Click on those lil’ images to make em’ bigger.

We decided after tons  of traveling, crazy no sleep, and a ridiculous amount of retail/wholesale orders that we could stay at a convenient & nice hotel for this outdoor show. it’s across the street, and super swanky. there were some hula hoops in the lobby and elijah asked what they were for. the hotel is having a promotion- if you hula hoop for 20 seconds they’ll upgrade you nicer room. so of course he did it, and now we have a suite with a kick-a jacuzzi.

apparently it snowed a ton in asheville also, it may snow like… 2″ a year there, but this weekend they have about 15″. i am SO bummed we missed it Stacey took this photo, she is checking on puppykitty cause the electricity went out. i think the wreath fell a bit…

Urban Craft Uprising did a lil interview with us a while back, here it is! You can see it on their blog, which has lots of other interviews by other vendors. If you can’t go to the show, you can definitely find some great people to shop from for ALL your handmade Christmas gifts, they’ll all be handmade, right? Well- mine won’t be i guess. unless you know someone who makes remote control helicopters (don’t tell elijah!).

i’m on my way to minneapolis for th NoCoast Craft-O-Rama. right now i’m sitting at the charlotte airport waiting for my flight. i didn’t sleep for 38 hours the past two days so i could finish all the work we needed to get done. it definitely helped, but we were still scrambling and i still need to finish the jewelry when i get to my hotel. same goes for elijah, he’s heading to Seattle tomorrow for the Urban Craft Uprising. i’m also getting a cold. luckily my flight is straight to minneapolis so i can sleep on the plane. yay for window seats! we’ll post some photos of the shows and let you know how they’re going. if you live in the area definitely come by. I’ve heard NoCoast is amazing, and I know that UCU is.

Our friends & figs affiliates Jen & David will be doing the Boston Bazaar Bizarre on Sunday for us. Stacey will be doing the Big Crafty here in Asheville. Both great shows!

I’m meeting up with Elijah in Seattle Saturday night, then we’ll be taking a trip to Vancouver, BC to explore, eat yummy food, and relax for 2 days. We’ve never been, so if anyone reading this has, let us know of some great things to do, please. My plane will be boarding soon, and i have to pee. so goodbye for now! xoxo-rhonda

Sat & Sun

Circle Bunny Earrings $45

Another coupon! In honor of ‘cyber monday’, a term i oddly enough didn’t know about till 3 days ago, we’ll give you a 20% off coupon. Just type in    figsheartsyou09    when your checking out. Now… some new goodies! We’ve actually had these for a while, I just finally got around to getting them on the site.Click the photos to go right to our site.

Circle Fawn Earrings $45

Circle Lovebird Earring $45

Circle Love Bunny Earrings $45

Hey & Happy Thanksgiving! I guess the Holiday Season has begun officially. Yay! To kick it off, DuckDuck Collective just posted our mini film and I wanted to share it with you all. I don’t think we’ve got a super huge blog following at this point, so if you happen to stop by and leave a post about what you think by Monday 11/30, we’ll give you a 40% off coupon for our shop. Be sure to include your email so we can get a hold of you.

In this video you’ll see my metals studio, our messy laundry room, a quick walk through our tiny home, and The Wolf-our vintage pink & teal trailer office/jewelry assembly space. Crashdog is the cutest thing ever so check him out. I told Elijah I kind of look like MR. F in this video, he just laughed.

Tell your friends and have a great weekend!

Hey! We just sent out an email to our lovely e-mail list. If you want to buy something by Black Friday you’ll get 35% off if you join the mailing list! Super dope, right? When you sign up just see below in the Archive emails and you’ll find the email. Shop small business & shop local friends! Click here to sign up, or go to http://FigsandGinger.com

Speaking of shopping local, Hello Craft just sent this awesome list of indie craft shows. Check it. Figs will be at the starred shows. Come and say hi!

Saturday, Nov. 28th

Art vs. Craft
Milwaukee, WI
Saturday, Nov. 28th

*******************************Renegade Holiday Craft Fair: SF
San Francisco, CA
Saturday, Dec. 19th
Sunday, Dec. 20th

click below to go see the video

Jess Gitner is a recent graduate of Georgetown University, where she studied Political Economy and American Musical Culture, and has only recently realized her dream to work in radio. She cut her teeth as a Production Intern at The Bob Edwards Show and now spends her days interning in NPR’s Music Department. She also serves as Blog Editor, and occasionally Audio Engineer, for Intern Edition. In her spare time, Jess enjoys riding her bike in the city, writing songs, and enjoying a craft beer with friends.

Men Of Craft

Craft shows are no longer just for the ladies. Men discover their artistic sides in the Indie Craft scene.

