Creative paper projects, by Sandi Reinke, published by Sterling.

Everything about paper, this is a book obsessed with and in love with paper. Full of weird and wonderful projects and papers and stories about paper, the projects and energy in this book are captivating and addictive. The book starts off with an explanation of the authors paper business Looseends.com (which I see is going out of business and having a huge closing down sale), then some pics of paper being made in the mountains of South East Asia (somewhere). (Note: Many of the projects in the book are based on papers that can only be found at looseends, but I suppose that alternatives can be found if you are inventive enough.)

After a small section on techniques the projects begin and these are fun, strange and mostly just for the ‘hell of it’ projects. Such as covering rocks with paper (these look gorgeous actually), making paper pillows (using special looseends paper, which softens with age and is hard wearing outdoors), a paper goose and paper eggs and making a woodland chair and table set (this is very whimsical and sweet, great project for kids). This is just a small range of the amazing paper projects in this book. Some are simply outrageous, others sort of practical (possibly maybe) but most are fun and fanciful.

I really enjoyed some of the scenes and settings that are made totally of paper, such as the verandah with a paper chair, paper window, paper box and mat and vase and pillow. And the zen room with paper covered desk and chair, paper screen, book, paper covered rocks and photo frames. Oh theres more, much more but you will have to see for yourself.

In conclusion - this book has imagination and creativity galore, is a little thin on practicality (does this couple have children I wonder?) and many of the projects are based on specific paper requirements. But the techniques and ideas explored are bound to get your creative juices flowing.

I had the chance to hang out at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, California a few weeks ago, which was amazing — I taught a little jewelry-making demo in the CRAFT magazine workshop area both days. The Faire took over the entire San Mateo Fairgrounds this year and in two full days of wandering around, I probably only saw a third of it: the inspiring crafty exhibits, workshops, presentations, ArtCars, and the dozens of Bazaar Bizarre vendors were plenty to keep me busy!

There were all kinds of free crafty classes and demos going on simultaneously both days. I snapped pictures of a few of my favorites:

Nancy Flynn taught two wonderful beginner-friendly sewing classes, each using bias tape as a stylish design element to edge a tote bag or tank top. She’s posted free patterns and tutorials for both projects on her blog, and set up a flickr pool for people to share their finished pieces, too.

Tricia Royal of bitsandbobbins did a presentation on her street fashion community, Wardrobe Remix, and gave everyone there a copy of her “re(sources) for re(mixing)” guide to crafting your own style through embellishments, dyeing, knitting, printing, and thrift store shopping. She also posted a PDF on her site for free downloading — so handy and so inspiring.

Bonnie Burton (who does all the cool craft projects for StarWars.com) taught a wildly popular two-day demo: Sew This Yoda Doll, You Must. She had glitter felt, googly eyes, scissors and needles and thread at the ready for the dozens of Yoda enthusiasts who stayed over an hour to sew their creations! The pattern and instructions are available online, too.

Jamie Marie Chan taught two fiber arts classes: needle-felting and yarn-spinning, which also drew big crowds. Leah Kramer and her husband Dave spun a pretty gorgeous strand of yarn after just a few minutes with the spindle.

Lion Brand Yarn also offered free drop-in knitting and crochet classes throughout the Faire, courtesy of guest instructors Shannon Okey and Cecily Keim. Here’s Shannon knitting away at the world’s longest two-sided scarf, while Cecily and Liz show off some of the many hyperbolic coral reefs they’ve crocheted.

Lotta Jansdotter gave a charming presentation on the main stage, spotlighting her new book, Simple Sewing (also see Kathreen’s review here). She talked about her own creative experiences and signed copies of her book with this gorgeous little drawing.

Lotta’s publisher, Chronicle Books, hosted several other author alt-craft events at their booth too — here’s the “Punk’s Not Dead” mohawk hat from Pretty in Punk (modeled by Nancy Deane of Chronicle) and a special Build This Bong demo by author Randy Stratton.

And Carlo Rossi put on a 21+ event extraordinaire: crafters of drinking age could taste their table wines while painting, appliqueing, decoupaging, and embellishing empty wine jugs. I thought this feathery Big Bird was great.

