BHR Artisan Directory

Get a Start on Your Holiday Shopping Here.

Update on the BHR Directory

We are currently on page 11 of the Artisan Directory!

Page 12 will be an article

There are spots open and You can reserve your spot, and send in information any time before July 1st

Spots are sold on a first come first serve basis.

You can reserve your spot by visiting http://blockheadradio.artfire.com You do not need an artfire account to purchase

We Also have spots available for the Suppliers section !!

Slotted to be available August 1st in Free Download Version and also a Hard copy verision will be available too!

A BeWitching Find

Pamper yourself or even someone you adore with any one of the cute creations from Pampered Papier! This shop has everything you could imagine in the way of paper goods... from adorable little post it note sets to those ever useful gift tag sets.

You can also pick up some fabulous creations to use as promotional items for your shop (matchbook notepads in an assortment of patterns and mini note cards too)! The hardest part will be deciding!

You can also find Crystal, aka Pampered Papier, at her blog. See what she's been up to and get in on one of her glorious giveaways.

There is another one coming up in June.

How cute are the "Hedgehogs and Woodland Friends Mini Notes"?? This is just a small glimpse at some of the handmade paper goodies to be found in this awesome shop! The rest are just a click away...

A BeWitching Find

Look at these cute creations just screaming out to be loved! Sudey Babes is a shop just brimming with adorable handmade designer teddy bears.

These teddies are truly incredible works of collectible art... meaning they are not intended for small children.

Hand stitched and fully jointed using either mohair, alpaca or luxury faux furs one can only imagine the time and love put into every bear. Replete with beautiful glass eyes and cute embroidered noses that add to the whimsy of every teddy bear.

No two bears are every precisely alike, which means that each one is just brimming with personality and attitude.

Visit Sudey Babes to admire the many unique teddy bears that are looking for a new forever home. Remember, these bears are all lovingly handcrafted and looking for a forever home! Its totally appropriate to "ooh" and "ahh" over the warm and fuzzies you're sure to feel with a glimpse into this shop!

A BeWitching Find

How about some tasty treats to pamper your four legged friends? Divine Canine is a gourmet biscuitry that creates all natural treats from scratch! No artificial preservatives, soy free, dairy free, wheat free, corn free and chemical free!

This biscuitry is licensed with the Michigan Department of Agriculture and you can be assured that all treats are chock full of protein, fat, fiber, and moisture because each bag of treats comes with a guaranteed analysis of content. A purchase for your pooch or frisky feline from this shop and you can rest easy knowing that you're providing them with the same wholesome goodness you'd give to your non furry family members! Of course, you'll also earn some extra love from whatever critter you bestow these scrumptious morsels too!

They even make treats for dogs with food allergies and sensitive tummies! It says Canine in the name but the shop owner has recently added some tasties for those finicky felines out there!

These goodies are made fresh in the Divine Canine Gourmet Biscuitry and have the eight paw approval from India and Scarlet, the resident lab mix taste testers. Head on over and snag some for your fur baby today!

Going Green with Mom's Cafe..and a giveaway!

Last night Mom's Cafe went green and YES, we stayed on topic! Rocker and I discussed various ways you can go green and be eco-friendly and NOT break the bank! We chatted about what being green means to us, for myself I will be as green as my pocketbook allows and I respect the earth we've been given; for Rocker, she explained she just cannot stand to see things throw away, she sees potential in everything!

We shared some fantastic links, tutorials and shops you can purchase green items from if you are sewing machine phobic.

Here are some to get you started:

Links to repurposing clothing:
Men's Shirt into girls Dress:
http://therockerchiconetsy.blogspot.com/2008/07/girls-pillowcase-style-dress-from-mens.html

Neck Ties into Jumper:
http://therockerchiconetsy.blogspot.com/2008/07/neck-tie-dress-tutorial.html

Tut for Sleeves into baby pants:
http://indietutes.blogspot.com/2008/06/happy-bum-pants-from-sleeves.html

Make a kids toys from your old clothing:
http://miaoucrafts.com/jill/?p=82

Tees into Reusable Grocery Bags:
http://www.marthastewart.com/article/good-thing-t-shirt-bag
somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year

Where to buy reusable grocery bags:
Upcycled Creations
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&seller_id=22851

Did you know the Average American throws away 68 lbs of clothing each year? That is insane!! Think of all the good that could come from that! Even if you are not a crafty person, think of the other places you can share your unwanted items! Freeuse, Freecycle, Goodwill, Salvation Army, Women's Shelters, Homeless Shelters, Schools, etc. There are places you may never realize would take donations..perhaps your local Head Start, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts could use some items? Police stations may take clothing and toys to use when dealing with rape or abuse victims. Donate your blankets to homeless shelters or hospitals for babies...who knows if your blanket could help keep one baby warm? Why throw it out?? Do good!

