Craftrepreneurs: Yarn Harvest

re-posted from Get Crafty, Austin, 9/8/10


Have you heard of Yarn Harvest? It's Austin's own recycled yarn company, making beautiful yarn from second-hand sweaters! What a creative & eco-friendly manufacturing model. Here's what Yarn Harvest has to say about its nontraditional method:

"By finding a new use for a second-hand, locally-abundant resource, we are able to keep our costs low and our manufacturing local. By not having to make new wool, we are able to reduce the carbon footprint and negative impacts on the environment that making new wool causes. And by getting involved in the wonderful world of knitting, crocheting, and crafting in general, we know that what we make is both quality and a good value."


We [WonderCraft gals] love what Yarn Harvest is up to, and we're partnering with them to bring you Eastside Knit Night this November during the East Austin Studio Tour! On Tuesday, 11/16 from 5:30-9pm, you'll be able to hang out with creative knitters & crocheters, learn something new & share your skills at this fantabulous knitty party we're hosting at Starving Art Studios. There will be knit-tastic giveaways, the debut of Yarn Harvest's latest & greatest products & more! Mark your calendars & stay tuned for more details about this fun event.

Knitters & crocheters: Would you like to teach others your technique? We're looking for a few talented folks who want to share their mad skillz at this event. You'd be able to sell your handmade yarn-y creations as well. If interested, please drop us a line at getcrafty[at]thewondercraft[dot]com!

Greg, the friendly guy behind Yarn Harvest, shows off his goods.

Craftrepreneurs: Rosalie Gale, Tara Gentile & Megan Auman

 I've come across some very cool, helpful resources for indie craft biz owners recently & wanted to share. I am simply in awe of the brilliant ladies behind these organizations. Hope you find them as interesting & inspiring as I have! ~Beth H   {re-posted from Get Crafty, Austin}

First up is Rosalie Gale, founder of Unanimous Craft, a tagable, sortable index of resources for crafters, artists and indie business owners. Rosalie says,

"I was inspired to build Unanimous Craft after seeing a huge list of links to different resources that The House of Mouse posted in the Etsy forums. I wanted to make a tool that our community could use to get organized and share information.

It's sort of like Yelp for the crafty community. People can submit resources (great articles on Twitter, awesome magazines, online tools, accounting spreadsheets, inspirational blogs - whatever) and the community votes on the usefulness of each listing. Then, people can curate lists of resources that fall into a common theme like: 10 things you should do when you start your indie business, 500 ways to deal with Twitter, etc."

Pretty awesome, no? Rosalie recently added The WonderCraft to the index - check it out! We are honored! And we'd totally love it if you visited our listing & rated us, so that we might place high in the Popularity Contest. : )

Next up is Tara Gentile of Scoutie Girl fame. Tara has long been an involved & highly respected member of the crafting community through her work as the editor & head writer behind Scoutie Girl, "the blog with a penchant for the passionately handmade."

Now she's taking it up a notch with the launch of her awesome new Big Thinking for Small Businesses blog & a "big thinking" consulting biz. The gist of it:

"We specialize in web strategy, branding, product development, community building, and marketing to help build your small biz empire. Specifically, I work with creative entrepreneurs: those interested in building their businesses by breaking down convention and finding customers who think outside-the-box too.

To help you reach your goals, I have a wide range of products & services. Here you will find self-paced products, a la carte services, and full-fledged invasion packages to suit your needs no matter what stage your empire is in. I only ask that if you decide to work with me or buy my product, you are committed to your own success – regardless of fear, opposition, and self-doubt – as I am."

Sounds amazing; Tara really knows how to cut right to the heart of the matter for small biz owners. I've been very inspired by her writing on her blogs & just bought her "52 Weeks of Blogging Your Passion" e-book! I'm looking forward to getting re-energized about my creative work & revamping my own blog with Tara's wonderful advice.

And last, but certainly not least, Megan Auman, the genius behind Crafting an MBA. Her blog is filled with tons of great information & business advice for designers & makers. It runs the gamut from practical posts on making & manufacturing to extremely thought-provoking discussions on product development & growing your business. The blog covers everything in between & above & beyond these topics, too - it is a wealth of great information! 

You can even take part in the Crafting an MBA book club! Megan says, 

"One of my goals when starting this website was to create a community where designers and makers could come together and discuss business related books and concepts. Its partly selfish – I always find myself wanting to discuss what I’m reading with others. But I also want to help others read business books and figure out [how] to apply those principals to their own craft-based businesses."

I hope you'll check out these ladies' websites - they're all very engaging reads that inspire deep thinking about our field & offer many amazing resources for growing a small business.

Creative Genius: Auntie Em's Starbucks Cup Diorama

Just saw this awesome cut paper piece in Craft Magazine! Made by Auntie Em, she describes it as "an under the sea diorama! With a seahorse, a giant pacific octopus and a yellow submarine!"

I love it. Way to turn an old Starbucks cup into art worthy of saving! Several of these grouped together on a wall would make an awesome little installation!

