I’m so excited that Kari Chapin’s new book, The Handmade Marketplace is finally out! Kari and I are planning to do a podcast together soon, and thought you might like to contribute.

Got any craft-business questions for Kari? Just leave them in the comments, and we’ll include as many as we can in the podcast.

The Handmade Marketplace covers subjects like:

• Branding
• Pricing Your Work
• Hiring Help
• Marketing
• Blogging
• Advertising
• Selling at Craft Fairs
• Selling in Online Stores
• Selling in Brick and Mortar Stores

…So as you can see, Kari knows lots, and there’s a lot you could ask her! So, let’s hear your questions!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I love Joan Gorman’s blog, NiniMakes, so I was super excited when she sent me a copy of her new ebook, Stitch Village.

And it’s utterly charming, just as I thought it would be. Joan came up with the idea while looking through her collection of vintage needlecraft booklets, and you can see the vintage influence in her designs.

Stitch Village is the first in a planned set of ebooks (yay!), each showcasing a collection of original patterns. This group is based on Joan’s own studio, and gifts she’s made for her family.

I love this project set so much! You can see all the pieces in the photo at the top of this post. There’s an iPod cozy, a Gracie Doll (complete with dress), these adorable mushroom storage containers, a charming Lykke Horse embroidery pattern, and a recipe binder.

Joan’s design eye is so wonderful, and the book’s layout and photography are top-notch. This ebook looks for all the world like a professionally-produced print book.

What’s really great is, every project comes with full-sized pattern pieces, stitchery templates, and photo instructions. This is excellent instructional quality. And the ebook is built with internal links to resources, and also to sections of the book itself. It takes true advantage of the possibilities of the digital format.

You can see a few sample pages, and learn more about this project, at Joan’s blog. And you can order a copy at her online store. They’re £7.75, which is about $12.00 US. Joan is donating a portion of every sale to the British Red Cross for their Haiti campaign.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I’m interested in reviewing more self-published books and ebooks this year. Yvette Doss sent me a review copy of Crunchy Granola Charm, the first title from her new indie publishing company, Blooming Editions.

The title refers not to breakfast cereal, but to a moniker some people give to the 1960s cultural scene. The ebook contains seven jewelry projects based on natural materials and a chunky, 60s design sensibility.

An excerpt from the introduction:

“If you’re one of those who finds ways to incorporate modern interpretations of the styles of the hippie era into your life, if you prefer the natural look to being overly made up, if you’re a little bohemian and a little gypsy, then you’re there – you’re crunchy too.”

Design-wise, Crunchy Granola Charm is interesting because it’s put together a lot like a print book. The pages are square in format, which reads very pretty on the computer screen. I found it was best to print the book on 8 1/2″ x 14″ paper, because on standard paper, the type came out a bit too small for comfortable reading.

The project set is very simple, pretty, and non-fussy, harkening to hippie style, but with a nice modernism mixed in. These are projects a beginning to intermediate beader could easily tackle, and Yvette does a great job documenting all her sources for beads and components, so you can locate the same (or, very nearly the same) materials as she’s used.

The project instructions are all expressed in text form. I’ve written about how I feel about text-only instructions in craft books, so I can’t help but comment here. I’m a big fan of crafty ebooks because they can afford to include loads of process photos or diagrams. I think the project set in Crunchy Granola Charm is simple enough that the text instructions can be followed easily. But I find myself hoping that future editions of this ebook will take a bit more advantage of the educational possibilities in a digital publishing format.

I love the way Yvette has rounded out the overall flavor of this book by including a “Music to Bead By” soundtrack of 60s albums. Overall, this is a fun niche concept book – just the thing digital self-publishing can deliver beautifully. This would be a nice gift for someone who embodies this design sensibility and wants to dive into jewelry-making.

You can order your copy over at Blooming Editions.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Last week’s discussion about Japanese vs. US craft books was freaking amazing! We heard from book readers, authors, and publishers. Thank you to everyone who chimed in! (And, please keep chiming in if you like.)

Now, one thing that emerged in this conversation is that some folks seemed to hear me saying that all US craft books were somehow “bad.” That’s not my assertion at all. My point simply was that a lot of recent US releases didn’t seem to have as much staying power in my book stash.

