Victorian Delorean

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:17 am

Malki ! I saw this at Felt Club last week and immediately thought "Wondermark!" and then tonight I noticed Friday's comic. Coincidences!

The failure of the Bazaarium guys is that they only sell prints. A Victorian Delorean t-shirt would be more tempting.

Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 5828 Location: Los Angeles, CA

I like it!

I went to Felt Club too! Scoping the place for possibly exhibiting next year. Pretty interesting crowd. A lot of people have Victorian clip-art books. It's a hard row to hoe for the specialty-stationery crowd out there, I gather.

Joined: 13 Jun 2008 Posts: 1108 Location: PA

I saw that over here: http://silhouettemasterpiecetheatre.com/blog/ and thought that same thing (about the Delorean specifically, though all of it is wonderfully crude Victorian humor)

(I think a lot of them are also on the previously linked store's site, but adding because I think there might be extras there?)

ten out of ten · Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:18 pm

I did not like this.

It is not clever or unique

or even interesting to look at

Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 5828 Location: Los Angeles, CA

I will go on record saying these are awesome. With the singular exception of this one:

That is not a penny-farthing. However, I would have accepted "velocipede."

For the uninitiated, Felt Club is a hipster craft fair in L.A. I went this year for the first time. You'll learn everything you need to know about it from the words "hipster craft fair" and by looking at the Flickr pictures.

Lots of people were selling knitted items, stationery items, or baubles, usually found-item baubles (like earrings made from Scrabble tiles, that sort of thing). Four or five different booths were selling blank sketchbooks/journals made from the covers of old hardcover books (this idea). Several people were selling letterpress cards with Victorian clip-art on them; I saw the same octopus engraving at like three different booths. (That's why I hate using Dover clip-art books if I can avoid it.) One person was even making Victorian clip-art comics, though she was mainly putting them on greeting cards.

Anyway, I even recognize a lot of the source images used in those silhouettes from clip-art books -- but I like it regardless, because it's clever, not just "clip-art on a notecard, boom! Aren't we creative." To be honest I think there was some of that at the same booth as the silhouettes, but I think they were made by a different person.

"craftpunk"

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:28 pm

I enjoy Felt Club cause the cleverness and craftiness is inspiring. But I left this year a little disappointed cause I didn't feel like anything was "for me."

The majority of t-shirts were for children and women, and everything that you might consider "practical" fell into the categories of totes, aprons, oven mitts, winter knit stuff and pillows. Everything else just fell into the trinket/widget/thneed category.

Seems like in previous years maybe there was more variety? Or maybe I was simply in a better mood.

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:39 pm

If it's like a steampunk show, they should sell mechanical contraptions for things that you usually use electricity for like at the Amish hardware store.

Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 5828 Location: Los Angeles, CA

thew wrote:

I enjoy Felt Club cause the cleverness and craftiness is inspiring. But I left this year a little disappointed cause I didn't feel like anything was "for me."

The majority of t-shirts were for children and women, and everything that you might consider "practical" fell into the categories of totes, aprons, oven mitts, winter knit stuff and pillows. Everything else just fell into the trinket/widget/thneed category.

Seems like in previous years maybe there was more variety? Or maybe I was simply in a better mood.

This was the first year I went. Have you gone in previous years? What type of stuff were you hoping to find? I'm trying to decide if my kind of thing will fit in there (though I think I'll end up trying it regardless; I'm eager for shows close to home). But anything I can learn about "what people are looking for" to help me tailor the approach will help, and I think Nikki wants to make some crafty stuff though exactly what it'll be is still undetermined.

also you drove me to Google to figure out what a "thneed" was

Boor, it's not a steampunk show specifically, though there was one of those in NoCal a few weeks ago that I hope to perhaps visit next year, if they decide to do it on a different weekend from the APE show in San Fran.

Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 5828 Location: Los Angeles, CA

I definitely think there is room for a convention or goods-fair with an Amish-hardware-store aesthetic though. The closest thing I've been to in L.A. was an ad hoc flea market on the grounds of the local high school, where several people had wares apparently from some wholesale flea-market catalog because they were all the same. Little tools and gewgaws, clamps and pliers and screwdads and snap-dos and awls and goosenecks and U-bolts and O-rings and peens and the occasional torque. I got a handheld extendo-arm mirror for like $1.50 and a couple of snappy-clamp-things for 75¢ apiece.

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 2:30 am

Malki ! you should try Ghettogloss's art/craft/flea maket in Silverlake every Saturday/Sunday for the next month. Smaller (25ish tables) than a full blown event, but I would gather cheaper for a booth and easier to manage as well.

http://www.ghettogloss.com/events/

Things like your gocco calendar would go over really well at Felt Club.

I can't remember now what years past had that this years didn't. I guess a good portion of the lineup was the same, but the new vendors didn't seem to fill any new niches but instead compete with what was already there, so the whole thing seemed more repetitive.

I felt like there used to be a bigger art/illustration/graphic art presence and more availability of mens clothes.

Joined: 19 Jul 2005 Posts: 5828 Location: Los Angeles, CA

man I'd love to set up at the show but my next month looks like this: "comics / shipping / comics / shipping / comics / shipping / oh shit i gotta make a calendar"

maybe I'll check it out in jan. though!

Posted: Tue Nov 25, 2008 10:35 am

darthkittenlover wrote:

I definitely think there is room for a convention or goods-fair with an Amish-hardware-store aesthetic though.

After I posted, I realized that a lot of the coolest stuff at the Amish hardware store is insanely impractical to sell at a convention -- things like wood burning stoves and ice boxes. They also require a level of commitment that most people who are not actually forced to live without modern conveniences probably don't have. They are awesome to look at because they have all these little efficiency-increasing features, but it's not like I am ever going to buy a non-electric appliance or a hand-operated farm implement.

There is another level of stuff like tools, toys, lamps, kitchen utensils, clocks, quilts, and so on that the steampunk kids would probably like. I buy some of that stuff myself. But I still don't know how practical it is to go to a convention and pick up a paraffin lamp. Maybe you could mix in some animal pelts and old-timey clothes and what not -- I almost bought a reindeer pelt when I was in Alaska but I just didn't have any place to put it in my apartment where it wouldn't look ridiculous.

Anyway I would quite possibly go to that kind of convention. But I guess luckily I can just go to actual Amish hardware stores. If anybody is ever in rural northeastern Ohio, I can recommend a great one!