A review of Porter Flea, plus favorite vendors

Hello everyone, my name is Shannon Rutherford and I am back again today with another guest post here on the linenlaid&felt blog. As part of my bookbinding internship, Katie invited me to come along with her to the 2016 Porter Flea Summer Market this past weekend. Today I’ll be telling you all about my experience with helping Katie at her booth at Porter Flea, as well as my overall impressions of the event and images of my favorite vendors.

Since I recently moved to Tennessee, this was my first time ever attending a Porter Flea event. I was very excited for the opportunity to get to help Katie and see the process of how she prepares for an upcoming show.

I started out by helping Katie promote her handmade books on social media through her Instagram account. In the days leading up to the event, I helped Katie resize photos and write captions for posts to get the word out about her booth using the hashtags #pfsummer16 and #porterflea.

On the day of the event, we loaded up her car and drove over to the venue. This year the event took place at Skyway Studios in East Nashville. Upon arriving, we entered through a long hallway that split off in either direction. The first thing I noticed was a giant green floor in the center of the room. I later learned that it is used in combination with a green screen for TV production and filming projects.

Soon we began setting up Katie’s display and arranging her books on the table in the booth area. I quickly noticed and appreciated how much attention to detail and effort Katie puts into her booth display. She had lovely photographs of her work on display behind the booth, and her branding and signage was very clearly laid out and labeled neatly. Once the setup was complete, all of her handmade books looked so bright and colorful when presented as a whole.

Here are some photos of the final booth display before the event began. I was really impressed with how everything came together and it was fun to see an ordinary table be transformed into such a unique and eye-catching display.

As the preview night began, I was able to see the procedure of how one makes a purchase of Katie’s books and how Katie collects payment using an app called Register. It is a really quick way to process payments and has many great features including the ability to upload images of your products right into the app. I couldn’t believe how easy the technology was to use!

Once the setup was complete, we went into the vendor lounge for pizza. I got to meet some really lovely artists and hear all about their work. It was such a supportive environment where all the vendors were really friendly, rooting for each other’s success and wishing each other good luck.

Other vendors began trickling in one by one and also completing their booth setup for the day. At 6 p.m. the preview party began. It was a great concept to allow people to be the first to enjoy the show without having to wait in a long line. Many people showed up and wandered through the venue, which was very spacious. I helped Katie greet people as they approached the booth, as well as answering questions about her products and handing out information about her upcoming classes.

It was really fun to interact with people and see their faces light up when they saw Katie’s books and to see their appreciation when they learned that she made all of them by hand. I had a great time meeting some of the other vendors that Katie introduced me to as well. It was a great place to network and meet other artists and ask them more in depth questions about their artistic process and inspiration.

Throughout the day, Katie and I both had the opportunity to walk around and see the other booths in the show. I was very impressed with all of the work and really loved seeing the variety in the work displayed. It was by far the best show I have been to since moving to Nashville and I will definitely be attending in the future.

Below are just some of my favorite booths and vendors, in no particular order:

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Bean & Bailey Ceramics 

Bean & Bailey Ceramics was the booth across from ours and it immediately caught my eye. I love all of the pastel colors and simple shapes. I also really enjoyed speaking with the vendor about his process.

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This Loves That

This Loves That was one of my favorites! I really loved the non-traditional materials she used in her jewelry. She used fun, clean geometric shapes in her wooden jewelry and her work was very colorful and playful. She also had these neat little pouches with simple designs featured below.

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Camp Nevernice

I really loved how Porter Flea highlighted printmaking and illustration. I bought this print from Camp Nevernice as an early birthday present for my twin sister who loves typography, music and singing. I learned later the next day that she had picked out the exact same print to show me.

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Amaranthus Paper & Flora

I was lucky to have met the owners of Amaranthus Paper & Flora, a mother and daughter team. Their work is so intricate and stunning; it had me doing a double take as I initially thought their flowers were real and not paper. What a wonderful idea to bring joy to people, especially to those who are sick and may not be able to receive real flowers due to risk of infection in hospitals. They are spreading joy and I love that concept.

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Peppered Paper

The Peppered Paper booth was filled with detailed, beautiful prints. I really loved how she had a framed original so you could see her process. The finished prints contain very delicate, fine lines but catch your eye with their bold color. The attention to detail is just amazing!

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My overall impression of the event was great and I loved seeing the unique works of each artist. I really enjoyed collecting all of the business cards from the show. It was a good learning experience and introduction into how to market and sell your products to people and engage with your buying audience. Katie is a pro at it and is always very helpful to others. You can walk away from Katie’s booth having learned something new and her passion for her work is evident in how she carries herself and expresses her creativity. I can't wait to attend another Porter Flea event in the future!

And the winner is...

