Blog of the Week: Make + Do, Canadian Living's New Craft Blog!
August 12, 2009 | By
Austen Gilliland of Canadian Living, one of Canada’s premiere lifestyle magazines, is the editor of Make + Do, a craft blog started just a few months ago.
Wendy T. Gibson: Who do you hope to reach and what do you want to offer them?
Austen Gilliland: I hope to reach a cross-section of Canadian crafters. Ideally, if you live in Canada and you like to make things, this is a blog you’d visit for ideas or solutions, whether you’re a crafting rookie or a well-seasoned crafter. I’m working hard to include a wide range of crafting – not just knitting and sewing, but things like scrapbooking and paper crafts, too. It’s a work in progress.
WTG: What types of crafts do your readers seem to be mainly interested in?
AG: Knitting, quilting and scrapbooking are the first that come to mind, but I’ve had questions about crafts as diverse as stained glass and rubber-stamping. People are looking for ways to reuse and recycle, whether they’re making tote bags from old plastic grocery bags or unravelling old sweaters to knit into something new. And they’re looking for crafts they can do with their families.
WTG: Are there crafting celebrities in Canada? Who should we keep an eye on?
AG: Phew, that’s a good question! There are so many incredible crafters in this country that it would be impossible to list them all here. Here are three I’ve been following:
* Michelle SaintOnge (www.printcutsew.com) is a young designer living in Dartmouth, N.S., and she has a great blog about screen printing and crafting. She’s got lots of great ideas, tons of good resources...and she’s been a guest on Martha Stewart’s TV show. Pretty neat!
* Karyn Valino (www.makesomething.ca, www.theworkroom.ca) owns The Workroom, Toronto’s first sew and craft by the hour studio. In addition to renting sewing machines, sergers and space to city-dwellers who have the urge to craft (but maybe not the room), she carries a beautiful collection of fabrics, notions and books – and she writes a super-inspiring blog.
* Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (www.yarnharlot.ca/blog) has to be one of Canada’s most famous knitters. I always get a laugh from reading her blog, and I am consistently inspired by the things she makes.
WTG: Where do you and your blog readers shop for crafts?
AG: I asked my readers this question a few weeks ago and their responses seemed fairly evenly distributed: they shop at their favourite small businesses (for example, local yarn stores or quilting stores), they shop at larger stores (such as Fabricville/Fabricland, Michael’s or even Wal-Mart), and they shop online. I think that online shopping is a boon to crafters who live in small communities far away from bigger city centres, where the selection of craft supplies is likely to be more diverse.
WTG: What craft trends are you noticing in Canadian crafting?
AG: I think that people are getting more adventurous – trying new kinds of fibres/fabrics, moving away from traditional patterns and going for a more modern look. Eco-friendly, natural fibres and fabrics are increasingly popular. “Upcycling” and “refashioning” are both popular craft movements, especially now that we’re experiencing leaner financial times and people are learning to make do with less. Canadian crafters seem to be embracing the “learn as you go” idea, teaching themselves when they find something new they want to learn to do. The popularity of Knit Nights and Stitch’n’Bitch nights seems to indicate that Canadians get a kick out of crafting together – and why shouldn’t they? The prospect of a cozy evening spent with friends and knitting makes even the coldest winter day a little easier to bear!
Photos courtesy of:
www.canadianliving.com/blogs/crafts
www.canadianliving.com/blogs/crafts/2009/07/29/noticed_granted_handknits/
Wendy T. Gibson is the Crafty Canadian! Her light-hearted creations online here: http://www.artfire.com/users/WingedHeartStudio
All rights reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, except with the prior
written permission of HandmadeNews.org.