There have been a few craft books in recent years that really stand out as examples of high value and usefulness. To my mind, they embody a lot of the things I was saying about Japanese craft books. So I thought I’d share them:

Home, Paper, Scissors, by Patricia Zapata

If you read Patricia’s blog, then you know she has a very distinct design sensibility – clean, simple, and modern. She used that style to great effect in Home, Paper, Scissors, but even more importantly, she presented a tightly-focused set of projects that took paper craft to new places.

Instead of relying on the usual papercraft suspects, Patricia showed us how to create shelves and lamps and bowls from paper. She really challenges the boundaries of what can be done with the medium. Plus, the projects are loaded with clear process photos.

This is a useful educational book, but also a challenging inspiration book. My review is here.

Fabricate and Eco-Craft, by Susan Wasinger

I love the way Susan thinks. Both of these books feature interesting projects I had never seen anywhere else. In Eco-Craft, Susan transformed six-pack rings into a gorgeous room divider. And Fabricate offers a completely inspiring new way to think about fabric – instead of offering yet another collection of sewing projects, she looks at ways to tweak, deconstruct, and transform fabrics. I always get a few new ideas when I flip through these books.

In both books, too, Susan offers lots of step-by-step photography, so each project is much easier to replicate – or reinterpret.

My reviews are here and here.

How to Make Books and Magic Books & Paper Toys, by Esther K. Smith

These two books strike me as awesome nerd love-letters to the craft of book-making. In both titles, there are totally fresh ideas as well as very old techniques. All the prototypes have a sense of humor, and all the projects come with delightful step-by-step illustrations.

I can flip through these books again and again, and reinterpret the concepts in my own crafting. See my reviews here and here.

Lotta Prints, by Lotta Jansdottir

To some extent, this book has less step-by-step education than I’d like, but since the actual craft techniques are so simple, it gets away with it. What makes this book shine is Lotta Jansdottir’s unique design vision – and an abundance of photos.

My review is here.

Material Obsession, by Katy Doughty and Sarah Fielke

This has to be one of my all-time favorite quilting books, and that’s because it approaches the craft through a focused eye. The authors re-interpret traditional quilt patterns using modern fabrics and design ideas. And they explain the rationale behind their design decisions in a totally engaging way.

I also love that each quilt design in the book is accompanied by clear illustrations and a useful full-quilt diagram. My review is here.

Common Threads…

Looking at this group, I notice that all these books emphasize process over product. Maybe that’s at the heart of what makes a craft book valuable – its gives you food for creative re-interpretations, rather than a proscribed set of projects to copy.

It’s certainly true, though, that this is just the type of crafter I am. There’s a market for those project-based books, too.

What do you think? Which craft books have you seen lately that offer great value, and why?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

I’ve been culling my craft book stash lately, and thinking a lot about Japanese craft books.

I should say right up front: I receive a fair number of review copies from US craft book publishers. So I’ve been in the fortunate position to see a lot of the new titles that have come out in the last few years.

Still, as I weed out my craft book collection, I’m noticing that my little stash of Japanese titles always makes the cut. Every one of them feels as useful and relevant to me as it did the day I bought it, and some of them are years old now.

…But increasingly, I don’t feel the same way about all my US craft books. More of them (and especially, more-recently-published ones) seem to make the Goodwill/Giveaway pile. So I thought I’d look at what makes my Japanese books feel so much more valuable. And I’d love to hear your thoughts on this subject, too.

I certainly don’t mean to “bite the hand that feeds me free craft books” here. But I know that many US publishers are struggling right now. I think there’s something to the way Japanese publishers approach craft books, and it isn’t just the aesthetics. I thought maybe we could open a discussion here about what we crafters would like to see in US craft books, and maybe this would be of some use to publishers.

…So, when I look at my Japanese titles, here’s what stands out:

Slim, Well-Curated Volumes

One thing I notice right away is that most Japanese craft books are fairly small books. The project collections are often fewer than the seeming US standard of 20-50. But what’s nice is, those slim books are very rich in content.

There might be only twelve projects in a Japanese book, for example, but they’re all really well-designed things I want to make.

I tend to think that this comes from careful curating of project sets, and maybe from a willingness to appeal to smaller audience segments. In so many Japanese books, the project set seems to be oriented to one skill set, and one design sensibility. Whereas US craft book publishers often seem to take a “something for everyone” approach, hoping to attract larger audiences for their books.

The problem there, of course, is that when I page through many US books, I find myself interested in only some of the projects. Some are too beginner for me, and some aren’t my style. And if I only like half of the projects in a book, then I may not make the decision to buy it.

