As always, we will paint as long as we have children in line, but we recommend arriving early enough to shop the other vendors and grab a swag bags (limited quantities available). For more information visit: Handmade Nashville
]]>KnotHead Studios returns for it's second year as vendors for Christmas Village! We are located in building A, in spot 102
Christmas Village is one of the oldest charitable events in Nashville, supported and run entirely by volunteers from the Nashville Pi Beta Phi Alumnae Club. Approximately 250 merchants and 30,000 shoppers from all over the United States participate in this prestigious consumer show. A variety of unique seasonal and gift items are offered, including- toys for all ages, clothing for children and adults, jewelry, home decor, food items, pottery, collectibles, and unusual pieces for the “person who has everything.”
https://christmasvillage.org/
]]>Saturday, October 7th 10am -4pm
Mt Juliet High School
100+ Vendors! Art and Handmade Goods ONLY! Indoors - Rain or Shine. Benefiting Mount Juliet High School Band Boosters. FREE admission! $5 per car parking.
For more information: Visit Craft:Ed
]]>KnotHead Studios officially started in 2016, but the idea for it was simmering long before that. We, (Jeff and Elizabeth) moved to Franklin, TN in 2014 after Elizabeth's father passed away unexpectedly. Prior to that, we had been living in Texas, where we both graduated with multiple degrees in Art, Technology and BioMedical Communication.
Elizabeth was working as a Creative Director for a small education company, as well as working part time as a Makeup and Hair artist for a Bridal Beauty Business. Jeffrey, was working freelancing as a Production Assistant at an animation studio and as a Carpenter for a scenery designer. When Elizabeth's father passed away, Jeffrey inherited her father's extensive wood working studio and they decided to make the move to Tennessee to be closer to her mother.
Once we were established in Tennessee, Jeffrey decided to take his background in carpentry, sculpture and metal smithing and start KnotHead Studios. He found himself with the space, tools and equipment needed to follow his artistic dream. Elizabeth found herself pregnant and tried to help as much as possible. In December of 2016 KnotHead Studios participated in their first event in Franklin, TN
Shortly after the Littlest KnotHead surprised everyone and arrived early in January of 2017. From the very beginning, KnotHead Studios was a family business (with Mumsy as our sales person), and we were very excited to add our Baby Bear to it. We still primarily retail our merchandise at craft shows in the Nashville area, but starting in 2020 our online shop was launched.
Moving forward in 2023 we hope to do at least 1 big show a month during the Spring and Fall with KnotHead Studios, and then participate in a few face painting events monthly throughout the year as time allows. We can not wait to see you this year!
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As I sit here snacking on leftover Halloween candy, I am forced to admit that we are officially deep in the holiday season. As full time crafters, it seems like 6 months of the year are spent preparing for the holidays, and then 3 months are scrambling to keep up. We began Halloween prep this year significantly earlier than in years past, and I do think it worked well for us. We sold out of most of our Fall merchandise, with the exception of a few items in our retail stores. Next year, we will probably carry less Halloween merchandise in stores, and more at our events. With such a short selling season for these items, it just makes sense to put them directly in your hands at shows.
The cooler temps, mean that we are focusing on Winter seasonal decor. Our wooden ornaments have returned, as well as our small Snowmen. We have decided to discontinue or painted ornaments, as well as are large snowmen. The painted ornaments are too labor intensive for their price point, and we would rather focus on the reclaimed wood ornaments. As for the large snowmen, while we love them, they are rather complicated to make, and they seem to be just out of the price range of most shoppers. The remaining stock we have of both of these items can be found at Mill Creek Mercantile.
We have decided to introduce a new Gingerbread Person this year. They are the same $24.95 price point as our small Snowman, and come with a red or green plaid bow. We think they are incredibly cute, and are working hard to keep them in stock for you. There is a pre order option available on our website, and the best bet to purchase one if you can not make it to one of our events.
Our remaining events this year are:
Crafty Bastards- November 6th & 7th
FHS Mistletoe Market- November 13th
Centennial Holiday Show- November 20th & 21st
Handmade Nashville- November 27th
Dickens of a Christmas- December 11th & 12th
We hope to see you at one of our remaining events!
]]>December 11th & 12th- Dickens of a Christmas
]]>Round Jack O'Lantern $24.95
Candy Corn, set of 2 $29.95
Hanging Witch $29.95
Oval Jack O'Lantern $24.95
Black Cat Porch Pet $39.95
To see the full Halloween collection please visit our Fall Outdoor page!
