It’s the Etsy Craft Party 2012!

And last Friday, the Craft MNL workshop saw its space filled to overflowing with the happy, creative vibe of crafters who love what they do.  Around 27 or so trooped over to the Collective in Makati, braving the long weekend traffic to paint paper mache horses, learn more about the traditional taka craft of Paete, and share about their respective craft and craft businesses over beer, lemongrass iced tea, brownies and pancit malabon.

Earlybirds Elaine and Blessing! 🙂

Elaine and Blessing were the first to arrive!  Elaine is the woman behind BeadsPH, an online resource for bead supplies!  They also carry craft magazines, the kind that are kinda hard to find locally.  This was definitely an exciting find.  Elaine shared with us lots of feathers to adorn our paper mache horses with.  🙂  Blessing shared later on about her new-found passion for sculpting balloons–and wow, the photos she shared were really awesome (will try to get those to post soon)!

And the crafters get busy!

More new-found friends arrived and soon, the stools around the workshop were filled up!  We borrowed some tables and chairs from B-Side, and setup crafting stations outside in the corridor, and even in the Hocus bike shop next door!  🙂

And crafters spill out into the corridor, and next door at the Hocus bike shop!

We were really happy with the turnout, considering we decided to host the party just a couple of weeks ago.  We also really appreciated the generosity of our neighbors at the Collective, with Ibarra of Wabi Sabi providing the yummy lemongrass iced tea, Philip of Kanto lending us the projector, Andrei and Sheina letting us invade their space at Hocus for our overflowing crafters, and Ana of B-Side giving us permission to use their chairs and tables!

Jen and Donna brought donuts!

A couple of our guests, Jen and Donna, even brought brownies to share!  Spread the love (and the sweet tooth).

The Hocus bike shop became an extension of the craft party! Thanks to Andrei and Sheina for letting us invade their space!

Lex prepared a playlist, and soon enough, that was all we could hear, as everyone was busy decorating their paper mache horses.

Drea hams it up with her horse, and Jamie focuses on hers.

We later all trooped upstairs to partake of the beer and food, and do a bit of show-and-tell.  Since not everyone was able to bring samples of their work, we pulled up our respective Facebook pages and blogs, sharing about our craft and projects we’ve done.

Allie, sharing about her collages and her batik painting experience in Indonesia!

Our friends from the Takatak Project also shared about the paper mache craft from Paete.  They also helped us clean up after the party!  Woohoo!  We love you guys!  Hope we’ll get to have more collaborations in the future!

Dexter (and his pleasantly surprised expression), Claude, Missy, Rod and Mary.

A shoutout to Etsy, for giving us cause to organize this event, and for all of the support.  They even sent us a box of craft supplies!  It hasn’t arrived yet though.  We’ll have another craft party when it does!

‘Til the next craft party!

‘Til the next craft party!  You can view more photos on our Facebook album here.