Hand-made

This weekend is a big one for yarn lovers, knitters, and crocheters—there’s both a Handmade Crafternoon devoted to knitting and crochet, and there’s also a weekend-long Yarn Crawl that’ll take you all over the city! Here are the details on both events:

About the next Handmade Crafternoon:
Date and time: Saturday, October 10th, from 2:00 to 4:00pm
Location: Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

We’ll have these three special guests, talking about art, wool, and what they do:
Sabrina Gschwandtner, author of KnitKnit
Teva Durham, author of Loop-d-Loop and Loop-d-Loop Crochet
Annie Modesitt, author of Romantic Hand Knits, Men Who Knit and the Dogs Who Love Them and more

If you’re in the middle of a project, bring it with you so that we can all stitch together. And if you are curious about learning to knit or crochet, we’ll lend you some supplies for the afternoon and help you to get started. I’ll have stacks of vintage knitting and crochet books and magazines to look through—think glamorous World War II styles and Mad Men-esque dresses and sweaters too. And just like last month, we’ll have a fundraising raffle too. So come and join the fun!

About the New York City Yarn Crawl:
What’s this Yarn Crawl, you ask? It’s a full roster of events and specials at yarn shops all over the city, and it runs from Friday the 9th through Monday the 12th. There’s plenty to do—including raffles and a scavenger hunt--so check out the site and plot your route!

Interested in quilts, handmade clothes, and what goes into the work of fabric and pattern design? Then mark your calendars to come to December’s Handmade: Crafternoon and meet some modern women of craft who work wonders with textiles.

Heather Ross, author of Weekend Sewing; Denyse Schmidt, author of Denyse Schmidt Quilts; and Liesl Gibson of Oliver + S, will all be on hand to talk about their creative work. And as usual, we’ll have lots of Library books to look at, as well as a spread of materials on hand so you can get started stitching if you wish.

Here are the details:

Date and time:
Saturday, December 12, 2009, from 2:00 to 4:00pm

Location:
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

Question? Please leave it as a comment! Maura and I look forward to seeing you on the 12th!

November’s Handmade: Crafternoon will be all about paper and books! And really, is there anything better? If you’d like to try your hand at some basic book making (both sewn bindings and not), origami, or other paper-based creations, please come along! Our special guest will be artist and maker Mike Perry, who will share his creative expertise on this fun afternoon. We’ll have lots of supplies on hand to share so that you can make your own handmade book!

Here are the details:

Date and time:
Saturday, November 14th, from 2:00 to 4:00pm

Location:
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

Remember—it’s FREE, and there’s no advance registration required.
Question? Please leave it as a comment! Maura and I look forward to seeing you on the 14th!

Update (11/11/09): It turns out that we'll have one special guest on this afternoon--the amazing artist and maker Mike Perry. Grace Bonney cannot join us, but she promises to come out for another crafternoon in the future!

Maura and I hope that you had as much fun as we did at our inaugural Handmade: Crafternoon last weekend! If you would like another chance to meet fellow crafty library-goers, see books and magazines from the Library’s collection, and try out new creative skills, please join us for our next Handmade: Crafternoon in October.

On Saturday, October 10th, Sabrina Gschwandtner, author of KnitKnit, and Teva Durham, author of Loop-d-Loop and Loop-d-Loop Crochet, will be our special guests, and they’ve promised to share some purls of wisdom and knitty-gritty yarns about their crafting experience. We’ll have some hooks, needles, and yarn at hand to share that day, if you want to learn the basics. And feel free to bring along your own wooly work-in-progress or a project that you plan to start. That way we can all knitalong together! And of course I’ll have stacks of old knitting and crochet magazines from the Library’s collections to share—think glamourous World War II styles, and Mad Men-esque dresses and sweaters too.

Here are the details:

Date and time:
Saturday, October 10th, from 2:00 to 4:00pm

Location:
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

Remember—it’s FREE, and there’s no advance registration required.
Questions? Please leave it as a comment! Maura and I look forward to seeing you on the 10th!

