Entries categorized as ‘crafts’
February 10, 2009 · 1 Comment
I had a series of thoughts that started like this:
Last week, impatient for the new Kindle release, I looked up eBook readers for the iPhone, and found Stanza. I then spent large pieces of my weekend reading the Rifters books (I’m now on the second half of Behemoth), which are available through the Feedbooks catalog under a Creative Commons license.
For a couple days I’ve been thinking about what I like about reading on the iPhone. Part of it is that I can hold the phone at a comfortable angle no matter how I’m sitting or standing, which is something books have over laptops. Stanza also makes it easy to adjust the font and colors to something your eyes find friendly. Plus it’s very portable, letting me read a couple pages here and there in between other things.
Today I started wondering whether anyone is making magazines targeted at mobile devices or ebook readers. It’s not as accessible a format as paper, but one copy costs the same as a thousand, which seems like it should appeal to someone given the current print media meltdown. So I made an iPhone-scale pdf to try it out. It’s sort of Zoobooks crossed with the video @reidab and I are making for Open Source Bridge’s IP5 sponsorship.
I’ve also been reading notes from PaperCamp. That’s why the document is 8 pages long. I think it would be neat to print and fold these like the single-page bookfolding trick used by PocketMod and leave them in random places, the paper artifact linking back to the digital with the QR code on the last page.
Now to figure out what the next one should be about.
Update: There’s now a printable version available. Fold according to the directions here.
Categories: crafts · projects · technology
Tagged: books, experimentation, iphone, magazines, mobile, paper, print
December 3, 2008 · Comments Off
Categories: crafts · projects
Tagged: accessories, etsy, shop, yarn
September 11, 2007 · 2 Comments
Crafty Wonderland was a complete bust, so this week I’m listing the things I had on display there in my Etsy shop. Here’s what’s up so far:
Luscious handspun yarn–if I wore these colors, this one wouldn’t leave my hands. It’s soft, squishy, with colors that remind me of sari fabric.
Glycerin soap.
Felted Clutch Purse–I have these in neutral colors too, but the green is my favorite.
Keep checking back the next few days, as I list more yarn and purses in different colors.
Categories: crafts
Tagged: etsy, for sale, knitting, scarf, soap, yarn
September 5, 2007 · Comments Off
I went to the beach for Labor Day. Gorgeous as always. I wish we could get out there more often.
I’ve been sick lately, which has meant taking rest days, getting behind on lots of things, and much frustration. Right now I’m feeling slightly better, but tired. Please think healthy thoughts in my direction.
It also means the only things I’ve managed to work on are in the crafty category. (I’ve discovered I have a hierarchy of activities when not feeling well. On one end of the continuum is sleep, followed by reading Discworld books, knitting, and other fibery things, and on the other we have writing, programming, and going for long hikes. I probably overthink this issue.)
Thus, yarn. And a sweater. And scarves. And brightly colored wool.
Also, I’m going to be doing Crafty Wonderland again this month with my mom. It’s Sunday from 11-4 at Doug Fir. We’ll have yarn and jewelry and cute pins and bags and all of you in the Portland area should really stop in and say hello.
Finally, my last and most exciting note is that this month O’Reilly is presenting a series of essays by women in technology, including contributions by Selena Deckelmann, Gabrielle Roth, Dawn Foster, Shelly Powers, Kaliya Hamlin, and … me! I have no idea when mine will be up, but you can subscribe to the RSS feed and have all ~30 essays delivered directly to your feed reader. I am really thrilled to be a part of this project.
Categories: crafts · life · technology
Tagged: beach, crafty wonderland, etc, weekend, women
August 8, 2007 · Comments Off
I whipped up a couple of knit wraps on the sweater machine for my Etsy shop.
Seaside Wrap
Oceania Wrap
The pictures aren’t as good as I’d like. I’m having trouble finding a spot in the apartment with decent light and no weird junk in the background (in this case, I think I failed at both—I hope it’s tolerable).
I can do these in other colors, too, if blues and greens aren’t your style.
Categories: crafts
Tagged: etsy, knitting
Like a lot of people I know, I tend to stockpile supplies for projects I’m working on (or think I might want to work on someday). What’s worse, I end up with a lot of half-completed projects lying around. So I’m trying to make use of the materials I have (and maybe clear some room to put the rest of it away).
