Featured Seller; September 25th

Tell us a bit about yourself:

I'm a 25 year old geek from England. I'm a massive comic book geek and a secret movie buff, but video games belong to my heart the most. Due to a chronic pain illness, I am forced to lay down/sit down for long periods of time. So I decided to make myself some geek pillows to rest on.Unknown to me, I created The Comfy Geek and people seem to love it.

What is your most geeky attribute:

I literally eat, breathe and sleep geek. I have a semi-serious relationship with my gaming consoles. I've named my car Hank Mccoy (Beast from X-Men) and dream one day it will turn into a transformer!

What made you want to become a crafter/artist:

I have to rest a lot for my illness, so I wanted something really cool to look at while while I'm resting other than floral patterns. So I researched online for geek cushions. There just wasn't anything that suited my love for everything geek.
My wife then popped in and asked "You could make something to your own taste!" and I did. I made myself 2 Halo characters because I'm a huge fan of the Halo series and a web show called 'Red vs Blue'. At the same time, my little brother was moving to university. I was so proud of him (being the only brother of three to make it to university) so I made him the Stormtrooper pillow to show how proud I am of him. He was in awe over it. The pillow became the talking piece of his roommates!
I thought, there are a lot geeks living in their homes, who want to show their love for gaming, or comics, or movies and I could help them. So I created The Comfy Geek to help decorate their rooms a little more personalized.
I needed to work to occupy my hands and mind, and being ill forces me to sit or lay down, so creating cushions became my perfect outlet.

Aside from crafting, what are your hobbies and interests?

I love gaming. It's my passion. If I could game 24/7 I would be a very happy little geek. When my consoles need to cool down, I read comics/manga, watch comedy shows/, anime/movies. But it's most fun is when I hang out with my wife and daughter.

Who or what has influenced your craft the most?

My wife to be honest. She is a fellow crafter herself and she inspires me to think outside the box. I run to her with any idea that pops into my head, and we brainstorm together on how it's possible to create that idea.The Comfy Geek wouldn't exist without her.

What is your favorite artistic medium?

A good colour of felt that's easy to cut. Love it.

If you could spend the day with one person, who would it be? Why?

Other than the people I already spend the days with. I would give my arm to spend a day with Dave Grohl. He has been my idol since I was 13. But to satisfy my inner geek, I would choose Cliff Bleszinski, creator of Epic Games. Cliff is my favourite developer in the gaming industry and is really down to earth and so energetic. I would love to met him in the flesh.

What is your most cherished possession?

Easy, I was given a sewing box for my 25th birthday this year. It has two Japanese characters on it from one my favourite anime shows, Samurai Champloo. Designed by my wife and created by my little brother. I would honestly run back into a burning building for that box.

What is your long term goal as an artist?

My goal is to help any geek who wants to decorate in their style. To know that my work can create a cushion for a gamer to jump up and down when they celebrate in victory, to jump and hide behind in fear, or just to rest their head against after a 3-4 hour raid is enough reason to create more gear.

     

Go check out The Comfy Geek for awesome geeky accessories and home decor!

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Featured Seller; September 16th, 2011

Steph Cortes, nerdJERK mastermind!

Tell Us A Bit About Yourself
A crafter and video game nerd from way back in the day, I'm a 28 year old San Francisco native that likes to bite off way more than I can chew:
- I caregive for my grandma full time and my mentor part time
- I'm a Team Leader for the SF Etsy Street Team
- I'm the Chair of the I Heart Art: San Francisco Etsy Initiative
- I'm starting a part-time retail job on Tuesday
But most importantly...
- I'm the Master of Geekery at nerd JERK! Hi, I'm Steph Cortes.

What is your most geeky attribute?
Other than wearing my favourite cat-eye glasses, it'd probably be playing out of date video games. Despite the trend having already passed, I still love music rhythm video games. I've been in love with Harmonix since Amplitude and I've been purchasing their games ever since, including Karaoke Revolution and Green Day Rock Band (I also own The Beatles RockBand - don't hate, bros!). Whenever I find myself in a bout of nerd rage, the only cure (other than more cowbell) is electronically rocking out.

Young Steph, with a love
of all that is 'crayon!'

