Time for color

We've been using a pack of plain white cloth diapers as burp cloths / light shade blankets.  However, I looked a Veronica clutching this and thought: My child needs more color!

So I bought some Rit dye and this is the result.  Much better. The colors in the picture below are not quite accurate. The orange is really a brighter mango color.

Dyes used, clockwise: Lemon Yellow, Kelly Green, Teal, Royal Blue, Scarlet Red, Sunshine Orange. I just eye-balled the amount of dye and water. I had a lot of yellow left over after the first cloth, so used it to dye another one.  Hence one bright yellow and one pale yellow.  The aqua is from using a less Teal to water ratio.  The bright red is from using just Scarlet. The darker red is from overdying a Scarlet cloth with the leftover Royal blue. The green is a yellow overdyed with Kelly green.

The scarlet red does run terribly.  I used the microwave method which was fastest. I rinsed them all till they ran clearish, then washed them with my regular laundry.  Now that we have a baby, there's always laundry to do.  

So the yellows and orange cloths went in a load of yellow and gold clothes.  The blue and green cloths with jeans, blue towels, etc. and the red cloths with red and black clothes.  There was a red/white/navy baby dress in with the reds, and yup, the white in the baby dress turned pinkish.  Oh well.  

I really want to dye more things now.  

Must. Resist. New. Craft.

I ended up not going to work over the Thanksgiving weekend. As I reasoned, I wasn't planning on being here anyway so why go in? And here I sit at the office at 5pm EST Nov 30 done with most of my work, that's due at 8pm EST/5pm PST Dec 1.

Instead of going to work on Saturday, I went to the library. Browsed the craft books, mostly looking at knitting. But the embroidery books caught my eye. I'm knitting a toilet paper cover for Sister and her husband that looks like a roll of sushi (their request). It requires embroidering on the "filling."

Now I want to take up crewel embroidery. I've done it before, a long time ago as a kid -- a unicorn and rainbow if I remember correctly. And I have all kinds of cross stitch floss and needles, lots of inspiration books, and a blue marking pen for quilting that will wash out....

No. Must. Resist. New. Craft.

Craft, Inc.

I am reading Craft, Inc.: Turn Your Creative Hobby into a Business by Meg Mateo Ilasco. Title is pretty self explanatory.

It's always been that I earned a living doing social activism, social change work and did art and craft on the side as a hobby. However, I always struggled with trying to find a way to make both work. 10 years ago when I was in graduate school, I remember talking about that in an anthropology class.

Now with the rise of Etsy.com and a resurgence in handcraft marketplace, there are lots of people making money from what used to be a hobby. It's something that I want to look into. However I have my reservations. If this is really going to be a business, how much time will I be able to spend on each piece, how much can I price that for in order for it to sell, and how long before I could make a profit and not just cover costs?

At work, one of our programs is helping refugee women start their own businesses. We have workshops on cash flow, marketing, pricing, writing business plans, etc. Many want to sell their handcrafts but it's a struggle. If you're making handwoven totebags, how do you compete with $5 totebags sold in Walmart, made from sweatshop labor in China?

Granted, part of the marketing in knowing who to market to: people who understand or value hand-made items, and not just having the item. Hence the rise of Etsy and resurgence of handcraft fairs.

So what would my business be? I'm thinking handmade prints. They're easy to produce, unlike knitted goods which take forever. They're easy to mail, unlike pottery, which is heavy and take a long time to produce. And they're easy to reproduce. Once I have the linoleum cut, it's a matter of inking up and printing on paper.

Currently, I thinking about a name and website domain name. The one I'm thinking of is not taken and I'm considering registering for them now, just to make sure I have them before someone else takes them. However, I don't know that I really want to use my name (initials, really) for my business.

Plus there's the fact that I have not really done the research to see if this is a viable business idea or just idle dabbling because I want to leave my day job. Not that I would leave my day job until this printmaking business started turning a profit.

So I will finish reading this book, continue with my printmaking class, develop a print-style and a portfolio of linocuts. Afterall, I should probably see if I can do the production part of the business. Then develop a budget and business plan. Preliminarily I think I would sell through Etsy and do the production work on the weekends and maybe a Wed night.

All this while working a day job in a down market, trying to sell a house in a down market and then trying to adopt a kid after the house is sold. And still have time for a husband, who's the most wonderful guy in the world.

Also, just found this page on how to calculate profits on Etsy.

Today's craft project: Lotus collage

Actually made this yesterday.

Materials:

scrapbook paper

origami paper

craft knife

mod podge craft glue

finished size 12 inches by 12 inches.

