Craft, Community, and 5 Minute Presentations

Ignite Craft: Boston is an Ignite event with a crafty crowd. If you had five minutes on stage to talk about craft in Boston, what would you say? What if you only got 20 slides and they rotated automatically after 15 seconds? Around the world folks have been putting together Ignite nights to show their answers.

Come join the Boston area crafting community for the first ever Ignite Craft: Boston on Friday, January 14th, from 6:30pm to 9:30pm at MIT 34-101, near the Kendall Station T stop on the Red Line. Doors open at 6:30 and presentations begin at 7:00pm.

The event is free; however, due to limited space at the venue you must RSVP on this page.

Help out

Please let others know about the event using the social network of your choice or click on the Social Network icons on the registration page. You can also post this flier in places you like to go.

Submit a presentation

If you would like to speak, please submit a proposal here. All talks will be recorded and posted on the web after the event. Please submit your presentation by Jan 3rd. We will post a planned agenda as the presentations are accepted.

Here is a crafty Ignite talk video example if you are wondering what this might look like

Here are some ideas of what talks at Ignite Craft: Boston will be about:

 Talks

From WarCraft to More Craft

As a geek looking for something to do, there were a lot of good lessons in World of WarCraft about what craft means. This presentation will define craft in a new and interesting way in the hopes to bring to light what brings us all together as clans around our crafts.

Guido Stein is a knitter, podcaster, community organizer and all around nice guy. He enjoys spending time with people and learning  what people are passionate about. He is the President of The Common Cod Fiber Guild and host of the "It's A Purl, Man" podcast,

Locks: They're pretty great!

Let's Lock Mod! Start with a normal pin tumbler lock, then do all sorts of things to reveal its enchanting inner workings or modify it to behave in unexpected ways. In five quick minutes I'll show you some beautiful, clever lock modifications and offer some great ideas to get you started.

Schuyler Towne is a professional lockpicker. Don't worry - it sounds weird to him too. He loves locks, though, so it's pretty sweet that he gets to make his living teaching people about them and making tools to pick them. One time he was on Wheel of Fortune. And he's really nice, so say hello!

Thinking With Your Hands

This talk advocates "craft across the curriculum" in universities. Craft--and I focus particularly on the fiber arts--has a lot to teach us about what is missing from college classrooms, and how we could improve teaching and learning for all students, in all disciplines. Drawing on my own 20 years of experience as a professor, and on my status as a fiber arts dilettante, I will talk about the deep & delightful connections between theory, learning, engagement, and service learning. Craft, in its rightful place, will move from the periphery to the core of our scholarly concerns and professional practice in the university.

Sarah Kuhn learned to sew from her mother, who figured her daughter would never be able to buy clothes off the rack. She is a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, creator of the UML Faculty Learning Community ""Thinking With Things,"" and an associate at the UML Center for Women and Work. During a sabbatical at Olin College of Engineering she created the co-curricular classes ""Sewing for Engineers"" and ""Fiber Arts for Engineers."" Her current research is on thinking with things in higher education.

How to drink a craft beer

So many people out there drink to get drunk. They classify swill like Bud, Coors and Miller as beer. They drink their beer ice cold. They kick back beer after beer. They session. So when they get their hands on a craft beer, they inevitably do not know what to do with it. Craft beer has a romantic side. This ignite style talk is designed to open up the minds of people and show them that beer is every bit as romantic as wine - or at least get them to consider that it might be. Brew Romance FTW.

By day, @SchneiderMike is SVP, Director Digital Incubator for Allen & Gerritsen, ranked by Advertising Age in the Top 50 Independent agencies in the US and is one of the Boston Business Journal's 40 Under 40. By night he runs a beer vlog called belchingmonkey where he experiments with technology while showcasing his passion for craft beer. Mike has appeared on several other shows including Gary Vaynerchuk's Wine Library.

Crafts - Bigger than the Beatles

The entire recorded music industry generates $9B a year in revenue, crafts generate $30B. The craft industry is bigger than the video game industry, but don't get the same attention as an important economic force. My talk touches on how the various segments of the craft industry from cake decorating to model car making enrich people's lives, enable interesting businesses to grow, and can impact our economy as a whole.

Joseph Flaherty designs medical devices that leverage the iOS platform to help people with diabetes live better and longer lives at AgaMatrix. For fun he blogs about mass customization, fabrication technology like 3D printers, and the intersection of bits and atoms at Replicatorinc.com.

