handicraft

Today's big news around the Library? Our newly expanded hours at a number of locations across the city, including my own home base, the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, and the Mid-Manhattan Library right across the street. (Check out this announcement for all of the details.)

What does this mean for curious crafters? If your craft inclinations lean to the vintage and historic, then you are in luck, because the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, with its rich research collections of vintage knitting, sewing, and handicraft books and magazines, is expanding its hours. You'll have more time to find the perfect pattern, picture, or information to inspire you in your work.

And if you like to browse through new craft books, then head to the Mid-Manhattan Library. There, you now have hours and hours in the evenings to browse through the craft books and select the ones that you want to borrow. This location's a great source for all sorts of new handicraft titles. And today it's also a great source for free doughnuts, too! The Cover-to-Cover Cafe, a pop-up snack spot there, is giving out free and fortifying Tim Horton treats until 11:00pm tonight.

So grab a doughnut and hit the stacks, crafters!

On Saturday, September 12th, Maura Madden (author of Crafternoon) and I will kick off our Handmade: Crafternoon series, and we hope that you can join us. This crafty gathering is free, and there’s no advance registration required. Here’s what’s in store for you that day:

Two special guests will join us and share their approaches to crafting with unusual and alternative materials. Jessica Vitkus (author of Alternacrafts) will show us how to make one-of-a-kind pierced and embroidered cards, and Hannah Rogge (author of Hardwear) will demonstrate how to turn stuff that you find in your toolbox and at the hardware store into unique jewelry.

We will have some materials on hand to share so that you can try your hand at these crafts. But if you would like to be sure to have what you need to make your own pair of hardware-inspired earrings, please bring with you:

• from the hardware store: 10 #8 flat washers
• from the craft store: 2 french earring wires

And if you happen to have embroidery floss and/or needle nose pliers to share with your fellow crafters, please bring them along!

We’ll have an inspiring spread of vintage books, magazines, and images from the Library’s collection to inspire you in your embroidery and jewelry making. And remember, the Library will be open from 11:00am until 6:00pm that day, so if you want to dig around in the collections you’ll have time to do so before and after the event! Here are the details on next week's Handmade: Crafternoon!

Date and time:
Saturday, September 12, 2009, from 2:00 to 4:00pm

Location:
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
42nd Street and Fifth Avenue
Margaret Liebman Berger Forum (Room #227, located in the northeast corner of the second floor)

Questions? Please leave it as a comment! See you on the 12th!

Calling all craft-loving, library-loving readers! Please join me and my co-host Maura Madden (author of the amazing guide to crafty gatherings, Crafternoon) for a new FREE monthly series called Handmade: Crafternoons! Each day we'll focus on a different handmaking theme, and I'll post details about them here on the blog in advance of the date.

What's in store for you at a Handmade: Crafternoon? Each event will include an inspiring spread of books and magazines (especially vintage books like the one pictured) from the Library's collections, a hands-on DIY project, and special crafty guests. It'll be a chance to get inspired at your Library, to hang with fellow crafty New Yorkers, and to make stuff together.

Interested? Then mark your calendars! Here are the dates:
Saturday, September 12, 2:00 to 4:00pm
Saturday, October 10, 2:00 to 4:00pm
Saturday, November 14, 2:00 to 4:00pm
Saturday, December 12, 2:00 to 4:00pm

These events will all take place at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 42nd Street & Fifth Avenue. Yes, that's the big one with the lions out front. Maura and I hope to see you there!

Interested in learning how books were made during the hand-press era? If so, please join me at the Library this evening for an illustrated history of the craftsmanship of paper making, printing, and bookbinding. I’ll be gathering some how-to books on book arts from our collections to share with you too, to help you get started making books. There's no need to register, and it’s a free class—here are the details:

Wednesday June 10th, 6:00 to 7:00pm (classroom will open at 5:45pm)
New York Public Library
Celeste Bartos Education Center
First Floor, South Court Classrooms
Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
Fifth Avenue & 42nd Street

One last note: I'll teach this class two more times this summer (at 2:00pm on July 25th, and at 2:00pm on August 22nd), so please mark your calendars for one of these dates if you are interested but can't come this evening.

Last weekend, as I sat and ate my lunch in Bryant Park, I had the unexpected treat of listening to Geoffrey Hayes read from his children’s comic book Benny and Penny in Just Pretend. The day’s readings and activities were linked to Children’s Book Week, which runs all this week. And I left the park thinking about children’s books that I loved when I was little—books that encouraged me to make, create, and play.

