I seem to go through these phases of being very interested in a particular craft or material, during which I immerse myself in everything about that craft or material. Sometimes, I create some nice projects as a result of these phases, but they’re often pretty short-lived, and then I move onto the next thing that catches my eye. The worst phases are when I buy up a bunch of supplies and then never get around to making the thing I wanted to make in the first place. (That doesn’t happen as much as it used to, and at least I usually come back to them later.)

After a brief interest in making keychains that never went anywhere, I moved on to cross-stitch and embroidery projects again, thinking that I might work on so many stitching projects that I’d get sick of it. Of course, I only finished one small project and bought a few books, before promptly losing interest in it (for a bit, at least). And now it’s clear that the next big thing for me is paper (again).

I can’t remember exactly what sparked my interest this time, but lately, I’ve been very drawn to any sort of Japanese paper, especially the large sheets of chiyogami (yuzen) washi. They’re really beautiful, made with a special sort of silkscreening process, and often have a little bit of metallic color to them. There are a few local stores that carry both the large sheets of this paper and packages of it in origami-sized squares, so I’ve been doing a little shopping around here. I’ve found some good sources online as well.

• Paper Jade - A nice selection of sheets and packages, good photos of the items, and the service was amazingly fast and good!
• Paper Mojo - Gorgeous sheets of Japanese and other specialty papers.
• eBay - I found a lot of sellers by searching for yuzen, chiyogami, and washi.

I’m going to use some of the papers for envelopes, collages, and for another quilted kimono piece, but here’s something different that I put together earlier tonight:

(More photos here.)

The matchboxes are fun to make, since they’re so small and simple. And the badges were done with a Hello Kitty toy badge maker I’ve had for a bit but haven’t used for awhile. I’m going to make more and then take some of these to the employee craft fair next month, though I’m not sure if they’ll get any interest. I figure I can always put them up on my Etsy store if they don’t sell. I like them though.

The holidays are looming on the horizon, and though I don’t really celebrate most of them, I do look forward to the crafting events they bring. It seems like every local school or special interest group has a craft fair or bazaar planned this or next month, and I intend to attend at a least a few.

Around this time last year, I wasn’t working and had plenty of time to stop by a number of craft fairs. Of course, the items sold at most of them were pretty much the same sort of handmade items I don’t care for, the cutesy stuff that grannies make and love. There were a few exceptions, of course, like the few Japanese organization shows, but for the most part I didn’t really see anything I liked or wanted to buy.

This year, I’ve decided not to visit as many, but there are definitely a few that look pretty good. This weekend, there’ll be a few Japanese organization craft boutiques in San Jose Japantown and San Mateo, and another in December up in San Francisco Japantown. The San Francisco Craft Mafia is having a trunk show for the holidays, and Amytha wants to organize something for local Craftster members and crafters in general.

I’m also trying to plan for going to some shows down in LA next month, including Felt Club: XL Holiday Edition and Bazaar Bizarre. Though I’ve lived in California for 6 1/2 years, I’ve never actually spent time down in LA, besides driving through on my way to Arizona a few years ago. I’m hoping to make a few weekends of it and see some other things down there, and I’m definitely open to suggestions (hint, hint).

If you’re local and want to find out what other events are going on, I’ve been trying to track them all in the South Bay Craft Group site, so feel free to join and check that out.

In other craft fair news, I found out that there’s going to be employee craft fair in December at work. When I first saw the flier, I got excited and wanted to participate, but then I kept going back and forth about whether or not I could get ready by then. I have about 4 weeks to put some stuff together, but I know there might be a lot of things going on between now and then. Last night, I was also worrying that I might not sell anything and my stuff might not be that good. However, I’ve decided to sign up and see how it goes. Even if I don’t sell anything, at least I’ll have tried, right? And it’ll be fun to see what others are selling.

Now comes all the preparation though, and I’m already learning that there’s more to do than I first expected. I figured that I’d mainly sell some card/envelope sets, like the mini square ones I make all the time, as well as some separate envelope sets and maybe postcards as well. But I was told that I can decorate my table/booth area however I want, and I’m not entirely sure how to go about that, though I have a few ideas. Perhaps some Japanese fabric as a spread, along with Japanese dishes to hold my items? I also found out that I’ll need to donate a prize for a raffle at the end of the fair, and I’m trying to decide what sort of item to make for that. Maybe something like the framed kimono art piece I did for the recent Craftster swap?

So much to do! I am very open to advice on this sort of thing though, so if you have any tips, please post them!