Men Of Craft- the article written out minus the parts not about elijah…

Online arts and crafts marketplace Etsy.com reports that out of hundreds of thousands of sellers, only four percent are men. Is the number really this low? I decided to see what things looked like on the ground. On October 3rd, I hit the streets of Washington, D.C. to attend the annual Crafty Bastards Arts & Craft Fair.

I was confident I could find some men to talk to among the crowded network of booths, but I quickly realized I possessed no talent for sniffing out men. I approached several booths that seemed manly-one sold prints and pins of U.S. presidents. I eagerly approached the man behind the table, but he directed me to his sister next to him. She was the crafty one, and he was just helping for the day. (… )

I left Claasen’s table to find Figs and Ginger, a jewelry company I’d heard about earlier. Reportedly, a man was involved with the operation.

“As a guy in the indie craft scene, I’m definitely a minority,” says Elijah Wyman, co-owner of Figs and Ginger. “As guy in the indie craft scene specifically selling jewelry, I’m in the vast minority, if that even makes sense.”

Wyman runs Figs and Ginger along with his wife Rhonda, and he’s experienced the perks of being a man in arts and crafts.
“We’ve noticed that I sell jewelry better than my wife, Rhonda, does, because I can give an honest compliment without any fear of it being strange or catty,” he says. “It totally works. Sometimes we have this superstition where if we’re not selling, we’ll just have Rhonda leave.”

Most of the men I talked to admitted that being a man in craft attracted extra attention to their businesses, but they also admitted holding down other jobs. Scott Robinson, a soap-maker from Bunny Butt Apothecary, gives private yoga lessons. And Nick Nocera, a t-shirt designer from Allison Rose, is an art teacher at an elementary school. Elijah Wyman and his wife Rhonda, though, are able to work full-time making eco-friendly jewelry.

“Both her and I work full time at this and this is our only living,” he says. “We pay our mortgage with this. We make a good middle-class living off of what we do.”
Wyman thinks there will be more men in arts and crafts soon, citing changes in popular culture. It is becoming more OK for men to pursue traditionally feminine crafts, like jewelry-making.

I never did find the “man booth” at Crafty Bastards, but I did find a few men, along with their female partners. Maybe in the world of arts and crafts, there’s a wrinkle to the old adage: Behind every woman is a strong man.

We heart Farm Sanctuary.  We created these limited run necklaces using Farm Sanctuary’s logo, and they sold over 60 of them this week! When we get these cute lil’ guys back in we’ll be sure to post them for sale on our site too. They’ll have the trademark dark patina like our other pieces. Portions of the sales for this piece will go straight to Farm Sanctuary and help out all their darling rescued farm animals. Check them out!Pre-order the necklace here!

here's their logo

:A little about Farm Sanctuary:

Farm Sanctuary works to end cruelty to farm animals and promotes compassionate living through rescue, education and advocacy. We envision a world where the violence that animal agriculture inflicts upon people, animals and the environment has ended, and where instead we exercise values of compassion.

Hi everyone, It’s Stacey here for another blog post.

So, Rhonda and Elijah are on a little vacation this week celebrating Rhonda’s dad’s birthday. My husband, Lee, dropped them off at the airport in Asheville and we thought they’d be lounging by a pool with a drink by that afternoon. Later in the day I heard from Rhonda saying that their flight was delayed and they missed their connecting flight! They were stuck in Atlanta for a day. While stuck in Atlanta they were given a terrible hotel room and vouchers for a couple of bad restaurant from the airline, what an awful start to a vacation! Let’s all hope that they have the best time once they get to the resort and have a chance to relax, we all know small business owners hardly ever get a break. Rhonda and Elijah were even calling me from the airport asking how everything was going.

While they’re gone I’m here in the Wolf working alone. Although I do have Crashdog and Puppykitty keeping me company. I’ve been getting things ready for the holidays. Getting chains for necklaces and earring hooks blackened, prepping display cards and all of those little extra things ready for when we need them. Can you believe how close the holidays are? The year will be over soon!

Today Lee is visiting for a bit while he works on some things for the new project on Rhonda and Elijah’s land and we’re enjoying the nice weather that has miraculously shown up after all of the rain this week. This weekend we might be going to an adult prom in Asheville, with a photographer and everything. Maybe I’ll even get a corsage. Enjoy your weekend everyone!

Don’t forget that we’re on twitter too: FigsandGinger and Stacey_C_

We’ve got these adorable rings all posted and ready for sale! You can go to our Figs Shop or our Etsy to buy them if you like em’. We sadly had to say goodbye to our Tiny Fawn Ring though, his lil’ legs were to prickly and scratchy. Meet the newest members of our Forest Family!

Tiny Bird Ring

Tiny Bunny Ring