Do you ever feel like there’s just something not right in your kitchen? Like something is missing? Perhaps it’s because your dish soap is naked! But you can correct that problem right away, thanks to this fabulous pattern for dish soap aprons at supereggplant. So cute, and they really are functional, to keep your dish soap bottle from getting all drippy and sticky.
There have been several mentions of podcasts on whip-up lately, but I just finished listening to the great CraftyPod/Craftsanity podcasts about podcasting, and thought they deserved some more time in the sun.
For those of you who don’t know what a podcast is yet and are too shy to ask, check out the wikipedia entry. Basically, podcasts are like little radio shows that you can make using your own computer on whatever topic interests you, and post it online for others to listen to. You don’t need an ipod or anything fancy to listen to podcasts, you can listen to them on your regular ol’computer, like I do. Craft related podcasts often include great interviews with crafty people, instructions on making things, general advice and resources, as well as plenty of inspirational ideas.
In episode 14 of Craftsanity and episode 24 of Craftypod, the two ladies behind these great podcasts, Sister Diane and Jennifer, had a discussion about why they podcast, how they got started, and what kinds of challenges and joys they face in making their respective podcasts. They provide a lot of great information and inspiration for anyone who might be thinking of starting their own crafty podcast. Craft podcasts do seem to be popping up all over, which is great, but I think we need even more because I just can’t stop listening to them!
Julie has posted a few times (here and here) on the great fiber related podcasts that are out there. Here are a few others related to crafts and creativity to try out:
CraftyPod
CraftSanity
Design*sponge
CraftyChica
CraftBorg
CraftCast
CandieCast
CraftLit
Cut out + Keep
Off the Record, with the Richmond Craft Mafia
CollageArtist
If there are others that are favorites of yours that I have missed, feel free to give us a heads up in the comments!
There’s a lot of great stuff going around lately on reconstructing t-shirts (see: Tease, Generation T, oh my stars, t-shirt surgery forum, etc), but I’ve also been noticing a bunch of cool ideas for decorating existing t-shirt with minimal to no sewing required.
First there’s the freezer paper craze that has spread like wildfire since Amy introduced the idea (image above is from hannah at huffmania). Check out these versions at the small object, two rabbits, soulemama,. Also, there’s a new flickr group started to share freezer paper stencil designs with lots of great ideas.
Simple, but cool quilted circles idea at little birds
Applique shirt at craftlog
vintage crochet shirt idea by sabine brandt
Leaf shirt at weewonderfuls
Or try some fancy embroidery to spruce up t-shirts or hoodies, like this craftster member, using sublime stitching patterns and instructions. Keep in mind that she recommends using tearaway stabilizer when stitching on t-shirts!
One of the more interesting phenomenon in the online craft community is the popularity of ’swaps’. People from all around the world sign up to send gifts to complete strangers and receive something back in return. I always think it is so interesting that the technology of the internet, which many reactionaries thought would be the end of the traditional postal system, is now being used to encourage old fashioned mail!
There are lots of different places to get involved in swaps of all different sorts, many involve a specific theme, and can involve sending finished crafts, craft supplies, purchased items, or even candy! These are just a few of the places you can find swap opportunities:
Back Tack – the mother of all swaps, wildly popular. Back Tack III is now underway and sign ups closed shortly after they began. The theme this time is softies, with some very specific criteria.
Swapmeet – A new addition to the swapping family, the site was set up to organize swaps of craft supplies. A new theme is announced on the 15th of every month.
Another Swapmeet site, run by purplepinkandorange.com – a monthly swap of items ranging from books, to mixed cds, to gardening items to crafts.
Craftster has a whole section on organized swaps, and a good system for those learning how to set up swaps.
Candyswappers set up by supereggplant
Color-rific swap-o-rama organized through flickr- each month a new color is annouced, and participants send a package of items in only that color, including one handmade item.
Project spectrum postcard swap – a color themed postcard swap
Postcard swap, which has been run twice by my little mochi
The also wildly popular secret pal gift exchange for knitters and crocheters. Now in its seventh round!
tea swap – a swap of teas from around the world. In this swap, teas are mailed to the organizer, who collects an assortment into packages to be mailed back to the participants.
Mini swap a swap for kids to participate in, run by mommycoddle (now closed)
Usually, I am not drawn to children’s crafts, simply because I don’t have kids and I don’t spend that much time thinking about it. But there’s something about puppets that are so appealing to me, even just to think about making. Perhaps it’s my own childhood muppets nostalgia. Regardless, here are some fun puppet resources in case you are inclined to put on a puppet show for any kids in your life, or heck, just for yourself:
Puppet 101, in which a professional puppet maker (btw is that not an awesome job!) documents step-by-step how he makes puppets (via drawn)
Along the same lines is projectpuppet.com which publishes simple patterns to make professional looking puppets.