What made you want to become a crafter/artist?
When I was a little kid I was obsessed with crayons but really what I was obsessed with was colors. Crayons just happened
to be the way that I got to create art at the time. Later on in life, I was shown different ways to manipulate textiles through crafts. Then I found my passion was putting a twist on retro imagery, focusing in on old-school video games.

Aside from crafting, what are your hobbies and interests?
Aside from crafting, I don't have time for hobbies or interests. ;D But on the off chance that I do have time, some good indie music and films make my heart skip a beat. My top 5 go-to flicks are:
Royal Tenenbaums, Harold and Maude, Mary and Max, Stranger Than Fiction, High Fidelity (hence the Top 5 lists)
And then as far as music goes, I'm pretty limited to the bands that were put on my mix tapes for the last ten years. My top 5 favorites are:
Beatles, Beck, Spoon, Elliot Smith, Death Cab For Cutie
Fun Fact #1: I used to sing and play guitar in a band, but I've never made movies.

Who or what has influenced your craft the most?
This is kind of a difficult question for me because there have been a lot of humans that have influenced me. I guess the best answer for that is San Francisco and Etsy. It took me a year to get into the local craft scene, but once I was in, I had found my family for life. The community in San Francisco is super supportive of all creative entrepreneurs. So I guess I fed off of all that support and allowed my inner geek to shine. Other influences include: Nintendo, Book Stores, Thrift Shops, Grandmas and The Internets.

Steph's plethora of yarn!

What is your favorite artistic medium?
That's another tough question as I've got so many favorite artistic mediums! I'd have to say that my focus has always seemed to gravitate towards textile arts. I love yarn, felt, embroidery floss, needles, hooks and my newfound love: the glue gun. If all I had to do for nerdJERK was craft, I would be a happy lady. Unfortunately, that is not the case as administrative duties are increasingly taking up most of my time. I would say if I could craft more than 25% of the time, yarn stores would be out of stock.



If you could spend the day with one person, who would it be? Why?
Ira Glass. Hands freakin' down! Top 5 reasons I would want to hang out with Ira Glass:
1. Because he wears foxy glasses.
2. He lives in Chicago and I've always wanted to visit.
3. I'd love to be on his show because This American Life is awesome.
4. I'd like to know more about the type of Journalism he does.
5. I would ask him how it feels to be a celebrity because of the way that podcasting has made him an international household name.

Fun Fact #2: I hope one day to do my own podcast, but I'm too chicken to start it up!

What is your most cherished possession?
At the moment, my favorite possession is my iPad because I've been able to get so much done that I normally wouldn't be able to do on my ancient computer. Also, Pandora works lovely on it. And I can take it with me anywhere I am crafting.

What is your long term goal as an artist?
I feel that artists are always evolving, so while I'm currently excited about my new retro imagery collections, I hope that I can create more sustainable art focusing on something other than Nintendo characters. Some of the ideas that I've had for future soft scultures would be actual nerd jerks (based off pissy Mission hipsters in San Francisco) and DIY craft kits.
I would love to be included in a few art gallery shows focused around cult pop culture themes. Last year I was really inspired by a couple of exhibits that focused on cult movie classics (Harold and Maude, The Big Lebowski) and even indie film directors. If I could do a whole set of amigurumi sculptures of the cast from The Royal Tenenbaums, I'd consider my life complete.



You can check out more of nerdJERK on various interweb sites! Go do it, I know you want to!
s.h.o.p. www.nerdJERK.etsy.com
b.l.o.g. www.nerdJERK.blogspot.com
f.a.n.s. www.facebook.com/nerdJERK
p.i.c.s. www.flickr.com/photos/nerdJERK
t.w.e.e.t. www.twitter.com/nerdJERK
n.e.w.s. www.eepurl.com/ZtWA

A little preview... ;)

To get everyone a lil' excited, here's a sneak peak at our very first featured seller!

Welcome!

Welcome to Geekish Crafts. This blog is going to be solely about promoting awesome handmade goods and Geekery. (And some awesome things happening in the geek world every now and then.) The picture to the left is of a few of my own items I've had in my shop, Make It Sick!, and gives a good feel to what I'm interested in as a consumer.

I hope this blog grows into something entertaining and keeps you coming back for more. 

Thanks for stopping by, and come back soon! :)