vintage craft workshop review + giveaway!

May 13, 2011 at 10:28 am | Posted in books and mags, california, crafty events, I love to make things..., vintage crafty | 10 Comments

I’m super happy to be on my dear friend Cathy Callahan‘s blog book tour for her lovely new Vintage Craft Workshop. I am an equally huge fan of both Cathy and vintage crafts, and her book is a total delight – two dozen projects from the ’60s and ’70s, reinterpreted in very modern ways by Cathy and her contributors, plus fascinating essays on some of the leading craft designers of that golden era.

I first met Cathy in 2005 at the very first Felt Club sale in Los Angeles. I was selling my crafts, and we chatted when she bought one of my skirt kits. At the second Felt Club, I stopped by her table and snapped up one of her burlap-covered wastebaskets (now a project in the book!). I am also the proud owner of a brown-and-pink ribbon-straw flower pin (now a project in the book), a mushroom pincushion (ditto), and a pink-and-orange Enid Collins-style papier-mache brooch (more on that in a minute…).

She contributed awesome projects to both Bead Simple and Button It Up, and when she asked me to do a project for Vintage Craft Workshop, I couldn’t say yes fast enough! She asked me to reinterpret one of my favorite vintage projects, Hazel Pearson’s mushroom pincushion from Burlap Bounty (1967). I love the pink one I bought from Cathy, so making my own in two tones of yellow and orange was super fun.

A few of my other favorite projects (it’s very hard to pick just a couple!) are…

Cathy’s Loomed Flower Wall Hanging – amazing. If you’re in Los Angeles, she’s doing a fantastic book event teaching this craft at my favorite store ever, ReForm School, tomorrow (5/14) from 2-4! Don’t miss that. I wish I could be there…

Nicole Vasbinder‘s Citrus Slice Bulletin Board is so cool (you can see the project instructions here on CRAFT: too!). It’s on my craft wish list – as soon as I get that magical, elusive free afternoon, it’s going to be all about cutting circles and hand-embroidery.

And my favorite-favorite has to be Lara Bobo’s Antiqued Jewelry Box. One of the big things Cathy and I bonded over was our mutual love of Enid Collins. I collect her handbags (these two are my favorites – I’m a Capricorn and my husband is a Cancer so I think it was kind of meant for me to find these ones). I love her work and love the painted details, the jewels, the papier-mache, the typography, just all of it is so good.

Cathy loves all things ec too, and found this treasure, a 1973 photo catalog of the current handbag designs – don’t miss her lovely post on it. Here’s just one of the photos, I just love it.

So while Cathy was researching Enid Collins for her book, she met Enid’s granddaughter, Lara Bobo, and asked her to do a project too… and the gorgeous Antiqued Jewelry Box was born. Lara’s father made the wooden box she embellished, so three generations of Collinsania combined in this lovely piece. I got chills reading Cathy’s introduction about it all.

So, that’s my dream project – not sure when I’ll pull it off but I hope it’s in 2011!

Now, the fun part – Cathy and Chronicle Books have kindly offered up a copy of the book for me to give away to a reader! Please comment on this post by Thursday, May 19 mentioning your favorite vintage craft, and I’ll ask Cathy to choose her favorite from all of them. I can’t wait to hear them myself too! Cathy’s blog tour has lots of great vintage craft posts and some other fun giveaways so be sure to follow along the way. Yesterday’s post was by Jenny at Exit Through the Thrift Shop (with bonus Felt Club pics!!) and Monday’s post will be at whipup and I know that one will be awesome!

And if you’re going to Maker Faire, Cathy and I are doing free book events, back to back – at 2:00 on Saturday, I’m doing a POW! ZAP! Magnets demo from World of Geekcraft (make one to take home!) and at 3:00 Cathy’s giving a new “Crafty Lady” slideshow all about vintage crafts and their pioneers. Both are in the CRAFT: Magazine area and we’ll be signing books afterwards – please come say hi!

About these ads