Bookin’ Progress: Craft Lake City Kid Row Artisans

With the largest number of vendors to date, The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival Presented By Harmons returns to the Utah State Fairpark with an exciting variety of homegrown DIY-ers. In the following pages, we’ve highlighted some craft foodies, inventors, performers, vintage curators and members of the next generation of artisans that will be participating in this year’s bustling event. Check out craftlakecity.com for more information about The 14th Annual Craft Lake City DIY Festival

Sisters Irie and Maisie create homemade sketchbooks from their drawings, finding inspiration in their favorite things like koalas, Kauai and their family dog, Barnaby. “The process is simple,” says Irie—they pick out all of the pages they want in the book, draw a picture on the front, decide how they want to bind it and then their mother, Kristin Baird, helps bind the books. The sisters’ scrapbooks then hit the market.

Maisie and Irie hope customers find their work inspiring. The covers depict illustrations of foxes in trees, adorable animals with sparkling eyes and wise words from two kid artists reminding buyers to be themselves. 

These two sisters create uplifting gifts, and each sketchbook is made with affection. Irie says her favorite part of drawing is to envision her finished work before any bright utensils hit the page. Maisie says her favorite thing is the circulation of joy from artist to buyer. “I like that it makes me kinda happy because I’m making something. When it gets to a person, it also makes me happy,” she says. 

The sisters’ advice to other young artists is to be true to yourself. “If you’re going to do anything with art,” Irie says, “try to get inspiration from the things and people you love.” Maisie adds some superb advice: “I would say be yourself and do what you want to do.”

Read about past Kid Row artisans:
Animal Club Jewelry: Craft Lake City Kid Row
Mary Ann Jensen: Craft Lake City Kid Row