]]>Music Valley Flea & More is September 11th in the Music Valley Shopping Center (across from the Opryland Hotel). Music Valley Handmade organizes this event, and is one of the retail locations you can find our items. There are both inside and outside vendors, as well as food trucks and kids activities.
Autumn at Mill Creek will be held October 9th on the lawn of Mill Creek Mercantile and the surrounding businesses on McGavock Pike in Donelson. There will be handmade crafts, vintage items, food trucks and more. Even better, it is right by one of our favorite restaurants- Nectar Urban Cantina.
Our merchandise can also be found year round inside Mill Creek Mercantile.
Centennial Craft Fest Centennial Craft Fest program will take place in the park on October 23 and 24 at Centennial Park in Nashville, TN. There will be over 100 local artisans, food vendors, Kidsville activities, performances by Musicians Corner artists, and the Oktoberfest Pub.
Crafty Bastards is a two day juried exhibition and sale of handmade goods from independant artists. Located at One C1ty, on November 6-7th, this event is a perfect way to spend the day with the whole family. Food trucks, unique crafts and cocktails make for some wonderful holiday entertainment!
FHS Mistletoe Market is a holiday gift show held at Franklin High School on November 13th at Franklin High School. Free Admission - Mistletoe Market is hosted by the FHS Parent Association.
Centennial Holiday Show is a two day show held the weekend before Thanksgiving at Centennial High School in Franklin, TN. If you love to holiday shop, you will not want to miss this event. The school is over flowing with vendors and craftspeople. There is something for everyone!
Handmade Nashville Holiday Market is held the on Small Business Saturday the weekend after Thanksgiving in Red Caboose Park in Bellevue. This event is presented by Handmade Nashville, and all items must be handmade to participate in the event. There are food trucks to have lunch at, and an AMAZING playground for your kids to run off their energy.
We will continue to update this list as we find out more, and we cannot wait to see you this Fall!
]]>During all of this, Mumsy and I decided to build Gracie a sandbox...because we had nothing else going on. Feeling inspired by a friends DIY raised garden beds, we loaded up our Lowes cart, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.
We lucked out and began this adventure on the same day the landscapers came. We dug some spray paint out of Jeff's workshop, roughly marked out the area and asked them to mow it down to bare dirt. We headed out to pick up our order, and by the time we got back it was all clear and ready for weed fabric!
Fun fact: you cant do curbside pick up of sand or rubber mulch. While Mumsy waited for them to load up our order, I dashed in the store to purchase what felt like thousands of pounds of sand and rubber mulch. One might say math is not our strong suit, and at 50lbs a bag I was confident I probably couldn't lift all the sand we need, so I settled for 9 bags. I about died. It was also like 1000% humidity that day, and I was wearing a mask. 1 out of 10, do not recommend. After loading up all the supplies we headed home for construction...after a snack break and about 2 gallons of water.
Once home the manual labor began...with our tiny assistant of course. We began by figuring out the placement of our sandbox and playhouse. I snuck into Jeff's workshop and used the one saw I know how to use to cut the boards in half. Of course Jeff heard the noise and came down to investigate. Let the record show, I could have done it all myself, but he insisted making the last cut himself (even though I'm pretty sure he was not supposed to be operating heavy machinery.)
Once we settled on the placement, it was time to secure the corner blocks with rebar. Each corner block has 4 grooves for 2 x 6 boards and a center hole for a 1/2 inch piece of rebar. The section of our yard has a very slight slope and we wanted to be sure the blocks wouldn't move...or tumble down the hill below. We were really dreading this part, but Mumsy was able to easily hammer the rebar in place with a mallet.
Once the blocks were in place we were able to finish assembly. We installed the first course of wood to make sure everything was square. Before placing the second course we stapled an additional layer of weed block landscaping fabric directly to the wood. The wood we used was 2 x 6 ground contact lumber. We purchased 10 ft boards and cut each in half, resulting in a sandbox that is roughly 5 feet by 5 feet. We considered going smaller, and I do think a 4 X 4 sandbox would have been just fine, but she does appreciate having the extra space.
With the sand in place it was time to begin the landscaping. We placed a small picket fence along one side to provide a clear delineation between the play space and the rest of the yard. We also chose to surround her sandbox with rubber mulch and the fence would help to keep this contained. In retrospect, we probably would have chosen a different type of fence, and in full disclosure, we are still whacking it in the ground every time it rains, but it works. Our hope is that the fence a long with the rubber mulch will help deter critters from playing in the box when we aren't out there, but we will likely also cover it.
