museums « Handmade Librarian

Crowdsourcing Fair Isle.

Last month I learned the basics of two-color knitting at Vogue Knitting Live. Instructor Amy Detjen was practical, helpful, funny, and skilled. I was able to leave class with the foundations of understanding how to wrangle two colors at a time while knitting, and I’m now furiously collecting colorwork knitting patterns on Ravelry. And I

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New Jersey’s Early Trades & Crafts.

Interested in cheesemaking, leatherworking, cider pressing, barrel making, cobbling, and printing as once practiced in a small mid-Atlantic town? If you are, then the Museum of Early Trades and Crafts should be your next day trip destination.

Located in Madison, New Jersey, this jewel of a museum examines the lives and livelihoods of the

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MoMA’s Art for Beginners.

I recently added How to Make Modern Jewelry to my home library, and while reading it the last couple of days I was fascinated to learn this interesting bit of museum history: MoMA’s campaign to immerse returning World War II veterans in the world of art and artisanship.

The Committee on Art in American Education

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On Biscuit Quilts & Greer Lankton.

While visiting the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh recently, I came upon the following chair cushion, which forms part of a permanent installation by legendary East Village artist Greer Lankton in which she created an idealized version of her home and studio (including a front porch, where this chair sat):

Lankton’s work is memorable and

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