Download and construct your own paper puppet bunny rabbit theatre (via meggiecat)
Amazing ideas for a home puppet theater and a traveling finger puppet theater from amy at angry chicken.
Knitted fingerpuppet patterns at knitty and more here or try crochet fairytale finger puppets at crochet me
Liza Lou is a bead artist who creates entire scenes – rooms, trailers, houses, a backyard – entirely from tiny beads.
Her current show at the White Cube in the UK is “a meditation on the vulnerability of the human body and the architecture of confinement” and includes a room the size of a death row prison cell, a barbed wire security fence, and several male figures in states of anguish.
From the exhibit description:
Lou’s work has an immediate ‘shock’ content that works on different levels: first, an acknowledgement of the work’s sheer aesthetic impact and secondly the slower comprehension of the labour that underlies its construction. But whereas in Lou’s earlier works the startling clarity of the image is often a counterpoint to the lengthy process of its realization, for the execution of Cell, Lou further slowed down the process by using beads of the smallest variety with their holes all facing up in an exacting hour-by-hour approach in order to ‘use time as an art material’.
Images of her earlier work can be seen here.
An interesting review of the current exhibit can also be found at the Guardian.
Via magpie and cake
Paula Sanz Caballero is an embroidery artist living in Spain, who makes these really complex illustrations from fabric and thread. Her work appears in magazines and other publications, and she also makes cards for Roger La Borde.
Snip from an article in Embroidery Magazine on embroidery as illustration:
For almost seven years now she has been telling stories with needle, thread and fabric swatches. Born into a family of more than four generations of textile merchants, as a child she played among piles of fabric. However, her work does not draw exclusively on the past, instead it combines technology and tradition. By merging elements she feels she gains the best of both worlds. ‘Artists often feel that in order to be “contemporary” they must limit their work to new technology and that it is necessary to separate themselves from everything related to tradition. How then must the observer for whom anything related to textile work, except for fashion design, is usually considered as a domestic labour or craft, approach works in this medium? If the artist himself does not see textile art as a valid medium, it is impossible for the observer to do so.’
(via poppytalk)
Kwytza Kraft is a company that makes household products from recycled, single use chopsticks, which is a big waste problem, particularly in China. It is estimated that 25 million trees and bamboo plants are used annually in single-use chopstick manufacturing in China. Kwytza Kraft collects chopsticks from restaurants, santizes and pressure cleans them, and then turns them into everything from lampshades to furniture. I think that if I saved and cleaned all the disposable chopsticks I used in a few months, I might have enough to construct a lamp shade, or perhaps a cd rack, how about you?
Just to follow up on an issue that had been raised in the comments of an earlier post, copyright is a very difficult and confusing issue for crafters and artists, and I don’t pretend to understand it completely myself. But it is important that the copyright of crafters’ work is respected, because they make a living through the sale of their creative ideas and products. This has implications for the reproduction of patterns, the use of fabrics, using ‘found’ images in collages, and particularly the use of any of these in items that are intended for sale. I have put together some useful links that have a lot of information on the different aspects of these issues. Remember also that copyright laws vary from country to country, so be sure you are familiar with the copyright rules where you live.
FAQ about copyright for artists
A really good guide to copyright for crafters and knitters from the girl from auntie. Includes information regarding Canadian copyright laws.
Susie ghahremani has been talking about a US senate amendment that would remove copyright for orphaned or unattributed works, which is being opposed by artists and graphic designers
Copyright Law and the Stitcher from Needlepoint now
Information sheets from the Australian Copyright Council (both via inaminuteago)
Copyright for Quilters and Crafters
Using Copyrighted Fabrics and a discussion at Dioramarama
Some works are now published under a creative commons licence. Learn about that here.
The image above is from a campaign by the International Publishers Association.
I don’t know where I’ve been for all these months, but I only recently discovered that whipup’s own Maitreya has been keeping an amazing blog with all kind of resources about Japanese craft books called Crafting Japanese. She’s got a guide to ordering from amazon japan, links to resources like Kinokuniya Bookstores, and indexes of images from craft books as well as the projects that people have completed from the books. Wow!
Also, the Inspiring Craft Books flickr pool has hundreds of images from craft books, japanese and others, that holds tons of inspiration.
I could spend a lot of time drooling over the beautiful japanese vintage fabric like these at Kitty craft.
Also, recently Jan at Be*mused has posted a gallery of pictures from her trip to the Tokyo quilt festival. Lucky gal, and generous of her to share them with us!
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