Blog Posts by Subject: Crafts

Today's big news around the Library?

On Saturday, September 12th, Maura Madden (author of Crafternoon) and I will kick off our Handmade: Crafternoon series, and we hope that you can join us. This crafty gathering is free, and there’s no advance registration required. Here’s what’s in store for you that day: Two special guests will join us and share their approaches to crafting with unusual and alternative materials. Jessica Vitkus (author of Alternacrafts) will show us how to make one-of-a-kind pierced and embroidered cards, and Hannah Rogge (author of Hardwear) will demonstrate how to turn stuff that you find in your toolbox and at the hardware store into unique jewelry. We will have some materials 

Calling all craft-loving, library-loving readers! Please join me and my co-host Maura Madden (author of the amazing guide to crafty gatherings, Crafternoon) for a new FREE monthly series called Handmade: Crafternoons! Each day we'll focus on a different handmaking theme, and I'll post details about them here on the blog in advance of the date. What's in store for you at a Handmade: Crafternoon? Each event will include an inspiring spread of books and magazines (especially vintage books like the one pictured) from the Library's collections, a hands-on DIY project, and special crafty guests. It'll be a chance to get inspired at your Library, to hang 

This past Saturday I taught The Craft of the Book and, as usual, I had a great time meeting attendees and learning what brings them to the Library. My classes always include a little spread of books from the Library’s collection to give people a peek at what we offer. And below, as requested by a few of the students, I have listed the books shown that day (with links to the Catalog records for each). Thanks for coming! 

Paper cutting by Annye Allison

Catalog 25; type faces, border designs, typecast ornaments, brass rule, superior specialties, machines and materials, cabinet equipment by Barnhart Brothers & Spindler

The world of the book by Des 

It might be summer, but at the Library class is in session--craft of the book class, that is. If you would like to learn more about hand-press era bookmaking, come to the Library Saturday afternoon for an illustrated talk on the craftsmanship of paper making, printing, and bookbinding.

And I'll have some books from the collection to share too. It's a free class, and you don't need to register. And attendees get to take home a handy guide to the subject (pictured above, atop a great wood type specimen book that I'll have to share too!). This guide doubles as a model for a quick and easy bookmaking structure that you can make at home anytime!

Saturday, July 25th, 2:00 to 

Interested in learning how books were made during the hand-press era? If so, please join me at the Library this evening for an illustrated history of the craftsmanship of paper making, printing, and bookbinding. I’ll be gathering some how-to books on book arts from our collections to share with you too, to help you get started making books.

There's no need to register, and it’s a free class—here are the details:

Wednesday June 10th, 6:00 to 7:00pm (classroom will open at 5:45pm)
New York Public Library Celeste Bartos Education Center
First Floor, South Court Classrooms Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue & 42nd 

At the Mulberry Street Library, we host a monthly craft program in the Children’s Room called Kids’ Crafts. Children ages 5 years and up are invited to come to the library to work on simple seasonal crafts, from paper plate turkeys in November to St. Patrick’s Day leprechaun puppets in March.

This summer we made all kinds of bug crafts in honor of the Summer Reading Program’s theme, “Catch the Reading Bug." In June, we made bouncy paper caterpillars with colorful construction paper. In July, we made clothespin butterflies with tissue paper and pompoms. And in August, we made bug buttons with our very own Children’s Room button 

Bastille Day is just around the corner, and its arrival has led me to think more about the Paris depicted in a book that I recently read. Nancy Mitford's Don't Tell Alfred is set in mid-20th century Paris. This tale follows the misadventures of an unseasoned English ambassadress and her awful and entertaining relatives--from her Teddy Boy sons to her swooning niece/secretary, and from her mother (known as The Bolter) to her uncle Davey (a voracious consumer of medical treatments).

Now, there's a craft angle coming, I promise. Chapter 14 opens with Davey's arrival in Paris. He invites his niece (our intrepid ambassadress) to join him on an errand that will introduce her to a corner 

Staten Island's Halloran General Hospital, home of crafty recovering soldiers during World War II.