I made a stencil for the red lotus flower from cardboard, so I won't have to free-hand the lotus in the future if I decide to make another one. I already had the stencil for the dragonflies.

It took 2 hours total to make, including selecting the papers, creating the lotus stencil, cutting out the lotus and dragonflies, gluing them in place and sealing them in mod podge, and a snack break.

Next step is to coat the whole thing in mod podge to seal it in because the places where I already used mod podge is darker than unsealed areas.

Next time I want to make something out of stripy paper and do a Kaffe Fassett quilt design.

Why I Make Things, Part Two

The New York Times today has an article called Beauty and the Bento Box. I haven't read it all yet, but this and the cake I made this weekend, helped crystalize something for me.

Some time ago, I wrote a post called Why I make Things, Part One. I think it boils down to my belief that craft = utility + beauty. It needs to feed/serve body and soul. This is what I think the Japanese bento box symbolizes, just as the simple elegance of Shaker furniture, the beauty and utility of quilts, and the furniture, etc. of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Nowadays, it's so easy to buy something instead of making something. But before you make something, you have to think about it.

Think about the function, then the form, then the materials. As you gather the materials, that's when you think about how it will look. Do you want the dark clay, or the light clay, all other considerations being equal? What if you combined them in a swirl pattern as you wedge the clay together? You have to wedge the clay anyway.

Patchwork quilts are the epitomy of craft. It's about making something useful and essential -- blankets in times when there was no central heating. And handsewing something takes so much time and effort, you might as well make it beautiful, because you'll have to look at it for a very long time.

The fact that every single culture engages in decoration of things and self (body art, tattoos, make-up, fashion), indicates that the need for beauty is an integral part of all humans.

So that's why I make things.

Not the Usual

Husband went out of town this weekend for the Wisconsin-Iowa game. So this is how I whooped it up while he was gone.

I made a cake, from scratch, seen above. Chocolate cake with coconut frosting. Ugliest cake, but tasty. As someone who prides herself on making things that are both functional and beautiful, this was not my best. However, it does taste good. And considering this is my first effort in making a cake from scratch and not a boxed mix, I'm pretty happy. Plus this is my first time making frosting ever.

But still, in that picture, I did include things I have made that are functional and beautiful, like the green flowerpot, and my Malabrigo afghan.

This week I also started my pottery class. In the cake picture are three bowls I brought home to dry. The biggest one on the right is 11 inches in diameter and 4.5 inches tall.

I did not work on the Sunrise Circle Jacket, because the fluxuating stitch count was driving me up the wall. I worked on my Noro Furisode Log Cabin blanket instead. I wound up all but one of the skeins into cakes:

On Saturday I worked, speaking on a panel about the challenges of reaching out to refugees for the US Census. I barely had a voice, despite all the honey and tea I've been drinking. Basically, I said that one fear that refugees in particular have about the census, is that in their countries of origin, the census was used by the government to identify and target people of different groups for ethnic cleansing. No wonder then that refugees are reluctant to answer the census.

On the flip side, in some countries, specific ethnic groups were barred from being counted in the census, so now they're really eager to be counted.

After the census thing, I went shopping, something I don't really do anymore because very few things fit right and many stores are eliminating their petite sections. However, I did buy a dark teal blue jacket, black ankle boots, and red suede flats. Even though the jacket is a petite, I still have to have the sleeves shortened.

In another break from the usual, I didn't watch anything by Joss Whedon! Instead, it's been a Neil Gaiman and NCIS weekend. The next Angel DVDs haven't come from the library yet (actually, they have, but I probably won't go get them until tomorrow.) And, okay, I watched the most recent episode of Castle, where they wore the blue gloves. That's the closest I got to Whedonverse this weekend.

Rather, I've been watching the NCIS marathons on USA cable network. It's like Law and Order. Each episode stands alone and they're pretty straight forward who-done-its. I like the characters, especially Abby Scuito the goth forensics tech who also knows sign language. It comes up every once in a while, like when she and boss Gibbs will sign to each other when they don't want others to understand what they're saying, or when lipreading surveillance videos. Plus she has the best wardrobe.

I'm listening to "Stardust" by Gaiman on CD, read by Gaiman himself. He's pretty good as a reader, doing voices too and not sounding cheesy. I'm also reading "Fragile Things" a collection of his short stories, and the movie "Coraline" just came in from Netflix. As a crafter and especially as a knitter and someone who's done clay work, I'm really looking forward to seeing the "making of" feature. I hope there's a making-of feature!

