National Craft Month on Michaels: Craft Master Contest

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Michaels kicked off National Craft Month with a Project Runway-style competition called “Craft Masters.” Hint: you have to scroll down a little—I guess Michaels doesn’t worry about the “above the fold” rule.

http://www.michaels.com/CraftMasters/MdCM1Vm3060,default,pg.html

I enjoyed the short video, and no commercials. It’s nice to know that opinion is just as subjective in craft design as it is in fashion and the other arts. The work one judge considered “a little disconnected” and lacking in a focal point ended up winning the contest.
What I couldn’t figure out (and I watched the video repeatedly to verify this) was where the winning piece used  the “mystery item,” a topiary. Was it the stick?

Tom Lundberg, embroidery artist, to lecture at University of Louisville

 

One of the earliest and most influential artists on my development of female merit badges, Tom Lundberg has an outstanding career as an embroidery artist. When I was living in Colorado, I had the opportunity to meet him and was honored to have him visit my studio on several occasions. He has taught several generations of artists at Colorado State University, Fort Collins and has lectured and exhibited all over the world. He’s also very warm, funny and easy to talk to!

For more information on the lecture and exhibit in Louisville, KY:

http://louisville.edu/art/calendar/tom-lundberg-microcosms.ics

Info about a workshop in Puglia, Italy:

http://www.masseriadellazingara.com/pages/James%20Hunting%20&%20Tom%20Lundberg.html

Mama Merit Badges

Mama merit badges: cute. What a great idea, I wish I’d thought of it.

Breastfeeding Female Merit Badge by Mary Yaeger

Actually, about a year ago I tried out commercially producing some other types of badges for moms and kids, like

A New Pea in the Pod! by Mary Yaeger

A badge for celebrating a new child, that can be customized with name and birth date.

New Patch: Foursquare Merit Badge

OrangePiel Custom Window Shades and Large Scale Canvas Prints

I love this concept, especially since we need some window coverings and don’t have any large scale art for the walls in our new house. I always go for multipurpose design.

Orange Piel

I can’t wait to try it out, playing with ideas for a fun border that shows when the rest of the shade is pulled up. Or whatever works.

Open Source Embroidery at mocfa.org

Unfortunately I missed and probably would have anyway, but allow me to regret that Open Source Embroidery closed a few days ago at The Museum of Folk Art & Craft in San Francisco. Fortunately, not only do museums keep online archives, but they are now producing marvelous videos that help alleviate one’s disappointment.

This show was of particular interest to me because of Leah Buechley’s e-textile work, which includes the goal of promoting math and science education. I first learned of LB through an article in Volume 1 of Craft: that first appeared in 2006. I was living in Boulder, CO at the time, and was thrilled to discover that LB was in the CS doctoral program at the U of CO. I decided to track her down. I had worked in the women in engineering program (2001-2004; now BOLD) and environmental engineering (2004-2006), so I knew about the Discovery Learning Center and what an accessible place it is.

Leah was interested in meeting local weavers and textile artists and teaching them the basics of creating LED patterns on wearables. The Handweavers Guild of Boulder hosted a presentation and there was a great deal of interest from the group. Unfortunately the date/time didn’t come together for a workshop and Leah went on to an assistant professorship at MIT’s Media Lab. Before she left I did take the time to visit Leah at the Craft Technology Lab at CU and practice soldering a few of the LED “sequins” together so that I could try a few designs on my own. I’m sorry to say my experiments are still packed away at the moment.

A little later, Becky Stern published her  LilyPad Arduino embroidery on craftzine; her piece, “A Tribute to Leah Buechley” appeared in the Open Source Embroidery show. There are a number of places to visit if you would like to try the tech-nique/nology yourself:

straight to the source: http://web.media.mit.edu/~leah/grad_work/diy/diy_tank.html

a simpler project, with step-by-step video: http://sternlab.org/2009/11/ledsewing/

For lots more inspiration, visit the high low tech projects at MIT: http://hlt.media.mit.edu/projects.html

Roanna Wells at Waterperry Gardens additional info

Roanna’s site, with photos (did we neglect to describe this elegant, minimalist, calligraphic and atmospheric work?)
Don’t ask me how it’s possible to be all of the above, just take a look:
http://www.roannawells.co.uk/roannawells.co.uk/solid%20air.html
At Waterperry:
http://www.artinaction.org.uk/event_demonstrator-details.asp?ref=13&artref=489

P1020027 Roanna Wells at Waterperry Gardens Art in Action

P1020027

Originally uploaded by Karnataka10

Rosanna Wells – Best of Best in Art in Action Show at Waterperry, Oxfordshire, UK July 2009 which Mary and Hoonie visited together. this girl has just finished her 3 year Art course at Manchester this summer and won Best of the Best.
A one to watch – we suppose!

[Hoonie & HP]

Petrapiece by Hoonie Feltham

Originally uploaded by Karnataka10

“This is a piece I made in 2007 and exhibited in an Art Show in Oxford, England that year.
It reflects my response to a visit to the World Heritage site of Petra in Jordan. Petra was built by the Nabbateans around 2000 years ago in a long, deep gorge in a mountain range. The buildings are shallow, mainly one room deep, carved into the sandstone rock face. People may remember the scene of an extraordinary building in Raiders of the Lost Arc. That is the main building facing you as you walk down the ‘siq’ (gorge).
2000 years has caused the sandstone to weather into highly colourful lines of pinks and purples which I have tried to replicate in my piece.
The embroidery of the weathered sandstone is placed between two pieces of dupion silk onto which I have machine embroidered the ziggurat shapes carved onto the faces of most of the buildings in Petra.
The piece sold from that exhibition.”

–Hoonie Feltham

Before Breakfast: A Merit Badge Inspired by Lynda Barry

I stitched this patch before breakfast this morning. I’m reading Lynda Barry‘s What It Is.