This guest post is written by Kathleen Conner, who graciously offered to help document this grand opening of this event for me while I was out of town.
I first heard about Crafted At The Port Of Los Angeles from a Dave several months ago (Thanks Dave!). I signed up for their Facebook posts and have been counting down the days till the opening. Crafted is a permanent marketplace for crafters and hand-made artisans that is open three days a week year round.
I love this concept. I’ve looked into local antique malls and retail spaces but they are all too expensive and risky for a novice vendor. I’ve participated in local craft fairs and have attended every other handmade/art event but Crafted is a whole new arena for crafters and artists and provides so much opportunity for us little guys to expand our businesses.
What I like most about Crafted is that they’re renovating two 1940’s warehouses. Currently there are about 100 vendors in the first building and will grow to about 500 in each warehouse. The location has an awesome ocean view and the surrounding area is being revamped as well.
Some artists who use paper and printing as a medium that stood out are Anon-y-mouse (anonymouseprints.etsy.com) – great prints, handmade invitations, bound journals and art pieces; Urban Octopus (urbanoctopus.com) – love his designs, great on shirts, prints and stationary; same with Circles & Squares (circlesandsquares.biz) – moody silhouette art, stationery and prints; and Meagan Segal (meagandsegal.etsy.com) has some beautiful prints of her original drawings and paintings.
The majority of the artists at Crafted are very unique and talented but some need to work on their stuff and displays. I’ll be sure to return in the future and expect to see a whole different place. I’m super excited about it. I only wish it were closer to my house. Maybe I’ll start one of my own. 
Kathleen Conner is an artist, designer and mother of two, among other things. She runs Katch Studios, an Etsy shop where she sells creative stationery and prints and vintage finds. She also has her own blog where she documents all aspects of her creative life.
Hi! I'm Dave and this site is about art, design and how to make it work for you. If you're an artist or a designer and you're looking for help getting your work to market, come along and we'll learn something new together.
