Quickie Question: What Sort of Show Would You Have?
By Twistie
Love her or hate her, nobody can deny that Martha Stewart has been a major force in bringing crafts to the forefront of the American consciousness again. Whether she’s showing us how to make the perfect (it’s always perfect) apple pie or shellacking Easter bunnies with Nathan Lane, people watch, and people talk, and people buy her books and magazines. Her empire is about showing people how to live perfect, stress-free, beautiful lives with nary a ripple in the pond of life. It’s a pretty dream and she sells it well, but I have to admit it’s always left me a little cold. It’s too calm to be reality and too controlled for my personal taste. I like a mess.
On the other end of the crafts show spectrum, there is the late, lamented Craft Corner Deathmatch. Now that was a crafts show I could get behind! It was frenetic and silly and the crafts produced out of random junk in a matter of minutes were often tacky and usually badly made… but the helpful hints between projects often showed much more attractive things that could be constructed out of the same detritus. Since it only lasted six episodes, it clearly didn’t capture the imagination of too many other people, alas, but it still speaks volumes to me.
If I had a TV show about crafts, I would want it to be as quirky and silly and just plain fun as Craft Corner Deathmatch. I would want it to be a show that allows for mistakes and laughter at said mistakes, in a cheerful, ‘hey, we all make mistakes’ kind of way. I would probably have a show where in every episode someone comes on and discusses the basics of their craft, shows off some spectacular advanced pieces, and then shows me how to do it, too. I’d like it to be the kind of show where there’s a lot of giggling and maybe someone random from the studio audience gets to try stuff out, too. I’d want people to see that I might succeed at some things and fail at others, but that it’s still fun to try things out. And I’d want random, historic tidbits worked in somehow.
What about you? What sort of crafts-related TV show would you want to star in?
October 17th, 2011 at 1:59 pm
I want to have a show/service where I come into people’s houses in the month of October, and make them Halloween costumes out of stuff they already have. Maximum outlay $20 for additional items. I’m super good at it in my real life, and I think that it leads to much better costumes than going to a shop and buying a cheap polyester thing in a bag. (It also helps with the whole “why is every female costume a “Sexy” costume?” thing.)
October 18th, 2011 at 8:16 am
The show I’d want is the kind where Nathan Lane comes over and we finish hours later on the deck with a couple bottles of wine. It would have to be weekly rather than daily, though. I think I’d need a few days to recover, rest my laughing muscles and anticipate his next visit. Cooking or crafting or digging up iris in the back garden – anything would be fun with him!
October 18th, 2011 at 7:19 pm
I wish I could just BE Elizabeth Zimmerman and do a knitting show like hers. Boy, do I miss her.