Parenthood also leads one to many Earth Friendly possibilities, reusing toys, sharing toys, handmade toys and clothing, cloth diapering, mama cloth and many reusable items for mom and baby abound!

Here are some awesome shops to find such items:

Reusable Feminine Pads, and Reusable Lunch Bags:
http://www.dominopads.com/
U.S. women landfill or incinerate 11.3 billion "disposable" menstrual products per year.
It takes approximately 500 years for one "disposable" menstrual pad to partially biodegrade.

Cloth Diapers
http://theelimonster.etsy.com
Takes 4-500 years to biodegrade 1.5 billion disposable diapers into landfill yearly!

You can reduce landfill waste from your kid’s toys by making their toys from old clothing, from the tutorial we’ve given you before…. Or you can purchase, SAFE LEAD FREE toys from that are handmade by moms who understand your safety concerns with today’s toy corporations!

Crayons and play dough, also ouchie pouchies
Turtle Mommy
http://turtlemommy.etsy.com

Play Goop, Surprise Rocks,
Leaky Mouth
http://leakymouth.etsy.com
(shop currently closed-Reopening soon! Bookmark it!)

Also check out green toys on Artfire:
http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=categories&main_cat_id=33

Crafty? Follow these tutorials!

For those old broken up crayons:
http://michaelgrace.blogspot.com/2009/03/tuesday-tutorial-cookie-crayons.html
Make your own shaped crayons, or buy them on handmade venues.

Soap with enclosed Toy:
http://whipup.net/2008/01/25/tutorial-soaps-for-kids-to-make-pt1/

All kinds of tutorials for handmade toys:
http://www.make-baby-stuff.com/homemade-toys.html

Essentially, no matter what you do, where you are, you can take steps to lessen your carbon footprint and leave the world a nicer, cleaner, healthier place to live!

Want to calculate your carbon footprint? Check it out here: http://www.carbonfootprint.com/

Happy Green Living..

~~Mama and Rocker

Don't forget Rocker's Super Cool Giveaway!

CLICK HERE for details!

Here Birdy, Birdy, Birdy....

Knits that is! I have met a lovely couple, James and Birdy who are the brains, heart and soul behind Birdy's Knits, a selection of great shops where you can find excellent handmade items like knitting stitch markers, patterns, knitted items, and more! Their free pattern for a Swiffer Reusable Cloth Pad has been downloaded over 800 times! Get yours HERE!

Who ARE James and Birdy really? "Birdy is a knitter and designer. She was recently featured in Knitty (http://www.knitty.com) with her flit-n-float scarf. James is the designer and crafter of our line of Duals Use Notions for Fiber Artists." Now, if you are not a knitter you may be asking yourself just what are stitch markers? (I know I was!) James explains it quite well, "Our Dual use stitch markers are designed using leverback earrings, so they make great earrings. We have some of our knitters that say they use them as much as earrings as they do in their projects. It also comes in handy when your knitting and find you need a stitch marker but can't find one. Pop there it is, in your ear. They are also usable in crochet projects. Someone even told us they used it as a cabling needle for a small cable and they couldn't find theirs. So in reality they are more than dual use, but I just like the sound of that! We also have dual use row counters that are still a bit in development, that can also be worn as necklaces or bracelets. Also still in it's testing phase are our new Dual use stitch holders. which are also wearable as a necklace, and will be in coordinating designs with our stitch markers. As we like to say, 'They're not just jewelry for you, they're for your knitting too!'" Birdy and James launched Birdy's Knits Website about 2 years ago with just knitting patterns, then added the stitch markers one year ago.

