(Image of Mary Meigs Atwater via Robin Spady’s Blog… which all weavers should know about)

There’s a lot to be said for weaving as a crafts pursuit. Not only does it have a built in cool factor, you can make rugs, tablecloths, placemats, yard goods, and plenty of other useful things.

Of course, there’s also a problem with weaving for a lot of people: where to put that great big loom in a small apartment or crowded house.

Ah my friends, that is where the humble inkle loom comes into play. If you’ve got a clear table or desk top, you put your loom there and get weaving in a jiffy. Once you’ve got your warp threads properly threaded, you can have a new belt or custom purse strap in a matter of a few hours, even if you’ve never woven in your life.

In fact, I’ve got an inkle loom, which I’ve used several times. Okay, so it wasn’t as cost effective an investment for me as that full round Swedish bobbin lace pillow, but I’ve gotten hours of fun and a few only slightly lumpy samples out of it. I think if I ever started using it consistently, I would quickly get rid of the unintended lumps, too.

For more information on getting started in inkle weaving, check out this free tutorial at Earth Guild. It’s a good basic overview of the technique with clear illustrations. If you decide it looks like fun to you, head on over to The Woolery and get yourself their inkle weaving beginner’s kit. It includes an Ashford Inkelette loom, three half pound cones of color coordinated 8/4 cotton warp, and an instruction book by H. Bress. All that for just $99.00!

(via What Not to Crochet)

I have no idea where the good people at What Not to Crochet found these… acts of footwear, but I definitely agree they were a monumentally bad idea. The yarn is acrylic, and the perpetrator assures us the leather soles are not animal cruelty since they come “from a cow that’s already dead.”

Well, at least there isn’t a cow walking around with a gaping wound shaped like two flip flop soles.

On the other hand, since the entire point of flip flops is to provide breezy footwear that slips on and off easily at will by the poolside, I don’t think crocheting acrylic shin guards and knee-high straps improves the usefulness of the item in question.

But maybe I’m wrong.

Opinions?

(Illustration via 5 Artistic Expressions)

I remember when I took up bobbin lace I was informed by several of the books I got early on that it was important to keep the craft going by teaching at least three other people to do it, too. I took that challenge seriously. I taught one on one, helped run a beginner’s workshop, did demonstrations where I handed out information for getting started and helped people try out a demonstration pillow… yeah, I don’t know how many kept doing it, but I pointed a few folks in the right direction to get going.

Of course along the way I made some spectacular goofs. That first demonstration where we didn’t bring along lists of recommended books and suppliers was a classic. I also picked up a few tips that would work with pretty much any craft you might want to teach someone to do. And today, I pass them on to you.

Keep it very simple. If you want people to decide they can do a craft, you need to keep that first project as simple as possible. A first success is key to keeping a newbie feeling confident.

Wait for the student to approach you. We all get eager to pass on what we know, but not everyone we meet is as eager to learn what we have to teach. I’ve turned a couple people off by jumping the gun. Not good.

Think about how to answer as many questions as possible before you begin. Students have questions. They want to know why, they want to know how things came to be this way, and they expect you to be able to answer clearly and succinctly. After all, if you can’t answer basic questions, your student(s) will have good reason to doubt your instruction.

And there’s a corollary to that last one:

If you don’t know the answer to a question, don’t just make one up. Admit you don’t know. Admit you, too, make mistakes. Nobody knows it all and we all goof up now and then. Trying to appear omniscient and infallible only scares people off. It’s really okay to say you need to look something up or haven’t found an answer.

Keep the atmosphere light. Nothing turns people off like thinking that making crafts is too serious. Most people want to learn because they think it will be fun and relaxing in some way. Humor is your friend, as is patience.

If you’re providing basic materials, balance quality and price carefully. Okay, so you probably don’t want your student to have to shell out hundreds of dollars just to find out whether they enjoy your craft… but if the equipment is too low in quality, they won’t come back for a second lesson. I made the mistake once of having a student get the Kliot beginning bobbin lace kit once… and then never again. Sure, it was the least expensive beginner’s kit on the market, but it consists of a flimsy cardboard stand instead of a proper pillow, and bobbins three times the size of any others available. I’d have done better to have her spend another twenty dollars or so on a kit with a real pillow, bobbins that can be used with other readily available bobbins, and an actual book of instructions rather than a sheet with a couple basic tips and two or three patterns.

If I’d done that, she might still be making lace today.

Recognize that no matter what you do, some of your students won’t stick with your craft. Not everyone loves every craft they try. Not everyone has a talent for every craft they try. It happens. But even if they don’t keep it up, you’ve passed on your skills and someone else now appreciates the work you do. Even just knowing that another person can talk intelligently about what you do is a victory for crafting.

