Hand-Made

Designer Liesl Gibson has earned a devoted following among sewists who eagerly await each season's line of her Oliver + S sewing patterns for children's clothes. And Liesl's new book, Oliver + S Little Things to Sew, offers a broad range of projects that combine expertly written instructions with smart design elements we've come to expect and appreciate from Liesl.  Maura and I are pleased to welcome Liesl as our special guest at our next Handmade Crafternoon on Saturday, April 2nd. 

Maura and I are thrilled that artist and seamstress Abby Glassenberg will be our special guest at March 5th's Handmade Crafternoon.  She has stopped by Hand-Made to answer a few questions about the books and people who inspire and inform her work.

Do you plan to come to the next Handmade Crafternoon on March 5th to make your own tiny avian sculpture with artist Abby Glassenberg, author of The Artful Bird? Want to brush up on bird characteristics in advance?  Then the Library's Digital Gallery is a great place to spend some time.  Here are a few of my favorite bird books and bird images. (Click on the heading or title link for each category to see all bird images from it.)

The Rare Book Division's collection of historic valentines has provided heaps of inspiration this month---in Martha Stewart Living's February issue, on the Martha Stewart Show, and at the latest Handmade Crafternoon event at which staff from Martha Stewart Living were our special guests and donated amazing supplies (you'll find a wrap-up of this event as well as a great gallery of images here).  With all the love being shown these valentines, I decided that it was time to introduce the collector who gave them to the Library half a century ago.

Have you always meant to start a craft or hobby and froze when faced with a blank canvas, empty music paper or a glowing computer screen? You are not alone. Starting creative projects has always been on my New Year's resolution list. This year, I’m doing some prep work before facing that blank canvas and looking at books about developing your creativity written by people who are established artists in their own right.

Maura and I are both flabbergasted and honored that our Library event series, Handmade Crafternoons, has been featured in Martha Stewart Living's February issue. If you've been to any events in the series in the past you'll hopefully agree with this article, which is a love letter to libraries, creativity, and community (even though Maura and I don't actually serve pizza sandwiches at our events; sorry!)

Want to meet some of today's emerging knitwear designers and learn about what they do?  Or, would you rather look back in time and browse old knit and crochet magazines and books from the Library's Collections to find vintage patterns?  Either way, you'll be in luck on December 18th, as  Maura Madden (author of Crafternoon) and I host a free day of both old and new needle arts fun. 

At November 20th's Handmade Crafternoon, guest Jodi Kahn (author of, most recently Simply Sublime Gifts) provided some great inspiration on how to transform vintage images from the Library’s Digital Gallery into handsewn ornaments, card holders, sachets, and more.  Big thanks from Maura and me go out: to Jodi for her guidance; to local independent bookshop Word for selling both Jodi’s new book and Maura’s book too during the event; and to June Tailor for providing the printable fabric sheets that we used in our projects. And of course, Maura and I are immensely thankful for all of you who came out to be part of the Library’s DIY community as you 

Tomorrow afternoon, November 20th, is our next Handmade Crafternoon, and we'll be thinking winter—snow, skates, holiday cheer—as we stitch up some little ornaments or other gifts using fabric with images from the Library's collection of wintry scenes and greeting cards. 

Many local branches have been offering special programs relating to NYPL’s major fall exhibition, Three Faiths: Judaism, Christianity, Islam. Recently, I was excited to host a calligraphy program for our teens at the Muhlenberg branch.

Muhlenberg's budding jewelers got together at last Thursday's Unplugged event (A bimonthly crafts and games program we have on Thursdays) to make some spooky necklaces and bracelets with local artist Pamela Isaac.  

We were given some twine, metal wire and elastic, along with tiny skulls, chains, tons of cool beads and metal pieces. We spent the next hour making our own wearable art. 

On Saturday, October 23rd, please join us for an afternoon of free DIY cartography at the Library.  Special guests Matt Knutzen (the Library's own geospatial librarian) and map artist Connie Brown of Redstone Studios will teach us a bit about cartography, and then we'll all put that knowledge to use in making our own personal maps.  We'll have basic supplies for this hands-on project to share, but if you have your own compass and ruler you are welcome to bring them along to use.  Matt has promised to bring out a swell spread of maps and atlases from the Library’s collections to inspire as well.  

I recently learned, while reading the Summer 1966 issue of Embroidery, that embroiderers have their own patron saint.  She's St. Clare of Assisi, an Italian contemplative known for her hand-sewn altar cloths as well as for her extremely austere way of life.  In 1966, the members of the Embroiderers' Guild, an impressive English organization responsible for the publication of Embroidery, embarked on a shared project inspired by the saint as part of the Guild's Diamond Jubilee Year celebration.

Do you want to play a game called Exquisite Corpse?  Don’t worry, there’s nothing ghoulish about it; it’s a collaborative art game that was invented by the surrealists.  And it was this game that inspired illustrator and pattern designer Julia Rothman and her colleagues Jenny Volvovski and Matt Lamothe to collaborate with one hundred artists on The Exquisite Book. On Saturday, September 18th, Julia will tell us about the ambitious and beautiful collaborative art project that resulted in this book, and we’ll all have the chance to create some exquisite corpse-inspired books and art of our own.

“If you want a garden of your own, but have no yard---
If you wish you had some way of growing plants all through the year, even though you live where winters are long an cold---
If you want a garden small enough that you can care for it easily---
This book is for you.”

If you were one of the seventy lovely people who attended our last Handmade Crafternoon (in May—eegads, so long ago!), then you know already what a wonderful time it was.  Natalie Chanin encouraged us all to take up needle and thread and make sustainable fashions entirely by hand from the humblest scraps of soft cotton jersey.  She filled the afternoon with stories, practical advice, and enthusiasm, and Maura and I couldn't have imagined a better way to wind up our spring series.  And of course, there were plenty of books from the stacks to share too, and the day's selection represented a combination of Natalie's own favorite inspirations as well as a variety of 

Last month saw the last of the Library's Handmade Crafternoon spring series, as our special guest Natalie Chanin provided us with a tremendous afternoon of stories, lessons, and inspiration.  (The list of books we browsed that afternoon will come soon, I promise!)  Although I’ll miss our creative community over the summer break, Maura and I will be busy as bees lining up the new series for the coming fall.

Our next Handmade Crafternoon is on May 15, 2010--with special guest Natalie Chanin, the creative director of Alabama Chanin and the author of Alabama Stitch Book and Alabama Studio Style.  Chanin's line of clothing and home goods mixes homespun techniques--like stencils, applique, string quilting, and more--with gorgeous modern designs. And her approach to production--slow and sustainable--is noteworthy.

If you like to make stuff, chances are that when Earth Day arrives each year "green" handicrafts come to mind.  Perhaps you make new items from materials that others would consider wornout or trash; or maybe you seek out all-natural materials for your crafts.  If crafting of this kind  interests you, you might want to look back in time at how crafters from decades past approached "green" crafting.