One of the books that I spent hours and hours with as a youngster was Steven Caney’s Play Book, which I have become reacquainted with thanks to the copy at the Children’s Center at 42nd Street. This book is one of several creative play books by Caney, a noted toy maker and designer. His projects all encourage hands-on building, pretending, playing, and inventing, and most draw upon everday materials that a family might already have on hand. Paging through it, I remembered the fun and discovery I felt as I tackled many of the projects—from secret codes to musical nails, from salt gardens to bottle gardens.

Do you have a favorite DIY book from when you were small? Perhaps we have it at NYPL—come into the library or look in our catalogs (Leo or Catnyp) and see what books, both new and old, we have waiting for you and the young makers in your life.

I’ve been spending some time as of late with a 1945 book called Creative Hands: An Introduction to Craft Techniques, written by Doris Cox and Barbara Warren Weismann, who worked closely with the WPA Handicraft Projects of Minneapolis and Milwaukee in bringing the book together. Their book covers a broad range of crafts, from block printing to needlepoint, from soldering to button making. But the section that caught my eye last week was called Eggs in One Basket, in which Cox and Weismann offer egg-decorating techniques from different cultural traditions. The method that I knew that I wanted to try was this:

“The simplest method is to gather up all the onion skins one can find and put a layer of them in the bottom of a kettle large enough to hold all the eggs one wishes to boil. A design, simple or elaborate, is then painted with hot wax on the shell of the raw eggs. The eggs should be at room temperature. Use an old brush because it won’t be usable for paints after this. Place the eggs in the kettle, adding onion skins at the same time; add water and boil the required length of time. The eggs emerge a beautiful brown with the designs showing up in the creamy eggshell color. Do not stir the contents of the kettle with a spoon while the eggs are boiling. The edges of the spoon mar the design.”

Here’s one of six eggs that I made following these instructions.

Since their details were sketchy concerning cooking time, I used Mark Bittman’s advice in How to Cook Everything—I brought the pot to a boil, covered the pot and removed it from the burner, and let everything just sit for a little while (Bittman says 9 minutes is enough; I think mine were in there a little longer, truth be told). There are lots of variations on this onionskin egg dyeing method—I especially like these three at Instructables , Martha Stewart, and About.com.

Have you dyed eggs using onion skins before? Do you have favorite egg decorating methods, or family egg dyeing traditions that you love?
 

Monday March 16th might just be the best day to visit Deirdre Donohue's art installation, Sevdah, at the Mid-Manhattan Library, because on that evening the artist herself will be there, in conversation with Bernard Yenelouis, curator and educator at the School of the International Center of Photography. This event begins at 6:30pm, Monday 3/16/09.

I'm drawn into Donohue's work because of the intensity of the details that she creates using a traditional medium, embroidery, on a large scale. When I visited the installation last week, I wanted to study each small fabric square's evocative imagery, patterns, and textures. You can read more about her work here. And even if you can't make it to the artist dialogue Monday the 16th, the art itself will remain on exhibition until April 22nd--don't miss it!

Image: from Sevdah, by Deirdre Donohue

This week's a big one for the craft-conscious of New York City, because Handmade Nation--which is both a film AND a book available at the Library--comes to town!

This long-awaited documentary of the indie craft movement will have its New York premiere at the Museum of Arts and Design on Thursday evening. In addition to the screening, director Faythe Levine will be there to talk with artists Mandy Greer, Kate Bingaman-Burt, and Callie Janoff. As of this morning, the event is 80% sold out. So if you plan to go don't delay in purchasing your own tickets. The Museum will screen the film two more times, though without the panel discussion, on Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th at 2:00pm each day.

But there is more! On the evening of the 11th, Powerhouse Arena in Brooklyn's hosting a great book launch event celebrating and exploring craft in America. Levine and Handmade Nation co-author Cortney Heimerl will be joined by Sabrina Gschwandtner of KnitKnit fame and Andrew Wagner, editor in chief of American Craft.

So, I recommend that you give yourself or a friend a very special valentine this week by checking out one of these events, or by reserving a copy of Handmade Nation at the Library. You can also learn more about the film, the book, and the creative people behind both at this awesome Design*Sponge interview.