Love to take on crafty decor projects, but don’t love the added expense or don’t have countless hours to spend getting your craft on? Crafting and creating don’t have to be expensive, nor do they need to take up a lot of time.

From the bathroom to the bedroom, we have got you covered with some quick, easy, and ideas for crafty decor projects that you can easily complete in one sitting, and that won’t break the bank. Busy, cheap people like to take on easy crafty decor projects, too, and we’ve got ideas that are right up your alley.

10 Quick and Cheap Crafty Decor Projects

1. Glass Marker Painted Candle Votives – Paint simple glass votive candle holders using paint markers. You pick up votives at the thrift store and get paint markers in a variety of colors at the arts and craft store.

2. Button Pillow Art – Turn a button collection into art by sewing buttons on a plain throw pillow to go from boring to button-y in less than an hour.

3. Yarn-Wrapped Vases – Repurpose that unused yarn from past uncompleted projects by wrapping blasé vases to quickly (and inexpensively) add color and texture.

4. Doily-Wrapped Mason Jars – By the same token, snap up lace doilies whenever you see them at the thrift store to add some lace prettiness to plain mason jars, which can be used to hold everything from pencils to utensils.

5. Quick Embroidery Tea Towels – Another simple crafty decor project is to decorate tea towels with your own embroidered design. Keep for yourself or gift as host gifts.

6. Chalkboard Coasters – Paint old coasters with chalkboard paint for the perfect combination of form and function.

7. Photo Collage Wall Art – Cut out letters and shapes from printed photos and affix to cardstock, which can be framed to create your own wall art. Choose word art or create an abstract design.

8. Origami Mobile – Take up the art of origami and use your paper-folded creations to make a colorful and fun mobile.

9. Dip-Dyed Baskets – On your travels through yard sales and thrift stores, picks up old baskets which can be brought back to life by dip-dying them.

10. Washi Tape Placemats – Washi tape is colorful, printed, slightly sticky masking tape. Cover cardstock with different prints, patterns and colors of washi tape to make decorative crafty placemats.

Related on EcoSalon

9 Simple & Gorgeous Scandinavian Design Home Decor Projects
11 Beautiful Bohemian Decor DIY Projects to Add Boho Chic to Your Home
12 DIY Home Projects On the Cheap to Make Your Space Look More Expensive

The post 10 Super Crafty Decor Projects You Can Do for Under $10 in 60 Minutes or Less appeared first on EcoSalon.

Annie Millican invites you to join a DIY craft tour that will take you to the heart of the vibrant crafting culture in the Sacred Valley of Peru. 

Be one of 10 participants to travel across the Peruvian Andes this May on a collaborative crafting expedition that will introduce you to the amazing indigenous craft culture of the area. The tour, organized by online DIY platform Kollabora, will be a total cultural immersion that will expand your horizons and tap deep into your inner adventurer. Living with a Peruvian host family, visiting an alpaca farm, dyeing yarns with local natural dyes, learning how to use a back strap loom and visiting the sacred site of Machu Picchu are all part of this unique and enriching experience.

Tour organizer Annie Millican first immersed herself in the rich crafting heritage of Ollantaytambo, Peru in 2009, leading her to establish a product development initiative called Awamaki Lab. The four-year project brought (and still brings) designers to Peru to work alongside local artisans to create beautiful products for international sale, creating a sustainable and accessible way to share the gorgeous craft heritage of the region. She’s now teamed up with Kollabora for this tour in order to provide more designers and crafters with the experience of working alongside local artisans and establishing meaningful relationships through the art of making. We caught up with Annie to hear more about what this exciting adventure has in store for its crafty participants.

Leena Oijala: How did you decide that a tour would be the next step after Awamaki for sharing the Peruvian craft heritage?

Annie Millican: I wanted to figure out how to concentrate the benefits of the Awamaki Lab experience and open up the opportunity to other designers/makers/knitters.  The greatest benefit of Awamaki Lab was fostering meaningful connections between skilled designers and artisans and so I was interested in creating a similar model that speaks to the Kollabora crafter.  The tour is really a cultural immersion program and pairs designers with local artisans in mini, non-competitive teams.

