Lark Crafts

I’m a digital photographer (among other things) who’s still failed to finish my first knitted washcloth after three years of knitting the occasional row, but I know plenty of crafters who struggle with finding affordable ways to photograph their work. If you hire the right professional, you’re bound to come up with something better than what your average point-and-shoot-camera-wielding layperson can muster, but who wants to drop hundreds or thousands of dollars for pro photos just to share your favorite scarf on Flickr with friends?

Well, with a little work and the right knowledge, you can get some good shots of your knits without overextending your budget. As always, the internet is an abundant resource for the info you need. The trick is wading through the junk to find the gems.

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You know it’s love when a blog post makes you salivate. Not out of envy (hello, cute green sandals) or even boredom (insert high school government teacher here), but full-on cheek-cramping I-need-to-eat-that-RIGHT-NOW salivation.

This is what I usually experience when I visit one of my all-time favorite blogs: Cakespy.com.

Nope, not cakespie (although that is sort of relevant), nor anything to do with Sherlock Holmes. Cakespy—the art of sleuthing out sweetness everywhere. Genius, I tell you. And let’s be honest here: doesn’t that profession sound like one big ole’ slice of perfection to you? Because it occasionally makes me slightly woozy to think of spending every day researching bakeries, interviewing bakers, creating & testing recipes, and photographing delectable things like huckleberry bars and s’mores brownies. That is blogger Jessie Oleson’s life, friends. And she’s basically the coolest artist/chef/writer/host EVER.

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I have lots of fabric. And buttons, beads, sequins, vintage trim, threads, wool roving, silk roving, silk cocoons, rayon seam binding, dyestuffs, paints, paint sticks, metallic foil…I feel a little guilty even making the list, but the list leads directly to the topic of my musings. And I feel a little less guilty because even though I have lots of fabulous stuff, I made a rule (really, it’s more like a guideline, as Capt. Jack Sparrow would say) that I would use the fabulous stuff I already had to make, or do, other wondrous stuff with.

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Oh, no, Joanna doesn’t do granulation!

However, last time I popped into her studio, I spotted a silver ring she’d made, the edge of which—not the outer side but the narrow edge—she’d decorated with tiny circles. She stamped them with little punches. Well, I think I’m going to ask her to stamp my ring. Check out this beauty, also from The Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry: From the Colette and Jean-Pierre Ghysels Collection, Harry N. Abrams Inc., Publishers.

It’s true that it’s hard to see much detail here. I looked at the photo with a loupe, and even then, I have to fill a lot of it in with my imagination. But that’s fine—this is just a starting point. Now I need to go home, draw a long, narrow rectangle to represent the ring band, and doodle circles and shapes on it to show what kind of design I’d like Joanna to stamp on my ring.

Have you heard about The Creative Connection event coming up in Minneapolis this September? It’s a big three-day jam-session for creative women and women entrepreneurs with an all-star lineup of presenters and teachers. (Nice bonus is that it happens at the same time as and in partial conjunction with Junk Bonanza, the ultimate antiquing/vintage-ware fest.)

Lark Crafts is going. Hope you will be, too!

There’s a big feature on a recent episode of The DIY Dish. Check it out here:

This was posted a week or so ago by Steven Heller and I thought I would share it with the Lark Crafts readers. “Up There” spotlights the modern resurgence of hand-painted billboard advertisements. In the digital age this is a dying craft – the ability to print and install very large scale, vinyl graphics in a short amount of time has all but made the old sign and billboard painters obsolete. “Up There” documents a handful of devoted and very talented artists who are keeping the art form alive, high above the streets of New York City, and cities worldwide.

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There’s something about early summer that conjures up images of pretty floral sheets billowing on the line. Take a look at how some talented repurposers are bringing that line-dried, fresh-air vibe into their wardrobes – and (totally irresistible), the wardrobes of their little ones.

At her very fun and fashion-y blog, Keiko Lynn says if she scores vintages sheets that aren’t matching sets, she always makes clothing out of them. This skirt is from a fitted sheet.

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Check out this cool stop-motion video one of our freelance photographers, Lynne Harty, created  for the recent Hatch Asheville, a fabulous innovation fest held in Lark’s backyard every spring:

Bonus: Background music provided by Crash Test Dummies, who I hear are finally in comeback mode!