When I decided to host a handmade book giveaway, I was flooded with comments on Instagram and Facebook, each sharing an idea for how this book could be put to use. I enjoyed reading everyone's creative and meaningful ideas, and it was difficult to choose a winner.

After carefully reviewing all of the entries, I've chosen a winner. This book will be headed to Instagram user @msshawnflowers. Here's her inspiring and thoughtful idea for how she plans to use this book:

"I'm newly engaged at 37 years old. My fiancé and I have been together for almost two years and plan to marry this October. We would fill these pages together as our bedside communication journal. Anytime either of us has something to share with the other that can be more easily expressed in writing we would write an honest note and leave it on his/her nightstand. Perhaps some pages would be filled with prayers for one another... or confessions of difficulty in one area or another... or invitations to make love... or words of affirmation... or concerns... or love poems... or honey-do-lists!! 💛"

Congratulations, Shawn! I hope you and your fiancé will enjoy filling this book with messages. And I wish you both all the best in your lives together. 

For more creative ideas about how you could fill a book of your own, check out the #myusedbook campaign and this gallery of books in action. 

Enter to win a handmade book!

As you probably know, I’m passionate about the way books can be used to enrich our lives, which is why I created the #myusedbook campaign to showcase books in action. And now I've decided to give away one of my handmade books to someone who has a creative idea for how they'd use it. 

So to win this little Coptic bound book, please post a comment on either Facebook or Instagram that explains your idea for how you would fill this book in a meaningful or creative way.

I’ll choose a winner on May 31 based on the idea that’s most inspiring. And I’ll hope that the recipient will share photos of how they put this book to use.

I can't wait to hear all of your clever ideas for how you would fill this book. And best of luck to you!

Feeling creatively refreshed

Over the past year, the linenlaid&felt studio has been a busy place. I've been working on new projects, experimenting with new ideas, and learning new techniques. And while I've spent lots of time making, I've spent less time blogging. But I'm aiming to change that, because I just have so much to share. 

Embroidery sampler on handmade paper by Claudia Lee.

I teach several bookbinding classes and workshops each semester in Nashville, but I've also decided to take more classes myself. Over the past year, I've brushed up on my papermaking skills, tried my hand at making marbled paper, learned some traditional bookbinding techniques, and made handmade paper boxes. 

Each of these classes have helped to give me a new perspective on my work, and I plan to write about them all in more detail. But for now, I want to start off with the most recent workshop that I took. 

A work-in-progress: The handmade paper box I made during Claudia Lee's workshop.

I recently spent a weekend with Claudia Lee learning to make an elaborate box out of handmade paper. Working with materials I use on a daily basis — handmade paper and waxed linen thread — I made something quite different. My box (once it's complete) will be a place to store all of my bookbinding tools, elaborately decorated with embroidery and collage. 

Despite an entire weekend of stitching, my handmade box is still a work in progress. But I truly enjoyed the process of selecting color schemes, creating small compositions on each panel, and hand-sewing detailed patterns. Each surface of the box (including the bottom and the inside), is embellished with some sort stitching or design. It's a time-intensive, detail-oriented, and tedious undertaking — which happens to be right up my alley. 

Handmade paper boxes by Claudia Lee.

At the end of the workshop, I felt invigorated, inspired, and creatively refreshed. And really, what could be better than that?  

Inspiring ways to fill handmade books

For years, my husband and I have been passionate about using handmade books in our everyday lives and for special occasions.

But we do meet people — often at art shows — who aren’t quite sure how they would fill a blank book. “I don’t journal,” is a common refrain.

But that’s the thing. I don’t journal either, but I have many other ways in which I do use my books, along with those made by other great bookbinders.

With this in mind, I’ve started a new project to document all the ways that handmade books can be put to use. This way of thinking has already changed how I talk about my work, how I arrange my booth at art shows, and how I encourage students in my classes. I’ve also dedicated a page on my new website to showcasing these inspiring books in action, along with using the hashtag #myusedbook.

For starters, I’ve been looking closer at all the quirky and meaningful ways that my husband and I use books.

When we bought our first home we started a guestbook that began to be filled at our housewarming party and which continues today to hold messages from overnight guests. We’ve printed Instagram photos and bound them in leather albums. And we stash little notebooks in our pockets while traveling.

I keep a garden journal now. My husband fills in a “house book” with all of our home improvement projects and the ongoing story of our home. And I love the colorful sketchbook I made for myself.

We’ve found that keeping these books encourages us to observe our lives a little more closely, and to preserve the things that matter.

In turn, I hope this project inspires others to put their books into action and then share the results with others.

To take part, you can either email your photos and a story to me at linenlaidfelt@gmail.com or post a photo of how you use your book on social media with the hashtag #myusedbook — and you can tag me in it with @linenlaidfelt so that I take note. I hope you will!

See #myusedbook online:

Inspiration page

Pinterest board

Social tagboard