Knit for Good

Is your attic packed with homemade scarves you never wear? Has your family's enthusiasm for hand-knitted socks and crochet hats waned over the years? Still into making baby quilts long after your babies have grown up? Knit for Boston is a local nonprofit program created to put your handmade creations to good use in and around the Boston area. We serve local homeless shelters, school programs, and hospitals by supplying blankets, hats, scarves, etc. to those who truly need them. Come find out how you and your craft can help.

Katie Helke Dokshina is a book publisher by day, knitter and quilter by night. She started Knit for Boston a little over a year ago when she realized she had far too many knitted scarves to ever use herself. More information about the program can be found at www.knitforboston.org.

DIY Marketing for DIY Crafters

So you knit. Or make magnets. Or homebrew. Or create replicas of baseball stadiums out of wire. Great! Now, how are you going to find the target audience to whom you might market your wares? The easy answer is "The internet!" The difficult part is *how* to use the internet to accomplish your goals and begin to profit from your craft. I'll go over some basics on using the web to discover your community, build an audience and, over time, develop a customer base.

Georgy Cohen has worked in online communications and new media for nine years. She is currently manager of web content and strategy for Tufts University, and previously worked in the newsroom of Boston.com. An experienced journalist, she wrote a feature about the burgeoning indie craft industry in December 2007 for the Boston Phoenix.

In Pursuit of Craft Activism: Making A Book About Makers

In 2010 I spent a lot of time traveling , researching, visiting, and photographing crafters. It was at the request of a book editor, who asked me & my co-author Joan Tapper to do a book on Craft Activism. How did she define it, we asked? "Oh, I don't know, we want to see how you define it” was the answer. It was a crazy challenge. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, how to narrow down the fabulously inspirational efforts going on all over the country, or how to organize all the people and ideas that surfaced. In my talk I'll share our pursuit of the subject and some of the crafters. My co-author, Joan Tapper & I put together a book of profiles & projects to make; inspired by the clever, the crafty, the artful and the innovative people we met from Boston to the West Coast.

Gale Zucker is a professional photographer, shooting on location for commercial projects, non-profit foundations, books & magazine projects. She specializes in real people in real places, photographing people and their lives in a storytelling style. She is the co-author/photographer of the knitting book "Shear Spirit", the photographer of knitting book “Mason-Dixon Knitting : Outside the Lines” and co-author/photographer of the book “Craft Activism”, to be published Sept 2011 (PotterCraft).

Design without Compromise: Self-publishing from vision to distribution

After publishing her knitwear designs in print and online books and magazines, Ann decided to independently create, publish, and distribute a book of 10 new designs. She'll talk about her inspirations -- from Dutch athletic uniforms to 1970s punk style -- and the challenges of making her book a reality, with the help of her family and friends.

Ann Weaver is a former Assyriologist, bureaucrat, medical secretary, barback, and overnight commercial bread baker. She currently works as a freelance copyeditor and knitwear designer, splitting her free time between traveling, reading in bed, and attempting to keep up with her urban cyclist husband.

Carpe Diem Quilts

Blink! Another quilt possibility flutters across my mind. Will I seize it? How will I interpret it? See the inspiration and watch my attempts to capture those moments in fabric, fiber and embroidery.

Alanna Nelson is a curious, social observer, Alanna Nelson runs Tactile Travel and won't miss any chance to learn and work with fabric, thread and yarn. She is secretary of the Common Cod Fiber Guild, a member of the Melrose Cultural Council and the Rising Star Quilters.

Turning a simple wooden Bowl

I will show how a chunk of wood can be made into a simple bowl on a lathe. The talk will include the steps before the wood is put on the lathe, what a lathe is, what tools are used, the wood is held on the lathe, rough shaping the bowl , finish shaping and applying the finish.

Bob Trucchi has been turning wood off and on for over 30 years. The past 5 or so he has made many bowls, boxes and sculptures on the lathe. Bob enjoys making the usual and unusual items out of wood.

Do You Speak More than One Craft?

Just as being multilingual increases our ability to think divergently and express ourselves in our native language, so too does knowing more than one craft--even if we just barely "speak" the language of another art form--help you express yourself better in your "native craft." A knowledge of quilting, for instance, opens up a whole new visual language for knitters, glass workers, and wood artists. Showing examples from my own and others' work, I'll explore how the visual language of one craft can open up new horizons in another art form.

