Last night’s BikeCraft event was fantastic. The turnout was massive, everyone seemed to have good time, and Portland was introduced to an impressive and inspiring array of artisans who shared their arts, crafts, and other wonderful things.
On that note, I present the slideshow below:
I had way too many highlights to share in the detail they deserve, but a few things come to my mind.
— The stencil paintings of Anthony Baysore (website here) were a pleasant surprise (Elly Blue did all the organizing for the event this year, so I didn’t get to know the vendors like in year’s past).
, and learning about his
vintage teapot bike headlamps
was something I won’t
soon forget.
— I spent several minutes with a big grin on my face as I fingered a copy (along with hoardes of other people) of Dirty Pictures, a new photo book from the crew behind PDXcross.com. The book is a symbol of the drama, fun, places and faces that make up Portland’s incomparable cyclocross scene.
— Forrest Scott, who I don’t think was even on the vendor list, showed up with a gorgeous pair of hand-hammered fenders that drew stares from all who passed.
— It was nice to catch up with Brian Engelen. Brian launched Fun Reflectors at BikeCraft last year and now he’s got them into over 40 bike shops. He also gave me a sample of a new BikePortland.org reflective sticker (watch for those soon).
— The Festivus Ale poured by our host, Roots Organic Brewing, was a treat to the tastebuds.
— I loved all the products you just can’t find anywhere else: toe cozies that fit over your toe clips; light-switch covers covered in bike art; panniers made from duct tape; a nifty U-lock holder that straps onto your belt…
— The Maus girls raised $38.00 in our “Bike Sale for Bikeways”. We’ll be sending the cash to City Hall to help Portland pay for safer bikeways. (Thanks to Black Sheep Bakery for the treats).
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— I chatted a bit with the founder of the Bicycle Film Festival, Brendt Barbur. He’s experienced bike scenes all over the world and it was neat to hear that he was so enthused about BikeCraft.
— I really enjoyed sitting down and chatting with several of the vendors, hearing their stories and learning more about their work. We are lucky to have so many talented and creative artisans in this city.
— It was a treat to see the queue of cargo bikes and trailers get loaded up at the end of the show. Many of the vendors packed up all their wares into various contraptions and loaded them onto a bike to get home.
Elly Blue workin’ the
raffle ticket sales.
I also want to give major thanks to everyone that helped put this together. Jim Anderson (volunteer supreme), Liz Dickey (raffle prize rouser), The Maus girls (Juli, Danica, Eleni), Sara from Roots (gracious hostess), John Howe (loud-mouthed, yet lovable emcee), Jeff Castro of BikeRacker (who showed up at the 11th hour to provide bike parking), and all of our raffle prize donors, and of course, Elly Blue.
Elly is the first (and currently the only) full-time BikePortland staffer and BikeCraft IV would not have happened without her. She did a great job in putting it together. Thank you Elly!
Elly and I (and the rest of the smart and helpful people we always run things by) are already busy thinking about the next BikeCraft (a summer version?!). We’ll work on finding a larger venue and next time we’ll find a way to fit all the vendors we had to turn away this time.
If you showed up last night, we’d love to hear your feedback. Thanks for coming out and stay tuned for more…
Thanks for reading.
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Caroline said she wished she had a time lapse video of Jess and I trying on the same three hats for over 20 minutes, trying to decide. In the end, we both came away happy and with warm heads.
Congrats on a great event.
The wife and I definaetly had a great time, although the crowds were daughnting. A couple of times, we had to stick together to form a human bubble around our 3 moth old to keep her from getting squished. Next year she will be bigger and less squishable.
Cheers
Last night was a blast! Tons of cool stuff, I only wish I had been able to spend more time looking at everything. Oh that and more spare cash.
It was pretty cool, packed to the gills at 7pm. My crank clock is awesome. Wish I had bought a 1up helmet cover. And I met a guy named Greg … didn’t realize until later it was Greg Raisman. Great to meet such an intrepid figure. I continue to try to talk Mark Allyn into making me a light jacket for riding…
Great report Jonathan!
Will you publish a vendor contact list from the show?
