News

Tickets are on sale now!

Oh yes, early bird tickets for the 2018 Midwest Craft Con are on sale NOW! Click here to get your ticket on Eventbrite. Midwest Craft Con runs from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon, Feb. 16-18, 2018, at the Embassy Suites Dublin, about 20 minutes north of downtown Columbus, Ohio.

Our theme for 2018 is Never Craft Alone. We are moving to a new intimate setting located about 25 minutes away from downtown Columbus to the concrete cornfields of Dublin, Ohio. Our headquarters will be the Embassy Suites Dublin, which is going to be more affordable for our Conners and offers perks like free parking and breakfast!

The Midwest Craft Con is a three-day retreat for mid-career crafters, makers and creative business owners. The conference includes inspirational keynote addresses, thought-provoking panel discussions, hands-on workshops and business-focused breakout sessions from experts from Ohio, the Midwest and beyond.

kathy cano murillo, kelley deal, gemma correll, midwest craft con keynote speakers 2018

Our keynote speakers for 2018 are the Crafty Chica herself, Kathy Cano Murillo, knitter and Breeders rockstar Kelley Deal, and cartoonist and pug parent Gemma Correll!

Breakout sessions will include expert advice on everything you need to know about running your small business, from marketing and social media to legal and accounting advice to ideas for stoking your creativity. Speakers joining us in 2018 include Stephanie Dyke, Betsy Greer, Vickie Howell, Mei Pak, Alison Rosen, Tara Swiger, Kim Werker and Adrienne Wiley! Plus we are adding more craftivities, LOTS of DIY workshops, midday stretches, pool activities and and all the googly eyes you can handle!

What’s included?

Three days of sessions, panels and keynote speakers, plus fun maker-centric activities and ample socialization time. Your ticket to Midwest Craft Con gets you 24-hour access to the Embassy Suites. The Embassy Suites offers free breakfast and a happy hour every day, and parking is free, too! Note that you’ll be responsible for paying for your own room and meals that aren’t included.

When you register, we’ll send you a confirmation email with a link to reserve your hotel room. We highly recommend staying on site, as events will go late into the evening, and our contract is contingent on our people booking rooms. We’ve negotiated a special price of $99 for attendees, and you must book through the hotel reservation link to get this rate. (The suites sleep up to six people!) We’ll also invite you to join our private Facebook group for Midwest Craft Con attendees, where you can find someone to share a room with if you’re coming on your own!

We expect early bird tickets to fly away, so do not wait to grab your three-day-pass at the discounted rate of $199. There are only 100 tickets available at that discounted rate; after early birds sell out, the full-price ticket is $249. Get your ticket here!

Advertisement
News

Cool as Kelley Deal, the Rockstar Knitter

kelley deal breeders, crafter, keynote speaker, interview

I’m beyond stoked that Kelley Deal is one of our keynote speakers for Midwest Craft Con in 2018! I’ve been trying to get this multihyphenate Midwesterner to join us since we started, and I have finally succeeded! Even if you don’t immediately recognize Kelley’s name, if you were conscious in the 1990s, you will recognize this bass line:

(That’s Kelley and her twin sister Kim Deal playing “Cannonball” as The Breeders.) In addition to being a rock star, Kelley Deal is an accomplished knitter who wrote a book and sells her upcycled scarves. Plus she’s still touring with the Breeders and R.Ring, and has a zillion other projects. She’s Midwestern and proud of it, living in her hometown of Dayton, Ohio, again to take care of her mom. She also happens to be good friends with both past conner keynote Chris Glass and famous internet cat Lil Bub. Here’s what it’s like living the dream:

How did you get started crafting?

My mom and father are both born and bred West Virginians. I remember my mom always sewing, our clothes, our curtains. It wasn’t considered hokey or kitschy, it was highly respected and an art form that was passed down. That’s how I got introduced to it.

Now my mother has full-blown Alzheimers. But recently I pulled out the quilt that she and I made when we went to Ben Franklin’s in the 1980s and took quilting classes because she wanted to learn how to make quilts better, and I didn’t know how at all. So I laid this quilt on her lap, and I knelt in front of her, and we were looking together, talking about the different parts of the quilt we made together. It’s just such a wonderful gift to share that. There’s something about this crafting thing that brings people together in a way that I don’t fully understand.

