[*Update: As promised, here are more photos of BikeCraft, taken by Ethan Jewett of Stickeen Photography. (thanks Ethan!)]
Portland’s bike scene had a memorable one-night stand in the atrium of City Hall last night. Twenty vendors shared their wonderful bike-themed wares with hundreds of gift-seekers at the second annual BikeCraft.
Filmmaker Dan Kaufman — whose new Cross Crusade season DVDs sold briskly — said the event was like, “Saturday Market for bikes!”.
All the vendors reported solid sales and most everyone came away with fantastic bikey treasures.
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Here are a few rapid-fire thoughts and thank-yous:
- Timo, Wes, Ben and Ken of the Trash Mountain Boys serenaded us with bikey Christmas classics like, “Climate change is coming to town,” “Deck the road with tons of cyclists (fa la la la..),” and “Rudolph the red-nosed cyclist.”
- Thanks to Chris Distefano and Rich Whitekettle from Chris King Components for the flood lights (I underestimated how dark the atriums would get).
- Alison Hill from the Community Cycling Center sold everything she brought. Her inner-tube bowties were a big hit…check them out on Timo Forsberg.
- Commissioner Sam enjoyed himself and chatted up the crowd.
- Austin and Natalie Ramsland of Sweetpea Bicycles sold all but one pair of their “Smittens,” felted, lobster gloves…they were the sleeper hit of the night.
- Elias Grey of Lemolo Bags created lots of buzz with the debut of his super-stylish, waterproof messenger bags.
- I regret that Jane, the artist I featured in my post yesterday was unable to attend.
- Carye Bye of Red Bat Press showed off her beautiful sets of Bike Haiku Stationary.
- Big thank you to Polly Birge — the super event-planner from Sam’s office — for granting me use of the venue.
It’s truly awesome that our city gives us free range of City Hall for events like this.
Huge thanks to everyone that showed up, all the fabulous BikeCrafters, and all the folks behind the scenes that helped me put this together.
I was so busy talking that I didn’t get photos of everything, but check out my BikeCraft II photo gallery for a bit more flavor from last night (more photos from other photographers coming soon!).