Crocheted bunny - photo by ellipseOkay, so that’s a lame song-lyr­ic pun, but you try com­ing up with some­thing wit­ti­er when you’ve just spent 48 hours chained up in fluffy hand­cuffs and you’re writ­ing a post about a craft fair called “Craft­werk”. Since this is from the people who brought you Bitch­Craft, it’s not the usu­al raf­fia mafia and dodgy doil­ies: expect more along the lines of Cleav­age Girls but­tons, knit­ted posters for Dis­astera­dio, self-pub­lished ‘zines and ted­dies with entrails. Yummy.

I could try rewrit­ing the press release, but my brain is still busy recaf­fein­at­ing, and besides, I have to get the can­dle­wax and lip­stick off my tux. So, here’s the press release in its entirety.

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Craft­Werk is a bi-monthly craft fair fea­tur­ing the best and bright­est of the Wel­ling­ton craft scene. The inaug­ur­al Craft­Werk launches at The Para­mount Theatre on the 13th of July from 5.30pm.

Craft­Werk will fea­ture a diverse range of: art, hand­made items, and indie design­er fash­ion, rep­res­ent­ing New Zeal­and’s hand­made revolu­tion. What sets Craft­Werk apart from any oth­er fair is our inten­tion to foster and inspire kiwi crafters without profit­ing at their expense. Simply think tra­di­tion­al fairs with a twist and you have Craft­Werk.

The Para­mount Theatre Wel­ling­ton’s old­est Cinema and now its hot­test events ven­ue is where Craft­Werk calls home. The Para­moun­t’s lounge bar is stocked with a wide range of beers and wines as well as soft drinks, snacks and Kapiti ice-cream. This relax­ing atmo­sphere, in the middle of Wel­ling­ton’s hub of enter­tain­ment and night­life, Cour­tenay Place, allows vendors and shop­pers alike a break from the bustle and a chance to absorb the Craft­Werk exper­i­ence.

Right now Craft­Werk is accept­ing applic­a­tions for vendors. Applic­a­tion details can be loc­ated at www.craftwerk.co.nz, or by email­ing us. There is no charge for apply­ing; our only pre-requis­ite is that everything vendors sell is hand­made and com­ing from the bot­tom of their crafty heart.

Unlike tra­di­tion­al fairs Craft­Werk sup­plies vendors with a table, chair and a private mail­ing list to share tips, tricks or a crafty shoulder to cry on when the cat turns your wool col­lec­tion into a bed. Addi­tion­ally if Craft­Werk man­ages to obtain spon­sor­ship we plan to refund every Vendor a third of their applic­a­tion fee on the night. Yes, yet anoth­er thing which makes Craft­Werk dif­fer­ent from every oth­er fair or mar­ket in New Zea­l­and.

Craft­Werk only accepts vendors with hand­made items. So don’t expect any impor­ted second class cre­ations or junk from your Nana’s Hat Box. Unless it’s a very styl­ish Hat Box in which case it’s prob­ably been con­ver­ted into a bag. So get your Craft On and be at the Para­mount Theatre for a night of Craft on July 13th from 5.30pm

Craft­Werk is organ­ised (for love and not for profit) by ded­ic­ated crafters Heath­er Barnes and Sue Tyler. Heath­er was the geni­us mind behind Bitch­Craft and Sue one of the Crafters. Held twice in 2005 Bitch­Craft was a smash­ing suc­cess. In fact, most vendors had only two com­plaints: there were too many bod­ies and they sold out of mer­chand­ise! Not a bad prob­lem to have if you’re a vendor! Vendors and shop­pers told us that Bitch­Craft was the BEST fair they had ever atten­ded.

Both Sue and Heath­er are avail­able for inter­views to dis­cuss Craft­Werk, the rising craft revolu­tion, craft demon­stra­tions and any­thing else craft related. The only prob­lem might be get­ting them to stop talk­ing.

For more inform­a­tion – vis­it www.craftwerk.co.nz or Email: craft@craftwerk.co.nz.