Come on and party with us this Saturday, May 12th, from 2 to 4pm at the New York Public Library at the last Handmade Crafternoon of the season! We are very excited to welcome Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom fabrics.
Jennifer designs cheerful festive fabrics that feel like they’re destined for an outdoor summer party, and she’ll be showing us how to make party garlands.
RSVP info is here. I can’t wait to make some party garlands with you.
We had another fantastic Handmade Crafternoon at the New York Public Library last Saturday, April 14th. Noah Scalin, artist/graphic designer/author/speaker/artistic guru, came up from Virginia to share with us some exercises to inspire creativity. He is the creator of the immensely popular Skull a Day project and the book Skulls, and he has written two books on jumpstarting the creative process, 365: A Daily Creativity Journal and Unstuck.
He brought several cool projects for our crafters to enjoy, including paper skulls to decorate as each individual desired. The ingenious design includes an element that allows the jaw to move.
The resulting skulls were humorous and marked with a variety of techniques. This cool skull incorporates elements of Noah’s Dadaist and found poetry exercises.
I love the colors the artist used for this one – I’ve named it “That ’70s Skull”.
This one is simple and hilarious – a skull topped with a little bow.
The glitter glue that was donated by Martha Stewart last year was very popular with our skull makers – we had loads of glittering skulls.
And this one really put skulls on the map.
Noah’s poetry exercises prompted several interesting poems. My NYPL librarian co-host Jessica Pigza lead groups to the main reading room to find materials for the Bookworm poetry exercise. A young poet named wrote a lovely piece, and even read it for the group.
She inspired other poets (including her mom) to share their pieces with the group as well. Check out her mom’s sweet blog post about the day here. Others played with the Censored poetry exercise, where a poem is created by selecting words from an existing piece of writing and using them to create a new work. The piece below incorporates design elements as well (more glitter!).
It was a very galvanizing afternoon. I’m very thankful to Noah for sharing all of his eye-opening ideas, and as always, thankful to Jessica and the New York Public Library for hosting Handmade Crafternoon.
I was also thrilled to see my dear friend Myra Greene‘s incredible work as part of the library’s Photography and Ruin exhibit. It’s open through May 6th and well worth seeing.
Please join us for the last Handmade Crafternoon of the season on May 12th. We are very excited to welcome Jennifer Paganelli of Sis Boom fabrics. We’ll be making party garlands. It feels like the perfect way to kick off summer, the season of outdoor parties!
I had the best time last Saturday at our Handmade Crafternoon at the New York Public Library. My wonderful co-host Jessica Pigza approached the New York Guild of Handweavers last year to see if they would be interested in hosting an event for us, and they enthusiastically agreed.
They brought an army of amazing volunteers to teach our very lucky attendees all about the basic techniques of handweaving.
They set everyone up with amazing tiny handlooms they made for us out of popsicle sticks! Each attendee got to take home their own little loom, which just might be our coolest take home yet. (There is a wonderful write up about the event that really explains the looms over at www.domaphile.com.)
We immediately had a lot of happy ladies weaving away.
There were even a few brave gentlemen amongst us, including my super crafty best man, Dave, pictured above. He is very talented self-taught knitter, and he picked up the weaving technique almost instantaneously. He had his own fan club by the time we all packed our looms away. 
Even with the same technique learned and the same looms used, the result was different for every weaver. Above is an open style weaving and right below is a much tighter weave.
But here is the tightest weave of all! So tiny. It would make a stunning belt.
Jessica also took some great pictures of the weaving up close, which can be seen here. I didn’t take a lot of shots because I was weaving up a storm!
We got to see lots of fancier looms at work. Jessica even showed us how to use the loom that she has at home, which was really fun to use. She also brought a great collection of books, as always, with a special focus on weaving. 
The lovely illustrations above are from a comprehensive book called “The Weavers” by Leonard Everett Fisher.
I’d like to give a huge thanks to the wonderful people from the New York Guild of Handweavers. They did so much work to prepare for our event, and they mobilized a great gang of people to get our crafters excited about weaving. They offer lectures and events throughout the year, and membership is only $40.
And as always, a major thank you to Jessica and the wonderful New York Public Library for use of their space. Hope to see you at our next event on April 14th with Noah Scalin!
Photo credit: Rufus TureenI can hardly believe it, but this February marks the ten year anniversary of Crafternoon. The very first Crafternoon party was held in San Francisco at the apartment I shared with my roommates Jen and Beverlie. I was just a young thing, living in a city far from my native New York. I performed sketch comedy with in a group called Killing My Lobster. My mom came out to see one of our shows, so I threw a party in her honor. We ate cookies and made Valentines. And the rest is craft history.
