Meet Kristi East and Nancy Kocher from Lil Loops Boutique...
My name is Kristi East and I am a stay home mother of 3 wonderful children. I grew up in Boston, Massachusetts but later moved to Akron, Ohio and met my husband my second semester at The University of Akron. We have been together ever since and we have been married for 14 years. We just moved to Solon, Ohio last year and we love the community and schools here.
As a young child at the age of 3, I have always been fascinated with art in every aspect...I would try everything I could. At the age of 8, I noticed my Grandmother always knitting and crocheting and making these adorable baby booties and afghans. I wanted to learn, and with her loving patience I seemed to catch on quickly and learned the basic of knitting and crocheting. Crocheting was an on and off again hobby through the years and it wasn't until I had my own children that I started to take it seriously. I wanted to make a memory crochet blanket for each of my children for their keepsake. When I had my last child we were blessed with a little girl and I wanted to expand my crochet skills to another level and learn new stitches and patterns so I could make lots of “pretty” hats, sweaters, booties, and more for her. I went on Facebook to show off my work and I received a huge response from my family and friends. They all gave me the confidence and encouraged me to enter craft shows and start a website to sell my hats. So, I took a leap of faith about two years ago and started my small business "Lil Loops”.
My kids are always my inspiration as well as my customers who customize their hats, baby sets or whatever they wished. My love of yarn has been my obsession and I love the texture, colors and my freedom to design. It truly makes me feel excited that there are kids and adults wearing my Lil Loops collection and looking so stylish and playful at the same time. Last year I met the sweetest woman, Nancy Kocher, the owner of "Maw Maws Fine Stitches and her daughter at one of the craft shows and we instantly connected. We recently decided to merge together and take our creative skills to another level and work together as a team. We now have the opportunity to dress newborns to preschoolers from head to toe and we are excited to see what playful, fun and comfortable outfits we can come up with together.
Our work is professional, trendy and we use the highest quality materials on all our projects. We are both very excited to participate in the Avant-Garde Art &Craft Show for the first time. Our wish is to grow together as partners and make beautiful outfits, hats and more. We want our business to expand and make our customers happy with our never ending one of a kind collection. We make all our products with love and we want to share the love of our work to the world. We are so thankful for the support we have received and will continue to keep going as far as can take it.
My name is Nancy Kocher and I run "MawMaws Fine Stitches". I am from Ashland, Ohio, born and raised and still living here with my husband and a few of my children. I am the mother of four children, who are all grown up and living on their own. My family is everything to me and I am so proud to be not only a mother, but also a grandmother as well! I sew clothing and make outfits for children, mostly for little girls, but I can do boys outfits upon request, and also make clothing for babies as well, and other items such as hand bags, cases for iPads, Kindles, Nooks, Bibles, and other things, burp cloths, baby care package holders, baby silky blankets, adult skirts, headbands, bows, quilts, and many more items upon request.
I have been sewing and making outfits and such for about two and a half years so far, and I love doing it very much so. This will be my very first Avant-Garde Craft Shows to both attend and to be a part of, so I am very excited about being able to participate in it.
My main inspiration for making outfits is my Granddaughter Sophia, who calls me "Maw Maw". And also just the idea of being able to make clothes for other people's little ones, and being able to make unique outfits out of extraordinary fabrics and neat designs, it really inspires me on almost a daily emphasis to make unique outfits and designs and help make people happy, especially when they order something specific or when I make them something special just for them.
I began sewing and making outfits about two and a half years ago because of my granddaughter Sophia. I was always wanting to buy her cute dresses and shirts and outfits, but they were always so expensive that I knew I wasn't going to be able to continue doing that forever, so I decided to try and see if I could find a different, less expensive, and more unique way to make her outfits and dresses and such, so I decided to go out and buy a sewing machine and begin sewing. I didn't have any formal training other than like three classes which showed the basics of how to use the machine. But as far as learning how to make the outfits and follow the patterns, that all rested upon my shoulders alone. I would like to say that it came super easy to me, but I would be lying. It was hard at first to learn to read the patterns and figure out how to make adjustments to fit the person or style that I wanted because sometimes I would like the pattern but want to change it just a little bit to make it my own.
