Crafty Manolo

As much as we love to craft on our own, there’s nothing like a good technique class to help broaden horizons, pick up new skills, and correct bad habits. Heck, just the chance to be in a roomful of people who enjoy using their hands to create things can be a breath of fresh air!

But sometimes you don’t know where to look to find a class. That’s why I sat down and found some courses where you can learn new techniques and hone old skills.

First up is the illustration above. It’s a quilt. The title is Big Sur in May, and it was created by quilt artist Judith Baker Montano. It’s pretty spiffy, isn’t it? In point of fact, I think it’s pretty breathtaking. Well, as it turns out, Ms. Montano is holding a workshop in quilting land and seascapes in May through the Madeline Island School of the Arts in Wisconson. The class is four days long and costs $620.00. See here for details on the class and how to sign up.

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Sometimes we give and receive lessons in the oddest ways. I think I was about sixteen when I heard one of my brothers giving his friend a lesson in waltzing… over the phone. That’s not something one would normally expect to be able to pick up without some sort of visual or active demonstration, but it did work. I know. I danced with the friend and he did just fine. Not that I’m the best waltzer in the world, but I’d done the dance more than my partner had!

And so it is with craft works. Sometimes you meet up with someone, start talking, and discover you know how to do a craft that person wants to learn. Suddenly, despite the fact that neither of you has the necessary tools or the correct surface or any of the materials… you just start the lesson anyway.

In trying to explain bobbin lace to the uninitiated, I’ve drawn diagrams (which do point out my desperate need for a good basic drawing class!), manipulated straws at restaurant tables, and even once showed some basic technique by taking a bit of my own hair (still on my head) and using that to show the movements of the threads. It was one of the few times in  my life I’ve been so grateful to have uncurlable hair. It showed the movements pretty clearly.

So how about you? Have you ever demonstrated or taught technique in a really unconventional way? In a really strange place?

Tell me all about it!

Darlings, I’m sorry I didn’t get to my recap on friday the way I normally do. Due to a series of unforeseen and very nearly surreal circumstances, I didn’t get to sit down and watch the episode myself until… well… this morning.

The episode begins with Austin doing Kenley’s hair as they gossip about the latest elimination. Pretty much everyone seems to have been a bit thrown by the judges sending Rami packing. In general terms, I do agree with them that it’s sobering. In specific terms… yeah, that outfit was heinous on levels it doesn’t bear to contemplate. As much as I was hoping Rami would make it to the finale, I would have been a bit shocked if it had gone any other way. Still, Jerell is happy because this means one of his strongest competitors is gone and he’s that much closer to winning… he thinks. Honestly, while he’s got his opportunity and he might surprise the heck out of me, I don’t see him being the big winner. Then again, he could prove me wrong. It’s happened before. Gretchen did beat Mondo in their season, where I would have dumped her and her designs about halfway through the competition.

But I digress. Let’s get back to this episode, shall we?

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This is Ami Amour, for those of you not familiar with her blog devoted to all things amigurami. She’s getting married in june (best of luck and all happiness, Ami!) and has a dream of a fabulous wedding gown. In fact, she’s entered a contest to win said fabulous gown by Enzoani. The contest is being held by the design house and in order to win, Ami will need to get the most ‘likes’ on the Enzoani Facebook page for her video explaining why she feels she should win the gown.

It’s a mermaid gown with a detachable strap and… well, it’s the dress on the amigurumi in her hands, there. In fact, that doll is how she expresses her desire for the gown in her entry video. It’s entirely hand crocheted by Ami except for the lace ruffle at the bottom of the skirt.

So go to Facebook. Like Ami’s video. It’s the seventh one. She’s wearing a blue shirt and holding the doll. Right now, she’s in fourth place, but we have until Feb. 27 to change that.

What say you? Shall we help a crafty lady win her dream dress?

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!!!!

Oh. Sorry. I forgot for a moment that this denizen of the ‘Pop Tab Forest’ (forsooth!) isn’t scary.

No, really, his creator assures us he isn’t:

He’s not really scary. He’s been to the dentist and has been fitted with braces!

Yeah, right. Pull the other one. It’s got bells on.

I notice there are no explanations given for the exposed ribs, though. Are they for her pleasure? Or are they just a rather disturbing piece of evidence that this monkey is created out of pop tabs from soda cans?

Anyway, if you find it less disturbing than I do, you can go to Etsy and buy the pattern for just $3.99. Oh, and you can you can totally make your money back. No, really, she says so:

Any item you make from one of my pattern you may sell!

