I’ve been a vendor at Portobello West for several years now. It started off in the Rocky Mountaineer train station, a gorgeous space, and prided itself in being one of the first (maybe the first?) handmade market spotlighting local up & coming fashion designers. I remember my very first market there and being absolutely terrified of paying such a high rate for a table fee. When I first started selling my work in person, the markets I did were quite small with table rentals costing under $50. Portobello West was a big jump for me, but like many risks in life, it paid off. I’ve met so many lovely customers through this market. I’m so grateful I took the leap & went BIG!

Portobello has gone through some growing pains of its own. The Rocky Mountaineer venue is no longer available for on-going rentals, so they made a move over to False Creek in 2011 – into the newly built Creekside Community Centre, part of Athlete’s Village. Though the space is quite bright and airy, set right along the seawall, the first year in the new location was a bit challenging. As most Vancouverites know, Athlete’s Village was pretty much a ghost town for the first year or so. It took much longer than anticipated to finish the condos, then to sell the condos & rent out the apartments & store fronts.

Happily, there is now LIFE in that neighborhood! There’s a restaurant with a fabulous patio overlooking the water right in the Creekside building. The community centre is always bustling with people exercising or renting kayaks to take out in False Creek. There’s a bank, grocery store and one of my favorite wine shops – Legacy Liquor Store (seriously…these guys have *everything*). I’m sure the early renters and owners are thrilled to see their neighborhood filling up with families and friends.

I’d like to send out a huge thank you to all of the wonderful patrons who have supported Portobello West throughout the years. I will be there this Saturday & Sunday, March 23rd & 24th. Hope to see you there!

Have you ever experienced growing pains in your life or your business? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!

Portobello West
March 23 & 24, 2013
11am-5pm
Creekside Community Centre ~ map

The spring 2013 BC Home & Garden Show is just a few short days away & I’m excited to be participating once again. It’s a huge show at the BC Place Stadium & the energy of being part of such a large scale production is infectious.

Once again I’ll be part of a special Portobello West handmade artisan section along the concourse. There are 16 artists in total, so I’ll be in good company (& away from the guys selling blenders & mops!).

Want free tickets? Let me know!

I’ve been given a handful of free tickets to give out to my lovely customers, so if you want to check out the show, just leave me a comment or shoot me an email acageybee@gmail.com.

The speakers & design presentations are always awesome! Check out the schedule here.

Woohooooooo! My last BIG craft market of the year is coming up this Saturday & Sunday, December 8th & 9th – Got Craft. To be quite honest, I’m still not fully recovered from the awesomeness that was Make It Edmonton or the less awesome cold bug I brought home with me, but nothing can pull me out of my doldrums better than my fave craft show. I do most of my Christmas shopping (OK…and a lot of shopping for myself!) at Got Craft every year & this year I’m even more excited because it’s moving to a new venue. Yay!

If you’ve been to the show in past years, you know the location at the Legion was a little small, wayyyyy too cramped & a bit of a nightmare to navigate (giant set of stairs? not so stroller friendly, let alone wheelchair accessible). This year Got Craft is moving up the street to the Croatian Cultural Centre at 3250 Commercial Drive (@ 16th Avenue). That means lots more space for the super rad DIY workshops, more food & more fabulous vendors! Woot!!!

Check the Facebook event page for more details.

Got Craft? holiday edition

Saturday, December 8 and Sunday, December 9, 2012
10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Croatian Cultural Centre
3250 Commercial Drive ~ Vancouver, BC

google map link

VanCity Buzz did a great article on a Got Craft gift guide! Check it out here.

You can also see the full list of vendors here. Hope to see you this weekend!

It starts tonight! Swing by studio 204 in the big building – 1000 Parker Street (map) – to say hello and see the new paintings I’ve been working on. Check out the official Eastside Culture Crawl website for more info and artist profiles of the other 300 or so artists participating.

Can’t make it? I’ll be posting lots of pics on my Facebook page, so “like” me to stay in the loop!

The Eastside Culture Crawl takes place this weekend & I’m thrilled to be part of it for the first time. Artists all over East Van open their studios for 3 days so the public can get a peek at their working life, view art, works in progress & often get great deals by purchasing directly from the artist. Galleries typically take a 50% commission on work sold, so a lot of artists count on this weekend to help offset their studio costs. Plus it’s just super fun! A gallery exhibition has a much more formal air than a studio visit, where even the best clean up job is just not going to hide those stashes of years worth of art supplies.

My studio space is in the BIG building – 1000 Parker Street. There are 139 artists in my building alone, so you could literally spend all 3 days traversing the labyrinth that is Parker Street & not see everything. I do hope you’ll track me down, however! (google maps link)

My studio is #204 – second floor, right at the top of the stairs – & is shared with 5 other artists. There’s another painter, a print maker, a shoe maker and a jeweler  all participating in the Crawl. Come by & say hello!

Check out the other artists in 1000 Parker Street.

Squeeeee! I’m finishing up the last few things I need to do before setting up for Make It Vancouver early tomorrow afternoon. The show kicks off at 4pm and they have expanded this year, so now there are 3 full rooms of AMAZING artists, crafters & designers to check out. Here are a few of my favorite things, compiled into an Etsy treasury:

Of course there are tons of artisans who will be at Make It this weekend that don’t have Etsy shops. Check out the full list of exhibitors here.

Did I mention there will be music? Woohoo!