The idea is that these teams will come up with their own unique solution to a pattern challenge, making it a very hands-on experience. The tour will be a journey into discovering every step along the way of how the product is made; we’ll visit an alpaca farm, we’ll study hand spinning on a local drop spindle, and we’ll learn about design and the back strap loom under local weavers.

LO: Who would you say this tour is meant for?

AM: Anyone who has an adventurous spirit, who wants to disconnect from the daily grind in a beautiful, idyllic Andean town and collaborate with crafting counterparts across the globe. It’s for someone who is excited about a rustic, cultural immersion that involves living with a host family, eating traditional Peruvian cuisine and experiencing how traditional crafts have been maintained in more rural areas.

LO: How strong do participants’ craft skills need to be?

AM: Having basic knitting skills will help a lot. We’ll be working with a chunky, handspun alpaca yarn, which will be easier for beginners, as the yarn knits up quickly and is easier to handle.

LO: How did you come to work with Kollabora for the tour?

AM: I’ve known the Kollabora folks since they started burdastyle and have maintained a friendship with them ever since. They reached out to me last year inquiring about tour opportunities and I responded with an idea for a concentrated design experience.

It’s great to work with an online community that connects DIY makers across the world to a skill sharing board. The platform allows individual crafters to go online the post their own DIY projects, network with like-minded crafters and find inspiration, materials and tutorials for new projects. The tour personifies this, as its really about relationship building and capturing the Kollabora essence by taking the online community offline and into a hands-on experience.

LO: What are your goals for this tour?

AM: The goal is to introduce crafters from around the world to crafters in Ollantaytambo and foster relationships that tour participants and local crafters can maintain by their own volition.

We’re  working with the Asociacion Virgen de Carmento, a self-organized artisan association from an outlying community called Rumira. So the tour will support their organization tremendously and will be feeding back into the community by supporting the women we’ll be visiting and working with.

LO: How do you hope to see the project evolve?

AM: If the tour is successful there will be another tour in November, which we have scheduled around the local ramie harvest season.

LO: Collaboration is a key concept in a lot of the work you’ve done. How important do you think collaboration is in creating a sustainable textile and fashion industry?

AM: I think collaboration nurtures relationships and those relationships support increased transparency.  All links across the value chain in the production of retail goods ultimately rely on the relationships that people build with one another. This process is underscored by clear and open communication between different members of a process. In terms of design, cross-cultural collaboration is an area that should be explored more because it really fosters mutually beneficial skill-sharing.  There are such incredible high art traditions in some of the most remote corners of the world that can both inform and benefit designer interfacing.

LO: Will we see more artisan work in the mainstream during the next 10-20 years?

AM: I hope so! I think there are a lot of logistical constraints to insuring that artisan groups can fulfill deadline situations that brands have. So there is still a lot of infrastructural support that needs to be established to make that working relationship more realistic.

However, there is a renewed interest in seeing a greater story embedded in the clothing and other items that people buy and own. Seeing the meticulous handiwork in an item that you own creates a very meaningful connection.

The tour dates are May 25th to June 2nd, 2013 at a total cost of $1,799 excluding flights. Check out Kollabora’s website for a full itinerary  and fill out a brief questionnaire for registration. This is an amazing opportunity for a completely unique and engaging experience, so get on board quick to secure one of the last 5 spots!

Images: Kate Reeder

The post DIY Peruvian Craft Tour with Annie Millican appeared first on EcoSalon.

Slow Art is a contemporary art movement that celebrates craft, technique, materials and the process of creating.

Since its beginnings, the Slow Movement has been spreading at an appropriately slow and steady pace across disciplines and geographical boundaries. You’ve probably heard of Slow Food, Slow Money and Slow Fashion, but how does this movement’s principles apply to art? A recent exhibit at Stockholm’s National Museum of Fine Arts was entirely dedicated to the concept of of Slow Art, celebrating this contemporary movement where technique, materials and process are considered especially important.