Outside the expo buildings were a whole slew of ArtCars — I especially loved my friend Joanne Owens’ truck, Bruce (which she’s covering with patterns of tiny, colorful toys and trinkets) and Costas Schuler’s Mercedes Penz, which has over 5000 used pens, pencils and markers on every surface, to amazing effect.

And of course there were all kinds of enchanting science experiment-meets-craft challenges to gawk at. One of my favorites was the brigade of golf-cart-sized cupcakes on wheels that went whizzing through the thick of things!

I’ll be doing a quick follow-up featuring some of the remarkable crafts for sale at the Bazaar Bizarre — there are just too many things (and photos) to cram into one post.

Special thanks to Natalie, Nancy, Jenny, and Bonnie for generously sharing their photos with me. You can find lots more pictures and write-ups here:

-Natalie’s posts on the CRAFT blog and photos on flickr

-Bonnie’s photos on flickr

-Jenny’s photos on flickr

-Nancy’s photos on flickr

-Tricia’s post on Bits and Bobbins

-All of the nearly 6,000 photos on flickr tagged “makerfairebayarea2007″

Whiptips craft advice column for readers to ask questions or offer advice by leaving comments. Whiptips archive here. Questions to whiptips@gmail.com.

Amy from Graceful studio wrote in with this question.

I planted sunflowers in my garden this year, and they look great. Now, when the flowers are done, and I’ve harvested the seeds, what can I do with the rest of the plant? I’d like to maybe make something out of the stems and/or leaves. Any ideas?

As you may have noticed, the news tidbits in the sidebar is temporarily disabled, so here is some upcoming news, letters and reader submissions:

Contest on book divas:
submit an artistic interpretation of a person’s favorite book, scene, or character.
Entries can be drawn, painting, sculpted, sewn, or even crafted into an original song.

Emily sent in a link to her friends Angora spinning/fibre website in New Zealand, its calledMenagerie and there is some gorgeous fibre related things, so go and check it out.

Cindy from skip to my lou wrote in: Any chance you might mention my request for help in sewing ‘Linus’ (security) Blankets for orphanages in China? I am hoping to collect 200 by the end of June! You can read more about this project at this website.

Animal, vegetable, miracle: A year of food life, by Barbara Kingsolver, with Steven L.Hopp and Camille Kingsolver. Published by Harper Collins.

A year of food life by Barbara Kingsolver and with contributions by her husband and older daughter, with her younger daughter also playing a big part in the story. This as you can see is a family adventure into living courageously. Together they pledge to eat only food that they either grow themselves or know who did (with exceptions, such as coffee, purchasing only fair trade).

I have cross posted this review over at TreeHugger, there I concentrated on its eco/green characteristics, here however I wanted to show whip up readers this book, because of the living creatively aspect of this book. It is a book about getting back to basics, making, doing, growing, eating from scratch. And the involvement of the whole family, was of course necessary, but also inspiring to see how the children totally embrace this lifestyle change, giving up junk food and other such ‘luxuries’ but replacing them with the wonders of home grown produce, learning to make their own cheese and yoghurt (I have been making yoghurt with my daughter too, with great success, and in fact this book inspired the recent getting back to basics posts that have been appearing on whipup lately), and cooking their own bread everyday.

Growing and eating their own produce includes animals too, with excellent chapters on the history of breeding eating turkeys, a restaurant that uses only local produce and the changes in small independent farming. Explorations in food includes making cheese, organising a party for over a hundred people using only produce from neighbouring farms, the romance of the first asparagus of the season and the practicalities of raising chickens.

The everyday life on the farm is intermingled with Barbara’s intense, passionate and well researched history and knowledge of food production and fuel consumption in America, Camille’s teenage viewpoint and recipes, and Steven’s deeper investigations of certain subjects. It is the whole package that makes this story work; a families life adventure turned into a family project of writing the book.

Full of irony, wit and love this book is a must read for anyone interested in growing their own food and everyone else interested in how the food they eat arrives at their table and the consequences of our indulgences for the planet. This book is at times very intense, while reading it I had such highs and lows, Barbara really sometimes paints a disastrous picture for our planets future, but then brings the reader back with good news stories. Most of this information is in my consciousness, however reading it all in one place with such passion and readability made it all very real for me. I hope that everyone can read this book and that it changes your views about what you put on your table and feed your family and how you live your life just a little bit.