ETA: alas, there is no making-of feature for Coraline. Plus, Brother One gave me two Buffy comics: Predator and Prey, a compilation of issues 20 to 25 of Buffy Season Eight, and Buffy Omnibus One. It was at the office when I came in this morning. On Saturday, I stopped by the office and saw that there was a package in the common area, but I was in a hurry and didn't look closely. If I had, I could have had some new Buffy for the weekend, but I'm happy with the way the weekend turned out, as it is.

For Craft Sales, the Recession Is a Help

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/23/business/23craft.html?_r=1&adxnnlx=1230044429-LDYPpMtpEwhP%20mq4EcpdFg&pagewanted=all

A boom in sales of crafts and related supplies contrasts with poor results for traditional retailers, like electronics retailers and department stores
By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER, Published: December 22, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — Feeling the pinch of the economic downturn, some holiday gift-givers are saving money this year by making their own presents or — for those who lack the time or talent — buying handmade gifts from others.
Michaels Stores is hoping that a holiday spike in sales of craft goods will make up for weak results earlier in the year. Craft stores, from giant chains like Michaels Stores to small scrapbook supply shops, are reporting that sales are higher compared with the last holiday season, and online marketplaces for handmade goods, like Etsy, are seeing a boom in listings and transactions.
Sales at Scrap, a craft supply store in Portland, Ore., were up 33 percent in November compared with the year before. The shop’s customers have made a menorah out of yellow plastic bottle caps, Christmas tree ornaments from wood samples and calendars from fabric and paper collages, according to Sarah Dyer, the manager.
“A lot of people are doing a do-it-yourself Christmas, because of the economic downturn but also wanting to make their lives more sustainable, making stuff as opposed to buying more stuff,” she said.
The boom in crafts and related supplies contrasts with poor results for traditional retailers, like electronics retailers and department stores. The nation’s overall retail sales in November fell 7.4 percent from the year before, according to the Commerce Department.
The craft sector, which has about $5.9 billion in annual revenue, is “operating in its own little niche,” said George Van Horn, a senior analyst at IBISWorld, a research firm. “The number of establishments is growing.”
Last year, 42 million households gave handmade gifts, according to the Craft & Hobby Association, a trade group, and that number is expected to increase greatly this year, its spokesman, Victor Domine, said.
“Across the country, people are crafting more,” he said. “With the recession, people are looking for ways to save money, and doctors are recommending it as a major form of stress relief.”
Elizabeth Ludington, a 25-year-old paralegal in Rochester, N.Y., is one of those who chose a do-it-yourself Christmas. She works for a nonprofit legal aid group that she fears could suffer from a downturn in grants. “I looked at my bank account and budget and realized I didn’t have a lot of cash,” she said.
She usually spends about $20 on each of 10 friends and relatives for stationery, bath products or spa gift certificates. This year, she is stitching cable-knit coffee sleeves to use instead of the cardboard ones at coffee shops. They will cost her $1 each to make and an hour of her time after work while she watches TV at night.
“I wanted something that was affordable but still meaningful and kind of fun,” she said.
Michaels Stores, the chain of craft retailers owned by the Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, hopes that a holiday spike in sales will make up for weak results earlier in the year. For the quarter that ended Nov. 1, the company reported a net loss of $20 million and a decrease of 6.5 percent in same-store sales. But in November and December, Michaels’ 1,014 stores have had sharp increases in traffic and transactions for small-ticket craft supplies, said Brian C. Cornell, the company’s chief executive.
Michaels does not release monthly sales data, and Mr. Cornell declined to discuss specific numbers. However, he said that premade holiday and home decorations, which tend to be more expensive, are not selling well. Less expensive craft supplies, which generally account for 41 percent of revenue, are moving briskly, and sales have been particularly strong for supplies used to make jewelry, baked goods, scrapbooks and decorated clothing.
Michaels has shifted its marketing strategy to take advantage of the trend. The company created an advertising campaign called “Endless Creativity, Endless Savings” to market craft supplies for handmade gifts. It started a Web site, Where Creativity Happens, with videos on how to make gifts like picture frames and candles, and it held free weekly in-store workshops.
“We’re certainly seeing much better results than we would have anticipated,” Mr. Cornell said. “There’s a much greater interest right now in how you decorate your home and create your own gifts yourself.”
Jo-Ann Stores, the craft supply leader with a 19 percent market share, has had a similar pattern. Though same-store sales fell 1.5 percent in the quarter ending Nov. 1, sales of sewing and craft supplies, which account for half of revenue, were stable that quarter and have climbed this quarter, said Lisa Greb, a Jo-Ann spokeswoman.
The cost savings for handmade gifts can be significant. At Jo-Ann, the supplies to make a child’s apron and chef hat cost $7.90 for fabric designed with gingerbread men, iron-on letters to spell “chef” and elastic. Making a hand-knit throw costs $40 for nine skeins of yarn and $6 for knitting needles; a similar-looking item at Pottery Barn costs $129.
Jeanne Nevin, the owner of Stampingly Yours, a scrapbooking store in Clifton, N.J., said the last few months have brought her many new customers buying scrapbooks, paper, decorations, inks and rubber stamps.
“It’s because nobody has money,” she said. Making a scrapbook is an inexpensive alternative to buying a gift. “It’s not like they give a gift, use it up and get rid of it. It’s stuff they can keep forever.”
Even people who do not have the time or inclination to create their own gifts are shunning big-box stores to buy handmade gifts directly from artists, in part to save on the margin in retail stores.
On eBay, people bought 13,137 handmade crafts over the last 60 days for an average price of $8.21, and sales of handmade crafts climbed 34 percent, the company said.
On Sept. 29, a day the stock market plunged sharply, Etsy, the leading Web marketplace for handmade goods, had record sales. In November and December, the site has continued to break records. Last month, artists sold $10.8 million of goods on Etsy, up from $4.2 million in November 2007. Some 135,000 people signed up for Etsy memberships and sellers listed 1.1 million new items, both figures more than double the same month last year.
Some Etsy merchants have had such unexpectedly high sales this season that they are shutting down early because they do not have time to make any more gifts.
Dennis Anderson of Citrus Heights, Calif., was prepared for a 50 percent increase in sales of his soaps, which are handmade from ingredients like olive oil, pomegranate and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer. Instead, orders climbed 300 percent. He said he has sold 6,000 items in the last three months, and he has been working 15 hours a day, seven days a week, to meet the demand.
“I wasn’t expecting this much with the economy the way it is, but I realized it’s probably one of the factors in the increase,” he said. Customers “can knock out 12 people by getting 12 bars of soap for $60 instead of spending $30 a person.”
Apart from the lower cost, handmade gifts have a nonfinancial value that appeals to many buyers.
“I just like the fact that I’m supporting someone who’s trying to make their way in the world by using their talents, and my money is going directly to a person instead of a chain of middlemen,” said Christy Petterson, a jeweler in Atlanta who co-edits GetCrafty.com and has bought handmade gifts this season. “For the same amount of money, the specialness factor is way higher. It’s more heartfelt than if you bought something from a big-box store.”

