West Coast Crafty

I am so excited that Bead Simple is out in the world today! Yay!

I’m so happy that after two years of designing, writing, obsessive Excel-sheet-updating, proofreading, and waiting, it is finally out. I hope that if you buy it, borrow it, or see it at your library or local bookstore you’ll enjoy it thoroughly, and I’d absolutely love to hear what you think.

I’m really looking forward to doing some fun events, starting next month when I dip into my crazy collection of vintage beads to start hosting a few free jewelry-making parties. Here’s a sneak peek at one of my favorite beginner-friendly projects — sparkly Solo Earrings, as modeled by one of Moxie’s delightful monsters!

I’m working on the details for my Powells event (Monday, April 7 at 7:30, more info to come very soon!), and really looking forward to doing book events at Twisted, Crafty Wonderland, and Church of Craft later in the year. I’m also planning some fun out-of-town stuff in San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Raleigh, and I hope a few other places too!

Last, a couple of quick things… if you make anything inspired by the book, I would really love to see it — please add it to the Bead Simple flickr group I set up!

And if you are looking for a copy, you can find it at your local bookstore, any Michaels location, or on Amazon. You can find signed copies at the Taunton website or directly from me via my Etsy shop, too. And hopefully it will be on the shelf at your library branch!

Huge thanks for the support from my family, all my lovely friends and guest designers… and to everyone who reads my blog, thank you for putting up with my shameless self-promotion in between spotlighting other people’s cool crafty stuff.

ps: a special thank-you to my in-laws, Paul and Nancy, for surprising me with these beautiful flowers to celebrate the book release, and to Andrew for bringing me breakfast in bed today!

I am writing a new column for the wonderful BurdaStyle website, and my first piece in a crafty series just went up today: Sewing Resources in Portland. Hooray! I got to spotlight all my favorite places to shop for fabric, notions, buttons — pretty much everything sewing. I find the whole website and community super inspiring, from the sewpedia to the free downloadable patterns and the always-informative blog. I’m so happy to be part of it!

Here are pictures of two of my favorite spots, Bolt and Knittn Kitten, to get you started… but be sure to check out the post for plenty more recommendations.

Just a quick post to let you know that I have three great craft books up for grabs over at the Adorn blog, so be sure to comment on that post for a chance to win one of them!

I wrote mini-reviews of each and picked a favorite project to spotlight, so check out the Adorn post for lots more info.

Speaking of Adorn, I have been meaning to post about how much I love the new issue! My Crafty News & Notes column was a lot of fun to write — I got to feature some of my favorite crafty things, like Erin McKean’s Dress A Day blog and the Vintage Fabric flickr group.

I also loved Kayte Terry’s matrushka dolls, Cortney Heimerl’s crafty guide to Milwaukee, and Linda Permann’s lino block print tutorial, along with the indie gift guide, sewing machine 101, and Vegas-themed photo spread!

I’m so pleased that the new issue of CRAFT is out! I really love this one, there are tons of inspiring projects to try (33 total!), super interesting crafters featured, and some truly great holiday handmade picks too…

here are a few of my favorite things in no particular order: Diane Gilleland’s profile of Teresa Sullivan (a fellow Portland beader!), Natalie Zee Drieu’s crafty guide to San Francisco, Christine Haynes and Kent Bell’s fabulous party dress project (pictured above), the whole Papercraft section (too many things to list one by one…), Christy Petterson’s personalized notebook project, Susan Brackney’s paper mosiac-ed floor (must be seen to be believed), Mister Jalopy’s tin can tiles project, and Cathy of California’s folded magazine cat and mushroom pincushion.

And I have three pieces in this issue, too — a modern heirloom quilt, a jewelry box, and a recycled sheet project! I really loved making the quilt and it was such a treat to create it for the magazine — I’ve wanted to make something like this for years, and this assignment was the perfect excuse to visit Purl Soho and buy the Denyse Schmidt Katie Jump Rope collection, get out my Gocco printer, and choose some favorite pictures for photo transfer on fabric. It was finished just in time for our second wedding anniversary, so that was cool too.

I wrote up instructions on how to create the squares, embellish them, join the strips together, baste the front and back, and bind it, along with tips on how to build the log cabin squares and make your own bias tape. The whole thing took me about a month and now it makes me happy every day when I see it on the bed.

I also made an Enid-Collins-inspired jewelry box embellished with rhinestones, ribbon, and sparkly trim, which was a lot of fun.

And I turned a vintage sheet into a trio of little things: a craft apron, belt, and sunglasses case.

Thanks so much to Carla and Natalie for the great assignments! You can pick up the latest issue of CRAFT at bookstores, subscribe online, or get the issue at the upcoming Felt Club and Crafty Wonderland events. Viva CRAFT!

I’m so excited to announce my new jewelry-making book, Bead Simple: Essential Techniques for Making Jewelry Just the Way You Want It! It won’t be in stores in March 2008, but now that it’s up on Amazon for pre-order and wish-listing, I can finally unveil it over here, too. It’s being published by The Taunton Press, and Alexis Hartman created the illustrations, and Burcu Avsar and Zach DeSart took all the photographs. I love how colorful and lush it is, thanks to these three talented people!

I designed 50 beading projects for the collection, from necklaces and earrings to embellishments and ornaments. Each one has two spin-off variations, using totally different colors, materials or scale, to encourage readers to consider using their own favorites instead of exactly the same materials I did. And of the 150 total projects in the book, 39 of these variation pieces were contributed by some of my favorite designers — I love their take on beading and jewelry design, and it was amazing to see what they came up with!