Today's big news around the Library? Our newly expanded hours at a number of locations across the city, including my own home base, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, and the Mid-Manhattan Library right across the street. (Check out this announcement for all of the details.)

What does this mean for curious crafters? If your craft inclinations lean to the vintage and historic, then you are in luck, because the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, with its rich research collections of vintage knitting, sewing, and handicraft books and magazines, is expanding its hours. You'll have more time to find the perfect pattern, picture, or information to inspire you in your work.

And if you like to browse through new craft books, then head to the Mid-Manhattan Library. There, you now have hours and hours in the evenings to browse through the craft books and select the ones that you want to borrow. This location's a great source for all sorts of new handicraft titles. And today it's also a great source for free doughnuts, too! The Cover-to-Cover Cafe, a pop-up snack spot there, is giving out free and fortifying Tim Horton treats until 11:00pm tonight.

So grab a doughnut and hit the stacks, crafters!

These three images are all from an 1891 facsimile of a lacework pattern book first printed in 1598 called Nouveaux pourtraicts de pointe coupé et dantelles en petite, moyenne et grande forme.

I can imagine these lovely and elegant geometric patterns re-used in many ways: embossed on card stock, made into sunprints, and perhaps even stitched onto paper using the pierced and embroidered technique that we’ll be learning at Handmade: Crafternoon on Sept. 12th. How can you imagine incorporating these into new works?

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 on hand to share so that you can try your hand at these crafts. But if you would like to be sure to have what you need to make your own pair of hardware-inspired earrings, please bring with you:

• from the hardware store: 10 #8 flat washers
• from the craft store: 2 french earring wires

And if you happen to have embroidery floss and/or needle nose pliers to share with your fellow crafters, please bring them along!

We’ll have an inspiring spread of vintage books, magazines, and images from the Library’s collection to inspire you in your embroidery and jewelry making. And remember, the Library will be open from 11:00am until 6:00pm that day, so if you want to dig around in the collections you’ll have time to do so before and after the event! Here are the details on next week's Handmade: Crafternoon!

Date and time:
Saturday, September 12, 2009, from 2:00 to 4:00pm

Location:
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

Questions? Please leave it as a comment! See you on the 12th!

I’m often amazed by how paper sculptors--working with a practically two-dimensional material, and one that is treated as quite ephemeral--can create inventive and elegant sculptural forms. Artists whose work in paper I’ve been admiring quite a bit lately include Su Blackwell, who conjures complex literary scenes from book pages, and Yuken Teruya, whose tiny forest worlds created from discarded paper bags and rolls invite us to reconsider habits of consumption.

Would you like to investigate paper sculpture? The library has a number of mid-twentieth-century books that I like for the window they open into the medium’s use in advertising and window dressing as well as for the how-to projects they include. Two that I like in particular are Sculpture in Paper and Paper Sculpture, both of which are illustrated with commercial paper sculptures evocative of that period. And here (above and below) are a couple of pages from Paper Sculpture, in which author and sculptor Arthur Sadler shows you how to make an owl:

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 with fellow crafty New Yorkers, and to make stuff together.

Interested? Then mark your calendars! Here are the dates:
Saturday, September 12, 2:00 to 4:00pm
Saturday, October 10, 2:00 to 4:00pm
Saturday, November 14, 2:00 to 4:00pm
Saturday, December 12, 2:00 to 4:00pm

These events will all take place at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 42nd Street & Fifth Avenue. Yes, that's the big one with the lions out front. Maura and I hope to see you there!

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 Cowley and Clare Williamson

An abridged specimen of printing types made at Bruce's New-York type-foundry by George Bruce’s Son & Co.

Papermaking for printmakers by Elspeth Lamb

Artists' books : a critical anthology and sourcebook, edited by Joan Lyons

Making books by hand : a step-by-step guide by Mary McCarthy and Philip Manna

Made with FontFont : type for independent minds, edited by Jan Middendorp and Erik Spiekermann

Exploring typography by Tova Rabinowitz

Book typography by Ari Rafaeli

Paper silhouettes by Mildred Swannell

Wood type by William H. Page & Co.