Why I make things, Part One: It's Genetic

My parents and grandparents were creative people, and so I grew up thinking that making things is a normal thing to do.

My mother's parents were tailors back in the early 20th century, in Taipei, Taiwan. They made school uniforms, engagement dresses, suits, etc. I remember a long, pale blue dress they made just for me when I was 8 or 10 years old. They came to visit us in the US and my grand mother took my measurements. After they went home to Taiwan, some time later a package came in the mail and there were the dresses they made for me and my sister. We have many pictures of my sister and me wearing matching handmade dresses that we adored.

As I grew older, I realized that after we kids went to bed, my parents would stay up and practice calligraphy and writing poetry. In Chinese, which I can't read, but still, it was evidence of the creative urge. During the day, my dad was a civil engineer and my mom was a housewife and mother of 4 kids, but during the day, they let their creativity loose.

Once my youngest siblings started school, my mother would take cake decorating classes one night a week at the community college. Those were the nights my dad would make what we called "Salvation Army stew." Basically, he would make a big pot of ramen noodles, throw in leftovers, and that was dinner.

I don't remember if it was good or bad, but I'm sure it was good. My mom's a great cook, like her mom was. My mom never used a recipe, that I can remember. She would just think about how flavors combine and make it work. That's another way her creativity expressed itself.

When we moved to Taiwan, she would take classes on flower arranging, how to make flowers and bas relief panels using modeling clay, etc. I remember a family project where all six of us made a clown out of the clay, glued it to a backing board, and each of us painted our clowns.

My dad was very creative too, and engineering requires some level of creativity. I'm not sure what all my dad did at work, but I know he designed and built a 2 story shed/playhouse with stairs and slide, and also did home improvement projects like laying pavers for a patio and building a portico out of wooden beams.

These days, shows like This Old House and all those shows on HGTV are all about how to do home improvement projects. But back in the 1980s, those shows weren't around and my dad did it all by himself.

I was conscious that we didn't have a ton of money, and now I realize, that a household of 6 with only one wage-earner living in the neighborhood we lived in at the time, we didn't have a ton of money. But my parents carved out the time and money so that my mom could take those cake decorating classes.