Simple sewing: Patterns and how-to for 24 fresh and easy projects, by Lotta Jansdotter, published by Chronicle books.

I like this book a lot. It is fresh and simple, just as the title suggests, with projects suitable for the absolute beginner sewer and as a quick in-between project for the more advanced sewer. Lotta’s lovely illustrations are used throughout, and the projects mostly use her fabric, although not always, which is refreshing as I know many people cannot get their hands on it and it is good to see these projects made in regular and plain fabrics. Of course the fabrics used and the wonderful photography and styling is often key to books like these. Where the projects are so simple it is important to be able to visualise the end result in order to want to make them. Many of these sorts of projects (perhaps not exactly the same) are probably available online somewhere if you know where to look. Patterns for a basic square bag, aprons and sewing kits etc. Not with Lotta’s eye for fabric and colour choices no doubt.

The illustrations and directions are simple, well written and laid out, the illustrations especially are great - very clear. It is obvious that Lotta is really into her fabrics and in the introduction she explains what an inspiration pattern, colour and texture are to her, this coupled with the textile tradition of her homeland, Sweden explains her wonderful clean and above all practical style. All the projects in the book are practical and useful, and gorgeous too.

The projects in the book are all made of natural fibres such as linen and cotton and are styled with that Scandinavian clean and uncluttered style that we all aim for (well I do anyway), I love the earthy textures and natural dyes, which suit the projects well too. The projects range from the extremely basic to the simple. Such as place mats with a pocket for tableware, padded square potholders, a really cute cafe apron with a mitten shaped pocket. The simple tote is made in a variety of sizes and fabrics, slightly more complex projects include the gardening bag and the all-day bag, and fantastic - a wide brim sun hat, I also really love the drawstring backpack. Another really cute (not sure how practical this is if you live with kids) project is a curtain/room divider with pockets for small vases of flowers to sit into, and the door stop - yes all very good.

So to conclude - great simple projects, beautiful design, patterns available in a separate pocket, spiral bound to lie flat. My only negative comment is that many of these projects are available online (somewhere), but what isn’t these days and I am happy that they have been bundled up into this neat and simple project book.

As an exploration when teaching, we often hand students two fabrics that don’t “go together” with the assignment that they need to add as many fabrics as necessary to tie them together. Students are often dismayed at the original pairings but are always astonished at how adding others to the mix can transform a yucky combination into something really unexpected and wonderful. The goal is to get them to look beyond predictable color combinations.

So I was delighted to see that Pat Sloan at started a color challenge. Her structure is different from ours but sounds like fun and is sure to encourage quilters to broaden the color horizons.

Drafting your own pattern is completely do-able. You need time and space and quiet to think. And this great tutorial to help you out.

Welcome to the inaugural issue of Spindle and Wheel. Up until now, we’ve just been a collection of tutorials, but we are now a full-fledged online magazine for spinners and fiber artists. With each issue, we will present articles of interest on fiber and the fiber industry, product reviews, kid’s activities, and much more. We’ll be releasing new issues on a quarterly basis, but you’ll always be able to access our tutorial content and back issues. Thanks for joining us!

Love the dyeing tutorials, there is also a felted bag tutorial featured patterns and fun stuff too - check it out.

The lovely Lara of Kirin & Co has been printing up patterns of her own on fabric, which she sells at her Etsy shop.

She also designed the Pattern Tester, a nifty little Flash-based application that lets others play around with the colorways of her fabric, from the background color to the ink of her prints on the fabric. The application was conceived so that her prospective buyer could describe and determine the colorway that they liked best when ordering a larger quantity of fabric, and thus the Pattern Tester was born!

I really like the idea that you could instantly see the color combination for the design that you choose. It certainly saves a lot of time, and you can see the different combination of colors instantly — which makes it easier for others to decide on the colorway they like best!

Sooz has been at it again.

This time a very sweet felt and wire mobile tutorial.

Knittymama wrote in with a gorgeous fun tutorial for creating with kids.

I recently made this monster with my four year old. It’s a great way to use up those old scraps and let your kid get creative with yarn.

