Leave the gun. Take the cannoli – or the recycled denim and polar fleece flower neckwarmer.
When the last thing New Orleans needs is organized crime, Loyola alumna Mallory Whitfield and her colleagues in crime-free design, the New Orleans Craft Mafia, take to the streets wielding jewelry, clothing and other hand-made goods.
The original group, founded in 2003 by a small group of independent designers and business owners in Austin, Texas, served as a network for like-minded do-it-yourselfers. Now the family spreads across the globe, with more than 40 mafias in the U.S. and a few across the pond.
“We thought that’d be really cool to start one here,” Whitfield said.
Rachelle Matherne, Craft Mafia founder, established the New Orleans-based group in June 2005 – though Hurricane Katrina “derailed the launch party,” she said.
Once the group pulled together, the Craft Mafia found a city in support of its blossoming art community.
“It seems like now there is more support for local artists,” Whitfield said.
Whitfield, A’04, started her design career as early as high school, where, with a little help from her mom, she made costumes for her school’s theater troupe.
But by 2004, Whitfield started selling her salvaged-clothes-turned-recycled-fashions at local marketplaces like the Alternative Media Expo, as well as Magazine Street’s former Turncoats Clothing Exchange, which permanently closed its doors after Katrina.
Whitfield sells her reconstructed clothing and accessories through her company, dismantled designs, from brightly stitched denim scarves with neon buttons to fleur-de-lis pins and barrettes, all with a signature worn-in feel and, of course, a DIY spirit.
“I don’t like throwing anything away,” she said. “My materials come from thrift stores, friends’ old clothes, a lot of denim, old pants with holes in them – I use every last part.”
The Craft Mafia thrives on its independent credo, acting not only as a network for artists and craft workers, but also as a way to pull together more interest in local art.
“There’s no rules, no guidelines,” Matherne said. “We make it what we want it to be.
“We work as a group rather than a microbusiness – but more like a support group sometimes.”
MEET THE FAMILY
Whitfield’s company is just one of the many Craft Mafia partners-in-crime.
The mafia, along with other special guest vendors, convenes at its biweekly Crescent City Art Market, hosted at The Big Top at 1638 Clio St., where brightly colored booths fill the art space on Sunday afternoons.
Matherne’s green Kangaroo features resin-based jewelry, including candy-colored necklaces and rings with flowers layered inside clear liquid plastic, or Valentine’s Day candy hearts trapped inside a clear plastic mold.
“Someone told me ‘I want to lick your jewelry’,” she said.
“I tried to do more ‘refined’ jewelry – I tried using sterling- but I just can’t,” she added. “People don’t want to pay for that – there’s not a lot of lower-end, handmade jewelry.”
Self-described “art-and-craftivist” Margaret Coble of Art by Mags! fuses personal politics with street-graffiti stencil. From timely Barack Obama “Believe” prints to fleur-de-lis-branded skull-and-bones clocks, Coble uses recyclable materials – including old vinyl records and scrap wood – as targets for her stencil designs.
Jeannie Detweiler’s comic-book creations from her company Jeremy the Alien Designs come to life as three-dimensional fabric dolls, including multi-colored versions of Jeremy, the lop-eared alien, and stuffed-plush fabric cats and hearts.
Tressa Proctor-King, the group’s newest member, sells her handmade polymer clay beads and charms through her Flambeaux Design Company.
Using colored clay you can bake in your own oven, Proctor-King uses no paint – though she sometimes uses a clear glaze – crafting her popular copper birds and charms and her handmade beads.
Other craft mafiosos include Kelly Claverie of Claverie Crafts, Heather Macfarlane and Mark Kirk of Unique Products, and Kerry Fitts of Bayou Salvage.
SLEEP WITH THE FISHES?
Though Crescent City Craft Mafia Market on May 10 will be the last monthly market before their seasonal summer break, members of the tight-knit crew of vogue gangsters can be found at other local events, including the Freret Street Art Market and the Louisiana Marketplace tent at this year’s Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Alex Woodward can be reached at [email protected].