Creative Genius: Baptiste DeBombourg

Baptiste DeBombourg's La Redoute pieces constructed from catalogs are very intriguing. He presents the catalogs as topographic maps of sorts, an eerily beautiful landscape.

I first heard of Baptiste DeBombourg's work when Craft did a post about his staple art a couple of weeks ago. His Aggravure series uses 35,000 staples to portray Icarus falling from the heavens.

Can you imagine the time & patience required for that installation? I bet his arm was sore after all that staple gun squeezing, too.








I also really love his Crystal Palace, a bus shelter that looks as if the glass is shattered. DeBombourg says, "The situation is turned – the attention is grabbed from the aesthetic, not from the act of destruction."

The "destroyed" glass just looks so shimmery & pretty; I imagine it looks amazing on a sunny day, casting all kinds of gorgeous shadows & reflections.

I wonder what it would feel like to sit inside this bus shelter?


DeBombourg's art is so unbelievably beautiful, considering the lowly industrial material he typically uses. See more of DeBombourg's unusual work on his website.

Creative Genius: Emily Hensen

Have you ever seen a more cheerful room?! This display of bird houses on a painted tree is such a simple, lovely idea, but something I've never thought of myself or seen done anywhere else. I love it! It caught my eye over on Design*Sponge today.

And oh how I love this chalkboard wall! You see them a lot, but this is one of my favorites - it's just so cute & Parisian cafe-looking!

Emily's living room is so funky & light & airy! We're trying to create a more light & airy feeling in our own home, so this pic really spoke to me. We definitely won't be painting our floors white (they're original hardwoods & in beautiful condition), but I am looking for a lighter color for the walls.

We've just re-painted our hallway & seeing how good it looks makes me really look forward to doing the rest of the house! I'll be posting soon about the extensive remodeling we're doing right now in our hallway. Take a peek at my Flickr set if you're curious to see the process unfolding. And be sure to pop over to Design*Sponge for the full Sneak Peek: Emily Hensen post.

Craftastic New Blog: Make + Meaning

I am utterly blown away by this new community blog called Make + Meaning, which I've just read about over on another fave blog, CraftyPod. Make & Meaning is the brainchild of CraftyPod founder, Diane Gilleland (pictured, right), and Paul Overton (below right), the dude behind Dude Craft.

From the About page: We believe in making, and we love the fact that the internet allows makers to meet and geek out together, regardless of geography. There are many, many websites that celebrate making in all its forms. We created Make & Meaning to celebrate all the ways making enhances our lives, and all the things it causes us to think about.


It's a fabulous portal of interesting articles about making and blogging about making. I have only had a chance to read 3 articles so far, but I can tell I'm going to be spending a LOT of time on this site! The articles I've read have been very thought-provoking, spot-on observations about the internal struggles and daily interactions of crafty types like me (us?).

For instance, Dudecraft's article titled, Free: A Case Study, expounds on the positive aspects of sharing your crafty content for free, as opposed to safe-guarding it out of fear that others will steal and profit from your hard-won lessons and techniques, something I ponder often.

Another great read, Lots of People Are Not Like Us, really hit home for me. The author, Pip from meet me at mike's (pictured, left), discusses how those of us fully engaged in the online crafting community tend to forget that many other folks we encounter "IRL" are not makers, bloggers, or even readers of blogs. Even fellow crafters are often unaware of the wondrous resources available for makers on the interwebs, and those of us who are can/should be ambassadors, spreading the word about all the creative tutorials, inspiring websites, handmade marketplaces and more that are available online.

See what I mean?! This is great stuff. Thank you, Paul, Diane, Pip & all of the other talented contributors for bringing us this wonderful blog! Do yourself a favor and check Make + Meaning out - you will be instantly drawn in. Adding it to the Crafty Mishmash sidebar & my Google Reader now...

$10 poster set including Gilbert Ford, my new fave illustrator

Oh my gosh, I just had to let you know about this amazing set of 15 newsprint posters you can get for only $10! That's right folks, you get the whole "15 Uses for Newsprint" set for only TEN dollars! I just ordered mine. Thank you, Grace Bonney, for your post about The Pencil Factory on Design*Sponge today!










The artists of The Pencil Factory are all really cool, but I especially love Gilbert Ford. His "Rear Windows" poster (above) is my favorite among this magnificent set. So I checked out Gilbert Ford's website & found that I loooooooove all of his work!







The quirky, retro style is just so cheerful & fun. I mean, look at this adorable little holiday dog toy! Click the pic to download your own!

Good Morning, Marilyn!

Saw this awesome paint chip art by Nite Kongtahworn on Apartment Therapy and it really wowed me! Nite was inspired by this Abe Lincoln portrait, featured on Apartment Therapy earlier this month.

Back when I taught high school art, I did a pixelated self-portrait project with my students where they had to mix their own varying shades of grey & paint it in much the same way as Honest Abe was painted. It's a great school project for learning about value, but not something I'd really want to do to decorate my home. Nite has the right idea though! Using paint chips to create a large-scale portrait on a wall is a stroke of genius! So stunning, yet so easy.