“A Dream”

Often called Mississippi’s Grandma Moses of stitchery, Ethel Wright Mohamed was born in 1906 and died in 1992. She used beautiful and intricate stitches to tell the stories of her family’s life on fabric. Through this unique and beautiful “painting with thread” she has given us a view into the history of the Mississippi Delta’s way of life. She called her work “memory pictures.” This history includes her marriage, eight children, and numerous scenes of family memories that they all shared. She included their beloved housekeeper, Mittie, who helped raise the children and care for the family.

“Waiting for Stork”

You can visit the The Ethel Wright Mohamed Stitchery Museum in Belzoni, Mississippi. This summer there is also an exhibition of her work at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Mississippi, titled “The Needle’s Song: The Folk Art of Ethel Wright Mohamed.”

Thanks for the links, Stephenie!

It was a surprise to see this arpillera on anthropologie.

What is a arpillera? Art quilt, a hand-sewn three dimensional textile picture . Arpilleras originated in Chile , where women political prisoners who were held during the Pinochet regime used them to camouflage notes sent to helpers outside. For guards this art wasn´t important, it was a simple “women´s work”.

Now, the topics are others, although for some groups is a claim of the missing person´s right in military dictatorship of Chile .

Fue una sorpresa ver esta arpillera en la web de Anthropologie, ya que es un arte con una historia muy trágica a sus espaldas. Su origen está en Chile, donde las prisioneras de la dictadura de Pinochet lo usaban para comunicarse y encriptar mensajes. Para los guardianes eran simplemente “cosas de mujeres”, de manera que nunca levantó sospechas.

Estos cuadros se realizan con tela, cosiendo a mano una historia, una cultura, una vida… Los temas son múltiple, aunque para algunos grupos sigue siendo una forma de reivindicar los derechos de los desaparecidos durante la dictadura chilena.

Contunuará…

People’s Prize Winner from 2005 theme: ‘Spirit of the Land’, After the Fire, Kerry Elsome, Alice Springs.

(check out more past winners here, and read what this is all about below)

The Alice Springs Beanie Festival is a community based event that began in 1997 with a ‘beanie party’. The festival was organised to sell beanies crocheted by Aboriginal women in remote communities. It has grown into a fun event where Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal artists share their culture and exhibit together. The festival’s aims have always been to develop Aboriginal women’s textiles, promote womens’ culture and the beanie as a regional art form, as well as promote handmade textile arts.

The Alice Springs Beanie Festival Committee invites entries from artists for the exhibition, ‘My Journey’.
Express a special moment or a visual reference from a story in your life, in a beanie: the trip of a lifetime, a trek through the bush, the emotional roller coaster of life events, or the friendships made along the way. This year the Festival celebrates journeys.

ENTRIES MUST BE RECEIVED BY 8 JUNE 2007 to Jo Nixon, 7 Gall Street, Alice Springs NT 0870

Beanie Central: Opens midday Friday 29 June 2007 - Monday 2 July

Free Workshops : Learn to crochet your own beanie (wool and hooks on sale).

Demonstrations : Enjoy free demonstrations of traditional Anangu spinning and other Aboriginal textiles.

Beanie Olympics: See the textile experts vie for the title of ‘Fastest Beanie Maker in the Universe’.

World Record Attempts: Fastest Knitting and Crocheting. 4.00pm. Come and try or your hand, or spectate on these hilarious speed events.

Dates : Opening Friday 30 June 2006, 12 midday- 5.00.
Saturday 1 July, Sunday 2 July, and Monday 3 July 10- 4.00

I loved this theme - what a surprise all the amazing results - you guys are so talented. So here goes with a few of the editors and the readers picks. Hope you had as much fun looking at all the entries as I did.

Redwork in Germany:: Something different, not exactly Redwork though I added a few running stitches in red … The progress with such a small quilt is amazing only two nights and all hand piecing, basting and the first quilting lines were finished.

