Crafty Manolo

Chances are you have a toaster on your counter. Most people do. I have one. I don’t use it every day, but when I do I’m glad it’s there.

It’s humble and ubiquitous and nearly unnoticed by most of us on a day to day basis.

And one day  Thomas Thwaites, a graduate student at the  Royal College of Art, decided to make one for himself from scratch.

He could have just gone down to the hobby shop and bought a kit and called it a day, but he wanted to make it a school project, too. He wanted to make it really from scratch. As in he wanted to create all the components from their base materials.

The Toaster Project is the book born of this concept detailing his year long, nearly two thousand pounds sterling effort to make a simple device for heating bread, much like the one he could buy at a local store for roughly the equivalent of six dollars and pocket change.

Along the way we see him smelting steel using instructions from a fifteenth century manual translated from the Latin by Herbert and Lou Hoover some years before they became President and First Lady of the US of A, making plastic in his own kitchen (do not try this at home, kiddies!), learning to extract copper from water, and getting hopelessly lost in the Highlands of Scotland searching for mica.

It’s a humorous and Quixotic adventure with an engaging guide and scads of useful illustrations. It’s also available in paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon.com.

Do yourself a favor. Read it before you try to make your own microwave oven.

If you’ve been reading this blog for any time, you know I have a passion for the history as well as the techniques of crafting. I own several antique books on various needlework techniques, reprints of a great many more, and some fascinating pamphlets, as well. One of the bobbin lace patterns I used for my wedding gown was taken from the oldest known printed collection of bobbin lace patterns, dating back to 1559. It was a pretty – and surprisingly complex! – edging, which I really enjoyed making.

So when I find a good cache of patterns, books of instruction, and historically significant pamphlets available online, I just have to share the wealth with my fellow enthusiasts.

The Antique Pattern Library is a fabulous resource for the modern practitioner of antique needlework techniques. It’s a completely free collection of antique and vintage books and pamphlets for techniques ranging from knitting and crochet to quilting, bobbin lace, tatting, needle lace, beading, embroidery… almost anything you can imagine. Each book or pamphlet is in PDF format for easy downloading and use. There are literally hundreds of resources on this site and every single one is free.

Some of the names listed as authors are familiar to those of us who love antique needlework: Therese de Dillmont, Isabella Beeton, Butterick, Coats and Clark, and the Red Cross. Others are less well known, but have equally interesting and inspiring patterns to play with.

Oh, and if you have an out-of-copyright book or pamphlet in your needlework collection, consider offering it up so that another needleworker out there can have a chance to do the patterns. You’ll find all the information you need to do so right here.

Now this is a suitcase that won’t get easily lost or mixed up with someone else’s at the airport! What’s more, you can make it – or something quite similar – out of random junk you may already have in your home. If you don’t, you can easily get it at any garage sale or swap meet you happen across.

You see, all you need for this project is a hard sided plastic suitcase, some patterned fabric (in this case a print of the Virgin Mary and some floral motifs), and some Minwax Polycrylic. Not religious? No problem! Pick a floral, a great skull image, or just a cool geometrical motif. It’s all good.

And that, my friends, is the philosophy behind Mark Montano’s The Big-Ass Book of Crafts 2, where you can find more thorough instructions for this suitcase and more than 150 fun projects made of random odds and ends.

The projects range from the practical (a fabulous bejeweled backsplash for a bathroom sink, and a wide selection of homemade bags and purses) to the whimsical (my personal favorite is the corset composed entirely of zippers), to the downright disturbing… but in a harmless way (those baby doll head salt and pepper shakers will probably haunt my nightmares, even though they make me giggle).

Whether the random stuff you have on hand is wooden hangers, zip ties, buttons, colored paper, scraps of wood or fabric, old eyeglasses cases, ribbon, beads, bottle caps, newspaper, or tin scraps, you can find plenty of ways to use them up with this book. Most of the projects could be easily finished in an afternoon, too.