You cannot sell or give the pattern away!

I have to say I’m not so certain you could sell the finished monkeys… but then I do own a collection of Ed Wood movies, so I really don’t have much wiggle room to talk, do I?

Mmmm… pretty colors.

It’s fun to have lots of pretty colors of yarn to play with. Whether you plan to knit, crochet, or do massive string art with it, color is an integral part of the charm of your finished product.

But not everyone loves to do the actual dying. Sort of like the way not everyone wants to spin the yarn. And of course there is that learning curve when you’re playing with techniques, but can’t count on the best results, yet.

And that’s where the aptly named Decadent Fibers comes in.

They carry a wide variety of yarns in natural fibers, such as: merino, silk, organic cotton, and mohair. Some varieties do contain a small amount of nylon to help keep the shape of the finished product, but it’s just a touch.

Best of all, every kind of yarn they sell can be custom dyed. Sure, they’ve got a lot of great colors they make every single day, but if you don’t find what you want there, you can request the color you need and they will create it for you.

Don’t want yarn? If you’re looking for roving to spin or felt, you can get the same great range of colors.

Need something to do with all this yarn/fiber? They also carry a range of books, patterns, and kits to get you going, including their one-skein knitting projects.

Then again, maybe I’ll just splurge on a few skeins to fondle when nobody else is looking.

(Image via Alphamom, where you can find links to this and several other attractive, kid-friendly Valentine’s projects)

Happy Valentine’s Day from Crafty Manolo!

And if you can’t be with the craft you love, honey, love the craft you’re with.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, and we all know what that means. Flowers, chocolate, prix fixe meals at restaurants we rarely can scrape up the funds to go to, and… well, all that usual stuff.

Me? I like the chocolates and flowers. Mr. Twistie and I usually go out for dinner the night before V-day, but he’s been seriously overworked and exhausted this year, so I’m going to take the opportunity to make a really nice home cooked meal for him this time around. Then I’ll tell him to go the heck to bed early and get some damn rest. Sometime in March it will probably occur to him that he didn’t take me to a fancy meal and he’ll take me out then… when I can order whatever I please and the restaurant won’t be overstuffed with people. That suits me just fine.

But for those of you celebrating in a very slightly less unconventional way, there are still options to make the day special.

The first of these comes from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, where you can find full tongue in cheek instructions and a photo tutorial on turning an ordinary heart-shaped box of Valentine’s candies into a fun way to present the love of your life with tiny fiddly electronic components. It’s simple and versatile. After all, if your love doesn’t want transistors but would love bits of festive colored rovings, some good sewing needles, or other small crafts supplies, this would work really well for that, too.

And for those of a more traditional bent and reasonably good kitchen skills, Epicurious has Jacques Torres’ fabulous chocolate truffle recipe filled with great hints and yummy alternatives.

Either way, this is probably better than a drugstore teddy bear holding a red satin pillow that reads ‘I wuv you beary, beary much.’

Well. The fur certainly flew in last night’s episode of Project Runway All Stars!

Sniping, trash talk, mutterings in corners… we expect all of these. But accusations of plagiarism? Not so often.

Let’s talk about it behind the cut, shall we?

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I don’t know how many of you out there are fellow southpaws, but my parents knew pretty much the moment I emerged from the womb that I was a dyed-in-the-wool leftist… er… leftie. Any and all political leanings came much later in life. Probably my first political act (and it was an accidental one at that) was when I was five years old and I inadvertently convinced the principal of my elementary school to order left-handed scissors for all the classrooms.

Anyway.

We who are wired the other way ’round have had to face a lot of challenges in life. One of the most annoying to me is the fact that when there’s a craft we want to learn, we’re often forced to either do it with out less agile right hands, or we have to sit down and figure out how to turn everything around to work with our dominant hands. Things have gotten better over the years, but I must admit that one of the things that really appealed about bobbin lace to me was the fact that it doesn’t favor one hand or the other. Both hands are used pretty equally throughout the process. As long as I have a pair of scissors I can use in my left hand (and those are nearly universally available now!) I can use any book, any pattern, any tool I can lay my hands on.

But what if you want to learn something that does make more use of one hand than the other? What if you’re not good at turning things around mentally? What if your right hand just doesn’t have the necessary dexterity for the craft in question?

Well, I’ve found a few good resources to help you learn some of these crafts.

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