From that point on, craft parties have been a regular part of my life. I hosted them at my apartment in Brooklyn, other people’s apartments all over the city, at bars, at parks, you name the spot, I had a craft party there. And when Simon & Schuster gave me the opportunity to write about those parties in Crafternoon: A Guide to Getting Artsy and Crafty with Your Friends All Year Long, I was able to share some of my stories with readers like you.
I then had the great fortune to meet Jessica Pigza, a crafty rare books librarian at the New York Public Library. She had heard of my book, and wanted to expand the craft-oriented programming at the Stephen A. Schwarzman branch. We started Handmade Crafternoon at the New York Public Library, a free event open to any and all crafty people. It has been a joy to see Crafternoon expand to the hallowed halls of the NYPL.
Photo Credit: The Martha Stewart ShowAnd then Martha happened.
Who would have thought that last February, I’d be crafting with Martha Stewart? Jessica Pigza and I dazzled Martha with some Valentines that went far beyond the complexity of my regular endeavors. Did I say dazzled? Yeah, I think she was dazzled. She even blogged about us, saying, “Crafternoon is so much fun!”
I’d like to thank every single person who has attended a Crafternoon, told their friends about them, bought the book, visited the website, hosted me in their space, supported me as a friend or family member, or been a crafty inspiration. Special thanks to my wonderful husband Rufus Tureen who is my unpaid life coach, giving me great advice and making me laugh always. And of course, love to my crafty mom who inspires me always with her handiwork. Love to my dad, my brother, my in-laws, and all my dear crafty friends, especially Christine Poreba and Emilie Stewart.
So if you want to share the love with me this weekend, come celebrate the tenth anniversary of Crafternoon at a Valentine making workshop at the Brooklyn Museum. I’ll be crafting my heart out from 2-4 on Saturday, February 11th. I’d be honored to celebrate this milestone with you.
This Saturday was my final Crafternoon of 2011. The halls of the library were decked, and it was a very jolly celebration of the season.
I was happy to have both my mom and my mom-in-law in attendance for the handsewn festivities.
Brett Bara expertly guided us along the day’s crafty path. She exudes positive energy, and has loads of sewing expertise, and she lead our group on a rewarding and heartfelt felt adventure.
Lots of sweet ornaments were made to hang on many lucky trees.
And the sewn bowls, modified from Brett’s book Sewing in a Straight Line, were a huge hit. This clever crafter sewed one bowl inside another, creating a petal effect.
That sumptuous white felt was provided by OhMa Felt, which is the best felt I’ve ever used. (I cannot recommend it highly enough – the stunning colors and thick wool/rayon blend are head and shoulders above standard craft store felt.) The bowls would be the perfect thing to fill with peppermint candies and leave out for Santa Claus. Visions of sugar plums most definitely danced in my head on Saturday evening.
Many thanks to all of the crafty guests we’ve had this year. Thanks also to our fantastic volunteers, Pam Madden and Leigh Hurwitz. Thanks to the amazing New York Public Library for welcoming us into their hallowed halls, and thanks to the talents of the wonderful librarian Jessica Pigza who makes it all happen. It’s been another wonderful year of crafting, and I’m looking forward to an equally inspiring 2012!
This Saturday, December 17th, is the final Handmade Crafternoon at the New York Public Library for 2011. I am thrilled that we will be welcoming the talented and charming Brett Bara. Brett is an author, television host, blogger and designer, specializing in crafts, desserts, and DIY decor. She will be sharing with us a few projects from her book, Sewing in a Straight Line.
We will be working with gorgeous felt generously subsidized by OhMa Felt, and will have thread and needles and other supplies on hand. If you like to BYOCT (Bring Your Own Craft Tools), feel free to bring scissors, a needle, embroidery thread and felt.
Handmade Crafternoons are always from 2-4pm at the Stephen A. Schwarzman branch of the library (the one with the dignified lions out front). My wonderful co-host, librarian Jessica Pigza, is graciously accepting advance registrations. Send an email to HANDMADE@NYPL.ORG. Include YOUR NAME and the DATE you want to attend. Please arrive by 1:50pm our we will donate your seat to walk-ins.
Looking forward to saying a crafty farewell to 2011 with you.
The New York Public Library never ceases to amaze me!
The Centennial Celebration of the Stephen A. Schwarzman building includes an inspiring exhibit about programs and initiatives and people that have come through the doors of the library in the past 100 years. I am thrilled to say that Handmade Crafternoon is one of the programs they have highlighted!
The exhibit “shines a spotlight on items spanning thousands of years.” Finger puppets that Jessica Pigza and I made are two of those items.
To say that it is an honor to be included is an understatement. My mom, pictured above, took us our local library almost every day when we were kids, so it was a special moment to walk up to the glass case with her and see the Crafternoon exhibit. It was pretty overwhelming for both of us.