“Broken Shadow” – raw silk & leather dress by Helena Hörstedt, 2008

Silk & linen embroidery by Suzy Strindberg, 1999

Over 30 pieces from the museums permanent collections were included in a curated showcase of unique, handcrafted silver, textile, glass and ceramic artifacts by artists from the past three decades. The slow process is characterized by a certain respect for the audience — something often lacking in our society dominated by mass production and consumption. “Few people remain unmoved by an artwork that demonstrates superb craftsmanship. The care that goes into producing the work and the persistence of the artist are a source of fascination to many.”

“Ur Anor” – steel necklace by Lotta Åström, 2010

“Red” – paper & glue bowl by Cecilia Levy, 2011

“The considerable time required to make these works has not always been a cause of frustration for artists or craftspersons,” curator Cilla Robach writes in the exhibition catalog. “On the contrary, they have valued time and regarded slowness as a central element in their artistic process. Many practitioners have put special emphasis on shaping certain details, without having to fear the mental boredom or physical pain of repetition. Instead, the viewer suspects that they have found tranquility in the monotonous and slow work stages that were required to create a specific piece. Several of the practitioners have developed their own techniques to achieve the particular expression they were after. Others have chosen to use the same methods and tools as artisans and craftspersons have been using for centuries.”

Paper & steel wire necklace by Janna Syvänoja, 2003

“Shadows” – machine embroidery by Malin Lager, 2004

Spending considerable amounts of time making something using time-consuming techniques and processes can often be seen as somewhat provocative. We’ve become so accustomed to always taking the path of least resistance that we may have forgotten that it is not always merely about the end-result.

Eggshell, 24k gold & sweet water pearl necklace by Helena Sandström, 1997

Cotton & linen embroidery by Pasi Välimaa, 2001

“The fact that a few people have nevertheless chosen to develop their artistic creativity by devoting themselves to one or more crafts could be hard for the world at large to understand, or even a bit frightening or provocative,” says Robach. “For what is it these slow artists accomplish with their relentless, slow and complicated work, full of repetitive movements that frequently cause physical pain? What drives Helen Dahlman to make her monumental embroideries in thin cotton thread, despite having to wear double plasters to prevent the blood from her pricked fingertips from staining the fabric? What does Renata Francescon get out of thumbing porcelain clay into rose petals hour after hour, day after day? Why does Tore Svensson continue, year after year, to forge bowls out of cold iron, when his body can’t take the immense strain for more than a couple of hours a day? What does Lotta Åström achieve by winding wire into a tight spiral that she then saws into tiny rings, which she links together to make jewellery resembling chainmail? Why does Sebastian Schildt spend several weeks on shaping a flat silver plate into a jug with a hammer, instead of using a machine to create the same object in a fraction of the time? There are no simple answers to these questions — apart from the certainty that the artists get a satisfaction from something other than profitability through rational manufacturing.”

“Boa” – silver necklace by Petra Schou, 2000

“Sub Rosa” – porcelain sculpture by Renata Francescon, 2004

Common to all the artworks featured is a sense of playfulness and spontaneity. These artists have developed a deep, genuine knowledge of the materials and processes they utilize to create their art, and this enables them to experiment and organically adapt their works as they progress. This way of surrendering control and not being solely focused on a specific outcome is not possible in mass-manufacturing, and it’s what gives these pieces soul and character. The slowness in production itself becomes an artistic value.

“Egypten” – titanium, 18k gold 18k & silk collar by Helena Edman, 1983

Although the National Museum’s Slow Art exhibit closed at the beginning of February, you can experience it from right where you are by downloading both the exhibition app and catalog. On the app (available free for iPhone and Android) you can view pictures of all the art, read the texts and listen to exhibition curator Cilla Robach talk about each object. The exhibition catalog is available to download, also for free, and gives you an incredible overview of the Slow Art topic, as well as beautiful photographs of and statements about each artwork. Give yourself some time, because you definitely don’t want to have to rush through this one.

All photos courtesy of National Museum, Stockholm

The post Slow Art – Celebrating Craft, Technique, Materials and Process appeared first on EcoSalon.