Felt, hmmm?

I've never really been into felting wool or making things from felt. It always looks gorgeous & I admire other people's work in this medium, but I've just never gotten into it for whatever reason. But today Craft alerted me to this gorgeous felt pillow with rosette clusters from Felt Furnishings: 25 Accessories for Contemporary Homes by Anne Kyyro Quinn. The Storque even has a tutorial up for making the pillow. It's so, so beautiful! Uh-oh, I think I hear a new craft calling my name...



Also check out Anne Kyyrö Quinn's studio to see examples of the fabulous, three-dimensional interior textiles they produce. Coolness!

Gatsby Afternoon?!! If that isn't the bees knees...

You probably don't know this about me, but I am a 1920s NUT! I love everything related to the Roaring Twenties - the fashion, the advertising & illustration (Oh! the fabulous illustrations!), anything Art Deco, the Bauhaus, Tamara de Lempicka, all books by F. Scott Fitzgerald, etc. etc. etc. So when I saw this "Sewing Gatsby-Era Clothes" article in my Craft daily digest, I was floored. It featured pics of some very crafty lady's impeccable Deco day dresses she sewed for herself & a few friends. So I had to read the full post on the Nested blog to find out more deets.



Turns out there is this swell soiree called Gatsby Summer Afternoon that takes place every September in Oakland, CA. Man! I want to go to that! It looks so cool - they are strict about everyone showing up in period-accurate attire & appropriate picnic details and everything. I am making it my goal to get to this picnic someday. I have to go! I so want to go!

The Art Deco Society (what?!) has a great guide on how to dress Deco, for Ladies & Gents, of course, with handy click-to-buy items in the sidebar. How amazing are these green Kathryn Kerrigan shoes available from endless.com? Love these! I have some very cool brown, patent leather t-strap heels, but these... these are green!

I just can't get enough of 1920s illustrations. The fashion illustrations are just the best. Love the hats, the shoes (especially the shoes!), everything about 'em. I've started collecting 1920s sheet music for the illustrations, and I have a trio of them hanging in my dining room. If I weren't so lazy about taking photographs, I'd show you some of the many Deco & Deco-inspired things I have around my home. Maybe in a future post... for now, I'll leave you with my favorite Deco-era painting by Ms. Lempicka, "Portrait de Madame Allan Bott." I have a giant framed print of this beautiful painting hanging in my living room.

One of the coolest quilts I have ever seen...

This is the cutest quilt ever with its prominent circle designs. Of course quilt blocks have to be square, so the artist, Jennifer Murphy, has an ingenius method for making them. And you can learn how she does it - she has the tutorial for this quilt up right now on her blog. Run & get it - it's a great one! And thanks to Craftzine for sharing this one today in their newsletter.

Can I Pick 'em or What?

Back in May I picked Cardboard Safari as a Creative Genius to feature. Today I noticed that they are Etsy's Featured Seller! It's a fun interview to read, and if you haven't checked out their work yet, you really should. It's so cool & really a clever idea to make "trophies" out of cardboard.

Artazov's "Nails' Life" = WOW!

You've got to take a look at all of the "Nails' Life" photos by Czech photographer Vlad Artazov. They are simply amazing. This is only one of Artazov's many stunning pics. I refrain from posting others because they are somewhat graphic in terms of the content (what?! it's only hardware!). Check out the link & you'll see what I mean...

The Most Beautiful Blog in the World

Cannelle et Vanille is light & airy perfection, featuring the most stunning photos of scrumptious-looking desserts. Aran Goyoaga, the pastry chef/food stylist/photographer/writer behind all of this loveliness, even shares her recipes on the blog. If you're like me & have a weakness for beautiful photos of beautiful food, you have to take a look!

P.s.
I found Cannelle et Vanille on unruly things, another lovely blog you should peek at.

Cute Stuffie Finds from Living Cozy

Increase the coziness in your life! That sounds lovely, right? It's part of the concept behind LivingCozy.com, a cute blogzine about crafting, cooking, gardening & more. Laura, the writer behind Living Cozy, kindly featured my Ginny the Giraffe in an article called "A Touch of Softness." I hope you'll head over to her site & check it out - lots of fun stuff to see!

Drawer Turned Coat Hook/Rack/Display

So loving this idea of taking an old drawer & creating a coat hook out of it. You can put stuff in it, on it, and hanging from it - unbeatable! This particular one is for sale in Reclaimed Home's Etsy shop. Found via their Etsy Storque article on upcycling. Look at how they've repurposed springs as extra hooks! Yay for upcycling!

Two Awesome Finds from CRAFT

Found in a Craft Magazine email last week:

an embroidered notebook paper love note from Katie Cupcake

and

a felted snail in a found shell from das_kaninchen

Xbox Soap! for real.

Wow. Look at this very realistic soap. Great gift for a geeky dad! The best part: "Scented with Mountain Dew fragrance oil, a gamer's best scent."

You can find it (& many other geek-chic soaps) in the Digitalsoaps Etsy shop.