And talk about honors! The lovely ladies of Bust Magazine, Laurie Henzel and Debbie Stoller, honored us with their cool, crafty, feisty presence in celebration of their new book, The Bust DIY Guide to Life.
They showed us how to make friendship bracelets, which brought me right back to middle school.
Making these bracelets is so meditative — I think I’ll make a bunch of them for holiday gifts for all my favorite crafties.
It was amazing to have such feminist icons grace the Handmade Crafternoon series. These ladies helped make it cool to be crafty again, and I am forever in their debt.
I’m so thankful to Jessica Pigza, my co-host, and the NYPL for their tireless support of Handmade Crafternoon. And I’m filled with pride to be a part of the New York Public Library’s legacy for all New Yorkers.
Last month we had a fantastic kick off to our fall season of Handmade Crafternoons at the NYPL.
To celebrate the launch of her new and totally swoon-worthy book, Design*Sponge at Home, Grace Bonney (pictured above chatting with a lady in red) showed our guests how to make handmade stamps for printing on fabric.
She and her Design*Sponge colleague Amy Azzarito donated tons of amazing supplies to the event, from the foam for making the sponges to gorgeous colors of fabric paint. They also brought a bunch of lovely templates for guests to use when creating their masterpieces.
It was a totally packed house, and as always, our amazing crafters created an inspiring variety of designs.
These pretty pachyderms were drawn by a guest.
Another clever attendee created this pastoral scene with stamps from the design*sponge templates.
This sweet tote used the same stamp first with white fabric paint, then with yellow, creating a very subtle effect.
I want these napkins!!!
Below is another example of same stamp, different color effect. I love the way it looks, especially with those fresh colors.
It was a group of very happy crafters. Many thanks to Grace and Amy to kicking off their book tour at Handmade Crafternoon.
This Saturday from 2-4pm, we’re having our second Handmade Crafternoon of the Fall. We will welcome knit and crochet designer Lisa Daehlin who will show us some simple techniques for making knitted and crocheted lace.
We’ll have some supplies, but if you have the following please bring: DK or heavier weight yarn, a size G or H crochet hook, size 50 knitting needles, and a hairpin loom. And my wonderful co-host Jessica Pigza will bring a fabulous selection of books on lace from the New York Public Library‘s collection. The event is free as always, but reservations are welcome. To reserve your spot, please write to handmade@nypl.org with your name and the date of this event. Hope to see you at the Library!
Maker Faire was amazing.
First I gave a fun and spazzy demo at the Craftzine.com booth.
Then Rufus and I went out exploring the fair.
First thing we checked out was Sean Casey’s “Tornado Intercept Vehicle.” What does a tornado intercept vehicle do? Just what it says it does – that monster was made so Sean and his team could drive into tornados and get footage for his film Tornado Alley. New Yorkers can check out the movie at the IMAX theater at the American Museum of Natural History. I know what I’m doing next weekend.
But we had to solder on…that’s not a typo, it’s a hilarious tech pun.
We went straight to the MakerShed to learn how to solder. Last year at Maker Faire we got really stoked about DIY music stuff and even bought an Atari Punk Console, but we never did get around to making it. This year we were determined to learn the basic skill of soldering so that we can finally craft that thing.
The book above doesn’t lie – soldering is easy! But I have to admit it was helpful to have a real live humanoid assisting us with our soldering boot camp.
That little robot above is what we soldered. In the end, he got a light that blinks because of our heavy duty circuitry.
That’s me confidently brandishing the soldering iron that I now totally know how to use, you guys. I did have some help from the teacher after Rufus figured out the light on my piece wasn’t working because I soldered the positive and negative streams together.
But I still feel good about my work, and I’m happy to know how to fix that soldering issue. I love that self-soldered little roboto on my lanyard.
Before we left the shed we had to try the Trip Glasses. They were pretty far out, and I bet they work wonders if you use them in a quiet, dark room.
We tried some circuit connecting with non-toxic materials.
At Maker Faire, you see lots of awesome contraptions like the Dogzilla worn by the guy above. And you can check out crazy music like that from Datalore below, a duo that plays hacked Gameboys.
Inside the New York Hall of Science, there were even more things to see and do.
Greggy Soriano from The Next Great Baker was making a Maker Cake inspired by the Faire. It even had a mini Rube Goldberg set up on the outside, inspired by the crazy Life Size Mousetrap pictured below.
It was a truly awesome day. As we walked out, we were serenaded by the bonkers Sashimi Tabernacle Choir.
I wish every day was a Maker Faire day. The combination of DIY tech and craft makes my heart sing. It is such a completely inspiring collection of cool, creative people trying new things. Next year I have to go both days so I can be sure to see everything. Many thanks to the folks over at Craftzine.com for having me as a guest. Hope to see you there next year!