Musical performances by:

• Katie Rox (Thursday @5:30)
• Laurelle & Alexander (Thursday @7:15pm)
• Alas The Ocean (Friday @ 7pm)
• Rachael Chatoor (Satuday @ noon)
• Hemant Rao (Satuday @ 3pm)
• Elisa Thorn (Sunday @ noon)
• Chris Witoski (Sunday @ 2pm)

Check out the Facebook event page for more info. I’m sure I’ll be posting more photos on my own Facebook page all weekend long via Instagram. Love that app!

My first big show of the winter season is almost here! I’ve got a studio full of new paintings, a table full of wood blocks covered with resin and currently drying, and boxes all over my office overflowing with the many, many projects I have on the go. (hint: new locket designs are coming!)

Aside from being a fabulous event filled with AMAZING designers and artists, Make It Vancouver is also your best shot at getting first dibs on any Cagey Bee goodies you’ve had your eye on. As the holiday market season progresses (more shows listed on my Events page), I often run out of specific prints & lockets. No matter how hard I try, I never seem to predict exactly which ones will be the hot sellers. Caging the Forest Bird has been one of the long time favorites, but my new robot locket has been a close second so far. Will be interesting to see what happens this season!

For more info about the show check out the official Make It website: http://makeitproductions.com

Or the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/509490395747546/

(While you’re there, have you “liked” A Cagey Bee yet? I definitely update my Facebook page more often than my blog these days. Gotta love Instagram!)

http://www.facebook.com/KrisBrownlee

And just to make sure you can find me, here’s a map of all the vendors, with my spot (#21) circled:

Make It Vancouver

Vancouver’s largest indie craft, art & live music event! 
Reasons you will love Make It = over 140 Canadian indie crafters / designers, live music, delicious food carts, wobbly pops, nice friendly folks & an awesome vibe!

@ The Croatian Cultural Centre
3250 Commercial Drive, Vancouver BC
Directions/Parking: Map

Thursday, November 8
4pm to 9pm
Friday, November 9
11am to 9pm
Saturday, November 10
11am to 7pm
Sunday, November 11
11am to 5pm

Shop local!

Saturday ~ October 27, 2012 ~ 8 – 11pm

location: Hot Art Wet City Pop Up Gallery

752 East Broadway ~ Vancouver, BC ~ google map

The button show is this weekend! Yay!!! One of my all time favorite art shows of the year, Hot One Inch Action refers to the 1 inch buttons or pins that are created from the artwork of 50 lucky contributors. The number of submissions they get grows each year and it can be super competitive to have your art accepted. As an artist, it’s also tough to decide what to submit – just because a piece is really beautiful, doesn’t mean it will necessarily translate well to the tiny size.

photo credit: Chris Bentzen – more pics from last year in the Flickr pool

I’m happy to report that I will have one of my own buttons in the show – my Captain Steve painting from the Bill Murray show looks super rad as a button. The best part of this show is that unlike most traditional art shows, you can’t just look at the art on the wall & buy your favorite. No, no! For $5 you can purchase a COMPLETELY RANDOM bag of 5 buttons. So if you didn’t get your favorite? Well, now you gotta talk to the other attendees & try to make a deal.

It’s one of the few art shows where everyone talks to everyone because the only way to get the buttons you want is to trade for them. It’s always fun to see which ones are in hot demand too. Tip: each artist gets an extra bag of their own buttons. So if you can find the artist who created the button you want, you’ve got a good shot of making a trade.

Official website

Facebook event page

I’m just finishing up some last minute touches before the Vancouver Home + Design Show kicks off on Thursday. It’s always fun and a little nerve-wracking to have a booth at BIG shows like this one. Just setting up in BC Place is a bit of a gong show with me trying to unload my little car, packed to the roof, while giant trailers filled with crews of staff are building displays all around me.

Fortunately I’m in very good company, as my booth is part of a special Portobello West section. There are 16 other artists – some jewelers, some clothing designers, all kinds of crafty goodness! It’s a lovely way for us to promote the handmade movement while drawing some attention to the fabulous Portobello West market (the next event takes place November 24th & 25th with over 50 vendors. Sadly I’ll have to miss the November show as I’ll be out of town at the Make It Edmonton market. Alberta in November? Yikes!

Opening Night Party ~ Friday September 21, 2012 from 7-10pm
Show runs until September 30

Hot Art Wet City Pop-Up Gallery
752 E Broadway @ Fraser

There’s a new gallery space in town and I’m thrilled to be part of the group art show that’s kicking things off – Fk It Dude – art inspired by the film the Big Lebowski. The gallery space is run by the super rad Chris Bentzen, also responsible for CARDED!, Hot One Inch Action (the button show) and a fantastic series of interviews with local artists and creative people here in Vancouver. (You can watch my interview here. But I sound really dorky. So.)

I love the Big Lebowski. I love fan art in general. And I would love to add to my very small collection of paintings of men – Richie Tenenbaum and Bill Murray as Steve Zissou – but sadly I ran out of time to do a full portraits of The Dude or Walter. Instead, I stuck to my furry roots and decided the wrongly classified marmot* deserved a portrait of his very own. Here’s a peek as I finished up the last touches:

I’ll try to snap some photos at the show tonight so you can see how purdy he looks all framed nicely. Prints will be added to the shop soon!

*Yes, I realize the animal depicted in the movie and in my painting is not a marmot. It is a ferret. Ferrets are mammals and eat meat. Marmots are rodents, closer to the groundhog or woodchuck. No need to email me with the correction.