Founders Amber Perrodin and Natalie Freeman struggle to define what sets the Little Craft Show apart from its counterparts.
The event, now in its second year, welcomes local and regional artists, but the show’s jury sought out exhibitors who “take traditional crafts and make alternative products,” Perrodin describes, artists “pushing the boundaries of the medium. So you’ll see quilts and knits and mosaics, but they’re done in alternative ways.”
These are the crafters whose ideas follow shoppers home from other craft fairs, Freeman expands on the concept.
“We wanted artists who are authentic in what they do, could show us a clear vision of what they do and who fit the aesthetic of the Little Craft Show,” she says.
“It’s a lifestyle,” Freeman tries again, explaining that these artisans - the ones who frequently market themselves on websites like Etsy - create their art, live with their art and often make a living from their art.
The Little Craft Show is “not just about the crafters,” Perrodin adds, “but about a whole experience.”
It was a shared passion for art - both making it and shopping for it - that brought Perrodin and Freeman together to create the Little Craft Show last year. They thought they’d invite a few of their artisan friends to join in - and ended up with 25 crafters in 1,100 square feet of space. Accustomed to 10-foot tables, the artists squeezed in to tiny 4-by-5-foot spacesand had a great time doing it, Perrodin says.
“Everybody brought their ‘A’ game in incredible ways,” she adds.
The success of the show - which was marketed almost exclusively through social media - shocked its founders.
“When the doors opened at 10 o’clock, the room was full,” Freeman says gleefully. “And it wasn’t just people like my mother and my aunt! It was people I didn’t know!”
Obviously, there was room for growth, they agreed.
“People kept suggested the Town Center, and as soon as we saw the space, we knew it was right,” Perrodin says. This year’s event, set for Dec. 1, will bring together 55 crafters in 9,000 square feet.
“And we still made the booths smaller to squeeze in more,” Freeman says with a laugh.
Among the crafts juried into the show - this time by a committee, the partners explain; doing it themselves was too stressful - are bow ties, backpacks, T-shirts “with the catchiest phrasesand graphics,” photographs mounted on wood blocks, letter-press artwork, mosaics made from vintage china, a new line of organic clothing by artist Kate Baer, paintings, pottery and the founders’ own work - photographs by Freeman and a new line of originally designed, woodmounted rubber stamps by Perrodin.
Always an artist, Perrodin says she chose printmaking at the University of Arkansas because she found a messy, unoccupied studio that spoke to her of freedom. She was the only printmaking major at the time, she says, but over time she’s becomemore of a mixed-media artist. A recent exhibition at the Arts Center of the Ozarks was all paintings, she works in collage, and “I love photography, but Natalie blows me out of the water.”
Freeman fell into photography when she met her husband, Luke, at the University of Missouri. He had been the kid at Fayetteville High School who always had a camera in his hand, she says, and was a journalism major at Mizzou - until he decided to become a farmer.
“He taught me to use the camera, and we almost switched roles,” she remembers. “I became theone documenting what he was doing.”
Now Luke “grows farmers” at a nonprofit sustainable agriculture center in Oklahoma, and Perrodin’s husband, Jonathan, is the Web designer and left-brained handyman for the Little Craft Show - when he’s not selling art supplies on Etsy as Perrodin Supply Co.
“We talk about it being the three of us,” Freeman says, “but that’s really not true.
We’re still a little craft show - one that all these amazing big people are supporting.
The Little Craft Show wouldn’t be what it is without Fayetteville.”
Whats Up, Pages 15 on 11/23/2012