Bookmarks, the instant gratification craft, that’s useful too.

I’ve had stumps on the brain since seeing Bird in the Hand‘s wonderful Gocco stump, which is in this shadowbox. Also, a stump drawing and a tree in the same vein, amidst all her other lovely work.

I’ve been mulling over the embroidery in my head a little more each time she posts something. I’ve been imagining an unearthed stump, with roots going everywhere, like a reverse tree. That’s where I started, but the roots didn’t work out, so I chopped it down. Logs make better bookmarks anyway. To finish it, I ironed on some of the fabric in the background and cut it out.

Still mulling about the stump, though.

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I’ve been thinking about prints lately, which has brought me back around to my favorite artists.

Tom Killion‘s woodcut prints are amazing. His California coast series is my favorite.

You might recognize Patricia Curtan‘s prints from the Chez Panisse cookbooks. We have some of these up in our kitchen. (Scanned in then printed out so no book-chopping was involved.)

Kathleen Lipinski is a serigrapher I came across on the craft fair circuit when I lived in California. Unfortunately I could only afford her notecards. This print involved 18 colors!

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This is a combination of 2 different projects from one of my Japanese craft books (see library for details). The embroidery is supposed to be a napkin or placemat or something, and there are simpler patterns on the drawstring bags. I’ve been (unsuccessfully, it’s all ripped out now) working on a knitting project, and the bad kitten won’t leave my yarn alone. So, the plan is to tuck it in the bag and let it feed out. He’ll probably just play with the ribbon ties instead, though. I was pleased to find this ribbon in my collection. It matches the sasiko really nicely.

Outside is linen, my favorite material of the moment, lining is the rayon print serving as a backdrop. It’s a dress I’ve had in my closet for years even though it’s got a big pink stain on it from washing it wrong. There are dark and light pink flowers (the light pink ones show up better in person).

The pink blossom idea has been in the back of my head since seeing this awesome bag on craftster.

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I made this little patchwork tray out of my Zakka book (see library). I was originally making it for my keys, but I forgot about seam allowances and it’s a little bit too small. So maybe jewelry or pins or something.

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The library got a copy of Todd Oldham’s Handmade Modern (his site has zooms of lots of the projects). I know him from his column in ReadyMade, which is kind of hit or miss, but usually fun to look at. The book is pretty good, although I probably won’t make anything from it. Lots of wood veneer, lots of furniture projects. Some textiles. It’s almost as much a design book as anything. Each project is suggestive of some mid-century modern artist or designer, and there are pages about some of the heavy hitters. Although I don’t need any furniture at the moment, the book made me believe I could build myself some (well, given a pretty extensive toolbox, anyway). And not ugly pine dorm furniture either, but stuff I might actually buy.

Speaking of ReadyMade, they finally put the PDFs of the early issues back up for sale. I really wish more magazines would sell back issues this way.

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I’m playing around with the glass beads I got in Italy. This big pendant in particular is crying out to be a necklace, but I don’t think I’ve got it quite right yet. I do like this arrangement with the little bead across the top, though. It’s just strung on string right now, but I bet thin silver thread would look better.

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OK, the last batch of letters is addressed and ready to be mailed. Whew. I’m thrilled by the response. Total, I’m sending 48 trinkets. I was short a few charms, so hopefully a few of you won’t mind getting patches instead. In fact, I still have some patches if anybody missed out. Given that I had almost 4000 hits (!!!) to my site in the last week, I really didn’t know what to expect. To anyone else considering it, do it! It’s really fun to get all the email from your readers. (And a few super nice people are sending real mail!)

48 is a lot of emails to keep track of, so if you don’t get yours in a week or so, let me know.

[Edit: I’m out of trinkets.]

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Remember to email me by midnight EST tonight if you want to get in on the patch/charm freebie! 2 batches have already been mailed out. The rest will go out Monday. I’m behind on the email replies, so don’t worry if you haven’t heard from me yet.

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I started a new site devoted to Japanese craft books. It’s called Crafting Japanese (for now anyway, I’m taking suggestions for better names). The idea is, every Japanese craft book or website or magazine gets a post. When someone out there writes a review, makes a project, or posts pictures from the book, they, or their readers, email me about it and I update that post. Everything’s indexed to the ISBN and the books are classified according to craft for easy searching and browsing. I’ll also ask them for permission to post thumbnails of their projects. People who give permission will be added to the Contributors list.

It’ll be a resource about Japanese craft books, with store locations and online shops too.

If anybody’s got suggestions on the format, I’ve got a few entries up like what I’m thinking. Since I haven’t bothered getting permission to post anybody else’s picture, it’s mainly my projects just for the sake of demonstration.

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I made the matching zipper pouch to go with my bird bag. I wish I had a nicer fabric for the wing, but otherwise I’m pretty happy with it.

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