Lark Crafts

When I worked on Craft Corps several months ago, I read a number of profiles that talked about how crafts had been a great source of healing. I remember someone mentioning the meditative quality of knitting and how the rhythm of every stitch had even helped a woman work through the grief of September 11. Since then the theme of healing through arts has come up again and again. It’s like that phenomenon of learning a new word and then suddenly hearing it everywhere.

Occasion number two: Longtime art teacher and family friend Sandy Carlman recently contacted me through Facebook. Her son passed away many years ago, and she continues to craft as a way to deal with her loss. In fact, she sometimes gives presentations to Hospice bereavement groups about how engaging in something productive and creative is one way to begin the healing process when talking about loss is too difficult. Her medium of choice is collage, and she often incorporates meaningful text from poems or scripture.

Crosses by Sandra Carlman

THE CREATIVE CONNECTION will bring together women who are passionate about being creative in their everyday lives as artists, bloggers, cooks, business owners and crafters. Come learn, create, market, shop and connect with like-minded women from all across the United States!

As a proud sponsor of The Creative Connection, Lark Crafts will send 3 lucky winners to the event in Minneapolis!  Enter for a chance to win a trip to Minneapolis and a ticket to The Creative Connection! It’s simple; just answer this question in 250 words or less:

How will attending The Creative Connection impact your creativity or creative business?

Read the official rules and entry information. Check out thecreativeconnectionevent.com for more information on the event!

Congratulations to Bonnie of Columbus, Ohio, for winning our third week’s sweepstakes prize! Bonnie commented on our new Lark Crafts website, and her name was drawn at random from among all the folks who have commented so far.

We wanted to hear from Bonnie about her creative life and how she likes to spend her crafting time–here are her great responses:

1. How do you like to spend your creative time?
I’m thinking of many ways that I enjoy spending my creative time, but nothing compares to simply hanging out with my creative friends!

2.  Where do you find inspiration in your life?
All textures, colors, finishes, and shapes speak to me, and Mother Nature is my favorite!

3. Now that the long, sunny days of summer are here, do you have a creative to-do list that you’re working on?
Lol…my creative to-do list is so long that I’ll have to will it to my great nieces & nephews!
Seriously, my creative to-do list is rock-steady: Coming up with interesting and challenging beadweaving, chainmaille, and wirework designs and classes to feed students’ muses, and that’s not easy – they remain hungry, skilled,  and talented!

Winner Archives:

Week #1: We Have a Winner!

Week #2: The Winner of our Sweepstakes Week 2!

Stay tuned for an announcement of last week’s 4th and final sweepstakes drawing….

Aluminum teapots, coffee pots, and grease pots

I love my planters. They are an essential part of my big-picture garden plan. My planters are living flower arrangements and micro gardens, stationary and moveable. They make prettiness happen where pretty is lacking, whether due to poor planning on your part or non-compliance on Mother Nature’s.

We’re celebrating our launch the entire month of June with weekly giveaways!

All you need to do for a chance to win is leave a comment anywhere on larkcrafts.com from June 7 through July 1. Each Friday (from June 11 through July 2, 2010), we’ll randomly select a winner from among all eligible entries. The prize? A ridiculously fabulous and abundant library of recently-released books from Lark Crafts. Click here for the list of books and more details.

So, comment, visit regularly, send your friends, and help us celebrate all that’s in store. We look forward to hearing your feedback and to connecting with you here often!

As inspiration, I like to surround myself in cool objects while I’m working. Some of those cool objects are capsule toys. Remember those? You would beg your mom for just one quarter, please to spend on the capsule toy machines at the front of the grocery store. And then you would either be overjoyed with your bounty or totally crushed by the small whatchamacallit the machine spit out.

Do you love pickles? I do. I love to eat them and I love to make them. Our summer weeks are framed by the pickle projects Skip and I have going. In one corner of the basement, 14-day pickles will be brining away for… that’s right, 14 days. In the pantry multiple batches of French Pickles are soaking in muliti-day-long brine baths. And in the “center ring” we’re quick-pickling whatever’s fresh—baby carrots and squash right now, soon to add green beans, okra, and peppers.

But the most Celebrated Cucumber Cruncher in all of pickledom, the QUEEN OF PICKLES, are the ones we make in a crock in our basement. Barrel Pickles. Not preserved in vinegar like most pickles, these are fermented, more precisely, lacto-fermented pickles. Sauerkraut is their lacto-fermented sister.

Now that it’s full blown summer with fresh, young cucumbers rolling into your local tailgate and farmer’s markets, it’s time to make some pickles, FOLKS! So let’s get cracking on the simplest of all pickle possibilities.

Five years ago on June 18, 2005 a truly beautiful baby was born. This wonder child, born from much love and passion, was a blessing to its immediate family and the world at large. In the past five years, the wee babe has grown by leaps and bounds, maturing into a vibrant and invaluable resource for crafters and consumers alike. Etsy is now the go-to place for many of our crafting needs.

And so this evening, along with many other crafty folk all around the world, Lark Crafts is throwing a big Etsy Craft Party at our own headquarters to celebrate Etsy’s fifth birthday and celebrate the joy of crafts and creativity. We’ll be crafting, eating, mingling, and shopping (plenty of fabulous local Etsy vendors on site). We can’t think of a better way to celebrate what Etsy has contributed to the world of craft. If you happen to be in the Asheville area, please come out and celebrate with us. If not, just keep your eyes peeled right here in the next few days as we post our photos, videos and memories of this festive day.