Designer Brooke Roberts takes inspiration from her medical industry past and designs knitwear based on CT scans and x-rays of the brain.

Sometimes inspiration can come from the strangest of places. Designer Brooke Roberts worked for a few years as a radiographer in Australia before moving to London to study fashion design and pattern cutting at London College of Fashion and Central Saint Martins. However, it was not until her second collection that she was inspired to merge her science past with the fashion future she is trying to build.

Using her unique scientific and technical insight and broad knowledge of human anatomy, Roberts started looking at x-rays and CT scans for inspiration. Using Photoshop and a textile design program called Eneas she programs knitting machines to translate these medical images into bold yet organic graphic patterns for her clothing. Roberts’ pieces are knitted, with each pixel representing a stitch, in a mix of cotton, wool, cashmere, silk, and lurex. This material mix gives the final pieces a wonderfully layered, luxurious quality.

Inspired by fashion greats like Thierry Mugler, Pierre Cardin, and Haider Ackermann as well as starchitect Zaha Hadid, Roberts has a very specific person in mind when she designs. In an interview on Stylenik, she talks about her:

A woman who belongs to a seemingly unserved segment. I think about science, technology, medical and media professionals who will not only appreciate the beauty my designs, but will also connect with the story and information behind it. I am targeting a group of incredibly smart people – people who work in industries that advance by the hour, people who enjoy, if not expect, to learn something new every day. I am aware that for many people in this niche, fashion can be a bit too subjective, too lacking of structure, rhyme or reason. With my brand, I want them to make sense of it all. I want my customer to see their field combine with the enigmatic fashion world to create products that are cutting edge, innovative and serious conversation starters.

The collection, which is called “Cuts” is sold exclusively at British retailer Browns Focus. Brooke Roberts is based in London and, while she grows her line, continues to support herself as a radiographer.

The post Fashion Meets Science: Knitwear Inspired by CT Scans of the Brain appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnIs your cup of coffee threatened?

Dukunde Kawa or Kilenso?

I was at Coava Coffee Roasters for an afternoon meeting and having to choose what beans I wanted my iced Americano to be made from. Here, roasting is taken seriously, and on any give day you have your pick between the two blends of the day, always sourced from specific cooperatives on the other side of the world. I went with the Rwandan one, liking the taste, but also, for a variety of reasons – including once having a roommate from Rwanda – because the cooperative was on my radar.

Coava is of course different from the majority of coffee shops. Most times we stand in line, decide whether or not we should go for the soy latte today because we’ve been feeling a little dairy intolerant lately, opt for the extra shot and go on our way. But our coffee choices aren’t insignificant. Far from it, in fact.

Coffee is the world’s second most valuable traded commodity, beat out only by oil. Our cars get fuel and so do we. Our consumption also fuels an entire global industry of farmers and producers. According to Global Exchange, there are approximately 25 million farmers and coffee workers in over 50 countries involved in producing coffee around the world.

For something that touches so many lives, both on the production and the consumption side, it often gets very little thought beyond whether or not we remembered to bring our travel mug. We know that we should skip the disposable cup and pesky little plastic lid, but for most of us, that’s where the environmental costs and coffee connection stops. Coffee however, is an industry highly subject to the negative effects of climate change, and if you don’t think that your everyday actions aren’t affecting what you’re drinking, think again.

As with other agricultural crops, coffee isn’t a newcomer to the effects of weather patterns. “The coffee industry has been very aware of the impact of weather on coffee for a very long time… if there’s an extreme weather event, the big commercial traders know how that is going to ripple out over the next 6 to 12 months,” says Ben Corey-Moran of Thanksgiving Coffee, an artisan coffee roaster based in Northern California. But with the heightened dramatic weather patterns influenced by climate change, those effects are changing, and in a big way. For decades adds Corey-Moran, “the wet season was consistently wet and the dry season consistently dry.” With these normal cycles there was a consistent rhythm, but with dramatic changes to climate “that rhythm has shifted so much that it’s totally chaotic.”