Birdy home schools their two children while James works a full time job to take care for life's' un-fun necessities and then comes home to work on all the marketing, promoting and 'business' details of running a handmade business--something many people take for granted! As James says, "There are lots of things that go into all of that, that people don't realize. Like the emails that need to be answered about products. The website changes that need to be made. The listing of the items. The pictures that need to be taken, oh don't get me started on pictures. Then there is the promoting, if you are tring to do that on a budget, then it takes loads of time to get into forums and on chat threads talking up your products. I spend about 6-8 hours a day working on just the business, and that's on top of the 10-12 hour days at the FT job, so I could use like 6 more hours a day, 4 more for family and 2 more for sleep."

Time crunch seems to be something most handmade artisans face! It is one of the main answers I get when asking artisans what their top challenges are. Along with the time challenge, James and Birdy find themselves with the obstacle of "getting your products known." James explains, "We started our business 2 years ago, with just some of Birdy's Patterns. We then expanded to our Dual Use Stitch Markers about a year ago. We got some traffic but not a lot. We didn't know how to market online. So this year we are working on expanding our marketing for our products. We started with finally listing on Etsy this year in late January, and then we started searching our Handmade venues to sell on. So we added ArtFire, Shophandmade and MadeItMyself. For us it's all about getting our products in front of people. After reading several forums and blogs we have been discovering different ways to get your name known, and we continue to work on those. The other obstacle that we have placed on ourselves, is that we refuse to go into debt to make this work. So we are funding this business on it's own funds. I work a special event each year as a contract worker, and the money from that as well as the money from the business is what funds everything. That means we are growing slower than we might sometimes like, but at the same time we are growing."

Although it may be a slow start, there have been some great moments for James and Birdy, particularly Birdy's publication in Knitty is one of their proudest moments. James says, "It was great to see so many people discover her for the first time. We had thousands of hits on our website in a matter of days almost all new, and discovering Birdy's work for the first time!" That is indeed a fantastic achievement....no matter how many sales you get, seeing your work appreciated is an important step in the work of a handmade artisan.

There work is certainly appreciated by this mama even though I cannot knit a stitch to save my life! If you want to find MORE about Birdy and James, be sure to check all these links along with the ones mentioned above!

http://www.byhand.me/birdysknits/
http://www.birdysknits.com/shop/
http://www.birdysknits.com/blog/
https://www.ravelry.com/ (Birdys Knits)
http://facebookpage

So take a break, go check out James and Birdy and their awesome creations or just drop them a line! Tell them Blockhead Radio sent you! :)

Winner of the Weekly Challenge!

Congratulations to SK Naturals for being the winner of the "Weekly Challenge" for last week's Artisans Challenge ! Those lovely pillowcases made from organic cotton earned her bragging rights and a 30 second ad spot for this week. Make sure you tune in later today so you can catch it and let her know you heard it. It will be playing all week long so never fear there will be many opportunities to hear it!

Again, I'd like to say thanks to all the fabulous entries! It is only through word of mouth by all the participants of each category that the Artisans Challenge continues to grow by leaps and bounds!

Be sure vote in ALL 13 Categories! If you've been sent there specifically to vote in one category, take a moment and spread some love to all the artisans and their creations. A vote in every category is an opportunity to discover a new shop or artisan! While you're there get your submissions in for future Challenges.

Don't Eat the Soap.....

Deli that is....
Oh if only computers were scratch and sniff then we could all truly enjoy this blog post all the more! Rebecca, of Rebecca's Soap Delicatessen, also affectionately known as SoapDeli, sat down with me to talk about her yummy soapiness.

Just how did Rebecca and SoapDeli get started? She explains, "When I first started out in 2001 the idea was to sell soaps that smelled like delicious favorites from the kitchen. I still do sell food scented soaps, but I've also evolved into non-food based scents as well to meet customer demand. All of my soaps are made using the cold process soapmaking method in small batches to ensure quality control. I use shea butter in all of my soaps and only vegetable based oils. Many of my soaps are vegan though I sell goat milk varieties as well for those who choose a different
lifestyle. I scent all of my soaps with the maximum recommended amount of scent to ensure a great smelling bar from start to finish. All of my soaps have a rich lather that makes them great for shaving. They also work well as facial soaps - my unscented goat milk soap is a favorite
for this - and as shampoo bars."

Her current favorite item is the "Lemon Verbena Salt bar. It's not only 100% natural but it smells divine and my skin loves it too." Rebecca says, "It's formulated for those who tend to have dry skin, like myself as I'm prone to eczema - and has a wonderfully rich, lotion like lather."