I have Black Thumb. It’s the equal opposite of Green Thumb. Where some people can make any plant thrive in even the most unlikely circumstances… I look at them and they shrivel up and die. Roses quail at my approach, and mighty oaks quake with fear. In short, nobody who loves a plant should ever leave it to my tender mercies. We’ll all suffer.

But I still adore flowers. I always like to have them around me.

Enter the woman who can make it happen… for a price.

See I attended a crafts street fair the other day, and what to my wondering eyes should appear but these gorgeous, hand crafted clay flowers created by Vanida. I swear that when I first got to her booth, these flowers looked real to me. So go on, get a Lady Slipper orchid. It may set you back $79.00, but it will last forever looking just as good as it does today.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sold.

(Illustration via Knitted Knockers)

I love a good cause. I always have. I started doing walk-a-thons for charity when I was… oooohh… about twelve or so. I’ve written my representatives, signed many a petition, written checks, collected signatures, even walked a picket line or two in my day. Activism has been a part of my life almost as long as I’ve been around.

And yes, I’ve done crafts for some of these causes. I’ve donated crafts to auctions to raise money, supplied dozens of bake sales, and for the past couple years I’ve crafted goodies to sell at my team’s booth at our local Relay for Life for the American Cancer Society.

So I’m wondering, do any of you out there craft for good causes?

Teach your children well. Or, if you’re like me and don’t have any of your own, teach someone else’s children. Share the joy of crafting with the next generation.

I’ve always felt it took a certain amount of moxie to be a craft artist in a mass-produced world. Little did I know there was a craft artist called Moxie. This is one of her works from a series entitled icons & totems & pieces of the past which showed at Gallery Hanahou in New York City last year.

Moxie’s craft of choice is needle felting. Yeah, that little Leggo boy I remember well from my own misspent youth is entirely needle felted, and displayed in what appears to be a wooden cigar box.

I’m also loving the Hungry series, though it might disturb some very delicate sensibilities.

For a bit more background, read this cool profile on CNN. Then head to her website and learn some more. I, for one, think she’s pretty fabulous.

In fact, the only reason I went to my senior prom was that my boyfriend at the time started talking about what he was going to wear, and, well, I figured that meant he wanted to go.

Other girls, though, put a lot more thought and effort into prom. Diane McNease certainly did!

See the bodice of her prom dress? She constructed the entire thing out of Starburst wrappers. The skirt is a far more conventional black satin over layers of tulle.

McNease got inspired when she saw a friend folding Starburst wrappers to make bracelets. Somehow this lead to a dare, which McNease happily took:

“Someone said I couldn’t do it. That’s the last thing you should say to me.”

After a year and a half of collecting wrappers (she started out eating all the candy herself, but quickly found that was too much… and had no difficulty recruiting volunteer candy eaters), and another five months folding and then hand sewing strips of wrappers. Her father helped her with the construction of the bodice and her friend Bria Johnson made the skirt to go with it.

Partway through the process, McNease discovered she wouldn’t be the first teen to don a Starburst wrapper prom dress when Tara Frey’s mother, Kerrin, announced the dress she had spent six years making for her daughter’s prom.

McNease says she was already underway with her plans when Frey’s dress hit the headlines:

“But I really admire her dress. Especially the shoes. They are fantastic.”

Even more than the fun dress, I like this girl’s creativity, determination, and generous attitude.

Diane McNease, I offer you a twenty-one Starburst salute!

I think we can all agree there really are certain things that Simply Are Not Done. There’s a reason a lot of things fit into that category.

For instance, when I see a purse made out of a pair of men’s tightie whities, my first reaction is not ‘How Clever!’ but ‘How much do I have to drink before I forget I ever saw this?’

The one redeeming feature of this nightmarish offering by Etsy artist TWEEK’d is that the man panties are new and untouched by human rumpus.

Still, there’s no way I’m fishing around in there for my keys!

A new flea market started up recently in my town. Mr. Twistie has been going with his friend the Drummer. Last week, he asked me to come along so I could try out the schnitzel at one of the food trucks. I gotta say, that was the best darn schnitzel I’ve ever had. Light, crisp, flavorful, and the housemade horseradish sauce was out of this world!

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Great schnitzel is a wonderful thing, but this blog is about crafts. Schnitzel, however, got me to the flea market where I found a surprising pair of craft artists whose work delighted me.

Smiling Dog Studio is the brainchild of craft artists Jane Brooks and Val Yandell. Val takes the photographs. Jane works in assemblage. Together they create fabulous jewelry like the piece shown above, as well as ornaments to hang around your house like this fun antique camera image:

You can find Smiling Dog Studio at various craft events around the Bay Area, or you can contact them online for custom work

So poke around their site, ask them a question… they won’t bite. And neither did their dogs, Wasabi and Fig, who I also met at the flea market. Nice doggies!