#craft

[bugbyte]

In graphic design, once you learn about kerning, you can never stop seeing bad kerning everywhere you look.

Learn about kerning, and then teach someone else about it if you want to ruin their day. (And potentially the rest of their life.)

I imagine there’s a version of this in many fields.

Anyway yeah I think if you are doing a particular skill or craft and you don’t notice the craftsmanship or nuances or intentions of someone else’s then why are you even in the field? What even got you there?

okay sorry, one other thing annoyed me about that writing class. one of the students is this super clean-cut doctor who works at an HIV clinic, and he asked the prof "do you ever get distracted while reading books, because you find yourself analyzing the craft of them instead of sinking into the story?"

and she said "no," and turned away. and the whole class laughed awkwardly, bc it was a pretty abrupt and dismissive answer. so then she turned back to him and said "you wouldn't ask a musician if they get distracted listening to songs. they just enjoy the music."

but I dunno, I'm a newbie writer with only one (scheduled-to-be-published) book under my belt, but I get distracted sometimes when I'm reading. if I find I'm not sinking into a block of text, I'll squint at it and be like "okay, they're using too much passive voice, that's why my brain isn't grabbing on to it." so I'm sorry Mr. HIV doctor, I thought your question was reasonable!

[snailsisland]

Maybe dcst tumblr would like to see tiny felt mecha sen plush? Hiii

This is my 3rd felt mech sen plush. ^w^ im gonna switch to cotton or minky for the 4th one. And he will be hugeee. I kinda messed up the embroidery here but its still cute ^w^

Batteries for my beloved

[alexlibris-bookart]

Another Anatomia journal is complete! Crafted with meticulous attention to detail, this Renaissance inspired leather journal embodies the essence of anatomical art and knowledge.

[jessikast]

No one else in my family wanted a huge floral alphabet cross stitch which my great-grandmother had done. It's been getting dusty in a storage room for years, and people seemed surprised when I not only wanted it, I LOVED it. It needs some TLC, and I feel so honoured to get to work on this - to spend time finding the right colours, learning about textile conservation, repairing stitches that have frayed or come loose. It's a continuity with my heritage, in a very tactile way. A lot of the needlework I do is *absolutely* "not my grandmother's", because there are amazing modern designs available now, and also I quite happily do a project For The Pun, but I also have a bunch of my grandmother's LITERAL patterns, and I love it.

This all day long … Elena Kanagy-Loux's article is right-on. I myself have made it a point in recent years not to share any content that glibly uses the phrase, "not your grandma's " because it's a) lazy and b) dismisses the real fact that grandmothers and older textile artists have worked hard to keep craft traditions alive and evolving, not to mention their immense skills. We should be thanking them and looking to them for inspiration, not mocking them. via @hyperallergic ❤️

[jturows]

Composition I, 2019 embroidery floss on cotton fabric

[saturnsmelliott]

i never posted my franken-runes! I made them with the leftovers of other pours, resulting in looots of layers.

[itscolossal]

Jacques Monneraud’s Remarkable Ceramic Vessels Meticulously Mimic Corrugated Cardboard

[stonebutchooze]

I share my sewing wins on here, seems only right I should share my sewing moments of humiliation:

yesterday I accidentally sewed a greggs vegan sausage roll into the lining of a winter coat whilst mending the pockets

[bisonwares]

f i s h

[nymori]

I've been stitching some cicadas lately. This year is going to be a big one for the screaming bugs!

For those interested in making their own cross stitched cicadas, the patterns are available for sale here and here! (Please note: my software skills mean that I had to freehand the AAAAAs rather than place them in the pattern itself, so those are not included in the patterns. This does mean that you can make these little guys uniquely your own and add any sort of scream that you'd like, though!)

[sp00ntaneous]

'Snake' wooden spoon carved in Sapele wood.

[iknityounot]

(Long post, sorry y'all)

A little more than two years ago now, my grandmother passed away. She and my grandpa had moved down to my home town a few years before so we could take care of them. I brought them groceries once a week, helped them write checks, fixed tvs, and found lost things. I was really close with my grandma.

In addition to her hilarious personality and dry wit, one of my favorite things about her was that she was a painter and a crafter like me! She used to crochet, and I took her to the craft store a couple of times so she could get more yarn and books on crochet. But her arthritis and the shaking in her hands kept getting worse, so she eventually had to stop.

She kept her most recent project, a granny square blanket, safely packed away in a plastic bin. She told all of us she was going to finish it one day.

Her hands never got better, and when she got sick, and we found out it was cancer, she rapidly deteriorated.

After she passed, I went to work helping my mom clean out my grandparents apartment so we could move my grandpa in with her. In our frantic cleaning, I found that bin again:

DOZENS of granny squares, dozens of half used skeins. I asked my mom what she wanted me to do with it, and she said she didn't care. I set it aside and later took it home.

Maybe a month later, that tumblr post about the Loose Ends Project was going around. It felt like a sign--I was never going to learn to crochet in order to finish my grandmother's blanket. But they might be able to help!

So I filled out the interest form. They got back to me SUPER quick. And maybe 2 weeks later, I was paired with volunteer in my state (only 2 hours away!) and the box of yarn, granny squares, and my grandmother's crochet hook were in the mail. That was at the end of January this year.

Over the next couple of months, my "finisher" emailed me regular updates on her progress, and asked me questions on my preferences for how she constructed the final blanket.

At the end of August, the blanket was done!

I had always intended the blanket to be a gift for my mother. So I cleaned it up, put it in the only bag I had big enough to fit it, and drove to my mom's. I gave the blanket to her and she was gobsmacked. I explained to her all about Loose Ends, and how someone volunteered to finish the piece for us. She was speechless. (I was quite pleased with this, because I am not the best at giving gifts, so this was a pretty exciting reaction!)

She said that it was the most thoughtful gift she had ever been given. She said "your grandma would love this". To which I replied, "yeah, I know she really wanted to finish it a couple of years ago". But that was when my mom dropped the bomb of a century on me--she told me that my grandma had started making those granny squares OVER 30 YEARS AGO. She had started the blanket when my grandpa was staying in the hospital, but that was back when my mom was younger than I am now! My grandma had packed them all away, planning on finishing it, when my grandpa was sent home from the hospital. Then it went from house to house, from condo in Chicago to their apartment in my hometown. All that time and my grandma had wanted to finish it, but couldn't. First because she was busy, then because she forgot how to do it, then because of her arthritis, and then because of the cancer. My mom said she had given up on expecting my grandma to finish it. 

She said I brought a piece of her childhood with her mom out of the past.

And really, all of this is to say, if you have seen or heard about the Loose Ends Project and have an uncompleted project or piece from a loved one who has passed away--these are your people. They were so kind and treated my project with such care. That box probably would have been found by my own grandkids one day if I hadn't heard about Loose Ends.

Five stars, absolutely worth it!

(From what I understand, you can sign up to volunteer too! If you have time to share, it might be worth checking out!)

[dame-nostalgique]

I made some little fairies out of pressed flowers 🌷

[jturows]

Hanky Code, 2018 embroidery floss on cotton, denim, metal rings