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Tag: Craft
My Favourite Books of 2011: Siobhan (Marketing)
by Siobhan
Art & Photography + Craft + Food & Drink + Gift & Stationery / December 20, 2011
Yesterday Dan talked about his favourite book of 2011. I can't quite narrow it down to ONE, so instead I've picked one favourite book for each day of the week... plus a little something extra for Sunday. This is essentially my ideal week, in book format.
Monday. We all know what Mondays are like. The day you need a hit of inspiration. And a cup of coffee. This book will give you a double shot of the former (sorry, you'll have you grab your own latte.) Paper Cutting: Contemporary Artists, Timeless Craft is totally gorgeous and full of amazing work by talented artists working with paper.
Tuesday is when you really start to wake up for the week. And you'll need your wits about you when you grab your scissors and a fresh sheet of paper, then fold, pleat and crumple your way to creating the incredible shapes in Folding Techniques for Designers: From Sheet to Form.
(P.S. If you're into paper folding, you'll love this documentary I recently saw on the Knowledge Network, Between the Folds.)
Wednesday is a funny day. Come on, hump day. Time for the brilliance and hilarity that is Hark! A Vagrant. If you don't already know Kate Beaton from her website, trust me, your life will be better once you do.
By Thursday, your work week is in full swing, and you can take on anything. You can even build a toaster... from scratch! As in, hey, let's dig up some precious metals out of the ground with my own two hands and make some wire, then figure out how to make plastic... Or at least you can read about a guy who really did this in The Toaster Project: Or a heroic attempt to build a simple electric appliance from scratch.
Friday is when you start to wind down, dream about the weekend that's oh-so-close.... a dream which involves owning a big old house in the country with chickens running around the yard, and your husband making you breakfast in bed, with poached eggs laid by your very own chickens. (Reality: let's just go out for brunch downtown.) Chicken and Egg: A Memoir of Suburban Homesteading with 125 Recipes is full of lovely design and photos, stories about keeping chickens, and recipes for both cooking up eggs ... and chickens (sorry, chickens!)
A Saturday behind the pottery wheel is a good, good day. If you don't have clay or a kiln on hand, check out The Ceramics Bible: The Complete Guide to Materials and Techniques.
Sunday is a perfect treat. Much like Miette: Recipes from San Francisco's Most Charming Pastry Shop. These are some of the cutest, most perfect looking cakes you'll ever see (and maybe even bake). The book's pages are also scalloped for an added dose of cuteness.
And last but not least, for a litttle extra on Sunday (cause you know everyone wants to extend the weekend just a little bit more), I'm also going to include my favourite non-book item from 2011. I am admittedly biased here, but hey, this is my list. Shoegazing Notecards were put together by the gorgeous and always inspiring UPPERCASE magazine, based on a photo story they did in their magazine: UPPERCASE asked readers to send in photos of their feet. I was lucky enough to have a couple of photos in the spread... and now UPPERCASE partnered with Chronicle to put 20 of those photos onto notecards. Mine's the one on the red carpet with all the brightly coloured shoes. A friend of mine also has her feet on one of the notecards, wearing her roller derby skates. Here's the spread from the magazine - the notecards are also super cute and designed with classic UPPERCASE style.
So, that's my week in books for 2011. Looking forward to 2012!
Pulled
by Dan
Art & Photography / May 24, 2011
Andy Warhol popularized it in the 1960s, and screen printing remains a favourite with artists, illustrators, designers and crafters today — it's versatile, cheap, fast, a little dirty, and (let's face it) really, really cool.
Designer Mike Perry screened his first shirt in college (and wore it later that night!) and his new book Pulled collects the work of more than 40 contemporary artists who are doing new and interesting things with the technique, including Aesthetic Apparatus, Deanne Cheuk, Steven Harrington, Maya Hayuk, Cody Hudson, Jeremyville, Andy Mueller, Rinzen, and Andy Smith (among others). The book is a survey and a how-to, a collection of prints and an idea bank. And (let's face it) really, really cool...
AND if you like the sound of Pulled, you might want to check out Mike's two previous best-selling books Hand Job: A Catalog of Type and Over & Over: A Catalog of Hand-Drawn Patterns. They're also really, really good.