Christina Inge is a marketer by day, avid knitter and quilt designer by night. Her designs have been featured at International Quilt Market, as well as in Quilt Magazine, Quick Quilts, and Victoriana. Her articles on historical needlework have been published in The Quilter and Piecework. Formerly the head of marketing for the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, she currently blogs at SewQuickly and does marketing and PR for artists and arts organizations, when she's not quilting or knitting.

POTHOLDERS!!!! ... and hotpads.

In the spring of 2009, Adrian Bizilia, Maritza Soto, and Maryse Roudier became obsessed with vintage, crocheted potholders - first as collectors, and then making their own. This obsession turned into an organized swap involving close to 100 participants and almost 500 potholders for swapping. In 2010, Stacie Dolin joined the fray, to organize another swap through Ravelry which had over 300 people sign up. The 3rd Annual swap is set to begin in a couple of weeks. Maryse will talk about the inspiration, the planning, and the implementation of a crafty swap that had confirmed anti-crocheters excited about picking up a hook.

When Maryse isn’t at her day job, where she works as a cancer research project manager, she knits, crochets, designs, spins fiber, takes photos and cruises around in her chili red mini.

Creatures from myth and the imagination

I will be giving a talk on polymer sculpture, my inspiration for character design, and the evolution of the process over time. I will also include some 2-dimensional work that I feel illustrates similar themes. I wanted to discuss issues occurring in execution that may at first appear to hinder the process but actually enhance the piece in the end.

Amanda Grondin graduated from Mass College of Art and Design in 2007 with a major in Illustation. Around her junior year, she developed an interest in 3D modeling as a way of referencing characters for her illustrations. Upon graduating, she wanted to delve deeper into sculpture, and learn new methods and techniques for achieving realism.

Cuts Like A Knife - 80s Papercuts

I started cutting out 5" x 7" tools paired with snippets of 80s lyrics that would get stuck in my head at work. The papercutting work can be crazy-making, much like the catchy lyrics of many 80s songs. I chose to cut out tools because they were handy and I like the idea of spending so much time representing the tools that help me do my job - they should get some credit, too!

Stacie Dolin is a Boston-based bookbinder who knits, spins, quilts, weaves, twirls, and prints in her spare time. She also teaches bookbinding workshops. She once won a trophy for eating fire.

You Can Be Good At Everything

Perhaps you think knitting is too hard for you. I assure you, it is not. Or maybe you think you don't have the skills to refinish a coffee table. I disagree wholeheartedly. Being a librarian makes me feel like a superhero who can conquer all crafts and home repair. The truth is, I don't know any more than you, I just know where to find the things I don't know. My talk will cover two important points: 1) You are awesome and can be good at everything, and 2) First you have to admit that you don't know anything.

Lis Pardi is a librarian and information scientist by trade and a generally handy person in her free time. Her life's goal is to show how librarianship is important to everything -- from designing and researching user interfaces, to cooking dinner and repairing a washing machine. Armed only with her MLS, she has repaired everything from broken software to dilapidated Craigslist furniture.

Beyond hobby printing: the making of a modern letterpress studio

The oldest mechanized printing method, letterpress is now enjoying a renewed appreciation by both artisans and paper-lovers alike. Learn about the evolution of Albertine Press as a modern letterpress business - juggling a nationally-carried wholesale catalog, running a custom design and print shop and hosting the occasional studio workshop.

Shelley Barandes is a sometime-architect who just loved paper more. She never ceases to be amazed at how many actual tons of equipment she has acquired, and the fact that she gets to use it all to make things that people enjoy. Since its inception in 2005, Albertine Press has grown to produce letterpress ephemera that is carried by over 300 stores nationwide and invitations sent to thousands of people every year.

Crafting Community: Kids, Makers, and Mixed-Everything Learning (Awesome Foundation Fellow)

Personally meaningful learning grows out of a mixture of three ingredients -- tools, resources, and inspiration. In the course of running more and less formal summer programs, classes, and workshops for kids and adults for a few years, we've found our focus shifting away from "teaching and learning" and towards being helpful, sharing enthusiasms, and building mutually beneficial friendships and collaborations between folks of different ages and with different interests. Along the way we've learned a lot about kids and adults, patience, creativity, and community-building (as well as sewing, electronics, woodworking, cooking, edible plants, etc....)

Simultaneously an experiment in hands-on education and community supported employment, the Parts and Crafts Collective has been making things and making things happen with kids and adults for about five years. Having found a more-or-less permanent home in Somerville, we're hard at work building a workshop, hosting events, running classes, and helping people with their projects. You should probably drop by!