Last up were the finishing details. We weren't originally planning on adding pavers, but after the first night of play, we decide the rubber mulch was a little pokey on the feet. We initially purchased 4 double sided pavers, but ultimately added 3 more. One was cut in half to finish off the space between the patio and the sand box, and 2 were added between the sandbox and the playhouse.
Finally, we decide to add a bit of whimsy with some faux flowers and pots (more rubber mulch). All of these were things we dug out of the garage or attic and totally unnecessary for the function of the play space- we just thought they were cute! I suppose we could have done real flowers, but this way Gracie can play freely, and no one has to worry about letting plants die!
In case you want to recreate this project at home you will need:
8 corner blocks
8 2x6x5 ground contact boards
A large roll of landscape fabric
4 pieces 1/2 rebar 18"-24" in length
20-30 bags of sand
A staple gun, brute strength and a mallet.
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What's different about this shop is that it's not merchandised like a regular "booth" vendor store. All of the items are sprinkled through out and every time you visit it's like a little treasure hunt.
The merchandise also changes seasonally. Right now we have a few of our summer outdoor items along with some of our other best sellers.
Often times, we will try out new products here as well! Or sometimes we will take unique items that fits a very specific buyer. We love seeing what is popular at this location as opposed to what is popular at our shows.
We do always try to have some of our more popular items in stock though! Sometimes, if we are out of stock on our website or in our booth, you can still luck out in the store!
If you haven't been by, we hope you are able to stop by soon. After finishing up a little inventory and organization we are working on restocking a lot of fun new times next week!
]]>Earlier this week we found out due to COVID-19 and the increase cases the city of Nashville was forced to roll back to phase 2. Unfortunately this limits gatherings of people over 25...something that definitely wont work for a craft show. So the switched to a virtual format!
Each vendor will have 10 items highlighted on their Facebook event. Depending on the vendor, you can purchase through the Facebook event, or like us, you will be able to purchase directly through their website.
We have submitted some of our new outdoor items and some our favorite regular items to be featured. Be sure to RSVP to the event to be notified when it's happening and to see what other artists will be sharing!
]]>My dad was a story teller. He loved to tell a good joke, or share an obscure piece of knowledge that sounded so outlandish you were positive he was making it up. However, it was totally true and part of what made him such a good story teller was how smart he was. He had a life long dream of becoming a published author and was always reading, learning and researching new things for the novels he was working on.
As a child he would take me on Father-Daughter camp outs. While the other dad's did the cooking and the beer drinking, my dad was the story teller. He was the dad that stood around the campfire late at night weaving magical tales out of his imagination, sometimes combining historical facts from things he'd read, or just pulling from his life experiences (to this day, part of me still believes that Moatengators are real).
But back to our name. That's why you're here after all. The answer is, our name comes from my dad. KnotHead was the name of one of the characters he made up in the stories he told me. We always talked about him writing them down, and me illustrating them, but we never did. To be honest, this is one of my biggest regrets.
After he passed away in 2014 he left behind an entire workshop full of woodworking equipment. Along with writing and photography, wood working was one of his favorite pastimes. We used to refer to it as "making little pieces of wood out of big pieces of wood."
Jeff had always been into sculpture, and one of the things him and my dad had in common was their mutual love (and respect) for power tools. Prior to our move from Texas he got a degree (one of many) in Sculpture and Metalsmithing and worked as a set builder. When we uprooted and moved to Tennessee to be with my mom, he decided to honor my dad and name the business after him. We wouldn't have the workshop and equipment if it weren't for him (and my mom, our roomie and that lady you see in our booth- but that's another blog post), and we both felt it was fitting to name it after one of my favorite memories.
So there you have it. It's not a wild and crazy story. Just a tribute to a wonderful man who is very much missed.
]]>March saw our shows being canceled, and us scrambling to increase traffic to our social media pages. We did okay with our Easter merchandise, thanks to friends who shared our products, and we luckily were able to sell through all of our seasonal stock.
April saw even more shows being canceled and postponed. We began to consider what are business would look like without in person events, but weren't really even sure what that would look like for us or where to begin. We were still hopeful that once summer came, things would return to normal, so we took the time to come up with new product ideas, and spend more time crafting and creating at home with the littlest Warner.
As May and June arrived we realized things were not going away or return to normal anytime soon and so we made the decision to focus on e-commerce as well as finding new retail locations to place our products. We hope you will join us along the way as these two artists leave our comfort zone and branch out on new adventures!
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