DEPART-ment

Liz had heard about a local event called DEPART-ment: a collection of locally-made, hand-crafted items. Originally, she was considering submitting her own work and getting some space to sell her books. But, time ended up being a factor, and she decided to wait until the next time around.

Tonight, we went out to dinner and stopped over at Open End to check out the event. If the floorplan looks a bit familiar, it’s the same space where the You Are I Am exhibit took place (and the photoshoot, too).

The setup is pretty neat: no actual purchasing takes place at each booth. Rather, the vendors are there to hang out and talk about their stuff. If you like something, you go to a designated area with registers… and pay there. An interesting variation on the whole shopping process.

The event goes on all weekend, so if you’re around and are interested… swing on by.

Big crow. I took a shot of some really fantastic shadow puppets near here, but the turned out too blurry to use.

Lots of knitted items. Made by proud knitters.

Luchadors!

The bunny was what caught my eye, and totally cracked my shit up.

There was a nice mobile hovering above the entire floor, composed entirely of origami swans. This image doesn’t really do it justice.

Random shot – Liz, browsing.

I talked with one of the guys who runs the space, and got permission to walk up a flight of stairs to take this shot. He was a bit nervous about me going up there, as the top of the stairs just… sort of ends, and drops off into nothing. I promised I wouldn’t sue if I hurt myself, and got a nice little bird’s-eye view of the whole floor.