Handmade Nation news!
March 31, 2009 at 6:51 pm | Posted in art and craft, button it up, crafty events, oregon | Leave a commentLast Sunday night, I helped make pennants and fill goody bags for the Handmade Nation premiere at the Museum of Contemporary Craft! I snapped a few photos if you want a peek…
The gocco prints and lettering are by the fabulous Kate Bingaman-Burt and the bags are courtesy of CraftStylish and Princeton Architectural Press, the publisher of the Handmade Nation book. The crafty contents were donated by dozens and dozens of indie designers — you can see a list of them here.
There is a fantastic article on the film in the Oregonian today, and the first two shows (Friday and Saturday) are already sold out! And Sunday’s new show at 5:30 was selling so well that the museum has added an additional show at 3:00 — very cool.
I can’t wait for this weekend!
ps: if you’d like to check it out, my little button-hairclip segment from this morning is already up on the AM Northwest site — just click “crafting with buttons” to see the video.
button-y weekend recap
March 30, 2009 at 3:40 pm | Posted in books and mags, button it up, chatty, I love to make things..., oregon | 5 CommentsHope you are having a good Monday! Mine has been pretty dang busy. I usually don’t do this but I’m going to cross-post word for word from my book site today, I wanted to mention a few things and all of them fit in both places (and they’re all about buttons). Tomorrow I’ll be back with some new craftiness, but today is pretty much a relentlessly themed whirlwind. Hope you don’t mind…
I had such a great time at Bolt on Saturday afternoon! Thank you so much to everyone who came by to hang out and talk buttons, make magnets, and eat lavender shortbread cookies.
This one is blurry but happy — it was so nice to get to talk about buttons with people who love them too.
Thanks to Chelsea‘s wonderful article about her family button collection, some folks brought their own canisters and jars of treasured buttons to show us…
…it was lovely to see them all.
A huge thank-you to Lee for taking these photos of the heirloom buttons, that was an incredible gift.
This amber color was so fresh and gorgeous — like it was brand-new instead of decades old.
This one was so exquisite in person, the details and faceting were spectacular.
Just lovely.
So, thank you so much to Gina, Amy and Julia for having me, to Lee for the spectacular pictures, to Andrew for wrangling our little pearl button so we could all hang out in the shop together, and of course to everyone who came by, it was such a treat to spend the afternoon with so many button enthusiasts!
Two more bits of button-project news:
My CraftStylish post this week is how to throw a button party, with how-tos for making button cookies and cupcake toppers. I loved making these and maybe you can use some of the ideas for a crafty party of your own!
And I will be on the AM Northwest show tomorrow, Tuesday 3/31 (on KATU 2 here in Portland from 9-10 am), showing how to make button hairclips from my book, and talking about the upcoming Handmade Nation premiere. You can see it live tomorrow morning (I think about 9:20, though that could change) and then the video will be on their website by Wednesday. So if you couldn’t make it to Powell’s and you’d like to make some hairclips, now is your chance!
maker! faire!
March 27, 2009 at 5:36 pm | Posted in california, crafty events | 2 CommentsHey, I’m in the middle of a massive round of button-cookie production but wanted to quickly pass on a Maker Faire update — applications are due this coming Tuesday (3/31) and if you’re interested, you should definitely jump on it!
I’m applying to teach some button and bead projects — I had the best time at MF 07 (missed 08 due to imminent baby arrival) and I am looking forward to 09! Andrew has never gotten to go so we’re planning to make a vacation of it. Yay!
from the CRAFT: blog:
There is still time to get your entries in to be a crafty Maker at Maker Faire Bay Area. The ultimate DIY weekend is May 30 and 31 in San Mateo, California, and this year’s Faire is celebrating President Obama’s call for all of us to participate in remaking America. We’re looking to showcase “the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things.”
Here are the details on submitting your entries.
Entries
The first step to participating in Maker Faire is to submit an entry that tells us about yourself and your project. Entries can be submitted from individuals as well as from groups such as hobbyist clubs and schools. Please provide a short description of what you make and what you will actually bring to Maker Faire. Please link to photographs or videos of what you make. Maker exhibits should be non-commercial. We particularly encourage exhibits that are interactive and that highlight the process of making things.
Application Form: Please fill out the entry form to tell us about your project.
We are also looking for Makers with projects in the following categories:
- Sustainability
- Alternative Energy
- Clean Tech and Green Tech
- Community and Group Based Projects
- Lost Crafts
- Artisanal Food Makers
- Student Projects
- and more….
Call for Makers for Maker Faire Bay Area 2009
Entry Close Date: March 31, 2009. Space is limited, please submit your entry by the due date!
Maker Faire Bay Area: May 30-31, 2009
Hours: Saturday 10am – 8pm (6pm – 8pm evening program); Sunday 10am – 6pm.