The more and more I kept sewing and making more outfits, dresses, and shirts and stuff for Sophia, the more I found that this was my true passion in life. I really felt in my heart that this is what God wanted me to be doing and so far He has blessed me in providing for everything that I needed in order to accomplish all that I needed to, from providing the money to purchase the various fabrics and threads needed, to buying ribbons, my Surger Machine, Tape Machine, and anything else needed to accomplish the work at hand, although to me it’s not truly work, it's a fun craftsmanship that I have learned to do. The more and more clothes and outfits I made for Sophie, the more and more I realized that this was something that I could really do and that I was good at. Also, the more people who saw my work kept on encouraging me to continue doing this because they felt and thought that I was really good at it so I listened and have kept on sewing away! It's always neat finding new ideas and unique ways to dress up a simple outfit or piece of clothing, it's very rewarding.
In 5-years or so I see myself being partners with Kristi East who runs "Lil Loops", and crochets many different types of hats, gloves, and other things that are needed for babies on up to adults. We are just now beginning to merge our ideas and products together in order to be able to dress your children from head to toe in the most adorable hats, clothes, and more. Kristi and I met about a year ago at a local craft show here in Ashland and immediately hit it off and she has become a very important part of not just my life, but of my whole family's lives too. We feel that by partnering together it will enhance the number of customers that we are able to reach and help us to make the best contributions to society and to parents of young children by making things that they need and selling them at more reasonable prices.
Our message is that we want to be able to create the best and most unique designs of clothing, hats, and much more for your children and babies that are out there and do so in a timely manner and reasonable costs to the customers. After merging, our official name will be called "Lil Loops Boutique."
Meet Tracy Grant from Unprecedented...
I am currently a stay at home mom who is working on creating a career for myself. I started on Etsy in 2011 before my son was born. Life happened and I strayed away from the site. I have just returned in March 2013. Being creative is my way to find peace within myself.
This is my first Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show and my second craft show. I have my fingers crossed. My inspiration for the bottles came when I noticed how much of the glass bottles and bottle caps were being tossed in a dumpster heading for the landfill. That is when I thought I can do something. Now days inspiration comes from chasing and watching my 2 year old.
I hear many times that it can’t be done the way I am thinking. That is what drives me to do something different. In 5 years I am hoping to continue a high quality customer service. Being able to support my son and myself finically would also be welcoming. I am hoping that I can continue to develop new ideas and products.
Many of these bottles are handmade, which I what to show case. I did not know that until I started repurposing the bottles. New creations come about by playing with items. I what to create beautiful pieces that makes a place in a home rather than the landfill. I enjoy thinking out of the box and create special orders.
Thank you to everyone who help me move forward! Have fun in life.
Meet Glenn Wozniak from Wood Glass N Stone…
After being a mechanical designer for 20
years and owner of a small construction company for 10 years besides a few
other endevors, I purchased a large dump truck and was hauling materials
including timber for the Amish where I acquired quite a bit of oak and cherry
boards.
So after I retired, I decided to make custom
tables and cabinets using solid wood frames using granite tops and
stain glass. I have done woodworking and stain glass for 25 years. My wife and
I are both retired and she makes custom jewelry designed after American Indian
designs.
I have been thinking on opening a small store
but I cannot quite get the business to allow that. All my items are made from
solid wood and furniture grade plywood-no particle board or MDF.
As shown on my web site Woodglassnstone.com I will make small stain
glass items to the 16 foot long 5 piece entertainment center shown on the page
header. Custom pieces are no problem. I can make an AutoCAD drawing for you. This
is my first Avant-Garde show but I have been in a couple shows in Arizona where
we spent 3 months in the winter.
