Roger Dorsey, of Lancaster.

I recently put a call out on Twitter to find out if there were any artists/crafters here in PA that would like to share a day in their life. Alicia of Weezawear nominated her friend Erin of Krug’s Eco-Logic and I’m glad she did! Erin creates amazing bath and body products, all while being a mom. Enjoy a day in her life!

6 am – kids are both up

6:15-7:15 – make breakfast and get both kids ready to head out the door to drop my son off at school

7:30 – drop son off at school

7:45 – (about 3-4 times a week) hit up the gym for a quick run while my daughter is in child watch (a great time for her to get some child-child interaction).

8:00 – daughter and I head home, change, organize everything for the day

8:30 – with two year old in tow, run errands (post office to deliver packages, grocery store, doctor’s offices, etc…). If no running needs completed, this is the time I get to play with my little angel.

9:45 – 2 year old gymnastics class once a week.

10:15 – head home

10:30 – make lunch for myself and the little one, clean up lunch

11:00 – daughter lays down for nap (if I’m lucky) and now it’s time for some work! I take a quick scan of the house and pick up toys, or vacuum, and then throw some laundry in the washer quickly.

11:30/45 – 2:15 – make soap, lotions, labels, send newseletters, update website and blog, respond to customer emails, and package up any orders from the day before.

2:15 – get daughter ready to pick son up at school

2:30 – pick up son and head to the post office to deliver packages I packed earlier in the day

3:00 – arrive at home and review son’s homework and papers from school, get children snacks

3:30 – clean up snack time, read books with kids

4:15 – start dinner

4:45 – eat dinner and clean up (quickly update facebook fan page, or twitter)

5:30 – take son to Tae Kwon Do (answer some quick customer emails while watching son)

6:45/7:00 – head home

7:00 – quickly toss kids into the bath and get snack (quickly update facebook fan page, and twitter)

7:30 – start laying kids down for the night (reading, singing, story time)

8:00 pm – time for more work! Continue soaping, taking inventory (making sure # of products in online shop are available for purchase), answering more customer Q’s, updating twitter and FB fan page. In between while I’m waiting for oils to melt I throw in more laundry, fold laundry,  and do little odds and ends. If I ever have to sit and wait for something, I’m finding something else to do in the mean-time.

11:00 pm- on a GOOD day I get to lay down now and watch my FAVORITE show – The Office, and have a quick snack before I fall asleep.

Michelle is a graduate of Albright College with a B.A. in Visual & Apparel Merchandising. After years in the fashion/ retail industry, she is now a WAHM. Michelle is a self-taught jewelry designer and owner of Michabella Creations.

Last week, I put out a call for stores, shops and galleries in PA that carry handmade crafts for sale. With thanks to the HiP community, there’s now nearly 100 listings on the Handmade in PA Google Map.

I’m ecstatic! But I know there’s many, many more than 100 galleries, shops and stores in PA selling handmade crafts. Lets make this something bigger and tap into the power of the collective. I think we can easily double or triple this list. What do you think? You wanna help? Its easy. Here’s how…

1. Think of your neighborhood brick & mortar store carrying handmade.
2. Go to the Handmade in PA Google Map.
3. Type the gallery name and/or street address, city in the search bar.

Once you find the shop or the address, you can add it to the Handmade in PA Google Map by doing the following steps:

1. Click ‘Save To…’ under the map listing (see image). You may need to make a Google account if you don’t have one already.

2. Then make sure ‘Handmade in PA – Map’ is selected from the dropdown and click ‘Save’ (see image)

3. You’re done! I’ll take it from there and add the special shopping bag icon and then sort it into the bigger HiP map listing. And it’ll look like this:

If the above is just too much work, I still love love love receiving emails about shops at nick@pacrafts.org, tweets to @handmadeinpa or comments below with name and address, city.

And by all means, rate the map and leave reviews for the shops and galleries. Go to the HiP Google Map and click ‘Rate this map‘ in the top left corner.

Thanks everyone.

Update: I’m still accepting addresses (leave them in the comments below), but due to a Google Map error the map is replicating information over each of the 100+ listings on the HiP map. I had to remove open collaboration for the time being. I’ll update everyone once its back online. Thanks for the dozens of submissions today. And cross your fingers this gets resolved or we’ll have to start over. Sigh.

The Oil Heritage Region is an area in Northwestern Pennsylvania that includes Titusville, eastern Crawford County, and Venango County.  While a name like the Oil Heritage Region may conjure up images of abandoned Rust Belt refineries, there’s a vital arts and crafts scene supported largely by the Oil City Arts Revitalization project headed by Joann Wheeler.

1 – National Transit Building – Part of the Oil City Arts Revitalization project is the remaking of the historic Transit Building into a studio for visual artists, filmmakers, musicians, and fine artisans with open studios every second Saturday from noon to 5:00 pm. The building is also host to Arts in the Transit, a concert series on the second Friday of the month. 206-210 Seneca Street, Oil City.