Simply put, as temperatures warm, coffee fruit ripens more quickly, producing a less complex flavor. As Corey-Moran compares it to Pinot Noirs of colder northern climates. “we’re losing the “terroir,” the dynamic balance in the ecosystem that produces these flavors that we love.”

This isn’t just a threat felt by a select few. “Organizations like GCQRI are researching this very threat to the industry and have put it at the top of their list as a critical problem to not only specialty coffee, but the entire industry of coffee. This threat could lead to areas, zones and regions becoming extinct from being able to grow coffee that suits our needs apropos quality, thus meaning a superior premium to growers who go the extra mile,” says Darrin Daniel of Stumptown Coffee, the Portland-based roasting company known for its close work with its coffee cooperatives and farmers.

But it’s not just a problem for specialty coffee. “Imagine in 10 years that sought after regions of cultivation of arabica might not be sustainable and also be suspect to outbreaks such as coffee leaf rust and increased issues with coffee borer (brocca). In ten years, we may have thousands of coffee producers who might have to cultivate an entirely new agricultural product or leave farming all together,” says Daniel.

That means not only you without a craft cup of joe, or a craft cup that could taste very differently than what you’re used to, but millions of people around the world without jobs.

“First and foremost this is livelihood for these farmers,” says Corey-Moran. “The farmers who we are working with are losing their crops because of the weather.” That’s why at Thanksgiving Coffee, Corey-Moran and his team started to think about what they could do, asking the farmers themselves what they would do to mitigate the effects. “More technology, more chemicals and better new breeds will help us [with] this mess that we’re in, [but] that’s not the direction we want to go. We want to go in the direction of investing in the farm’s ability to protect itself.”

“The cooperative developed a set of interventions that were designed to protect their farms against those changes,” says Corey-Moran. Those interventions came in the form of tree planting, and partnering with NGO Progresso, the company launched a comprehensive reforestation program at Dunde Kawa in Rwanda, planting trees to not only provide shade but also improve the topsoil, buffering the impact of rain and keeping the ground moist during dry periods. Inspired by the success of the project, Thanksgiving Coffee went on to launch the Resilience Fund, a non profit organization that will allow the company to invest in the same type of adaptive programs at other cooperatives. “The goal is that the Resilience Fund will be a vehicle that other coffee roasting companies can use to support their partners at origin,” says Corey-Moran

More programs like this will help cooperatives deal with the negative effects of climate change on their livelihoods, but ultimately, there is a need for larger change.

“The only action is to spur education around this issue and press governments to understand the importance of carbon emissions. This is a global issue that will not only impact coffee producers, but also large swaths of communities in areas of the world where rising temperatures will potentially devastate coastal communities,” says Daniel.

As with many environmental issues, it also comes down to taking personal responsibility for your every day choices. Coffee companies that are making smart decisions and implementing programs that ensure their farmers are protected and making wages that allow them to care for their families and take part in their local communities need continued support. Without them, we’ll be looking at a very different industry.

“Know where your coffee comes from. Ask questions. Climate change is something that will impact growers and I believe an understanding of how overall yields and livelihood will impact. The biggest impact consumers can have is to seek ways in which they can influence issues that are connected with long term global change and carbon emission abatement,” says Daniel.

Next time you order your Americano, know what you’re drinking and know what drinking it means.

“Climate change is not going to affect someone else, it’s already affecting the food on your table,” says Corey-Moran.

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Image: kennymatic, Thanksgiving Coffee

The post Foodie Underground: The Real Impact of Your Cup of Espresso appeared first on EcoSalon.

A new collaboration between Vans and Krochet Kids international features hand crocheted shoes that help lift women in Africa out of poverty.

Krochet Kids international and Vans have joined forces for a special summer collaboration. The mini collection features two styles of Vans’ popular Bixie shoe, adorned with colorful crochet panels.

