, and leather goods."

My husband and I have spoken often about the particular flair of the Flea, and diversity of talents is really one of its strongest attributes. I'll be excited to see some of the new participants on Saturday.

It was also a welcome surprise to see Porter Flea noticed beyond Nashville. Southern Living was "buzzing" about the event on their website and posted a link to my shop, among others.

The popularity of the show has given its organizers a chance to put the spotlight on local artists. It's been great to be a part of the positive energy. We've got great momentum, at just the right time. 

Read more...

Porter Flea returns with holiday market on Dec. 1

You've got to get up pretty early in the morning to be first in line at the Porter Flea Holiday Market.

That's right, this Nashville indie craft show is so popular that a line forms for the 11 a.m. opening. And once it starts, this show has a pulse like no other that I've done. Hosted in Marathon Music Works, a recently renovated concert venue, the show gets all of the little details just right: the music, the food trucks and coffee treats, and, of course, a great mix of artists.

This year's vendor list includes specialists in vintage glasses, handmade furniture, printmaking, awesome lighting design, and one of my husband's personal favorites — Thump Trunks, these great suitcases converted into boombox stereos. Oh! And I can't forget to mention that a great ceramics artist, Anderson Bailey, will be taking part for the first time.

It's the best show around and we love the venue. And, just two years in, Porter Flea has begun to get some good press. In the past month, the show and my work got mentions in a Nashville City Paper story, in Native Magazine and in Nashville Lifestyles. The Nashville Scene named it the city's "best artisan market." Not bad at all for a show that got its start in July 2011.

I'm working hard to prepare a great new line of leather journals and handbound book Christmas ornaments for what will be my third Porter Flea. To see more great photos and read about the previous shows, you can follow these links:

:: Facebook photo album

:: Summer 2011 show

:: Holiday 2011 show

I've included a few of my favorite photos below from the summer 2012 show. You can see Southern Lights Electric, West Vintage Trading Co., Monday Mint, and DCXV Clothing. I can't wait for next weekend, and I hope I'll meet new people and see your familiar faces. 

Read more...

Parnassus Books in Nashville has my newest handmade leather journals

It's been exactly one year since I wrote about Nashville's awesome new independent bookstore, Parnassus Books, which had just opened to much-deserved fanfare.

I've been to the store frequently in the past few weeks, including to deliver 20 of my newest handmade leather and suede journals. This line of journals ranges from the bright and colorful (you know me) but also includes books that are more rugged and earthy, including some with pages salvaged from old books and an especially awesome Handy Map of Nashville map book — which, unfortunately, became something of a collector's item after Handy Maps discontinued last year.

But Parnassus is going strong. My husband and I attended the store's one-year birthday party last week and heard some of the most uplifting "thank you" remarks we've ever heard, by both co-owners, Karen Hayes and Ann Patchett. My husband was especially excited to hear Patchett speaking of the resilience of her little independent bookstore. "Amazon and algorithms," will never put Parnassus out of business, she told the crowd.

Really, the store has received such acclaim this year, that I'm just happy my work can be a part of all the good vibrations. And we've also done quite a bit of Christmas shopping there. Plenty of good gifts to be found there — my books included!

Read more...