But of course, I’ll willingly plunk down a much higher price for a Japanese book that’s designed around my tastes.

Project-Based Focus

In US craft books, I often see chapters about the histories of various crafts, or the obligatory “Materials” chapter that describes every last morsel needed for the projects. Don’t get me wrong – I get that these chapters are meant for beginners in a craft. But as someone with more intermediate skills, I often see them as pages I have to pay for, but rarely get much value from.

In Japanese books, they tend to get right to the projects. And I find that I rarely miss those developmental chapters. Wouldn’t it be great if US craft books were more targeted at specific skill levels instead of trying to appeal to everyone at once?

On a related note, Japanese publishers also put out this little format, which is something I’d love to see US publishers emulate. It’s a cross between a zine and a book – a small number of pages, simply staple-bound, with a small project set focused around a nice, tight concept. These little books seem to be budget priced – although, as a US buyer, I gladly pay a premium for them.

If anyone working in publishing reads this post, I’d love to hear from you: how expensive is this form to produce? And readers, would you buy these if US publishers made them?

It rather seems to me that, as budget-conscious as we all are lately, these small-format books could find an audience.

Educational Quality

Here’s where, to my mind, Japanese craft books have it all over their US counterparts. I have yet to pick up a Japanese craft book that doesn’t contain clear and thorough step-by-step visuals for every single project. Sometimes they’re process photos, and more often, diagrams like these.

In US craft books – and especially those published in the last few years – this kind of educational quality is pretty rare. I’ve looked at so many US books where there’s a lavishly-styled photo of the finished product, and the steps to make it are expressed only in text. (Or, in text with a few key diagrams.)

I totally understand that photographs and diagrams are more costly to produce than text. But it seems to me that crafters are a pretty visual audience. And text just doesn’t seem to be much of a visual teacher – especially for crafts like sewing, where placements and measurements are crucial.

Interestingly, despite the fact that I don’t read Japanese, I can generally easily follow the process photos and diagrams in my Japanese books. As a craft book buyer, I would love to see this kind of educational quality in US books. Because frankly, right now I can often get better, more visual learning on the internet, either from free tutorials or in the burgeoning market of self-published ebooks.

I want to support US craft book publishers, but I also need to get good value for my dollar. Beautiful finished-project photos are nice, but the craft books I keep around year after year are the ones with great educational quality.

…But this is all just my opinion. What do you think? What would you like to see more (or less) of in US craft books?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Update: This drawing is now closed. Congratulations to Deedles, the winner of this book!

Happy 2010, everyone! Let’s wrap up this week of giveaways, shall we?

Our last prize up for grabs is a copy of Rashida Coleman-Hale’s I Love Patchwork. It’s definitely visually reminiscent of Japanese craft books.

The project set is pretty, in that minimalist-meets-designer-fabric style many crafters like. (You can see more projects over here (scroll down).

Like many modern craft books, a lot of the project instructions here are expressed in text form only, so I Love Patchwork is probably best for people who already have some sewing skills.

If you’d like to enter to win, just leave a comment here and answer this question:

What one thing are you proudest of when you look back on 2009?

I’ll draw a winner at random on Sunday, January 3rd. C’mon in, international readers! And, Good Luck, y’all…

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Update: Congratulations to kkimberly, the winner of this book!

Updated to add: A bunch of early entries seem to have misunderstood today’s question, so I’ve rephrased it. I want to know what you’re letting go of, okay?

________________________________________________________
So, your entries in yesterday’s giveaway were really interesting. I was surprised at the number of people whose “what I want to do less of” wishes involved worries and stresses from 2009.

2009 was a pretty challenging year for me, too. It’s comforting in a way to know that many of you were going through challenges, too. Here’s wishing us all smoother roads in 2010, eh?

“Enough talk,” you’re saying. “Give something away!” Alrighty, then…

Today, we have up for grabs a copy of Meg McElwee’s Sew Liberated, which I reviewed a couple weeks back.

To enter this drawing, leave a comment here that answers this question:

What’s one thing you feel you “should” do in 2010 that you’re going to let go of?

Most of us have a few “shoulds” too many. I have so many, I have to store them in an offsite garage.

You have until Sunday, January 3 to enter. International friends are welcome. Good Luck and Happy New Year!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Update: Congratulations to bookscout27, the winner of this book!>

Don’t worry – the massive design-tweaking going on around here will not stop the flow of giveaways this week!