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 3:00pm (classroom will open at 1:45pm)
New York Public Library
Celeste Bartos Education Center
First Floor, South Court Classrooms
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street

One last note: I'll teach this class once more this summer (at 2:00pm on August 22nd), so you can come then if you are interested but can't make it this weekend.

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 Street

One last note: I'll teach this class two more times this summer (at 2:00pm on July 25th, and at 2:00pm on August 22nd), so please mark your calendars for one of these dates if you are interested but can't come this evening.

Last weekend, as I sat and ate my lunch in Bryant Park, I had the unexpected treat of listening to Geoffrey Hayes read from his children’s comic book Benny and Penny in Just Pretend. The day’s readings and activities were linked to Children’s Book Week, which runs all this week. And I left the park thinking about children’s books that I loved when I was little—books that encouraged me to make, create, and play.

One of the books that I spent hours and hours with as a youngster was Steven Caney’s Play Book, which I have become reacquainted with thanks to the copy at the Children’s Center at 42nd Street. This book is one of several creative play books by Caney, a noted toy maker and designer. His projects all encourage hands-on building, pretending, playing, and inventing, and most draw upon everday materials that a family might already have on hand. Paging through it, I remembered the fun and discovery I felt as I tackled many of the projects—from secret codes to musical nails, from salt gardens to bottle gardens.

Do you have a favorite DIY book from when you were small? Perhaps we have it at NYPL—come into the library or look in our catalogs (Leo or Catnyp) and see what books, both new and old, we have waiting for you and the young makers in your life.

Many New York artists and makers will at some point face the befuddling legal issues of intellectual property, copyright, and more. To help to answer your questions and set you on the path to being legal-savvy in your own creative work, NYPL’s Mid-Manhattan Library will present Ask the Lawyer: An Artist Career Development Lecture on Monday May 11th, at 6:30pm. This event, hosted by the Art Collection, is one in a series addressing the growing needs and concerns of New York City's independent creative workforce.

Presented in cooperation with Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, legal experts Elena M. Paul, Esq. & Alexei Ormani Auld, Esq. will be on hand to cover a wide array of legal and business issues with an overview of the major legal topics affecting artists and professionals within arts organizations. The topics to be addressed include: intellectual property (copyrights primarily), contracts, entity choice and formation (including nonprofit and for profit options), and more. This will be an interactive panel, so please bring your questions!

Monday May 11, 2009
6:30 p.m. on the 6th floor

Mid-Manhattan Library
The New York Public Library
40th Street and 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10016
212-340-0871

Elevators access the 6th floor after 6pm.
All events are FREE and subject to last minute change or cancellation.

We're pretty excited at the Library today, because tonight is the debut screening of a documentary short of Design by the Book at the Brooklyn Arts Council Film Festival!

Design by the Book began life as a series here at NYPL, co-produced by Grace Bonney of Design*Sponge. It follows the experiences of five local artists as they explore the Library's collections (and the building itself too!) in search of inspiration for their work. I was their resident reference librarian and had great fun helping them out in their searches. We're planning some super fall programming that will bring more crafty and artsy books out of the stacks and to the DIY-ing masses, so stay tuned if you want to get some hands-on library inspiration too. But in the meantime, come to tonight's event and see some great films and meet the makers!

What: Design by the Book will be screened as part of a curated collection entitled Artists in Residence
When: 9:00pm
Where: Galapagos Art Space in DUMBO (16 Main Street at the corner of Water Street)

Perhaps it’s because I’ve been doing so much sewing at home in recent weeks (and therefore spending lots of time shopping for fabrics), but I’ve been feeling awfully textile-centric as of late. Or perhaps it’s because I’ve been I’ve been spending time getting to know a textile industry periodical called American Fabrics at the Library.

American Fabrics (and its successor, American Fabrics and Fashions), together cover decades and decades of the twentieth century. This magazine was “dedicated to the belief that Fashion begins with the Fabric…that the American textile industry casts a major influence on the economic and social aspects of the world in which we live…that American textiledom has attained the world’s pinnacle from which it can never be dislodged.”