I was in Amsterdam in the mid-’90s, and I was sober at the time, and nothing was good on TV and I couldn’t read anymore. I had to have something to do with my hands. And the girlfriend of the drummer of the band we were touring with taught me how to knit. I made this really weird sweater, and I never really finished it, but it got me hooked. It was comforting. It was something my brain could deal with when I was starting to overthink. And then later when I was living in Minnesota, a roommate of mine was having a birthday, and I thought I’d make her a felted bag. Obssessed again! Later I met Vickie Howell, and she invited me to do her show, Knitty Gritty, and my project was this purse I knit and felted. And after that we kept in touch and she helped me work on a book that got picked up by Lark Books. Now it’s coming full circle, and I’m going to be on Vickie Howell’s new knitting show!

What’s your favorite thing about the Midwest?

The people. They’re good at work. Less talk, more work.

What would you be if you weren’t a musician?

I would be an artist. I’d have a studio and an easel looking over a river and covered in paint. I say that as a dreamscape — I can’t draw. Or I’d be a forensic coroner.

What’s it like being a rock star?

Serendipitous. It’s weird, because I don’t know. People say, “What’s it like being a twin?” And I’m like, “What’s it like not being a twin?” It’s hard to answer. I remember when MTV was playing Cannonball all the time, it was very different being a rock star on MTV then, with Nirvana and the Smashing Pumpkins. People came up and said hi. You were in the public awareness. Rock stars today are sports people or real housewives.

What three things would you recommend to makers?

  • I really like the Sartorialist because he makes me rethink texture and color should be.
  • The artist Paul Klee. His color work is breathtaking.
  • I love podcasts, especially one called American Fashion. I love hearing about other people’s processes and learning about fashion and how it’s changing. It makes me think about things differently. I also love The Conversation, this guy who talks to fine artists about process and the art economy.

What will you talk about in your keynote session?

Chris Glass said the crowd at Midwest Craft Con was amazing, and that you were so receptive. I’ll be talking about me and my journey — music and crafting and selling stuff online. I’m looking forward to it!

Rock out with Kelley Deal at Midwest Craft Con in Columbus, Ohio! The event is Feb. 16-18, 2018, and early bird tickets go on sale August 1!

News

Save the Date for 2018 + Keynotes Revealed!

Midwest Craft Con is back! We are returning to Columbus, Ohio, in 2018 for our third Con with three days of programming and three amazing keynote speakers!

Write it on a Post-It, save it to your phone’s calendar, wrap some yarn around your finger… whatever you gotta do to remind yourself that Midwest Craft Con is happening Feb. 16-18, 2018, and early bird tickets will go on sale August 1!

Our theme for 2018 is Never Craft Alone. We are moving to a new intimate setting located about 25 minutes away from downtown Columbus to the concrete cornfields (it’s a thing) of Dublin, Ohio. Our headquarters will be the Embassy Suites Dublin, which is going to be more affordable for our Conners and offers perks like free parking and breakfast!

And now for this crazy amazing lineup… are you ready? Our keynote speakers are:

kathy cano murillo, kelley deal, gemma correll, midwest craft con keynote speakers 2018

SERIOUSLY! We are still pinching ourselves. And we’ve still got a whole lineup of breakout speakers to announce, plus we are adding more craftivities, LOTS of DIY workshops, midday stretches, pool activities and and all the googly eyes you can handle!

We expect early bird tickets to fly away, so do not wait to grab your three-day-pass at the discounted rate of $199 when they go on sale August 1. There are only 100 tickets available at that discounted rate; after early birds sell out, the full-price ticket is $249.

Once you secure your ticket, you’ll get all the details of how to reserve your room as well as access to our secret Facebook group where you can hang out with other creative business owners all year round. You can find a roommate/new best friend in the group, too.

Sign up for our newsletter to get a reminder when tickets go on sale! No one is going to craft alone this February, and we hope to see you in 2018!