Craftster and Standard Recording threw a party at South by Southwest in Austin, Texas this past weekend, and had a blast! Jungrrl and Batgirl went down to work the party, along with our wonderful moderator and local Austinite, Superstitch. We enjoyed the Texas hospitality, the craziness of SXSW, and the warm weather very much. We also ate our fill of awesome Tex-Mex food! Did you know that Texas is heaven? Where else would they make stuffed avocados?

Our partners in fun were Sundayafternoonhousewife and her husband Mark and his business partner Kevin (owners of the awesome Indianapolis-based Indie record company Standard Recording). They supplied the bands and we supplied the craftiness!

We had a fabulous turnout, guesstimated around 1000 people, enjoying the beautiful day. Occasional gusts of wind kept us on our toes, but overall it was a warm, lovely, sunny day. We had a tent outside, along with the beer, catering and other participants. The music took place inside onstage. Our venue, the Art Project on Chicon St, was a perfect spot for some good music, fun crafts, food, and beer. Also involved were the folks from Provo Craft! They were demonstrating the amazing new Yudu™ silk-screener system! They gave away free t-shirts and tote bags they printed right on site. There were 4 or 5 people from Provo Craft and they just never stopped working! I don’t think there were ever less than 10-15 people in that line. It sometimes reached the street! The bags and shirts were printed in a variety of colors and they looked fabulous. The Yudu looks really easy to use and lots of fun. I can’t wait to get a Yudu of my own to see what I can do with it.

In addition to Standard Recording, Craftster, and Provo Craft, Venus Zine was on hand giving out free magazines, and a drawing for a gorgeous Daisy Rock guitar. Sublime Stitching had some nifty giveaways, including their four awesome new patterns, and an appearance by Jenny Hart, who stopped by to chat with party guests and say howdy.

The day for us started early as Superstitch volunteered her truck to go get 5 kegs of beer from the distributors. Then it was off to breakfast at Juan in a Million with Superstitch and Sundayafternoonhousewife. This famous local restaurant had the biggest breakfast taco on earth, the Don Juan. We gave it our best shot, but none of us could manage the whole enormous thing – the Yankees among us were delighted by chips and salsa for breakfast!

After that we headed over the The Art Project, our venue for the day. There were 11 bands on the schedule, so the Standard Recording folks were busy setting up the stage at lightning speed, while Provo Craft unloaded boxes of Yudus and set up their printing station. The record guys manned the kegs, and the catering by 2Tarts was divine (soysage balls, wings, and to-die-for ginger and chocolate chip cookies).

We had our Craftster tent set up and proudly flying the Craftster banner that Jungrrl made. We offered make and take button rings and perler bead projects based on 8-bit video game graphics and other patterns (although some crafty folks made their own amazing designs). They were a hit! The most popular was Domokun, followed by pac-man motifs and a keyboard design (one couple even made it into a crazy perler bead keytar). Other favorites were an adorable puppy portrait, and a great kid who made a really intricate and awesomely cool volcano! We had people visiting our tent steadily all day. Some were already members (Hi, Elvissatx!) and some were new to Craftster, but we hope to see them around here. I even thought I saw Exene Cervenka stop by briefly, which is one of the coolest things I have ever typed.

The button rings were also a lot of fun to make and very popular. We brought a huge variety of vintage and new buttons ready to assemble on ring bases, so our guests could stack them up, attach to a ring base, and design their own ring. It was fun to see everyone put their creativity to use and to see the variety of rings that were made – from wacky to glamorous, simple to outrageous, and everything in between. Watching people get their hands into the materials and let their imaginations run wild is just so much fun.

After the party we were beat, but we walked around 6th Street just to get the vibe. The energy was great and so was the people watching. With bands playing in every available nook and cranny there was more to do than any two people could ever manage. For us it was a whirlwind visit. We didn’t make it to any other parties but we’d love to some day! After checking out the scene on 6th St. we had a lovely dinner and unwinding/recap session with the Standard Recording folks at Serrano’s. We all agreed that the party was a success!