My Milk Toof
by Dan
Craft + Humour / March 08, 2011
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craft inhae lee milk toof photography
Handmade Weddings Video
by Dan
Craft / January 25, 2011
Beautiful handcrafted details can add charm, meaning, and personal style to your wedding. In this delightful book, Eunice and Sabrina Moyle, the founders of Hello!Lucky, join forces with Canadian stylist Shana Faust to bring you over 50 gorgeous projects with photos, how-to diagrams, and step-by-step directions.
Clever, crafty, and budget-friendly, Handmade Weddings is the perfect handbook for the creative bride:
Amy Butler’s Style Stitches
by Siobhan
Craft + Fashion & Textiles / September 24, 2010
Amy Butler's Style Stitches is definitely one of my favourite books from Chronicle Books' Fall list. Amy Butler is one of my favourite fabric designers -- and I know I'm not alone there. If you're passionate about colour, pattern and fabric, chances are you're going to have a serious crush on this book.
Just check out this video and tell me you're not inspired... In it, Amy Butler talks about the book, her work and inspirations, and gives us a glmipse into her gorgeous studio and garden.
Creative, Inc. Stop Motion!
by Dan
Craft + Design & Typography / August 16, 2010
To celebrate the launch of Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business, authors Joy Deangdeelert Cho and Meg Mateo Ilasco have created this lovely stop motion book trailer:
In the mold of hipster classic Craft, Inc., Creative, Inc. will teach all types of creatives—illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, animators—how to build a successful business doing what they love. Meg and Joy explain everything from creating an outstanding portfolio to navigating the legal issues of starting a business. Accessible and full of practical advice, Creative, Inc. is an essential for anyone ready to strike out on their own.
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business craft design freelance
Chronicle Book Craft Catalogue
by Dan
Craft / August 12, 2010
You know that all our new and recent catalogues are available to download online, right? Of course you did.
Well, I just wanted to let you know that the Chronicle Books Craft catalogue for Fall 2010—with new books from Amy Butler and Lotta Jansdotter—is now available to download (PDF) at your leisure. Happy crafting!
DIY @ MOV
by Siobhan
January 20, 2010
Calling all Vancouver crafters!
This Thursday, January 21, the Museum of Vancouver is hosting what's bound to be a fun evening of creativity and craft. DIY@MOV is billed as a "A Night of Social Crafting" - there will be music, snacks, drinks, plus a craft market, and workshops:
Blim: button-making and screen printing workshops
Knitgirl: Knitting and Craftivism
Kirsti Wakelin: drawing/ exquisite corpse.
The DIY@MOV event is part of a new exhibit at MOV called The Art of Craft:
Art of Craft showcases 173 spectacular fine craft works in three parts:
Unity & Diversity: Selected Works - 75 pieces from across Canada recently on display at the 2009 Cheongju International Craft Biennale in the Republic of Korea.
By Hand/BC and Yukon - 51 pieces from Canada’s West Coast with a focus on the artists’ creative processes and studio environments.
Craft from the Republic of Korea - 47 pieces demonstrating the excellence of traditional and contemporary crafts.
Get all the details on the DIY@MOV event and the Art of Craft exhibit the on the MOV site - then come out and celebrate DIY, craft, art and design ... or whatever you want to call this stuff.
Personally, I love how these terms are overlapping, intersecting and merging more and more in recent years. Creativity is creativity, and, in my opinion, the tools or media you use don't determine what you create or how it should be perceived.
In that spirit, two of my favourite books on the list explore the ever-growing world of "makers": 
Handmade Nation: The Rise of DIY, Art, Craft and Design is an overview of some of the amazing talents in the crafting community in the US today - people who have been part of the huge resurgance of craft that's been taking place for the past few years. Handmade Nation is also a film - watch the trailer.
By Hand: The Use Of Craft In Contemporary Art approaches 
the Art/Craft topic from another angle: showing how media and techniques and traditionally considered "Craft" - such as embroidery and knitting - are being used in the "Art" world. The paperback edition of By Hand is coming out in April 2010.
(Of course my list does not include all the lovely how-to and inspirational craft books. For a good list of these, check out the Chronicle Craft Catalogue for Spring 2010 (PDF).)