Sounds great to me!! Rebecca is not only soap extraordinaire, but also admin, marketer, advertiser, interviewer, co-founder of http://www.byhand.me. Which, Blockhead Radio is a huge fan of! If you haven't checked out byhand.me, we highly suggest you do and while you're there...check out the Blockhead Radio Clubhouse created by yours truly :)

Rebecca gets to work closely with her husband, Adam, who co-founded Byhand.me with her and while he works a full time job, as a computer programmer, "by night he programs for the artisan community http://byhand.me that he created. We're together all the time since he telecommutes for his job and we share an office. He also accompanies me on Saturdays to the market as my "helper." He takes his mac book and gets work done and I get a chance to socialize, shop, take those necessary potty breaks, and buy us lunch." Adam also runs his own online business with his beautiful photography, which you can find at http://infivision.artfire.com and http://infivision.etsy.com. Rebecca and Adam have much to be proud of, along with their busy lives, they also have a 12 year old son, who Rebecca smartly puts to work helping around the house! (This mom agrees with that 110%!)

Rebecca's not new at soapmaking! She explains, "I've been making soap since 2001. I have always suffered from sensitive skin. Mom would always wash my brother's and my clothes twice. Once to get them clean and then again without detergent to get the fragrance out. Luckily unscented detergents are now easy to come by. It was just before I started making soap that I started buying handmade soaps. They made a huge difference in my skin and I never turned back. I figured since I was buying handmade soaps all of the time I may as well start making my own. And the rest just progressed from there.

Selling online was more or less just a hobby for me until January 2008 when I decided to take it seriously. I was also entirely too busy with selling on the city market prior to that to make time for selling online. Things changed in January 2008, though, and I got really organized and prioritized things. Local sales were starting to take a slight downturn then and I didn't - as they say - want to have all of my eggs in one basket. So I started promoting online and by the end of the year I was seeing regular online sales. As it lucked out my online business picked up enough the last quarter of 2008 to make up for the sharp downtown the economy took. While my local sales for the last quarter of 2008 were down 50%, my online sales made up that 50% I was down. Online sales are also what pays the bills the first quarter of every year when I'm unable to sell locally due to the cold."

Besides the online community friends she's found, Rebecca is able to connect with other local artisans at the city market. She says, "There are so many wonderful artists and food producers on my local market and we sometimes bounce ideas off one another as far as when to sell, what to sell, how to expand, etc. Mostly we just like to gossip though!" Nothing wrong with that!!

Rebecca knows her limits though, and knows when life gets too stressful it's time to take a break! (That's when the house cleaning son comes in mighty handy!) She also suffers from agoraphobia and seasonal depression, she shared, and says sometimes it's just hard to get to the local seller's market. I think anyone who can recognize her limitations, and STILL create such awesome work and an ENTIRE online community deserves some kudos!!

So where can you find Rebecca? Glad you asked!
Shop with SoapDeli on Etsy and Artfire!

http://soapdelinews.blogspot.com--Soap Deli News is the official blog for Rebecca's Soap Delicatessen. Get updates on new products, sales and contests. You'll also find soap
recipes, bath and body recipes, and craft projects.
http://shopbyhand.blogspot.com--Shop ByHand is a shopping blog dedicated to handmade products. Discover fun new products by indie artists, artist features, and artist interviews.

All About Handmade: http://soapdeli.byhand.me/blog
http://www.soapdelicatessen.com
http://twitter.com/soapdeli
http://rebeccasfacebook
http://ByHandsfacebook
http://soapdeli.byhand.me
http://www.flickr.com/soapdeli
http://www.plurk.com/soapdeli
http://www.plumdrop.com/members/soapdeli

So, be sure and check out Rebecca and all her soapy goodness!
And don't forget to tune in Monday, April 13th for YOUR chance to win one of Rebecca's awesome soaps!! Read all about it HERE!

Many thanks, Rebecca for sharing!!

~~Amy

From The Blockhead Rod Show to Blockhead Radio

As I sit here early this morning with a long set of Hot Buttered Rum playing, I am almost overwhelmed with what has happened.

First a little history.