2 –  Campbell Pottery Store & Gallery - Just north of Titusville (and, strictly speaking, not in the Oil Heritage Region, but too good to miss) is the Campbell Pottery Store & Gallery.  Bill Campbell has been elbow deep in clay for more than 25 years.  Today his is the largest art pottery gallery in Pennsylvania.  Walking into the gallery is to be overwhelmed by the color and crisp perfect shapes.  The gallery also sponsors annual glassblowing demonstrations with Herb Thomas, a Day Lily festival, and more.  25579 Plank Rd., Cambridge Springs, 814-734-8800

3 – Finally, at the southern edge of the Region is DiVani Chocolate.  I first went into this chocolatier’s retail storefront on a hillside just 50 yards off Foxburg’s Main Street on a whim and found an oasis of designer chocolate, chai tea, truffles, fudges, marshmallows, caramels, and seasonal specialties.  Now they have a branch at the Liberty Galleria (Liberty St, Franklin)  in my town which makes getting my fix a lot quicker. 22 N Palmer Ave, Foxburg, 888.763.4826

4 - Alice Walkowski is a metal clay artist working out of the Transit Building.  I hadn’t even heard of the medium before I dropped by her studio, but by the time I left, I had signed up for one of her workshops to create my own pathetic piece of jewelry.  Walkowski ’s work, however, shines with technique and narrative – each piece it seems has an extensive backstory which adds the charm of these, well, charms (and rings, and pendants).

Where would you go from here? Share your favorite handmade stops in the Oil Heritage region in the comment section below.

Next stop? Philly! Send in your favorite stops today.

Let’s get some fresh! Subtle, worn, and neutral fabrics and vintage images can be so fresh! stay tuned for more fresh {did someone say “fresh?”}

1. handmade denim cuff bracelet by bbbellezza $10

2. organic canvas fabric- LULU by daisyjanie  $64

3. vintage doily and button pillow by brandeye  $32

4. recycled OZARKelopes from vintage historical book by Sanguinaria  $12.50

Kate, along with her husband, bring together farm, food and design at The Steel Fork. They also design and create sculptural metalworks using recycled farm machinery – Gatski Metal. Kate is also the mother of two busy little children.

Kim Blatt Woodturning, of Fleetwood.

barefoot hippie print by stephanie corfee

paper collage print by 111 collage design

art quilt by andrus gardens quilt

all handmade in pennsylvania and found through the HiP flickr pool.

The most frequent question I get related to this blog is: Where can I find and buy handmade crafts at a brick and mortar store in my hometown?

Buying from a a brick and mortar does three things immediately:

1. You support your local community (3/50 Project for how it works)
2. You support your neighbor artist
3. It just feels good – and that’s important

To help everyone accomplish this task of handmade shopping nirvana, I’m pulling together a Google map of shops, galleries, museum stores, gift shops, consignment shops and everything in between that sell Pennsylvania-made art & craft in Pennsylvania.

I need your help. So what makes sense for inclusion on this handmade map? Only physical locations that sell Pennsylvania-made craft (no restaurants or coffee shops). Please leave your favorites below in the comments section or email me (nick@pacrafts.org) if you’re feeling particularly helpful. All I need is the name, street address and city.

If you want to help more closely on this project, shoot me an email. Setting up a Google Map is way easy and I can share it with a group of contributors. Happy shopping.

Editor’s Note: I made a few updates to this post. I added the links to the map, which wasn’t ready to show at the time of the original post.

1 – Surface Artist Cooperative currently features 7 women. When you go to the co-op, you can find jewelry, pottery, fused glass, paintings and greeting cards for purchase. But you might also walk into an infant photo shoot, an internet knowledge class or pottery being thrown. The space has so much energy and there is something new daily, you can’t expect anything less from 7 ladies :) Surface Artist Cooperative is an old barn style building near the historic town of Lemont. Each of the “stall” type spaces houses a different artist.

2 – The Art Alliance of Central PA serves students, artists, and the art-loving public in Centre County and beyond. Also in Lemont, the Art Alliance is a non-profit organization that provides the community with workshops, exhibits, camps, classes and so much more.

3 – The Creative Oasis is a six thousand square foot non-profit public studio offering art classes for children and adults. Centrally located in State College’s vibrant downtown, the downstairs gallery features artwork from dozens of local artists. The Creative Oasis is entirely staffed with volunteers dedicated to keeping art education affordable in the Centre Region.

4 – Tait Farm – In addition to Tait Farm’s sustainable and organic fruits and vegetables, the Harvest Shop also carries more than 50 regional artists. You can find gourmet treats including chocolate, cheeses, chutneys and breads. The Farm is quaint, the staff is always friendly and the Taits are genuinely passionate about great food and their community.

5 – The Gallery shop located in the historic village of Lemont and has been in business for 22 years. The Gallery Shop features original art and craft work from about 50 Central Pennsylvania Artists. Adjacent to the Art Alliance of Central Pennsylvania you will find fused glass, stained glass, jewelry, wearable art, pewter, pottery, painting, fiber, woodwork and much more.

Where would you go from here? Share your favorite handmade stops in State College in the comment section below.