Ruby crowned kinglet:: i have a never ending love of all things embroidered and all things felt, i have been wanting to use circles of felt for something, and i am currently wanting to edge everything thing i can get my hands in in a picot stitch. … ‘embroidered alphabet on felt - a mini quilt’.
it measures 10 3/8″ wide by 11 7/8″ long and each embroidered circle is 1 3/8″ in diameter. …

lulu knits:: I just got a new sewing machine and wanted to try the applique stitch, which turned out to be so fast and easy! I created the entire quilt this morning during my daughter’s hour-long nap from fabrics already in my stash.

weird bird in love:: I just spent the final hour and a quarter of my two-year-old son’s nap whipping up this doggie play quilt - which probably just barely qualifies as a miniature quilt, loosely defined (it’s about 18 inches by 10 inches, and slightly machine-quilted…)

greeting arts:: This is quilting, the way I’d always imagined it. Made up entirely of pieces from my scrap boxes, … the piecing and quilting were all done by hand. …

vintage ric rac:: its all made from selvedge !!! … I really love this project and am keen to do a bit more with selvedges. I have been chopping them off every scrap of fabric in the stash. (also see tutorial)

crafty ginger:: The centers of the log cabin blocks are silk, I read somewhere that traditionally the center blocks were red to represent the home. I liked that thought, so I incorporated it. … I’ll caution anyone wanting to try and make silk trim tape - it’s a bit trickier than cotton.

true stitches:: is made entirely of scraps of vintage Japanese cloth. It is based on an antique Canadian quilt with a pattern called “Love Apples” which is an old term for tomatoes.

wardi craft blog:: I had very big plans for it, but ended up doing something simple. Which probably isn’t such a bad idea when you’ve never made a quilt before!

sunshine creations:: This is sometimes called an orange peel quilt, and a few other names, too. Whatever you want to call it, it looks sort of like Cathedral Widows. (check out the tutorial on this technique.)

knit one quilt one too:: From the start I wanted to do something totally spontaneous.

Lady Harvatine:: in the true spirit of the site, I have whipped up a small quilt as fast as I could and…voila! …Let’s call it “Confetti”. (see tutorial too)

From threadingwater:

As another Mother’s Day nears, I started wondering how many women soldiers have lost their lives in Iraq? How many mothers, wives, lovers? How many women who would have been mothers, wives, lovers, friends?…my initial goal [was to] find 79 people, each willing to stitch the name of one female Coalition casualty from the Iraq War.

She plans to sew the muslin pieces into a tote bag.

Why a tote? Because I want something utilitarian. Something that will go out into the world every day as a reminder of this horrible loss, made more horrible as people recognize that these names represent only a very small portion of the human toll this war has taken. And, for every volunteer who contributes a stitched name, I will send the tote to you. Put it to use. Take it to the market, keep it in your mini-van as you drive your kids to school. Stuff it with your knitting. A week. Two. Whatever seems right to you.

All I ask in return is that you keep sending the tote on, and that you record your feelings and experiences with the project on your blog (if you have one) or in a letter.

Read more about how it started here, while the blog’s most recent entries are here.

Wallpaper sample books and old wallpaper rolls were always part of my childhood artsy craftsy times. In preparation for May day (May 1st) we would create wallpaper cones and fill them with candies and flowers for our friends, neighbors, and loved ones. (We would hang them on the door and ring the bell and run!) Sandy Gordon from Art Tea Life blog has yet another good use for old wallpaper. This great photo tutorial could be used with children to make homemade gifts with an adult to manage the iron and machine perhaps.

Next Saturday it’s world-wide-knit-in-public-day (w.w.k.i.p. day) Hundreds - or thousands - of knitters will meet to knit, talk, exchange ideas, information and inspiration and you’re hereby invited! Please, go and check out here - and hopefully you´ll find a meeting place in the neighbourhood.

If you happen to live in Denmark – near Århus – I’d like to invite you to come and join my little gathering from 13 – 16 at the Århus Music House.

If it’s summer like and the sun shines we’ll be knitting outside at the lawn/ in the small park and you’re encouraged to bring your tea, lunch and knitting gear. If the weather turns out to be bad we’ll meet inside at the Balcony Gallery. Inside is also a nice café where you can buy coffee, lunch etc. in case you haven’t brought your own along…

By the way, as I’m not a knitting fundamentalist all sorts of textile crafts are welcome, so feel free to show up even though you prefer crotchet to knitting…

See you 9th June!

making paper is fun and time consuming - get a sunny weekend and make a day of it with the family. great site with a simple tutorial and lots of info on the history of paper making.