I think back to the humble beginnings of 'The Blockhead Rod Show'. Yep that was the name of it way back when. A friend of mine (Gena from the Creative Animal Relief show Mondays 7pm et on BHR, yep we got her and Tammy on BHR now.) knew I was a pro blogger and told me about this Internet radio platform. I tuned into one of her shows, called in, and I was hooked. The next Monday I did my first show. I was so nervous I dropped the phone during the show. You can ask Sew Happy Designs about that, she was there. I settled down after that and really enjoyed doing the shows promoting artisans and trying to help them out in any way I could. It was a good show, but kind of Steinish (yes that is an official BHR term) I knew something was missing. Then one Monday night some flaky chick called in and crashed my show......did it again the following Monday. I figured for the sake of the show I would just put her on as a co host
......welcome Witchy.

From there we grew to 14 live shows a week and maxed out what we could do on that platform. We talked about it and decided we would launch our own station. Hey I can do that no problem. ROFLOL it was fun. After looking around I went the independent route. Really wish somebody would write a book on it.......I just wanna know how we did it. Blockhead Radio is now a live streaming 24/7 Internet radio station exposing artisans to the world with a blend of music from the top indie musicians.

Where are we at now.

16 live show from artisan shows to in the garden and growing. We have several shows in the works and still looking to add more. All the shows center around from being and artisan, to family, to life. It is still a kid friendly station. Hey, we might have slipped but we can control ourselves.

Last week we officially partnered up with Artfire.com. This wasn't a spur of the minute decision and not one we did for money. I am so impressed with what John and Tony had put together for the artisan. They really do put the artisan first. Artfire has a new site launching here soon, http://handmadenews.org and there is a button that launches the player. That was awesome. Now we can reach more artisans and more buyers.

Witchy, Huck, and I have been hanging out at a new site over the past couple weeks. http://byhand.me Yes mama, I know you told me about it, but I was still in the process of figuring out which wire went where. Thankfully an artisan in the Artfire chatterbox told Witchy about it and we were hooked. Infivison and Soapdeli have put together an outstanding site for artisans. So Blockheads being Blockheads we went on air telling everybody about this site. That's what we do. Over the weekend they added a really cool banner link to Blockhead Radio on their site. Thanks to both of you.

I got up this morning to 3 emails that really brought it home for me. Sometimes I get so busy coding, getting shows together, and promoting I forget about the impact we are having.

The first was from Soapdeli.

"Take a look at http://byhand.me and tell me if you see anything different." I went to the site with my first cup of coffee in hand. Right there on top is a button (really cool looking I have to add) to launch the player. That almost put me on the floor. I had to ask myself.......'are we really that good?'

The second email was from an artisan.

"I am a new listener to Blockhead Radio and haven't ventured into chat yet. I haven't made a sale yet but have now got inspiration again." All I could say was come on into chat, Witchy is the only one who bites and I've got all her shot records and they are up to date.

The third one was from a listener and I get quite a few that go along the same lines every week.

"Dude your station rocks. I heard about it in a forum and tuned in one morning. You and witchy had me laughing so hard that I had tears rolling out of my eyes. I love the music. I can't believe these bands are indie. I never knew about this handmade thing and started checking out some of the links. It is so cool. Thanks for the music and rock on." Dude, got my bic out held high during most of the songs too. Glad you love the music....we got more indie musicians getting ready to join us.

So are we really that good? I don't know, but we sure have fun doing it. We put something together here that hasn't been done before. Every day I work at improving the stations quality and making it easier for people to listen in. As Mike Burnes said, "You've started a revolution in the radio and music industry". Oops. The majority of internet stations work under a commercial site. Not us. Hey we may have hiccups every now and then but that's half the fun...not really,
it drives me nuts.

The best thing to have come from this venture are all the new friends I have made.

I want to thank our listeners, stalkers, and friends. We do this for you. (and beer money) Really, it has been through your support that BHR has become what it is.

Have a Great Day and ROCK ON DUDE,
Blockhead

WOOT! We Have a Winner!

Congratulations to Rockerchic for winning the coveted title of "Weekly Challenge Winner" for last week's Artisans Challenge with her "Queen of Hearts" Costume! She also won the 30 second ad spot for this week. Rock on with your bad self, Rocker! :)

Thanks to all the fabulous entries! It is only through word of mouth by all the participants of each category that the Artisans Challenge continues to grow!

Be sure to get your votes in this week in all 13 Categories! Such mad skillz in every category and it would be a shame to miss any one of them. Support your fellow artisans and cast your votes!