Today’s prize up for grabs is a copy of Enchanted Adornments, by Cynthia Thornton. It’s part mixed-media jewelry book, and part fairy tale.

There are 20 projects, covering a wide range of techniques and styles. And interspersed with them, you’ll find hand-lettered chapters of a charming narrative that follows Cynthia as she makes these designs.

(In fact, you might enjoy this video, and the preview here (scroll down).

To enter to win this book, just leave a comment here, answering this question:

What one thing would you like to do less of in 2010?

I’ll draw a winner Sunday, January 3. International readers, heck yeah! Good luck, everyone!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Update: Congrats to Lind-E, the winner of this book!

Wowee, I had fun reading all your entries in yesterday’s giveaway! Let’s continue the theme, shall we?

Today’s entry in our Week of Giveaways is a twofer – both Cute Dogs and Cute Pups, by Chie Hayano. These are Japanese craft books, translated to English by Vertical, Inc.

Both books offer full patterns and diagrammed instructions to make tiny stuffed dogs – 28 different breeds, to be exact. And all of them are this stinkin’ cute. (Follow those links above for even more pictures.)

So, to enter this drawing, leave a comment here and answer this question:

What one thing would you like to learn more about in 2010?

I’ll draw a winner Sunday, January 3. International readers, you betcha. Good Luck, everyone!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Updated: Congrats to LSS, the winner of this drawing!

So it’s the week between Christmas and New Year’s – a time when traditionally, not much happens. (Unless you work in retail, of course. And if you do, I am sending you good thoughts.)

Anyway. I thought it might be fun to have a week of giveaways here. I have a lot of cool books stacked up – want one?

Today’s prize up for grabs is Kayte Terry’s Applique Your Way, which I reviewed before the holiday.

To enter the drawing, leave a comment here, answering this question:

What one thing would you like to do more of in 2010?

I’ll draw a winner at random on Sunday, January 3rd. International readers, go right ahead. Good Luck!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Sew Liberated is a fun collection of mostly applique projects, with a few other embellishment techniques in the mix. (Full disclosure: Interweave Press sent me a review copy.)

Although the cover model is this pretty skirt, the projects in Sew Liberated are primarily home decor and gift items. (There are three wearable projects for adults, and two for children.) So if you’re wondering about the difference between this title and Applique Your Way, that’s a key one – the latter contains more wearable projects.

I do like how Meg McElwee has created a number of projects that are outside the scope of what we’ve already seen a lot of in various sewing books. (You can see a nice gallery of them here.

This clock is a thing of beauty, involving applique leaves and embroidery.

The designs are simple overall, and draw heavily on nature motifs. The appliques are nicely enhanced with other techniques, as in this pillow, where the tree trunks are machine embroidered.

Sew Liberated offers up quite beginner-friendly educational materials in terms of the basic applique techniques. I’m always happy to see step-by-step photography in modern craft books.

The instructions for the projects, however, are mostly in text form with a few key diagrams. So beginning sewists may find some of the projects a bit challenging if they like more visual references.

I’m also a fan of this duvet cover – what a great way to showcase a favorite collection of fabrics! You could do this on a readymade duvet, or sew your own.

Another point of differentiation from Applique Your Way – Sew Liberated has a section of projects for babies and children. This felt storybook tickles me pink.

It’s so great to see more and more publishers offering pattern sheets with books! Sew Liberated has an attached envelope of full-size ones.

Overall, I think this book is a nice inspiration book for intermediate sewists and beyond. If you like, you can follow along on the blog tour, and learn more.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Let’s do some full disclosures first: Chronicle Books sent me this review copy. I’m blogging as part of the Applique Your Way Blog Tour. And, see that tote bag on the cover – with the apples? I made that!

Kayte Terry has done a great job with Applique Your Way, using several techniques to make a diverse range of projects. This skirt is a really fun application of reverse applique.

(Which is also the technique my apple tote is made with, btw.)

The book covers hand-sewn, machine-sewn, and the aforementioned reverse applique, plus some non-traditional appliques using adhesives. The instructional pages are mostly text-based, with some illustration of key points.

Here’s another wearable project I like: a plain raincoat, jazzed up with cut-outs from a bold print fabric. In fact, most of the wearable projects begin with a readymade garment, and use the applique for customization – an approach I really like.

There are home decor projects and gifts as well as wearables, and a nice range of simple-to-complex projects. Aren’t these circle coasters cute?

