WREN handmade

Finally I'm back.

I have finally finished unpacking my new craft room. I am very excited to have a whole room to myself. We moved farther out in Brooklyn to get more space. The apartment has really beautiful light which also will make for better picture taking! The last few weeks were crazy. I got picked for a jury, packed up and cleaned the old place, moved, did taxes and now we are unpacking the new place. But slowly but surely we are making progress!

I repainted the old table I use as a desk in glossy light grey. I also put up shelves and brackets from Ikea I painted in a similar matte grey. All in all, I'm very happy with the result and need to get crafting!

 

 

Etsy shop update

I have been trying to make as many dolls as I can because I've had such an amazing response to the article about me in MSL. This is a crazy week however between moving on Friday and jury duty starting tomorrow (Wednesday)! So I was only able to finish 5 dolls. I listed those and many crochet hairclips in the shop. I'm figuring out how to approach some sort of waiting list and order form for custom dolls. If you've contacted me lately I will be in touch but it might take me a little while. Unless during jury duty I get a bout of inspiration this will be my last post for the week. I have to stop crafting so I can pack up my supplies!

  

  

Muji bike

A few years ago my husband and I were in Japan and found ourselves in a giant Muji store. Now Muji in Japan is way beyond the Muji stores here. We pretty much love everything Muji, and that went for the bikes too. My husband is REALLY into bikes, all kinds. The problem was that Muji doesn't sell them here and wouldn't ship us one. After much scheming and many tries (our friend's sister's friend, etc.) Ben got one for me. He got the basket from Wald and we spray painted it to match. I love how simple and classic it is.

 

This is Ben's bike he bought on Ebay. He added the cream tires and bike basket (same as mine).

 

blue

As I mentioned we are in the process of packing up to move next week. Between boxes of stuff from work and boxes of stuff here I have so many little bits of paper I can't seem to part with. Maybe in my new workroom I will have a giant bulletin board. I thought I would show you some inspiration from my files from time to time. (also for my own reference) My favorite color is blue, especially deep indigo blues.

saving every scrap

Yesterday I posted about craft stuff I inherited from a very thrifty woman. I never met her but I can imagine her pouring over and sorting her craft supplies. Here is her embroidery floss carefully saved on bits of chipboard from food packaging. With the way things are going I bet we will be saving and reusing every little scrap too.

paper quilt patterns

The wife of the janitor at my aunt's school in Kansas City died several years and somehow I inherited a ton of amazing craft stuff, all diligently organized. She clipped and filed and organized every little scrap of paper. Over the years I've moved it around from place to place, and we are moving again soon! I decided to frame some of the quilt patterns. I love that many of them are many from newspaper clippings, chipboard from food packaging or other scraps. The shapes are graphic when displayed together. I think a quilt would also be nice if it had all these shapes appliqued on randomly, although that would be quite time consuming.

vinyl

I thought I would show you a few of my favorite albums. Not just because I did the artwork for the album Michigan by Sufjan Stevens. My friends Vito and Monique Aiuto of Welcome Wagon have put out an amazing record. Aren't these cool just as objects? I love that the artwork for a record can be so large scale. They make a nice set I think.

recreated craft room

For the article I posted earlier today I had to recreate my craft room in our photo studio. It was too complicated to send the photographer to our different work spaces all over Brooklyn and even upstate New York so we all had to bring in our stuff in and set up our space. This is what my craft room really looks like. What we go through for a pretty photo!

Profile in April MSL issue

There is a profile of me in the April issue of Martha Stewart Living. It's a nice little article on the craft dept. and our projects outside of work. I'm no longer there which makes this a little bittersweet. I have gotten lots of emails and response from the article already. For everyone interested in purchasing a doll or two, I'm working on making more! Feel free to email me if you want to be notified when I've updated my shop. Check out the other profiles here.

 

photos by Ditte Isager and Johnny Miller

Hella Jongerius

I was reminded lately of the inspiring work of Hella Jongerius. I remember a show at the Cooper Hewitt (one of my favorite museums) in which she designed wall hangings inspired by historical samplers in the permanent collection. All the textiles and samplers were displayed in the archival boxes they are normally stored in. The updated works were bold and modern even though inspired by the antique textiles. Also, I want to check out the Felt show at the Cooper Hewitt starting today!