But the really great thing about this book and the other two in the series (The Big-Ass Book of Crafts and The Big-Ass Book of Home Decor) isn’t the specific projects, though they are weird and wonderful in their own right. No, the really great thing about them is that they help you see the potential in the random, the cast off, and the humble. That means these books are a great jumping off point for your own imagination.

Whether your personal taste runs to the bizarre or the gently understated, the silly or the profound, there’s a lot you can do with the discarded to make your life – and those of your friends – more charming and more unexpected.

And at just $12.81 and free Super Saver shipping if you spend over $25.00 on your whole order ($9.99 in the Kindle edition), it’s even inexpensive enough to leave you the money for that bag of baby doll heads on your next visit to the flea market.

Have you been thinking about taking up tatting? Rebuilding rusted skills? Teaching someone to play with a shuttle or two? Then hie thee over to Angel Babies. Yes, I know, the name doesn’t say anything about tatting, but that’s what the site is all about.

From basic instructions to individual projects to slightly more advanced instructions to books of patterns, you’ll find everything you need to get you started, restarted, or ready to pass on the gentle art of tatting to a novice. Everything – including the books – is aimed at the beginner.

For my part, I’ve never attempted the art, but I have to say those dragonflies are tempting me to try something new!

Many of us who craft also enjoy giving back to the world, I find. But what if you’ve been looking for a way to intertwine the two concepts?

Get thee to Amazon and snap up a copy of Craft Activism: People, Ideas, and Projects from the New Community of Handmade and How You Can Join In. Okay, the title is wordy times eleven, but the ideas involved more than make up for that.

Inside you’ll find seventeen clever projects to make, but more than that you’ll find ideas for using your projects to make the world better. This book will help you do everything from organizing an online craft exchange to organizing your own crafts fair. That’s quite a bit for a book that costs just $22.99.

But wait! There’s more! If you get it from Amazon right now, it’s just $15.63!

In 1922, Farmer’s Wife Magazine polled their readers: “If you had a daughter of marriageable age, would you, in light of your own experience, have her marry a farmer?”

More than seven thousand readers responded with letters, discussing their lives candidly. Now the best of those responses have been compiled into a book, along with the quilt squares inspired by them.

The Farmer’s Wife Sampler Quilt offers you the chance to read the unvarnished thoughts of farm wives in 1922, and to create something beautiful inspired by their words. The templates are included on a CD-Rom.

But even if you don’t quilt, the stories are a compelling document of a world most of us can barely fathom today. And yet I see many small connections to the life I lead today. One woman talks of the fun and convenience of ordering dresses from catalogues. That’s not so different from the way I log onto my trusty computer to order goodies from Amazon and other e-retailers.

Speaking of Amazon, The Farmer’s Wife Sampler  Quilt is available from them for a mere $18.47. That’s 34% off the suggested retail price of $27.99! Oh, and it qualifies for Super Saving free shipping if your order totals at least $25.00.

I have to say, I can’t think of anything much cozier than reading some of these letters while curled up in the quilt made from the book.

As the weather grows cooler, I find myself thinking more and more about socks. I know, I know, my sock fetish is sad and I need to do something about it. Well, that’s what I’m doing. I’m telling you all about a great book that can teach those of you who knit to make better, stronger, and more gloriously spectacular socks.

The Knitter’s Book of Socks by Clara Parkes starts at the beginning. And for socks, in the beginning was the fiber. Yes, she breaks down the features, advantages, and disadvantages of various commonly-used fibers for socks, discusses various stitches commonly used, and finishes up with a collection of twenty patterns by some of the best designers in the business, including: Cookie A, Ann Budd, and Melissa Morgan-Oakes.

This would be a steal at the list price of $30.00, but it’s available from Amazon for just $18.19! Now that’s a good deal, whether you’re looking for inspiration to knit Christmas (or Hanukkah) socks for friends and family, or a good gift for the knitter in your family.