I thought this was particularly innovative: fabric picture frames “appliqued” to a wall. (And it’s renter-safe, by the way.)

The project instructions are also in mostly-text form, with a few key diagrams here and there. For this reason, I’d tend to recommend Applique Your Way to intermediate crafters and beyond. It’s not that the projects themselves are too difficult. I just tend to feel like absolute beginners might need a bit more visual reference.

(That said, appliqued yo-yos? Swoon!)

The design of the book is gorgeous, and because Chronicle is good at such things: spiral binding! Envelope of pattern sheets in the back!

You can catch a few more project photos over here, and keep up on the rest of the blog tour here. Definitely flip through this one on your next bookstore visit.

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Hey, friends – we’ve just issued a sweet coupon code for Crafty Tree Trimmings!

Thanks to many of you, we’ve been building a nice donation for Project Linus since we released the ebook a few weeks ago. But we’d like to raise even more.

So, we decided to issue a coupon, in hopes that even more people could get involved in our project.

If you type the code FORLINUS at check out, you’ll get $3.00 off, bringing the price to just $9.00. And we’re still donating 15% of all proceeds to Project Linus.

For six gorgeous and diverse ornament projects, and a chance to support a great crafty charity, that’s pretty rad. Feel free to pass this deal along to your friends!

Want one?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

Crafts for The Knittn’ Kitten

Whew! I have so many projects going on right now, I’ve barely had time to blog about any of them.

So let’s start with the free one! If you recall, a group of Portland crafters spent October and November taking turns donating free project sheets to The Knittn’ Kitten.

Well. all those projects are now compiled into a little ebook, and it’s free to the world. Just click the link above the preview screen.

Depending on your web browser, the file will either display automatically on your screen, or it will show up in your Downloads folder and you can open it from there.

(That gorgeous cover photo, btw, is by the freaking-talented Lee.

Hope you enjoy, and hope it helps you with your holiday gift-making!

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.

This wonky knit swatch represents a huge accomplishment for me. Knitting is my crafty kryptonite – the one craft I have never been able to grasp.

So when Tara Swiger (of Blonde Chicken Boutique fame) contacted me about her new Learn to Knit ebook kit, I figured if anyone could test its educational value, it was me.

With this kit, Tara wanted to re-create the experience of having an experienced knitting teacher sitting beside you as you learn. She's included a ball of beginner-friendly yarn (your choice of five colors) and a set of bamboo needles, along with an instructional ebook and a set of videos.

And it's the multi-media part of this project that really excites me. Someday, I'll bet that we'll be able to embed videos into ebooks, and then they'll begin to compare very favorably against print books. But I digress.

I sat down with Learn to Knit, and some needles and yarn I had on hand. I watched the video for making a slip knot. So far, so good. Then I watched the one for casting on. Got confused. Then I went to the ebook and read about casting on there. Ah, that made sense. Then I went back to the video. Okay, now I have it. And so on.

Tara has clearly taught a lot of people the basics, because she knows exactly what pitfalls beginners are likely to encounter, and she explains them at exactly the right moments in the process. She finally helped me understand why all my previous attempts at knitting have resulted in the yarn being wound so tightly around the needles, they wouldn’t move.

And her writing is so great for a beginner – it’s very friendly, and she draws all kinds of good analogies to help you understand how the yarn moves, where the needles should be, and what your hands should be doing.

It’s so helpful to be able to move back and forth between ebook and video, too. Each one does a great job of explaining, but they use different methods, so you end up with a very complete understanding.

Contrast this to so many printed craft books (and frankly, so many mainstream “learn to knit” kits), where there are lots of pretty pictures of finished pieces, but then the actual knitting instruction is relegated to a bunch of hard-to-read diagrams.

Tara’s ebook-plus-video approach was also great in that inevitable (for me) moment where the phone rings, and by the time you return to your knitting, you’ve forgotten what you were doing. I was able to go back to the video, and then re-read the instructions in the ebook, and find my place. It’s like having a “teacher” who will literally explain the steps to you as many times as you need. For me, that’s a lot of times.

The Learn to Knit Kit also includes two beginner-friendly patterns: this cowl, and a knitted washcloth. And both are written in what Tara calls Regular English and KnitSpeak, so beginners don’t have to get tripped up with pattern-language too soon.

I’m super excited about this approach to crafty educational publishing, and hope to see lots more. Tara, when are your kits for all the other knitting stitches coming out?

©2010 CraftyPod. All Rights Reserved.