Ping Wu at the American Craft Council Show

I try to go to the American Craft Council Show every year, but have been negligent of late. I prefer to attend the wholesale days, when the crowds are smaller and I can chat more with the artisans. When I read that Ping Wu (season 7 Project Runway designer) was going to be selling her wares at the Baltimore ACC show, I made a point to attend this year. Although she was cut early from the competition, I could see that Ping is an extremely creative person and I was eager to see her offerings in person.

Not only is Ping creative, but she is a very, very clever gal. Her line of transformable winter accessories is astounding. She's created scarves that can be worn five different ways and as a hat. And as a shrug. She makes gloves/mittens with iPhone users in mind. Her knitted hats are unusual and adorable. As is Ping. Check out some of her designs at PingWuDesignStudio.com.

Ping is one of the sweetest people I've met in a long time. We chatted about selling wares on the Web, about her work, and basically everything except Project Runway. We did speak a bit about her experience with the various sites that allow viewer comments, and she expressed pleasure at the fact that Blogging Project Runway insists that only positive comments be left on posts about designers. Cuz the BPRs are nice like that. :)

Now I'm eager for her to get back home from her visit to Baltimore because I want her to make me one of those groovy convertible scarves (one not shown on her site...and patent pending!)