Posted by lizzymahoney on 2004-09-02 13:54:44
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# What does word pair "craft group" mean to you?
(If the are other terms in english, please tell me. After all it isn't my mother language.)
# What does word "craft" mean to you?
# Have you ever participated in an offline craft group?
(If you have, how old were you then, what organization organized it and why did you participate?)
# What kind of thoughts do you have about crafty groups existence?
(Why do they exist? Why does world need them?)
A craft group to me seems about the same as what you describe. Could be anything. The stitch and bitch, moms making salt dough ornaments, sisters and cousins completing a quilt or scrap book, a class in stamping, kindergarteners sand painting. I suppose in a broader sense, the swaps from boards like this one are craft groups. The people are separated but interact offline in crafty pursuit.
I've done many, but am not really involved in any group now. Lots of church bazaar stuff from childhood on, garden design with the Latin Club at my high school last century, ikebana classes, book production, one on one instruction in all sorts of things, actual graded classes in school within the Art Department, public displays of creations both craft and art, seasonal presentations and lots more... I've done this at any age up to my present late 40s. With family or schoolmates or neighbors or coworkers. Years ago with my church. Sometimes the goal is clearcut, sometimes not.
Craft to me has to involve the creation of something useful or attractive by an individual or sometimes a group. It is not mass manufactured, although parts of it may be. A craft group could be working on the same one project or individual takes on the topic, or completely separate things.
I like that crafty groups and orgs encourage others to make use of their own imaginations, that the more people do more things, the more relaxed they are. It's very therapeutic for me, and for others.
At the fabric store, people are as obnoxious as they are anywhere in retail. But occasionally you get to learn something new, or see one customer help another even though they are strangers. Unfortunately, so many of them expect my small store to be like Walmart when they want and like their own personal savant when they want. Can't have it both ways. If you really want my help in determining what color brocade would best match your paint chips then you shouldn't bitch about having to wait at the cutting counter or the register. If you really want rock bottom prices you can't expect the poorly paid clerk to have any idea how to use the product. End of rant.
More people crafting means more self sufficiency and more self confidence. That's gotta be good.
Right now we are facing another hurricane and all that it entails. Yet people don't know how to light a charcoal fire, don't know how to safeguard candles, or warm water in the sun for bathing, or conserve their energy. They do laughable things with the fear of the hurricane. Yeah, go ahead and fight over a full tank of gas at the pumps! You aren't going to need it for several days, and if you evacuate, a half tank will get you wherever you need to go. People are coming in to the fabric store and yelling because we don't sell batteries or kerosene, or tents. And still others are buying crafting materials so they won't get cabin fever during the expected power outages.
Posted by lizzymahoney on 2004-11-29 18:47:57
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Do you have access to an oven? Then either the applesauce/cinnamon shapes or salt dough ornaments would be cool.
You can always make gingerbread girls out of felt and embellish.
IF you are at school and don't have a kitchen and supplies, tell us what you do have...
Keep watch at crafty places and big department stores for all the sales. Some of it will be finish it yourself type of ornaments like the glass balls and wooden shapes.
Foamie sheets are fairly cheap and you can make all kinds of stuff with them.
Heh, anyone remember that longish thread on OG about making pasties? Wouldn't the tasseled ones look cool on a Christmas tree? I think I'll go get some foamie and floss and sequin strings....
Posted by lizzymahoney on 2004-11-20 13:36:24
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Sometimes at craft stores you can find little papier mache craft boxes that can be decoupaged or stamped or decorated in other ways. Or maybe for right now, she could find unpainted wooden ornaments where she could pen their names in after slapping on a base coat.
I'd probably make salt dough ornaments if I had zero money, because i always have salt and flour around. And paints. Think tons of gingerbread men or heart or star cutouts, painted with a ribbon hanger.
Posted by Em Bee on 2004-11-12 19:21:07
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Finger painting & cutting snowflakes out of different colored paper with my mother.
Making Christmas ornaments in Sunday school - construction paper rounds with other rounds wedged on them, already cut-out angels which we got to paint, angels from pipe cleaners & aluminium foil. I still have all of these & they go on the tree every year.
Salt dough ornaments in first grade. We also made odd clay things & painted them that year - I think mine was a shocking pink & green ashtray. Only not. More of a rounded lump, with a small central indentation. I liked it!
Posted by Em Bee on 2004-09-30 18:38:40
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I've been making salt dough ornaments for the last couple of years. Found a good recipe for the dough in Rose's Christmas Cookies by Rose Levy Beranbaum.
The dough needs to rest overnight, then baked at very low temps. Items can bubble, especially if the dough was rolled thick. After baking, it usually takes a week (or two) to finish drying & hardening.
Instead of using the templates she provides (for a Nativity scene - I'll do that one day!), I use cookie cutters. Then I paint with craft acrylics and coat with a clear spray acrylic. Glitter, all kinds of stuff works on these!
In addition to paint, I've also decorated with paper - made Hawaiian shirts & mummus for bear ornaments from origami paper. One tip, I always paint the base coat onto the back of the ornament, so I can add my name & the year in pen.