Krochet Kids international is a non-profit organization that teaches women in developing nations how to crochet hats, scarves, bowties and more, and enrolls them in a comprehensive program that teaches them to rise above poverty. This is the first time the company has tried their hand at making shoes, which are all, like the beanies Krochet Kids are famous for, hand crocheted in Uganda. Each piece features the signature of the woman that made them, and you can go to Krochet Kids’ website to find out more about her.

Besides these shoes being perfect for summer, we love that the body is made with 100% natural hemp and canvas, includes a removable and washable foot bed (which makes the shoe last longer) and is made with water based inks and glues.

The shoes are available in select stores across the country and online at Nordstrom. Watch this video to learn more about the collaboration.

The post Krochet Kids X Vans: Empowering Women Through Craft appeared first on EcoSalon.

Fashion, craft, and design communities find Mecca in Manhattan.

Tuesday night something amazing happened in New York City. More than one hundred people gathered at the Standard in East Village, a luxury hipster hotel on Cooper Square, and joined together for a sing-along and finger-knitting. Really. It happened. I was there. Everyone looked elated, from the handsome 20-something guy across from me (who I initially assumed was a supermodel but is actually an up-and-coming fashion designer), to the chic magazine editors and design company executives who were sipping wine before they settled into the low black couches.

Everyone who was lucky enough to secure entry into this unique event seemed transported by the simple act of transforming a length of cotton jersey cord into a knitted necklace, by taking an old folk song, riffing on a few verses, and making something new.

Singer and songwriter Rosanne Cash led the sing-along. Natalie Chanin, founder and creative director of the fashion and lifestyle company Alabama Chanin, led the knitalong. The occasion was MAKESHIFT: Shifting Thoughts on Design, Fashion, Craft, and DIY, a panel discussion kicking off a week of MAKESHIFT events organized by Chanin. Also speaking were Cathy Bailey, owner and designer of Heath Ceramics, Maria Cornejo, designer for Zero+Maria Cornejo, and Jessamyn Hatcher, a professor of fashion studies and the humanities at New York University. Moderating was Andrew Wagner, a DIY columnist for the New York Times and the editorial director of Krrb.

(From L-R): Andrew Wagner, Natalie Chanin, Cathy Bailey, Rosanne Cash, Jessamyn Hatcher and Maria Cornejo

“It’s like a small Pandora’s box opening,” Chanin says of the evening in which the main topic of conversation was the joy and value of making. “Making is as an integral part of all creative, design, and fashion industries. A conversation has been started and we hope it will continue.”

Cathy Bailey of Heath Ceramics recalled the tour she took of the company’s factory back in 2003, before she and her husband bought it. “Nothing was outsourced, everything was produced there. I think that’s what gave it that energy, that hum. There was such focus.” Bailey had, until then, been working as an industrial designer, but “Design wasn’t enough for me,” she says. “Something is missing when you’re only designing, when you’re not making.”

Maria Cornejo concurred. After leaving the fashion business, in 1998 she decided to open a store called Zero, where she and her team gradually started making things. “We put a rack of clothes at the front of the store; if people reacted to them, we made more, she recalled. “I miss those days when it was so hands-on.”

I personally grew up in a home where the handmade was revered and I edit craft books for a living – in fact, I edited all three of Chanin’s books: Alabama Stitch Book, Alabama Studio Style, and Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, the one that just came out and inspired the initial plans for MAKESHIFT 2012. So, given my background and day job, getting together to finger-knit is not as novel to me as it is to a lot of people. Honoring the maker is what I try to do every day. And it’s what Chanin does in her books – in which she shares instructions for the traditional techniques with which her clothing and homewares are made. “We make fashion,” Chanin explained on Tuesday night. “And we teach people how to make fashion.”

Rosanne Cash, who is an avid knitter and recently began hand-stitching Alabama Chanin clothing, told us: “All I want to do is follow Natalie around whatever she does.”

Chanin’s mission for MAKESHIFT is to break down some of the walls that exist between the fashion, craft, and design communities in order to find a meeting place so that “every maker, as well as the designs, products, and lives they touch, will be enriched.”

If the openness of everyone’s faces as they formed their necklaces on Tuesday night is any indication, the walls are coming down.