Because they make art, my parents buy art. Their home now holds large handcarved wooden panels depicting dragons, phoenixes, clouds. They have a wooden peacock that's at least 6 feet tall. The woodworking shop is down the block from their townhouse, so they know where the wood comes from, they know the artisan making their piece, and they can go see the artisan in action and see the many steps involved in making that one piece.

It's very similar to how my mom grew up watching her parents making a dress or suit, from measuring the client, to choosing the fabric, ironing, cutting, sewing, fitting, finishing, down to the buttons and zippers.

This was not sweatshop labor. It was artistic labor, skilled labor, that required not only capable hands, but a sharp and creative mind as well.

Happy birthday to me....

Rather narcissistic to blog about one's own birthday, no? And yet the picture opportunities!

First of all, Husband sent me flowers at work one day early.Then the staff gave me flowers too the next day, with little cake and brownie snacks, which I shared of course, and a balloon, but best of all, a book:That would be The Big-Ass Book of Crafts by Mark Montano. Favorite projects from the book:

Tabletop covered with peel and stick laminate tile from the hardware store:Felt-applique quilt:There's totally kitchy and totally cool stuff so I'm looking forward to doing some of the projects.

And here's one project that belongs in that book but I did way back in, um, some time so long ago I don't even remember, but probably last fall, about a year ago:

This piece is 4 feet by 4 feet on a wooden base. I took scrapbooking paper, tore them up into irregular shapes and glued them onto the wood. Then I sketched a lotus flower onto a sheet of flipchart paper and glued more scraps of scrap book paper onto it. Sharpies bleed through paper pretty well, so once it dried, I could cut out the shapes from the back side.

Using ModPodge, I glued on the lotus flower pieces, and then also the little dragonflies in the 4 corners.

Began the project probably last fall and finished it, almost, today. Now I just need to get 16 feet of ribbon to glue onto the edge of the wood to give it a nice finish. And to figure out where to put it and how. It's pretty heavy. But that can wait until next year.

By the way, for dinner on my birthday, Husband took me to Bacchanalia, apparently the only 5 star restaurant in Atlanta. It was a prix fixe 4 course dinner (appetizer, entree, cheese, dessert) where I tried veal sweetbread -- brains -- for the first time. It was $75 per person base price. Then there were the wine pairings and some choices for each course carried extra charges, which they called supplements.

Each portion was tiny but oh, the flavors. And by the time dessert came around, I was full. Could barely finish my donut holes, I mean, bomboloni.

But I managed it. Leave no chocolate covered Italian donut holes behind, is my motto.

Food as art

Danger! Danger! New craft I want to try: carving fruit and vegetables.

Great article and pictures here at the New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/14/dining/14carve.html?em&ex=1210910400&en=641542df67da610b&ei=5087%0A

It's an old, old tradition in Asia. I remember learning to cut up and carve an apple into a bird, though I don't remember if I learned in the US or in Taiwan.

While I will most probably not start this craft, I can translate it into my pottery. I've been making more rounded jar/pots, which are very much like pumpkins or watermelons. I love carving pottery when it's at the leather-hard stage.

When pottery is first thrown on the wheel, it's very wet and malleable. Then it dries to a leather-hard stage where you can pick it up, cut it up, and carve, like leather. It's not so soft and limp, but it can still bend without breaking. At the bone-dry stage, it's, well, bone-dry, and very fragile. Pick it up wrong and it'll break, even though it looks strong, it's not. Then it's ready for the first firing in the kiln. After the first firing is the glazing, and another firing.

But that leather-hard stage is magic. I've taken my pieces home at that stage and carved curliques, birds, flowers, and other bas-relief type things into the pottery. It's my second most favorite stage of pottery making, the first being the actual throwing on the wheel.

The pictures from this article is definitely giving me ideas....

The Dilemma of the Multi-crafter

The other day, I was looking for a yarn shop in Sandy Springs when I came across a needlepoint shop. Can't remember the name, but it's on Hildebrand street.

A long time ago, I was really into cross-stitch, which led me to needlepoint. I've even gone so far as to design my own pieces, including a piece to commemorate my parents' 30th (or was it 35th?) anniversary. I still have cross stitch and needlepoint UFOs.

Being in that needlepoint shop made we want to pick it up again. But I can't! I have too many other knitting, crocheting, quilting, and collage projects going on. And I have so much yarn! Not to mention the printmaking and painting that I dabble in. And the pottery that I do every Monday night.....

Thus is the dilemma of the multi-crafter.

However -- what if I use some of the harder-wearing yarn, like the Knitpicks Wool of the Andes or Cascade 220 for needlepoint? I already have the canvas, and the cross stitch and needlepoint patterns....

Thus is the solution of the multi-crafter.