Is this not one of the most wonderful wedding gifts of all time?

How did I not find these people before?

Seriously, whether or not you do counted cross stitch (and they do have links to their patterns for sale on Etsy, for those who want to recreate some of their masterpieces), this is a site well worth checking out if you’ve got a sense of humor.

Here’s an amazing historical tidbit I learned about George Washington in the explanation of this portrait:

 He presided over the writing of the Constitution in 1787 on a horse made of crystal. As the unanimous choice to serve as the first President of the United States (1789–1797), he developed the forms and rituals of government that have been used ever since, such as using a cabinet system, copulation with bears and delivering an inaugural address.

Wow! Educational, too!

As I noted in yesterday’s post, the world of sci-fi seems to have little appreciation for crafts. But I’ve also noticed that crafters as a species do seem to have a lot of use for sci-fi and other speculative creativity. In fact, there’s a super-cool blog called Geek Crafts that’s dedicated to the intersection of geekery and crafting. If you haven’t ever been, go check it out now. Go on. I’ll wait.

Cool, isn’t it?

And as you can see from the illustration at the top of this post, Susan Beal, who writes for Geek Crafts, has written a book of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and gaming-related craft projects for you or the crafty geek in your life.

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Like many crafters, I’m a great big sci-fi geek. I can quote you chapter of verse of most iterations of Star Trek, hold an intelligent discussion of where George Lucas went wrong with the Star Wars franchise, compare and contrast many of the societies visited through the Stargate, and quote virtually every line from Galaxy Quest (That was a hell of a thing).

But there’s one thing that has always bothered me about all of these sci-fi icons and many, many more that I’ve seen and read over the years: nobody makes crafts for enjoyment.

Sure, sometimes on Stargate or various versions of Trek they would come across a charmingly bucolic society. In these places, everybody had to produce food, clothing, shelter, etc. so that everyone would survive. But virtually all of  these charming, peaceful, gentle worlds are utterly without artistic addition. Nobody makes jewelry that doesn’t have a specific, ritual meaning. Nobody adds a flourish to the legs of a chair, or embroiders a pillow simply so it will be pretty. Nobody is shown making something of a purely decorative nature or just for fun. It’s all simply, rustic, and utilitarian.

And when these shows visit advanced societies, everything is about scientific advancement. Nothing wrong with that, of course. I’m in favor of finding cool ways to cure diseases, travel longer distances with lower environmental impact, provide inhospitable lands with food and water, and all sorts of things like that. I find these ideas and many like them to be entirely fab and gear.

But these societies seem to have little or no art. Sometimes there’s a terribly refined style of music (which sounds much more like Muzak to my ears), but nobody seems to create visual or textural art. Nobody creates a thing that isn’t either scientific or intensely practical. It’s all smooth, shiny, refined and utilitarian.

Come on, producers of sci-fi worlds! Would it kill you to have some form of embroidery or model making survive the millennia? If there’s someone on a starship who plays the trombone, couldn’t there also be someone on that ship who tats? It takes up a lot less space and makes a lot less noise, after all.

Okay, Data paints. There is that, and I’m in favor, entirely. But wouldn’t there have been one traditional Bajoran craft that Ensign Ro picked up in the camps? Didn’t Guinan’s people have to do something when they weren’t all listening to each other? Out of all the human societies the Goa’uld transplanted into outer space, wouldn’t Daniel Jackson have found one that still created purely decorative jewelry? Couldn’t Amy Pond scrapbook about her journeys with The Doctor? Well, no, actually I don’t think she would. But Rory totally would. In fact, I feel quite sure he does it whenever Amy isn’t looking.

I love speculative entertainment. But I also love making lace. I appreciate many forms of craftwork, and want to encourage them. I don’t believe that the human race will ever get to a place where we don’t need to express ourselves creatively by hand.

Just once, I’d like to see someone create a sci-fi show or film that agrees with me on that.