Courtney Rile interviewed me about the Craft Chemistry Circles that we host here at C2 (and she enjoys them with us!) for the Cultural Resources Council March Newsletter in honor of March being National Craft  Month!  Check it out:

***

CRC: Who are you and what is Craft Chemistry?
BK: Briana Kohlbrenner – artist and owner
Craft Chemistry is an art boutique showcasing and selling handmade goods and artworks from local artists, crafters and designers from CNY on consignment.
A large wall and a street-level window is reserved for exhibiting a featured artist monthly, that the artist curates.  Space within the shop is also available for artists and crafters to come together and share creative energies through small workshops and Craft Chemistry Circles (C3’s).  There is also a Research Lab for all your design and craft books and magazine needs.  C2 has free Wi-Fi service too!

CRC: What is a craft circle?
BK: Craft Circle’s date back to the 1850’s when (mostly) women would get together and sew.  It is social, productive and a great way to share your ideas and receive advise/feedback on your project.  At Craft Chemistry we enjoy regularly scheduled ‘c3’s’ or Craft Chemistry Circle’s where like-minded people get together to work on their choice of art projects.  There have been a few themed c3’s such as ‘work on your handmade holiday gifts’ and ‘remake old sweaters into something new and useful.’

CRC: How many people are there and what do they usually work on?
BK: 3-6 people working on various individual projects such as knitting, hand sewing, painting, making cards, photo collaging, etc.

CRC: Why did you want to start hosting Craft Circles?
BK: A good friend of mine and I used to craft together all the time.  Since we live 200 miles from each other, I was missing that creative social energy and time that we spent together.  Likewise since living here in Syracuse, I was missing that one-on-one creative connection with others.  I thought why not just create an opportunity for myself and others to meet, create together and grow as a creative family of friends.  I took what I knew, enjoyed and loved – crafting with friends and turned it into something tangible which has filled that void I had been feeling and maybe others have been feeling too!

CRC: Where did you come up with the name of Craft Chemistry?
BK: The name took a while to come up with.  I wanted something that could reach a lot of different people, while being literal and vague simultaneously.  One of the first names that stuck was Sodium Craftide, but I wasnt sure it would reach a wide enough variety of people.   Afterwards I came up with Craft Chemistry because I liked that it still had the science twist, you could abbreviate it as “C2″ (pronounced c-squared) and the word chemistry lent itself to meaning the mixing people, activities, art shop/gallery, etc.

***

Thanks Courtney!

This entry was posted on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 8:03 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.