For the Love of the Craft

I came back a couple weeks ago from the most wonderful vacation that my husband and I have ever taken. We went to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC and stayed at the Inn at the Estate on Monday and Tuesday. (I highly recommend this, BTW). Wednesday night we went to another (cheap) hotel in Asheville so we could look around town a little. We specifically stayed in Asheville for another night so that we would have time to go to the Southern Highland Craft Guild Folk Art Center with the Allanstand Craft store inside. I anticipated this being one of the highlights of the trip.

As much as I hate to admit it, I was disappointed. The exhibits were fantastic. I really enjoyed seeing the various crafts they had displayed and the history about how they developed in the area. Everything displayed had the name of the person who had done it, the name of the piece and how much it cost. Holy. Crap. Thousands of dollars for some of this stuff. I didn’t sweat it too much. After all, that’s why they have gift shops, right? So that people who aren’t made of money can shop a little too. Evidently I was wrong. That particular shop, as well as many others I’ve noticed recently, doesn’t think that way.

We walked into the shop and immediately started browsing. We picked up a pair of ceramic candle holders: $50 (each!). A ceramic coffee mug: $50. A medium sized glass vase: $42. A wooden box not big enough to hold a deck of cards: $112. A hand woven scarf: $66. An unframed print: $100. 5 inch carved figurine: $40. 10 inch cornhusk doll: $40. That’s not even a drop in the bucket. Without a doubt, some of the most beautiful work I’ve ever seen. Would I pay those prices for any of it? No. Not just no. Hell no. And I don’t know many middle class people who could afford to fork over that much money for something that wasn’t necessary either.

I don’t know everything involved in making every craft, not even a little, but I do know enough about the raw materials involved in some crafts to recognize that some crafters are making much more than a 100% profit from their work. Trust me when I say that the person who made those corn husk dolls didn’t spend even $10 in money or time, no matter how beautiful they were.

I realize that there is a fine line between what is considered art and a craft and that’s why such exorbitant prices are sometimes charged, but at what point are we doing whatever our craft of choice is for the love of the craft or the money it can potentially bring? I don’t understand it and probably never will. If I ever charge such outrageous prices for the crafts that I do and the few that I sell, I’d like for someone to kick me. Hard.

Pictures

As promised a long time ago, here is a picture of my very first pillowcase.

Here are pictures of the pillowcases I'm working on now.

Before I started:

I have added two different shades of green to the top and bottom borders.

Woe is me (and a little about embroidery)

My body is trying to get sick I think. I don't want to get sick, I hate being sick, I don't have time to be sick. Dammit.

I currently have 2 projects in progress. The first is a pair of embroidered pillowcases and I'm working on a knitted afghan. I'm mainly working on the pillowcases, since I know I'm giving those away as a gift. Not sure who's going to be getting them though. I'll try to get some progress pictures up tomorrow.

I'm glad that I started a new embroidery project. Since it was really the first craft that I learned, it kind of feels like home to me. Every time I put needle and thread to cloth I can picture my grandmother teaching me to make each stitch that summer I was nine years old. She always had scrap material on hand. The summer she taught me to embroider, she took a square of fabric and drew straight lines, curved lines, flowers, dots, etc. on it. Then she taught me the stem stitch, which I practiced until she deemed it perfect. Then she showed me how to do a lazy daisy chain stitch and then french knots and then how to put everything together. Then I got to work on my very own pillowcase. I remember it was three kittens. I think I still have that pillowcase somewhere.

Instructions for Food Carrier

2 wooden rods 8 1/2 -9 1/2 inches long
4 pieces fabric cut to 4x3 inches
2 pieces fabric 32x11 inches
1 towel, cut into 2 pieces 32x11 inches each
velcro (male and female) 5 inches
wooden board 1/2 inch thick, about 8x8 inches

Iron all fabric pieces.
Pin 1/2 inch hem on both long sides of each 4x3 inch piece. Iron the fold and sew.

Fold each piece in half and iron.

Pin 2 pieces together, right sides together. Pin the folded pieces between the 2 larger pieces with the unsewn edges at both ends about 1 ans 1/2 inches from the sides.

(You can see my dumb-assedness described in my post from yesterday. This shows wrong side up. Do not try this at home!)

Sew up all sides, leaving a gap on one of the long sides to turn it right side out.

Turn fabric right side out and sew along both sides about 1/4 of an inch in. This closes the gap that was left and it can be decorative.

Sew both long sides and one short end of towel pieces. Trim edges and corners and turn inside out. Sew up open end.

To attach velcor (I used an iron-on velcro) fold towel in thirds with one third folded up. Attach velcro to the outside of this piece and to the inside of top piece.

Place towel on top of fabric in the middle like a plus sign. Sew to the fabric on three sides, leaving an opening to insert the board.

The black lines show where you should sew.

Well, Dammit!

Sometimes, no matter how careful you think you're being, you end up doing something backwards.

I've been figuring out a project for a coworker for the past few weeks now. It's a carrier for hot bowls/pans. It's simple enough. 2 big pieces of fabric, wooden handle... Last night I deemed myself ready to work, so I got my husband to help measure and cut the fabric. He cut the fabric, then I ironed and pinned. As I was pinning, I had in my mind the last time I made anything. That time, I ended up pinning it together backwards and had to rip out the seams so I could correct it. I knew I was being much more careful and paying a lot more attention to what I was doing this time. There was no way I could have made any mistake with putting it together. Except that I wasn't and I did.

I placed everything just so and pinned it. Then I changed the thread in my sewing machine and got started. I sewed the bottom. I sewed over it again so it would be super secure. I sewed the side. And then I took a closer look at it. Instead of putting it together right sides together, I put it together right side down. I ended up wasting a good 15-20 minutes ripping out seams! So frustrating! Pay attention, Monica!!!!!

I must have been daydreaming about all the other projects I want to start.

I just hit the motherload!

I've been avoiding work today (shhhh!....don't tell anyone!) and stumbled upon a great, really great little website for embroidery patterns and tools: Sublime Stitching. It's definitely worth checking out. Unfortunately, I can't afford to buy anything right now. Well, not only that, but I don't have time.

Ready for the Weekend!

Aaahhh! Friday.
Nothing makes a bad week better like Friday at 5pm. And this has been a particularly bad week! But what makes it so great is that I don't think I'll have to work any this week to keep up with my work load. Can you imagine my happy dance?

This means that I have a whole weekend, 2 blissful days to do all the things I want to do. I don't have to cram everything into one day! Saturday we're going to the SC Book Festival. We went last year and it was great! We met several authors, got some books autographed and got lots of reasonably priced books. After that we're planning on renting all of the Godfather movies, ordering pizza for supper and just generally relaxing. I'll probably take a nap too so that I can stay awake through Saturday Night Live. Of course, while we're parked in front of the TV, I'm going to be working on my knitting.

I have several projects that I want to work on. One is a hot dish carrier that a co-worker wants me to see if I can make. So it looks like I'm going to have to pick my engineering minded husband's brain on making a pattern. I also found some patterns for a bib and burp cloths, but I don't know any women who are pregnant right now. Until I have a specific reason to make them those are going on the back burner for now. Last weekend I bought 2 embroidery projects. I'm thinking about one of them for a friend's wedding. I also have a simple knitting pattern for an afghan that I want to try.

So many projects, so little time!!