To learn more about the remaining MAKESHIFT 2012 events, go here.

Melanie Falick is the publishing director of STC Craft / Melanie Falick Books, an imprint of Stewart, Tabori & Chang and Abrams. She is the author of numerous knitting books and the former editor-in-chief of Interweave Knits magazine.

The post MAKESHIFT: The Fusion of DIY, Music, Craft and Humming appeared first on EcoSalon.

VideoThe art and passion behind handmade chocolate.

In this video by The Scout, we meet Rick and Michael Mast, the brothers behind Mast Brothers, an artisan chocolate brand based in Brooklyn.

Everything they do, from hand-wrapping their chocolate to printing on an in-house printer, “roots back to our love affair with the spirit of craft,” says Rick Mast.

The Mast Brothers from The Scout on Vimeo.

The post Video: The Mast Brothers appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnConscious life, hear me roar.

I met a friend last week for lunch in New York City who knows a lot about sewing, knitting, using one’s hands to make and yet she brought up a really good point: how to change the image of women who “craft.”

“And yet keep its very essence intact,” she said.

With knitting co-ops, hipster sewing circles, juried craft fairs, and even Vogue taking on knitting via public seminars, embracing craft is a hot topic. But why? My lunch date, an authority in her field, wondered the same thing and also made it well known that she had been a knitter for a very long time. With all these knitters and the trends, and the cool factor of it, what was the big deal. Her bosses wanted to know too. In fact, they wanted to start calling the genre “Fashion How-To” instead of “Craft” having taken note of it, and as if it had just suddenly appeared before them.

If you’re a plumber you can equate this to your profession suddenly being called “Pipe How-To,” or if a lawyer, try on “Persuasive Oral Communications How-To.” It doesn’t make sense to change some things. It is what it is. It’s really just how you market it.

“Well, I think the first way to change the image is to understand it better. We must deconstruct,” I said.

“Craft” has been with us since the dawn of time. Think cave drawings to communicate life story, roughly-carved eating utensils and clothing woven from primitive looms. Without the ability to “craft,” people would have starved, frozen, died (not to mention, been very bored).

“Fashion How-To?”

When I think of all the women I personally know who are creating with fibers, I see them as self-sufficient rebels, the ultimate feminists who give the finger to “The Man” and make their own wardrobes instead of shopping at a fast-fashion mega wearhouse dictated by trends. These are the women that, should the world end today, you would want them near you to find ways to clothe you and keep you warm, stitch up your wounds, maintain calm and gather everyone around for rational dialogue.

“The other thing we have to realize about craft,” I said to my friend, “is that using your hands to create makes you aware that you’re alive.”

After I said it, I sat back and heard that sentence swirling about the quiet little bistro we were sitting in.

These hands of ours (of mine) that type up columns like the one you are reading, are so used to repetition that they’ve forgotten their human history and that to be a part of life, we have to somehow document it and prove that we exist. Build a house, plant a garden, knit a scarf, make bread, it doesn’t matter so much how well you do it as that you do it. Craft is nothing more than executing an idea, embracing a spark of creativity that rolls out from our brain to our hands that says “Do this. It will somehow help you.”

This past weekend I made my very first DIY necklace inspired by Gretchen Jones. After that lunch date in New York City I realized that there’s more to documenting this life than just writing about it. I want to make.

I just realized this isn’t a “How-To” anything, this is all about survival.

Between the Lines is a weekly column navigating the sometimes-sharp, sometimes-blurred lines of conscious life and culture between city and country, between inner worlds and outer.

Image: botheredbybees

The post Between the Lines: Do You Know You’re Alive? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Natalie Chanin releases the third book in her sewing trilogy.

It’s no secret we have a thing for Natalie Chanin of Alabama Chanin here on EcoSalon.

An entrepreneur, designer, author, lecturer and strong businesswoman who went back to her roots in Florence, Alabama to stimulate local economy (as well as her own quest for a little life/work fulfillment), Natalie is a one-woman rocket ship of sustainable goodness.