I had a lot of fun at this — usually organizing events is stressful, but this one was just a good time, thanks to everyone Jonathan mentions above + all the crafters, who worked together really well. Thanks everyone!
Aaron, I’ll add contact info to the list of vendors but it might be a couple weeks. If there’s anyone in particular you want to get a hold of who doesn’t have a website on there, drop me an email: elly[at]bikeportland[dot]org.
Not to be a party-pooper or rain on anyone’s parade, but I confess I enjoyed last year’s BikeCraft a lot more. I got to Roots around 6pm, perhaps slightly earlier, and was dismayed at the lack of bike parking facilities. The promised temporary racks along SE Clay were full up, as was just about anything you could lock a bike to within a couple of blocks. More bike parking! The space itself was too crowded for my taste, but hey, some people love a packed room and good for all of you who don’t mind not being able to move around much or breathe or hear yourself think. I just don’t. And I don’t drink either, not that alcohol or drinking bother me, but I don’t particularly enjoy inhaling other people’s beer fumes because everyone is so tightly packed that there’s no way to get away from it. It was kind of hard to see a lot of the merchandise because of the crowding. I was figuring on staying for the raffle, but I couldn’t take it anymore and left about 6:30, a new owner of a nifty BikePortland.org t-shirt. 🙂 I’m not even sure I made it around to all the wares on offer, but it wasn’t for lack of trying.
I’m sorry to sound negative and I don’t mean to disparage the event, which I was looking forward to and will continue to look forward to. I’m just voicing my feedback that you need a bigger space in an area that’s more amenable to being descended upon by hundreds of bicycles. (I actually heard someone outside that bar complaining on his cell phone that he was going elsewhere because “the place has been taken over by a bunch of asshole cyclists.”) I don’t know Roots, never been there before, hope never to go back there, but I don’t get the impression it caters much to a cycling crowd. It sure doesn’t seem set-up for it, at least not in comparison to last year’s venue.
you’re not a party pooper michael. we appreciate the feedback.
I hear you about the crowds and the limitation of the venue. The thing is, every year we’ve gotten a bigger space and every year we overfill the space.
good, medium-sized venue locations are hard to come by in this town. We wanted to have it at roots because we thought it would be large enough, they’re nice folks over there, they’re a local business, and it’s just a few blocks for our office.
we are already planning next year and you can rest assured that the overcrowding issue will be figured out.
and thanks for buying a T-shirt! (I will post on the Front Page about them tomorrow.)
So much fun to see the energy and creativity of all vendors and buyers! Yeah, it was crowded, but it was a cool night, not so bad to mingle in a warm place. I came away with a Queen Bee wallet for my daughter (who’ll be riding cross-country next summer!), some Fun Reflectors, a Lady Cyclist patch and some great leather toe straps for my old touring bike. Only regret is not getting more things…temperance! A summer event would be great.
Those copper fenders were bomb!
Barbara
Lot’s of great stuff there but +1 on the over crowding. I can’t stand milling around in crowds like that. Especially when everyone has big backpacks with helmets dangling off them. Love grahm’s leather fender flaps and those gorgeous hammered fenders.
I’ve been at every single BikeCraft as a vendor, and yeah, I knew the event would be busy, but I didn’t even expect it to be as busy it was. Hey it just shows that there are more and more people into bikes! More vendors and more space is good. Though I love it during the evening and at a venue with food and beer.
I didn’t get out very much to buy/trade, but when I did, I picked up an awesome stencil record by Anthony with fruit on bikes (Now hanging in the kitchen), Shawn Granton’s touring zine is pretty rad, for only two bucks, Nicky Robo had dvd of the Sprockettes Small Movements movie and her lady cyclist designs, Stumptown had some really awesome posters, and Upcycle 27 had the best patches. And I admired so much more…
Thanks to all of you who came and shops. I especially hope the Bike Blabs (madlibs) zine is making some fun rounds at parties.
Thanks for the glowing compliment on the stencil paintings of Anthony Baysore, Jonathan! I absolutely love his work, but I’m probably a little bit biased….
For curious minds, Anthony’s website is:
http://www.anthonybaysore.com
Had a great time @ my first Bikecraft – looking forward to the next! 🙂