Meet Jan Lewis from PSPendants.com…
I live in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio with my
husband of 30 years and our two rescue cats. I enjoy reading, cooking, podcasts, NPR and nerdy
interests of all kinds. I’m a science and history buff and
love learning new things. I’m interested in just about everything and
always try to keep a sense of wonder about the world. I have been doing this for about a year and a
half
I really get a kick out of seeing other
people enjoy my work and give them as gifts to others. Now I understand why
people enjoy stamp collecting, which I used to think was duller than dirt.
They’re art and history and geography all rolled into a tiny little
masterpiece. So, I’ve taken the stamps out of the albums and turned them into
unique and beautiful necklaces that you can now wear! I feel like I
can bring a little joy into someone's life very inexpensively.
My work is dedicated
to the memory of my Mom, Madelyne Shugarman. When she passed away suddenly in
June, 2011, I had way too much time to think and cry. I needed something to
distract me and keep me occupied.
I had seen these
beautiful glass tile pendants at art shows, and thought “I can learn how to do
that”. I found a tutorial online that showed how to make them using decorative
paper.
I had so much fun,
that I wanted to keep making them. But I had to find the perfect medium for the
images. Then it hit me, vintage postage stamps from around the
world!
I am an avid Ebay
buyer and had seen thousands of “off paper” postage stamps that were
really pretty. I always had it in the back of my mind that I could do
something with them, like decoupage a lampshade or something! I ordered a small
batch and was off and running.
The message behind my work is: Life is short.
Try to find joy and wonder everyday and keep close to the ones you love.
Meet Wendi and Elora Agsten from Birds and Bags...
Here's our story: Birds and Bags is a mother- daughter team of crafters. Mom, Wendi, is a home grown seamstress; daughter, Elora, is a full-time student at the College of Wooster, who just returned from a semester in Greece. Both of us were inspired in our love of birds and crafting by my mother, who is no longer with us to see the outcome of this inspiration. She had walls covered with bird arts and crafts and a basement full of crafting supplies waiting for a project to come along.
The "Birds" are little sculptures, desk buddies, and holiday or wedding decorations. They are made by a labor-intensive process called needle-felting with roving wool. Many are inspired by birds we have observed ourselves and make great gifts for any bird watcher or lover of all things cute and fuzzy in your life.
The "Bags" are upcycled placemats transformed into one of a kind clutches, totes and handbags. Placemats are matched with decorative linings out of a copious supply of scrap fabric, fashioned into handbags, given handles and hand-decorated with beads, flowers and trims.
This is only our second year in business together and will be our debut at Avant-Garde. Elora opened an Etsy shop with her birds after finding her love for creating them only grew with time. Though she has encouraged her mom to do the same, we compromised on attempting a joint business- her birds, my bags. Birds and Bags has made some adjustments and added a few things over the course of our first year. Some other birds have joined the needle-felted ones, like clay bird pins fashioned after the felted ones. On the bags side, anything sewn is possible; we are currently featuring narwhals- unicorns of the sea.
Currently, Birds and Bags is serving as a wonderful excuse for mother-daughter time. As Elora enters her junior year of college on top of working jobs and internships, our time together becomes scarce. With this little business, we have the perfect reason to create things that we love as well as spend time together.
There may be more than one message behind the work we create: that quality items are still made by hand, that a love of nature can create beautiful things, that anything ordinary can be made extraordinary. But perhaps primary among them is that the love between a mother and daughter can pour into everything we make. And that's what we hope to present to you: quality handmade goods that we put our love and souls into.
Check out these featured vendors at the 2013 East Side Summer Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show. This eclectic show will feature over 100 of the most talented artisans and crafters. A portion of the show's proceeds will be donated to the Cleveland Animal Protection League.
2013 East Side Summer Avant-Garde Art & Craft Show
Sunday, July 21, 2013, 12:00pm-5:30pm
Terry Macklin Entertainment & Event Centre
I am a recent graduate from the Fashion Design School and
Kent State University and currently working on my own jewelry and knitwear
designs. I have been making my own creations since I was in High
School and have been selling my designs since then. This is my first year participating in an Avant-Garde Art & Craft show! 