There’s a front section of illustrated techniques (like wirework, beadstringing, knotting, and making clasps and earring wires) to get you started, and all the projects are arranged by genre, and rated beginner-friendly, moderate, or advanced difficulty. I used lots of vintage, reclaimed, and hardware store materials along with more traditional components like glass beads, semi-precious pendants, and metal findings, so instead of making a special (and expensive) trip to the bead store, I hope that readers are inspired to use favorite pieces from their bead stash or the thrift store to make something cool.

I’ve also created a book website at beadsimple.com that has more information on the book and my fabulous guest designers, but as the release date gets closer, I’ll be adding short technique videos, more resources, and links to other jewelry and beading sites.

I am so thrilled about the book and can’t wait until it’s out in the world! Thank you so much to my amazing guest designers, to my wonderful editor at Taunton, to Andrew and my friends and family for encouraging me, and to my susanstars customers for their support of my little business over the last six years.

Back to projects to make and other people’s craft doings tomorrow… and thanks so much to Megan for posting her interview with me over at Design Sponge today, it was a lot of fun to chat with you about craft projects, indie business and craft fairs — I really appreciate your thinking of me!

My new article on Gocco printing is up on venuszine.com! I got to interview Mark Pawson of Print More Postcards and Cathy Pitters of Bossa Nova Baby and feature some of their amazing Gocco artwork. The piece was originally going to run in the fall issue of Venus, but got bumped to the website since there was so much content this time — but my article on letterpress, featuring the beautiful work of Carye Bye of Red Bat Press and Maria Vettese of Port2Port Press, is in the current print edition.

gocco-printed postcards by Mark Pawson from the Print More Postcards series

dogwood-flower gocco-printed and stitched vintage sweater by Cathy Pitters; photo by Greg Pitters

The Venus DIY section is paper-themed this issue, which I think is such a cool idea. I really love Gocco, so writing about it and spotlighting some of my favorite artists was a lot of fun! I’m also excited that I have a new Gocco project in the upcoming issue of CRAFT: (05) so more on that later…

I just got my copy of the fall Adorn, and it looks so great — I love it. Plus, since it just jumped up to a bigger page size, there are more projects and features than ever!

Kayte Terry made these plastic-canvas candleholders that grace the cover:

I have several pieces in the issue — I wrote up my usual Crafty News and Notes column but like the mag itself, it’s super-sized now!

I got to cover six new things I like in the world of craft, and include more photos than ever.

I also contributed a feature on my all-time favorite three craft sites, getcrafty, craftster, and supernaturale. Since I’ve met so many cool people through the forums, it was such a pleasure to interview the founders and editors about how everything got started, and talk to crafters about their favorite features, too. The lovely illustration is by Amanda Woodward.

Last, I reworked some broken jewelry and vintage charms into a new black-and-white two-strand necklace for the “Lost and Found” piece, along with the super-talented Linda Permann and Jennifer Perkins. (That’s Linda’s piece on the left page, and mine on the right.)

There’s so much cool stuff in this issue! I also loved Linda’s patchworked sweater ottoman, the “One Chair, 3 Ways” feature starring Holly Becker, Gregory Han, and Kayte, Tricia Royal’s remix_redux column, and the interviews with Alicia Paulson and Wendy Mullins.

Make sure you pick one up soon! Julia asked yesterday where to find Adorn, and I’ve seen it at both Borders and Barnes and Noble here in town… but now you can order current and back issues off their site, too.

My Around the World in 80 Girls travel guide to Los Angeles is on page 48 of the latest issue of BUST (with Rosario Dawson on the cover) — I’m so pleased! I got to shout out to so many of my favorite places: ReForm School, Pull My Daisy, Felt Club, Griffith Park, Michael Levine, Clifton’s, the Hollywood Farmer’s Market, the Getty Center, Mashti Malone, the Rose Bowl flea market, and about thirty more! I really miss LA these days and I can’t wait to visit. It’s been far too long.

A big thank you to my lovely editor, Lisa, for the catchy subtitle and for making it look so good!

Speaking of LA, Cathy of California is coming to visit for a couple of days next week, which I’m so excited about. Diane and I will be taking her on our Portland Crafty Tour and I have a few vintage treasures I’ve been saving for her vast collection.

My write-up of the amazing Renegade Craft Fair (Brooklyn 2007 edition) has just gone up at Venuszine.com if you’d like to check it out! I loved the fair, there was so much incredible handmade stuff to look at… I sold there last year and that was great too, but it was really cool to walk around all day instead of running a booth this time.

Sue and Kathleen, organizers extraordinaire!

My flickr pictures are here, the Renegade flickr pool is here, and the Venus round-up is over here, if you’re interested.

My friend Megan tipped me off to the big news that after a long and uncertain drought, Gocco printers and supplies will be available at Paper Source here in the US as of June 22! You can also pre-order any Gocco item by calling 888.727.3711. I’m not sure which printer model they’re selling, but since it costs $395 I’m assuming it’s a fancier/larger-print model. I have a plain B6 that I love to pieces but it doesn’t have any bells and whistles (like mechanisms to set the paper exactly the same way every time you print, which would be nice). They also have tons of ink colors, plus bulbs and screens, so you can restock all your supplies, too.

Anyway, to celebrate I thought I’d link the ever-wonderful Gocco flickr group and post a photo of my very first Gocco screens from last year: skeletons and scissors!

I liked the designs so much that I turned them into the sugar-scrub jar labels for my CRAFT: 03 how-to article, “Balms and Bubbles”:

So if you’ve been hoping to get your very own Gocco printer, looks like now is the time!