While I’m uncertain about such heady braggadocio, I am sure about the wealth of design and pattern inspiration to be found within the Library’s back issues. American Fabrics holds fabric swatches, tipped-in brochures and promotional flyers for fabric companies, and informative articles about the industry. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the full color ads offer amazing and vivid details on period aesthetics. Taken together, they open a unique window into fashion, taste, and fabric in post World War II America.

I’ve been spending some time as of late with a 1945 book called Creative Hands: An Introduction to Craft Techniques, written by Doris Cox and Barbara Warren Weismann, who worked closely with the WPA Handicraft Projects of Minneapolis and Milwaukee in bringing the book together. Their book covers a broad range of crafts, from block printing to needlepoint, from soldering to button making. But the section that caught my eye last week was called Eggs in One Basket, in which Cox and Weismann offer egg-decorating techniques from different cultural traditions. The method that I knew that I wanted to try was this:

“The simplest method is to gather up all the onion skins one can find and put a layer of them in the bottom of a kettle large enough to hold all the eggs one wishes to boil. A design, simple or elaborate, is then painted with hot wax on the shell of the raw eggs. The eggs should be at room temperature. Use an old brush because it won’t be usable for paints after this. Place the eggs in the kettle, adding onion skins at the same time; add water and boil the required length of time. The eggs emerge a beautiful brown with the designs showing up in the creamy eggshell color. Do not stir the contents of the kettle with a spoon while the eggs are boiling. The edges of the spoon mar the design.”

Here’s one of six eggs that I made following these instructions.

Since their details were sketchy concerning cooking time, I used Mark Bittman’s advice in How to Cook Everything—I brought the pot to a boil, covered the pot and removed it from the burner, and let everything just sit for a little while (Bittman says 9 minutes is enough; I think mine were in there a little longer, truth be told). There are lots of variations on this onionskin egg dyeing method—I especially like these three at Instructables , Martha Stewart, and About.com.

Have you dyed eggs using onion skins before? Do you have favorite egg decorating methods, or family egg dyeing traditions that you love?
 

Are you thinking about making some Easter cards this year? If you are, and if you are hungry for ideas, look no further than the Digital Gallery and its hundreds of inspiring vintage Easter cards. Here are a few of my favorites of the moment:
Play ball, rabbits!

Chicks who have wrecked their car!

And hens, doing what they do best.

Have fun exploring the many rabbits, and hens and pussywillows you'll find in this card collection. And if you make cards inspired by what you find, please share them with us via our Flickr group! I'll write again soon with another Easter craft idea!

Monday March 16th might just be the best day to visit Deirdre Donohue's art installation, Sevdah, at the Mid-Manhattan Library, because on that evening the artist herself will be there, in conversation with Bernard Yenelouis, curator and educator at the School of the International Center of Photography. This event begins at 6:30pm, Monday 3/16/09.

I'm drawn into Donohue's work because of the intensity of the details that she creates using a traditional medium, embroidery, on a large scale. When I visited the installation last week, I wanted to study each small fabric square's evocative imagery, patterns, and textures. You can read more about her work here. And even if you can't make it to the artist dialogue Monday the 16th, the art itself will remain on exhibition until April 22nd--don't miss it!

Image: from Sevdah, by Deirdre Donohue

Did you enjoy following the adventures of our Design by the Book artists as they found inspiration at NYPL? Do you want to dig in to the Library's collections too, to find materials to fuel your own creativity? If so, then check out my User's Guide to NYPL for DIY Designers and Artisans--it will get you up to speed on the treasures and the quirks of the entire Library system. And with it in hand you can start your own hunt for inspiring stuff. Once you get started in your handmade endeavors, please join our Design by the Book Group on Flickr! It’s an open group, and you can post pictures of your creations there, along with a caption explaining the part that NYPL played in your project!

Here's one completed project from the Design by the Book Group (thanks, egoldberg.rm, for sharing!)--a vintage image in the Library's Digital Gallery has been remade into a lovely blue-hued sunprint:

Now it's your turn! Get making and start sharing--I'll do the same!