art by mags! - urban folk art featuring recycled materials + diy design = t-shirts, mixed media, art prints, and more! New Orleans, Louisiana

blogbymags! portrait of the artist as a craftivist...

The New Orleans Craft Mafia Gets Great Press!

As most of you know, I am a member and founder of the New Orleans Craft Mafia, a collective of crafty gals (and currently one lone guy) here in New Orleans who have banded together to support each other in our individual businesses but also work together to outreach to the community about our crafty ways and the virtues of craftacular recycling and all things handmade.

I mentioned a little while back that we're about to celebrate four years of being together (we started in June 2005, right before Katrina), and are joining forces with two of our friends in the local indie biz community, Antigravity Magazine (celebrating 5 years) and Twisted Hair Salon (celebrating 7 years), to throw the Triple Threat Birthday Bash this Thursday from 6-10pm at Twisted (4824 Prytania). There will be free food from Louisiana Pizza Kitchen (Uptown), birthday cake and mini cupcakes by PopKitty, a keg of beer from NOLA Brewing Co (we love them!), dj facialhair in the house (Leo from Antigravity), and a fashion show with models sporting Craft Mafia wares and Twisted hair styles. It's gonna be a blast!

Well ever since our appearance in the eco-village at the Bayou Boogaloo over Memorial Day weekend (members Heather MacFarlane, Mallory Whitfield, and Kerry Fitts staffed a demo tent where they showed Boogaloo-ers how to recycled their old - or even sometimes brand new! - t-shirts into new exciting creations), we've had an onslaught of positive press... and many requests to do t-shirt demos!

The article that started it off was featured on Nola.com's fashion blog, written by fashion editor Susan Langenhennig. They got such an amazing response from that article, Susan told me, that the Times-Picayune decided to run it in print a few days later, gaining an even wider audience.

Well after that, we got a request to appear on ABC26's Good Morning New Orleans show, the broadcast of which just happened this morning at 6am, actually. Here's a screen shot I took while watching members Mallory Whitfield and Rachelle Matherne interact with show host Cyndi Nguyen. (Kerry Fitts appeared in the first segment, a t-shirt recycling demo, of which I did not manage to take any photos.) Both segments can now be viewed online on their website, here and here.

In the mean time, we'd been contacted by the Handmade News, an online site/blog associated with the new handmade marketplace Artfire.com. They did individual interviews with each of our members and also interviewed me about the NOCM as a whole. The first of the "Featured Artisan" pieces went up late yesterday and features me, art by mags! Others with all the rest of our members will follow this week. The "Main Feature" on the NOCM will also remain up all week long, as Handmade News celebrates Mafia Month.

The Boogaloo demo tent apparently also got us noticed in the Consciously Rebuilding blog as well. Check out this cool blog about a new eco-conscious effort in New Orleans.

And, after the initial Nola.com piece about us at the Boogaloo, fashion editor Susan Langenhennig asked to interview more of us in the NOCM about the group and has now published a larger piece on Nola.com and in the Times-Picayune about the indie craft movement across the country and its impact here in New Orleans, using the NOCM as an example. It's a great article, and we really appreciate the support Susan has given us.

Come see what all the fuss is about on Thursday!