NOTE: This is NOT Memorial Day Weekend.
cookies and cupcakes
March 26, 2009 at 2:20 pm | Posted in button it up, chatty, crafty events | 5 CommentsI’ve had a chance to make some button-y treats to get ready for the Bolt party on Saturday, which has been super fun. I made up some sample magnets in some of my favorite colors…
…and did some shortbread-cookie experiments to see what worked the best in terms of button alchemy. I loved the beautiful blue color of this glaze next to the white icing dots, but unfortunately it is not super-portable. I think dragging a few dozen of these across town would be harrowing — the glaze didn’t cool into a smooth, hard surface, it stayed sticky and soft. So those had to stay here and be eaten — not the worst side effect of kitchen experimenting.
Next I tried a more practical button-cookie hybrid: the pink-sugar and multi-colored sprinkle method. This is a lot more transportation-friendly and I like the sparkly texture-y surface. It’s not the pretty, glossy glaze-y thing I pictured in my head but I think it’s cute! I used some red and some white fondant icing for making the holes and I like the contrast. This is a much easier way to make a whole bunch, too. A winner!
I’ll have a fun little how-to for button party bits and pieces up on CraftStylish to wind down Button It Up month, with the cookie recipes and details, plus some button cupcake toppers (I need to get some practice in for an upcoming first birthday) so you can throw your own shindig to celebrate your next craft night or finished WIP or whatever strikes your fancy. More on that on Sunday.
In the meantime, I hope to see you at our party at Bolt — please come say hi, have a cookie, and glue things to other things with me if you’re around on Saturday afternoon!
mending broken jewelry
March 24, 2009 at 12:38 pm | Posted in bead simple, button it up, chatty, new writing! | 1 CommentThanks for the terrarium love! I had so much fun making those little things. I made a pizza yesterday and used about 1/10 of a glass jar of tomato sauce, and before I could help myself I had emptied the rest of it into a plastic container, just to instantly liberate the jar for terrarium-ing instead of having to wait til it was actually used up. And my Aunt Susan told me something so nice yesterday when she saw my post: my dad made that huge old green-glass terrarium at my grandparents’ house that I loved so much. I never knew that, and it feels like a very sweet and unexpected link back to him, now that I’m making some with Pearl in tow.
I’m excited to do some terrarium kits for my nephew Julian (I wonder if this fascination is genetic? we’ll see) and a few other friends I think would especially like them, and I’ll post some pictures of those too…
Today has turned out to be busy and filled with Pearl so I’ll just be quick and mention that I wrote up a new tutorial for mending your broken jewelry over at CRAFT:, if you have any snapped chains or bent earring wires or missing clasps to deal with.
photo by Burcu Avsar + Zach DeSart, from Button It Up
I hope it’s helpful! Along with the photos and written instructions, I included two videos I’ve made, one on basic wirework I posted months ago and a new one on opening and closing jump rings. I filmed it last spring when I was 38 weeks along with Pearl so you can see a good glimpse of my pregnant belly at about the 4-minute mark, which I find hilarious.
Tomorrow, I’m excited to show my estate sale finds from last weekend! I go to so many that are eh, and this one was really something.
terrariumania
March 23, 2009 at 12:11 pm | Posted in chatty, house crafty, I love to make things..., recycled crafty, vintage crafty | 16 CommentsPearl and I headed to an estate sale on Saturday morning, just ten blocks up the street. I was pretty tired from button-ing and on day three of solo-sick-baby-wrangling, and I almost just stayed home with her. But I’m so glad I didn’t.
I’ll post some more pictures of my other finds tomorrow, but for now I’ll just mention the seven vintage mason jars that were out in the garage for 50ยข. Yay! I loved Jenny’s CRAFT: tutorial last week on making mini-terrariums, and suddenly I had jars galore for just such a project. So I invited Diane over, and we had an actual Sunday together… involving crafting for fun instead of a deadline or project. And it was magical.
We washed all the jars, checked the lids, and walked over to Urban Flora to grab the rest of the stuff we needed — terrarium-supplies heaven right here in 97202. The super-friendly woman there pointed us to the charcoal, soil, and pebbles, mentioning that she was also a terrarium enthusiast, and we were home again pouring pebbles into jars in minutes!
Pearl obligingly went down for a nap and we were off and running.
One of the (many) wonderful things about living in western Oregon is that it is so green here. I love it, it’s well worth the rain (and hail, and snow, and more rain) to have all these lush, beautiful plants and trees everywhere you look. So finding moss and a few interesting stray plants in the yard was kind of like the easiest, most fun scavenger hunt ever devised.
A few months ago, I also happened to fall in love with the same Bake It Pretty cupcake topper set that Jenny had, so we mixed in plenty of deer, rabbits, mushrooms, and trees, along with a little vintage frog I’ve had forever.
I’m not sure what this pretty curving, curling plant is but it looks like it’s having a good time in there so far…
These two bunnies look very happy together too.