A few weeks ago at a Handmade Then and Now class (I'll teach this class next on July 16th at 2:15pm), I met a number of creative people, including a knitter named Maxine Levinson. Maxine works at the Child Life and Creative Arts Therapy Department of the Kravis Children's Hospital at Mount Sinai, where she teaches young patients and their families how to knit. I learned from Maxine how knitting, like other creative arts therapies, can reduce anxieties and provide a sense of security during sometimes long and stressful hospital stays. Maxine told me, "I am very fortunate to 

Mark your calendars for May's round of classes!

I was just browsing the Library's May events schedule and am happy to report that Library branches across the city will be offering lots of craft classes for a variety of ages this month. Search the calendar for these keywords--knitting, needlecraft, craft, origami, jewelry, crochet--and you'll find knitting circles, children's needlecraft lessons, my own HandMade Then and Now, origami classes, jewelry making instruction, and more. So come to the Library and join our community of handmakers.

Quakers gather to quilt.

While standing in line waiting for the doors to open for the Craftacular last Sunday morning, I overheard this snippet of conversation:

Lady A: Where are ---? Weren't they coming?
Lady B: They're at church. They'll come here after and meet us.
Lady A: Church? This is MY church!

And Lady A has, indeed, hit upon a truth. Creative acts have a role in spirituality that goes far beyond singing in church choirs. Anyone who knows of the meditative nature of knitting, or the way that focusing one's physical and mental energies on a single creative process can bring calm, will perhaps agree with Lady A.

In his book All In 

From Shôchan no bôken, published in 1923.

This weekend I attended New York Comic Con, an intense gathering of lovers of comics, gaming, and costumes. I went dressed as a librarian, in search of information on libraries' role in collecting, preserving, and making comics available to readers. Thanks to some great panels, I came away informed. And --no surprise here--I also came away inspired by the enthusiasm of readers and fans for this definition-defying genre.

In addition to wanting to learn about the role of comics in libraries, I was also on the hunt for publications that might combine comics and crafts. My favorite find is a series of books 

A flea market from New York City's past.

This past weekend saw the launch of The Brooklyn Flea, a new indie market set in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Fort Greene that will take place each Sunday this spring and summer. If the inaugural weekend is any indication, this Flea's going to be a monster success. I went with a friend who was visiting from Philadelphia (a town known for its own massive flea markets), and we were overwhelmed by the crowds of enthusiastic junk and craft seekers.

What I like so much about the Flea is that it incorporates indie crafters' wares into the mix of flea market finds, antiques, and foods. Two vendors I was especially thrilled to visit were 

Worldchanging offers greener ways to imagine a future changed world.

The latest issue of ReadyMade arrived in the mail last week, and I was happy to find within it an interview with Alex Steffen, one of the forces behind Worldchanging, an organization committed to promoting and supporting efforts to build truly sustainable ways to live. In the interview, Steffen states:

"I'm really excited about a movement that doesn't have a name yet. I see a common cause out there. There's this culture-wide movement amongst smart, usually young people to know what's behind the systems that you're dealing with. It includes anything from the whole new crafting-DIY aesthetic to people 

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

The legacy of handmade crafts--tweed, lace, baskets, woolen knits, and more--has been sustained in Ireland over centuries. These handmade traditions are tied both to individual makers' efforts as well as organizations that worked to revive and sustain interest in cottage crafts and industries in the 1880s. Janice Helland's British and Irish Home Arts and Industries, 1880-1914: Marketing Craft, Making Fashion provides an illuminating overview of the organizations that fostered this revival, and the complex issues of class and politics that shaped the movement.

One cottage crafts revival organization was the Donegal Industrial Fund, 

(Stereoscopic view of a church bazaar from NYPL Digital Gallery.)

You’ve perhaps heard of Isabella Beeton, famous in Victorian England for her immensely popular guides to cooking and housekeeping. (A search in The Library Catalog for Beeton, Mrs. (Isabella Mary), 1836-1865. will bring up the varied titles and editions of her works held at NYPL.) Writers and scholars of the history of cookery and home economics continue to study her, and a recent biography by Kathryn Hughes deftly uncovers why Mrs. Beeton continues to loom large in the history of domesticity.

But what of Mr. Beeton? As I learned from Hughes (and I do recommend her book), Mrs. Beeton and her