Lark Crafts

In honor of our Doodle Stitch Along with Aimee Ray (see free patterns from week 1, 2, 3, and 4), I’ve scoured the internets to bring you some useful how-to embroidery stitch videos.

First stop is Mary Corbet’s Needle ‘n Thread. You’ll find well-organized, clear videos on over 60 stitches ranging from bands, line, chain, fly, and buttonhole to knots, detached, and filling. It’s a clean site and super easy to navigate!

To fill in the gaps on a few stitches I couldn’t find on Needle ‘n Thread, I did a little extra searching. Find more how-to videos and vote in our most fun-to-do stitch poll after the jump!

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How about this for a magnificent Lark Jewelry & Beading giveaway? Our first three books in the 30-Minute Series — the best-selling 30-Minute Earrings, the newly released 30-Minute Necklaces, and a very special advance copy of the not-yet-released April 2011 book 30-Minute Rings — all signed by author Marthe Le Van!

Each of these books includes 60 jewelry projects by dozens of top designers; together, they offer an incredible wealth of jewelry-design inspiration and instruction. With these 180 — !!! — projects you can add sparkle and splash to your wardrobe … and without delay! Featured designers range from Boris Bally to Brenda Schweder, Ingeborg Vandamme to Sim Luttin, and Nina Dinoff to Sara Westermark!

How to enter for a chance to win this fantastic bundle of signed books? It’s easy: Leave a comment on this post by 9 p.m. EST on Monday, February 7.

Any post will do, but how about this: Tell us what your favorite material is for jewelry, whether you’re making it or wearing it! One winner will be selected at random and announced on Thursday, February 10. Click here for the official rules. Good luck — and get designing!

Congratulations to Wendy L. Starn of Alexandria, Louisiana! Wendy was randomly selected as the winner of an advance copy of Sherry Serafini’s Sensational Bead Embroidery. The book formally releases in April, but if you’ve been following our blog you’ve been seeing great opportunities to preview it:

Read a great interview with Sherry Serafini

View a PDF sporting six of the beautiful jewelry projects from the book

Download a PDF of the Rock Star Cuff project from the book

You can pre-order the book on BN.com and Amazon.

Thanks to all of the 250 people who left comments for a chance to win an advance copy of the book: We appreciate you being a part of our community, and we’re glad to be a part of yours!

Hey guys, it’s Aimee Ray again, with another Doodle Stitch Along post! Can you believe we’re almost done? This is week number 4, and the last of the free patterns is up for grabs: a super cute toadstool house. Thanks to everyone who participated in our gnomes vs. toadstools poll… gnomes are just too hard to beat but enjoy anyway!

Be sure to visit our Flickr group and check out all the awesome embroidery being done by our Stitch Along participants! You guys are really blowing me away with your work! It’s great to see all the different variations. Come back and join us once again next Friday, as we wrap up our Stitch Along with a project you can use all of your stitched motifs in. Here’s my motif set from last week (at left).

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Author Gwen Diehn doesn’t just live life, she journals it. She creates and then packs her handmade journals with notes, paintings, sketches, and memorabilia. For Gwen it’s a method of expression, a place to capture ideas, make observations, and organize thoughts. For the observer, it’s a fascinating feast for the eyes. Her journals are lovingly created using a variety of materials for the cover and the pages, the size and binding technique depending upon the intended use.

Recently Gwen was asked to curate an exhibit on journals at BookWorks in Asheville, NC. One interesting aspect of the entries is that they are all actual working journals. The journalists created and then used them with a specific purpose in mind, not ever expecting them to be viewed by others from an artistic appraisal point of view. Theirs are examples of  journaling in the truest sense. Below are a few examples of these works. Visit Gwen’s blog to see more images.

Gwen Diehn is the author of The Decorated Page, The Decorated Journal, and most recently, Live & Learn: Real Life Journals.

Back in 2005, Lark’s senior editor handed me an advance copy of The Penland Book of Jewelry and said, “Congratulations on your Masters thesis.” She was joking, of course, but her comment was somewhat true.

I had never worked on such an ambitious project, and I had many reservations. Coordinating 10 authors and 10 photo shoots, each in a different city, was daunting. (I had to buy a wall-sized dry erase board just to manage the details!) The final product, however, exceeded my expectations and remains one of my favorite books to this day.

Fast forward six years…and, drum roll, please…The Penland Book of Jewelry is now available in paperback! (One of those fancy Flexi-bind paperbacks that stays open flat on your bench.)

The book includes many red-hot techniques, such as electroforming, die forming, casting, and fabricating with steel, all presented by celebrated metalsmiths who have taught workshops at The Penland School of Crafts.

The table of contents reads like a “Who’s Who” of American studio jewelry.

• Marilyn da Silva Nontraditional Color on Metal • John Cogswell Forging • Jaime Pellisier Alloying • Rob Jackson Fabricating with Steel • Heather White van Stolk Casting • Jan Baum Die Forming • Tom McCarthy Alternative Stone Setting • Maria Phillips Electroforming • Mary Ann Scherr Etching • Douglas Harling Granulation •

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The Doodle Stitch Along keeps movin’ along, and we’re really enjoying all the photos in the flickr group. There’s lots of creativity and variations on the designs! In the spirit of different stitch styles, I thought I’d share some of our recent Etsy embroidery favorites. Did we miss anything you love? Let us know in the comments!

Zodiac Constellation hoops by Miniature Rhino:

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Thanks to everyone for leaving such thoughtful comments on our first Making Handmade Books giveaway, and congratulations to this week’s winner, Pam. Your copy of Making Handmade Books plus the You Are It tags by author Alisa Golden are in the mail.

For everyone else, don’t dismay: Enjoy the following Q&A with Alisa Golden, and leave a comment on this post by 11 pm EST on Tuesday, February 1st, for a chance to win this week’s Making Handmade Books giveaway. Any comment will do, but maybe you would like to ask Alisa a question of your own.

We’ll select a winner at random, and announce the results on February 2nd, along with Alisa’s answer to your question. Official rules are here.

Tell us a little bit about your education and background.** People used to ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, and I’d say, “a writer and an artist.” Then I would get a lecture about how you couldn’t make a living being a writer and an artist. I also wanted to be a teacher, but was told by my favorite high school teacher not to do that either. Meanwhile, I always had art lessons, I always wrote, and I worked with kids constantly.

When I enrolled in Betsy Davids’ letterpress class and her creative writing class at California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts) I found that finally I could merge both writing and art by making books. During my two-and-a-half years at CCA(C) I made about twelve books, some with linocuts, some with screenprints, some with handmade paper, but all with handset type printed via letterpress.

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