I mentioned last week that my grandparents had a huge, beautiful terrarium in their living room and I loved hanging out and gazing at it when I was a kid. I was so excited to make this little one — it’s so much smaller and the shape is totally different — but the color is just the same and looking at it makes me happy.
Naturally Diane made some gorgeous ones. Here, the pet rabbit she’s always wanted eyes a mushroom with interest.
And the same estate sale yielded these two hula-ers, perfect for a tiki-rarium to go with Diane and Katin’s bar!
Anyway, if you have a few minutes to spare I wholeheartedly recommend this craft. It is such an instant gratification pick-me-up and effortlessly fun, and the results are so charming! I now have five terrariums scattered around the house making me happy when I look at them, and Diane and I are both plotting to make some nephew-friendly terrarium-kits to spread the craft far and wide. Not to mention trying to figure out how we can quit our freelance jobs to devote our lives to making terrariums instead.
Some Oregon-style modifications we did: you can use fresh moss right out of the yard or the park instead of dried, layer a thinner stripe of potting soil (since the fresh moss will have its own dirt underlayer), and spray the dirt with water before putting the moss down so that it’s dampened first, instead of waiting til the end as you might with dried moss.
A huge thank-you to Jenny and CRAFT: for the idea and step-by-step instructions to transform an ordinary Sunday into something so nice!
button! button!
March 23, 2009 at 9:34 am | Posted in button it up, chatty, crafty events, oregon | Leave a commentThanks so much to everyone who came out to Powell’s on Friday night to hang out and talk buttons with me! I wrote it up over here, and so did Diane, Sarah, and Caitlin.
photo by Lee
A huge thank-you to my friends who helped so much with setting up, snapping photos, and keeping me going — in a dual stroke of bad luck and worse timing, Andrew is out of town and Pearl is sick, so it was a rough weekend for me to pull off a book event solo without my family there to cheer me on. But we had a lot of fun making a colorful flock of button hairclips and I’m very grateful to the folks who came out and buttoned with me!
And then on Sunday, Chelsea Cain wrote a lovely feature for the Oregonian about her family button collection, and how it connects her with her mother and now with her own daughter — something that is especially meaningful to me now that I have my own pearl button to share my treasures with. She was kind enough to invite me over to their house to make button crafts with them and wrote about her childhood, my book, and our afternoon “great button geek-out” of gluing, sorting, arranging, and rearranging.
It’s not online (yet?) so I snapped some quick photos of the page and put them here if you want to read along. Thank you, Chelsea!
And if you’re as eager for spring as I am, you might want to try this simple little pick-me-up project I just did for CraftStylish: making button and felt embellishments for a plain pair of shoes.
see you tomorrow?
March 19, 2009 at 12:22 pm | Posted in button it up, chatty, crafty events, oregon | 3 Commentsjust a quick post since I’m wrangling an under-the-weather little baby, but if you’re in Portland and up for saying hi and making yourself a set of button hairclips, I’d love to see you at my Powell’s event tomorrow… I’m nervous and excited about it at the same time!
In non-button news, I’m so glad to have our new president for so many reasons, but even more so once Sarah tipped me to his #1 pick yesterday morning. Awesome.
Let’s hope it works out for him! I watched the ESPN Barack-etology clip and was pretty impressed, he knows his basketball.
green day
March 17, 2009 at 2:21 pm | Posted in button it up, chatty, I love to make things..., new writing!, projects to do, recycled crafty | 2 CommentsI’ve been making lots of button hairclips as samples to show at my Powell’s event Friday night, and thought I’d wear these green ones out and about today in honor of St Patrick’s Day…
In other colorful news, a mini-tutorial I wrote for CRAFT’s Mending Month is up! It shows a very simple way to mend a torn [green, what a coincidence] sheet — actually a pillow cover, but this hand-sewing technique will work for any woven fabric piece. Diane did a fantastic (as always) tutorial for mending ripped upholstery that I thought I’d spotlight too. I love the Mending Month posts — so practical and simple. It is very refreshing to me to fix what I have instead of constantly buying new.
And Jenny Ryan has a lovely how-to up today: make a terrarium in a mason jar! I love this one. I adore terrariums — my grandparents had a huge one that I loved when I was a kid — and hers is awesome.
Speaking of Jenny, the review I wrote of her wonderful new book, Sew Darn Cute, is up at CraftStylish. You can win a copy this week — just comment on this post by next Tuesday and you’re in the mix!
bracelets and podcasts
March 16, 2009 at 1:55 pm | Posted in chatty, new writing!, projects to do | 5 CommentsI wanted to share this covered button project I did for this week’s CraftStylish post — I used a favorite Denyse Schmidt print from the Katie Jump Rope collection, which always reminds me of making my quilt. Anyway, it was a fun one to do and I hope you like it!
Speaking of CraftStylish, I am happy to announce that my lovely friend Michaela Murphy has a new story, “Eye Spy,” posted on The Moth — it’s available as a free download here. Michaela is such a gifted storyteller and I am saving it for first thing tomorrow morning to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!
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