In her third book Alabama Studio Sewing + Design, we get to pick up on the “conversations and techniques begun with the Alabama Stitch Book and Alabama Studio Style.” With each book lending itself to the other as to the workings and lifestyle of the Alabama Chanin woman, readers of all three books will now have the tools to make anything they’ve ever seen on the Alabama Chanin site – minus the in-house Depression Era stitchers.

We caught up with Natalie this past week to tell us more about her new DIY masterpiece. Speaking of that book, did we mention that we’re also giving a copy away? It’s no lie. Just leave a comment at the bottom of this story and you are entered to win!

How is Alabama Studio Sewing + Design different from the Alabama Stitch Book and Alabama Studio Style?

Alabama Studio Sewing + Design is really the culmination of what was originally seen as a trilogy.  Each book builds on the other, but also stands on its own.  However, this book is more about the actual “fashion” of what we do… more intricate, more sophisticated, more patterns, more techniques…

With the compilation of the three books, you should be able to recreate any fabric and technique that we have ever designed at Alabama Chanin.

Talk about the importance of sharing “techniques that were once understood as essential survival skills?” Have we as a society lost touch with the importance of using our hands to create?

There is much talk at the moment about how being able to “do” or “make” for ourselves also makes us HAPPY.  I believe that this is a huge leap in understanding human behavior and a missing piece in our role as human beings today.  How simple: develop the capacity to do for yourself (in whatever small way) AND build neural pathways to happiness. I think back to my grandmother’s ever-moving hands and her pride in doing for her family and it makes me sigh… “Yes, I understand.”

I see the open-sourcing you offer in Alabama Studio Sewing + Design working for Alabama Chanin in two ways: 1., It gives people the opportunity to own Alabama Chanin by making and 2., it gives people an appreciation for what you do as a designer. Am I right?

The original thought in writing the books was to empower people to be able to make our garments.

I wrote in the introduction: “I have been asked many times why I choose to write books and, in the process, open-source (that is, freely share) instructions for making Alabama Chanin’s couture collections. The answer is not as straightforward as you might think. It is based on my belief that good design should be available to all and my desire to build a company that is sustainable in all of its practices. By sharing our skills in these books, I hope to shed light on not only how we can preserve precious natural resources but also how we can preserve and protect techniques that were once understood as essential survival skills.

 While Alabama Chanin dresses, skirts, tops, and coats have been beautifully featured in countless magazines and newspapers, and on television shows and websites, they have also been criticized for being “elitist,” and “inaccessible” because of their price. Truth be told, our clothing is extremely expensive. This is because it is made from domestic, organic, custom-dyed cotton jersey that is cut, painted, sewn, and embellished by hand in America by skilled artisans. And while we sell our collection to some of the most upscale stores and clients, we run our business in the most down-to-earth, simple way imaginable. In the beginning, we worked from a three-bedroom, brick, ranch-style house in rural Alabama, a home that my grandfather built. Today we work from a reclaimed textile factory built in the 1980s—when manufacturing was booming in the South. Our studio—which we call The Factory—has become a busy hub, where we concentrate on building a zero-waste company. Our employees earn a living wage, and while none of us is getting rich, at least in terms of our bank accounts, we are, indeed, rich in spirit, belief, passion, and friendship. “Elitist” is the antithesis of how the company works and who I am as a designer, entrepreneur, and citizen.”

 The piece I think you initially understood – better than I – is that the books have ALSO given a broader range of people an appreciation of the work we are doing. Thank you.

Do you see the DIY movement getting stronger? Is this maybe an entire generation of women ready to use their hands again to create their own clothing and be a little more self-sufficient?

I do see DIY as a very quickly growing movement – or should I say, a “remembering” of where we come from. And I find it very inspiring to see people – young and old, man and woman – searching for their voices in this conversation and using these tools as a form of sustainability – both cultural and physical. My interest in this conversation is to help find the intersection of DIY, Craft, Fashion and Design (all with capital letters).

Image: Abrams Books

The post Natalie Chanin Releases Alabama Studio Sewing + Design (And We’re Giving It Away!) appeared first on EcoSalon.