| Patterns by Eva Revolver I love patterns! I think that my love of patterns comes from growing up in a house that had crazy wallpaper in every room. I would spend endless amounts of time staring at the wall looking for the repeat. (Yes, I was a strange child.) Some of my favorite patterns come from the mind and the hand of Eva Revolver. Her flickr set of patterns captures my imagination, and keeps my attention with amazing detail and creative surprises.Read the Full Story » | More on CRAFT » | blog.craftzine.com |
How-To: Skull Plates These skull plates from Mark Montano are a fun way to add a little extra style to your table setting. Better yet, the techniques Mark uses could be applied to any design of your choice. Thanks, Diane! Read the Full Story » | More on CRAFT » | Comments » | Read more articles in Home Decor | Digg this! blog.craftzine.com |
Fiber for Felting Join fiber guru Brookelynn Morris at Williamsburg's fiber shop, The Yarn Tree, in Brooklyn NY for this week's CRAFT Video. She provides a great overview of fibers for felting.Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the m4v video directly, or watch it on YouTube.Shop proprietor Linda LaBelle does a bunch of outreach to traditional fiber arts practitioners around the world, and is preparing for an exciting trip to Oaxaca, Mexico:Last year many of you helped to fund my trip to Rwanda where I had the privilege of working with 10 genocide widows teaching them natural dyeing and weaving. On September 3rd, 2010 I will be making another trip, this time to Oaxaca, Mexico.I will be working with a group of native weavers, most work on back strap looms, teaching them a technique called Ikat. This is a method of tying off the warp yarns prior to dyeing to create a pattern. I will also be teaching them how to make a chemical indigo vat using natural Oaxacan Indigo. There are areas where the climate is not appropriate for a natural ferment indigo vat. Learning this skill will enable them to dye with indigo whenever they wish.I will spend three days working with the weavers at the museum. The following week I will have the opportunity to visit each weaver in his or her village. I will get to see the work in progress, photograph and interview the weavers. At the end of the week the weavers will return to the museum where we will conduct a show & tell/Q&A.Ikat has a history in Mexico, although it seems to now be a lost technique. This will be a new skill for the weavers and the hope being that they will be able to create new and beautiful textiles that can compete in today's marketplace thus bringing in more income. In turn these weavers will then be able to pass their new skills on to their fellow weavers.You can support Linda by making a tax-deductible donation.In the Maker Shed:Feltique by Nikola Davidson and Brookelynn MorrisRead the Full Story » | More on CRAFT » | Comments » | Read more articles in CRAFT Videos | Digg this! blog.craftzine.com |
Travel Crafty Shanghai (Pictured Above: Carol Chyau and Marie So of Shokay)By Rebecca KanthorAn international city in its past and present, Shanghai's architecture and style has so many design influences from around the world and China that your eyes will keep busy trying to catch them all. It's a design-oriented city, but you have to keep your eyes peeled and think like a local sometimes in order to find and appreciate it. If you don't mind bargaining and hunting about, there's a chance you'll find crafter's heaven. These are some of my favorite haunts.Read the Full Story » | More on CRAFT » | Comments » | Read more articles in Crafty Travels | Digg this! blog.craftzine.com |
How-To: Felt Flower Bouquet A beautiful, bright felt flower bouquet like this would be a welcome addition to any tablescape or bookshelf. Sara of Creative Jewish Mom shows how to make several different kinds of cute felt flowers to then arrange as a cheerful, long-lasting bouquet. And because I have Halloween on the brain ... I'm thinking it could be equally fun to make a felt flower bouquet from nothing but black and charcoal grey flowers for a cool Halloween decoration. Read the Full Story » | More on CRAFT » | Comments » | Read more articles in General | Digg this! blog.craftzine.com |