Our Featured Buyers series is where the Storque reaches out to the Etsy community and the larger handmade world of arts and crafts. Faythe Levine is someone who is working on drawing all of these elements together. Below you’ll find some of her favorite picks from the Etsy marketplace, as well as an interview with her about the DIY craft resurgence and making her documentary film Handmade Nation.

Growing up in Seattle during the 1990’s gave me firsthand exposure to many punk bands and the riot grrrl scene. This underground community quickly exposed me to DIY ethics, and I learned early on that you could release, self-publish and distribute your music and zines through a vast nationwide network of like-minded people.

Since then, community has been a key element in my life, especially creative community. It is something that many find in college, but I explored elsewhere. I traveled the world, lived with large groups communally, worked in collectives, organized events and always made art.

In 2003, I found myself looking at an emerging movement that embraced both art and community, which can now loosely be defined as “the new wave of craft.” This movement is exploring the uncertainty of where fine art meets craft, redefining and reclaiming creativity.  The new wave of craft is influenced by the history and techniques of traditional handiwork, modern aesthetics, politics, feminism and art.

During this time, my role has become diverse; from business owner, events organizer and curator, to artist, maker, director and, most recently, author. I am thankful to have come to a place in my artistic career where ethics can overlap with creativity and art with community.

The goal from the beginning of this project has been to expose people outside the indie craft community to what’s going on and give exposure to the community itself by showing the remarkable people who have created it.

We asked Faythe some questions about what she’s working on and asked her to share some of the experiences she’s gleaned from traveling and shooting her movie.

What’s is happening with your documentary? Tell us a bit about it, for people who don’t know…
In June 2006 I began shooting footage of the indie craft community for a documentary under the working title Indie Craft Documentary. Over the course of about 9 months we traveled to 15 cities visiting indie craft fairs, studios, galleries and boutique doing interviews with community members. My goal was to capture what was unfolding around the country within our movement. This was something big, something powerful and I wanted to document it.
Now working under the title Handmade Nation: the Rise of DIY Art, Craft and Design, there will not only be a feature length documentary of our community but also a companion book (co-authored by Cortney Heirmerl) under the same title published by Princeton Architectural Press (www.papress.com) scheduled for released in November 2008. The documentary is slated to be released in 2009. It will premier at a festival (which festival we do not know) and then hopefully be available for DVD purchase. I am also planning on touring with the film so keep an eye out for that in a year!

What were some highlights from your travels in shooting the movie?
It was so rad to get to go to all the different craft fairs across the country and see the similarities and differences of each one. The locations that people work with are amazing. Seeing all the shoppers turn out in every city is so cool, plus I got to buy a ton of incredible work directly from makers around the states.

Plus, it was unbelievably awesome getting to meet almost every single person I’ve ever wanted to meet within the craft community! Being able to sit with Debbie Stoller (editor of BUST Magazine and author of Stitch n’ Bitch Nation) and hear her take on the revival of craft, listening to the ladies who run Atlanta’s Indie Craft Experience talk about their show. Sitting down with Jill Bliss and hearing her discuss her work. It was all so fantastic.

Did you notice any unexpected craft trends while making the movie?
There were stylistic trends that have been apparent for a while now, including plush, Amigurumi, and anything with owls, deer and octopi (it’s so hard to resist those lil’ guys!). But more importantly I noticed that crafters were pushing themselves creatively to create more original and well made items more that ever.

Any unexpectedly crafty scenes/cities?
I get asked this question a lot, but honestly, the Internet makes most of what goes on around the country homogenized. The larger cities have more crafty saturation due to larger populations, but otherwise there weren’t many surprises. However, I will point out that smaller cities with cheaper rent can allow creative people to spend more time with their work and have larger studios. (Which is why I live in Milwaukee.) I’m sure there are some super bumpin’ craft scenes in unexpected places. Unfortunately, since the film was all independently funded, we just couldn’t go everywhere…Plus my business partner at my store would have killed me if I were gone any more than I already was!

What do you think the world needs to be clued in on the most right now?
Something I would like to start working on is finding affordable health care for independent artists. I’ve been uninsured for seven years, and now that I’m in my 30’s, I’d love to be able to go to the doctor if I need to.

I would love to see creatively driven lifestyles supported within the American system, where we as artists would be respected with our fluctuating incomes and freelance lifestyle; we should be able to afford doctor visits, dental care, pre-natal care and any sort of special medical treatments that we need.

What strides have the DIY crafters made in 2007?
2007 was a big year for DIY Craft; it brought us the first Craft Congress (held in Pittsburgh, PA). The indie craft community made it into the New York Times at least three times. Lots of community members signed book deals, tons of new “How-to” books were released. A lot of craft fairs have reported record-breaking numbers of shoppers up into the 6000’s! Etsy and the Handmade Consortium launched the BuyHandmade.org campaign and as of January almost 12,000 people have signed it. I’m sure there is more, but that’s pretty amazing, right?

What are you looking forward to in 2008?
Well, of course I can’t wait until my book is done! I am looking forward to the second Craft Congress being held in San Francisco, CA. I am always excited about traveling to craft fairs in other cities. My friend Alicia in Barcelona who owns this rad shop called Dudua is talking about organizing a fair there, if it happens I think I would have to fly over to check it out!!

Can you highlight some of the Etsy sellers you’ve met along the way?
A ton of amazing Etsy sellers have donated to our shop to help raise funds for the documentary. A few awesome random peeps are: Kirinco who designed our most recent T’s and totes. Bhstudio who donated some of her awesome Craft Posters to our Etsy shop in 2007. Callieco we met in New York at the relaunch of American Craft Magazine, her bags are incredible. And the ladies of Indie Craft Expierence are some of our new best friends who do amazing things in Atlanta with their show, and put together the Starlets of Craft Calendar!

Can you speak a bit about your experiences selling items through your Etsy shop to raise money for your project?
Etsy launched right around the time of our production; ever since it has provided the ideal user-friendly storefront for our fundraising process. We solicited crafters to donate items to our shop with the proceeds of sales going towards production cost. This is also where we are selling our promotional items such as T-shirts and totes. Our Etsy shop has raised over $1,500.00 so far, which is fantastic! I run the shop myself which gets overwhelming at times, but I couldn’t be more thankful since I would never be able to maintain any other type of web shop.

Further Resources:

If you’re a seller who would like to help the project, you can donate items to be sold through the indiecraftmovie Etsy shop. (Just send me a convo!)

Also, check out the Indie Craft Documentary blog

Check out Faythe’s faves in the related items below. Aren’t you curious about the documentary?!