Thus, we have:
a crocheted purse
a pair of Pretz fabric pouches–these are for sale in my Etsy shop
The Pretz fabric was created using inkjet printable cotton sheets. They’re marketed to quilters, but I’ve been trying to find ways to work them into clothing and accessories.
a sticker album with a simple sewn binding
Recycled manga envelopes (also for sale on Etsy)
What’s nice about all of these projects is that they were all fairly quick. I think the pouches took the longest. Not only did I have to purchase and eat the Pretz (such a terrible burden), but then cut the boxes apart, scan them into the computer, arrange the images in Photoshop, print the fabric, and then finally get down to sewing. I really like being able to put anything I want on fabric with just my home printer, though.
Categories: crafts
Tagged: bookmaking, crochet, sewing, stickers
I’ve been wanting to try stenciling (or even screenprinting, but I don’t have the setup) onto knit fabrics, so I made a small bag on the knitting machine, crocheted a handle, and h4x0r3d it.
I also crocheted a Nintendo DS cozy on the plane to Vegas last fall. I thought I’d already taken pictures of it, but I couldn’t find anything on my Flickr account.
Categories: crafts
Tagged: crochet, geek, knitting, nintendo ds
I’ve been actively listing things on Etsy for the last few weeks, and the main thing I’m noticing is that it’s hard to sell items directly through the site, because there’s just so much listed and the search tools don’t always do enough to narrow it down (or if the features exist, they’re not obvious). I think the most successful shops are the ones that have gained a certain amount of attention from outside, so people buy things from them because they heard about that specific shop elsewhere.
So with something of an ulterior motive, I’m going to point out a few examples of very cool sock yarn that the web at large might not know about.
Hlmiller has a green and pink (like a watermelon) yarn. Great summer colors.
I love the green and blue gradient on SeeJayneKnitYarns‘s Austin Peacock sock yarn. She has a lovely dark moss green listed right now too.
Some great pinks and oranges and reds from Zen Yarn Garden.
Yarnchef‘s colors definitely look food-inspired. The yarn shown below is on sale, too.
And last but not least, here’s one of my own yarn dyeing experiments. I like to toss some yarn and dye in the pot and see what comes out.
I hope this helps direct a little more traffic toward everyone’s work. There’s some really nice yarn on here, but with 95 pages of listings just for this type, so much of it only gets a few views apiece.
Categories: crafts · projects
Tagged: etsy, knitting, sock yarn, yarn
May 14, 2007 · Comments Off
I’m still adding craft fair leftovers to Etsy. I also whipped up a couple of crochet cuffs last night because I wanted to play with the bright green yarn I bought a few months ago.
I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to make things, relative to how hard it can be to sell them (even when people seem interested–”I like this” has a much lower threshold than “I want to spend $5 on this”). We still haven’t reached the break-even point with the first issue of Yog’s Notebook, for example. So now I’m in the tough position of deciding whether to print fewer copies for issue 2, because that’s how many we can sell, even if it means that we won’t be able to sell enough to recoup costs. There are probably things I could do to help sales (like actually update the blog every week, or be more aggressive about getting reviews) but I think there’s only so much to do in the short term. Building a market takes time, and there are more people who want to have their stories published than people who want to buy the publications.
With crafts it’s even worse, because each individual item, even if it’s created in batches, requires more time and effort. That’s what makes it a craft. And the process of making things is, on the whole, more enjoyable than the process of attempting to sell them.
I’m not really complaining. I know this is how things work. I’m just pondering whether Tara is right about the boutique economy, and what that means for creators and standing out from the competition, when everyone has something unique, one of a kind, and personal to offer.
Categories: crafts
Tagged: business, sales
May 13, 2007 · Comments Off
BarCamp was awesome, but I’m too tired to give it a proper write-up. Maybe tomorrow. So instead I’ll talk about how the craft fair worked out.
I sold one star pin. And that was it, after five hours of sitting there, talking to people, watching them walk by. From looking around, it seemed like there were a lot of people in the same boat. Affordable items, but no buyers.
Here’s my initial guess on why: it didn’t seem like the right crowd. I was expecting indie/crafty/hipster, but it was more like yuppie family (quite a few people there with kids). So some of the more sleek modern or trendy items sold, but even then not well. Also, there were very few knitters (how do I know? Knitters see sock yarn and must come check it out.) which meant few people even in the market for hand-dyed yarn. Kids really liked the squishy pins and crocheted wire, but their parents weren’t really interested in spending money. The gal next to me had some cute silk screened onesies, and I didn’t see anyone buying (looking, yes. But again not spending money.)
Basically, I don’t think anyone there was in the market for cute. Or lime green polka dots.
I’m disappointed, but glad I tried it. Check my Etsy shop in the next few days as I list the leftovers.
Categories: crafts
Tagged: crafty wonderland, doug fir, sales
