The Halloween of 2008: AKA the one we'll never beat. Beetlejuice and Lydia. I didn't smile in any photos that night. It was a challenge.

To get my brain in gear before we recorded, I asked for people’s favourite last-minute costumes on Twitter and Facebook. As a forever last-minute costume girl, I love knowing I’m not alone (do I have a costume set for this weekend yet? Of course I don’t). Here’s a list for your panic-easing pleasure:

• Heather over at Dollar Store Crafts has an astonishing number of inspiring posts for kids, including this, this, this octopus costume, this spider costume, and this paper-doll costume.
• Heather’s also written elsewhere about quick, simple costumes. Like this no-sew princess costume and this no-sew jack-o-lantern costume.
• For adults, my friend Jason suggests dressing as a homicidal maniac – “They look just like everyone else.”
• Miriam suggests: “Greek chiton. Fold white sheets or drapey white fabric, pin at shoulders, do hair all spiffy, wear bangles. Voila!”
• Vince is going to be himself, from a parallel universe. And possibly a zombie.
• Monica pulled off a last-minute Spiderwebs.
• Erin says, “Lawyer (evil or otherwise) is always good and easy.”
• Kristi’s recipe for a deviled egg: “Cut 2 pieces of posterboard into egg shapes. Put a big yellow circle on one. Don with horns and tail.”
• Stacelynn suggests hanging a sign around your neck that says, “This IS my costume.” Cheeky.
• A bit more involved, this superhero fleece poncho-cape is something I want for myself. Warm and comfy. Mmm.
• Shannon suggests going as your friends. Hilarious.
• Courtney says, “anything with jeans and ugg boots to be super comfy – add a plaid shirt & braids, hello lady lumberjack!
• Here’s how to make a pillowcase ghost dress – easily modified for tons of costumes not specifically girly.
• Sarah suggests: “Cotton Candy – Take a piece of paper and make a cone, put string through to attach as a hat. Wear pink (tutu preferred)”
• And for a good laugh, check out wtfshouldibeforhalloween.com. It told me I should be sexy cortizone. Hilarious. Thanks for that one, Shannon.

Tune in to the show Saturday morning for more tips and ideas (you can stream it live starting at 6:30AM PST [yikes! I know]). I wish we could talk about this stuff all the time. It was so much fun!

Roundup of Last-Minute Halloween Costume Ideas is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Des Frawley, Athletics Carnival, Brisbane; by State Library of Queensland, Australia on Flickr

Yesterday I had the pleasure of interviewing author Shannon Okey on Twitter* as part of her blog tour to promote her new book, The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design. We had so much fun, and such a productive conversation, that I forgot to do the giveaway we’d planned. D’oh.

The Giveaway

To enter to win a copy of Shannon’s book, leave a comment on this post either asking a question about professional knit- or crochet design or about self-publishing, giving a professional tip on those topics, or answering one of the previous questions. This way we’ll end up with a wealth of information, all shared by our peers.

The contest will close at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern time tomorrow, July 15th. After that, I’ll use a random number generator to pick a winner from the comments.

Now, here’s the meat of our discussion on Twitter yesterday:

Twinterview Highlights

(You can also follow the hashtag #knitgrrlguide for the continuing discussion about Shannon’s book.)

@kpwerker (that’s me): What are two things you’ve learned that every designer MUST know?

@knitgrrl (that’s Shannon): 1. 3 Ps: professional+punctual+personality & 2. Reliability is more important than creativity if you want consistent work! (That is, summed up in less than 140 characters, all you need to know to get a good professional reputation, seriously!)

@kpwerker: Would you expand (such as is possible on the Twitter) on why you say reliability is more important than creativity?

@knitgrrl: Reliability makes you an editor’s best asset, their secret weapon. When someone else flakes, they know to call YOU. +work! Example. @bingeknitter is a fab designer who is FAST+GOOD+RELIABLE. Gave her a lot of work @yarnforwardmag as a result.

@kpwerker: As a once-editor, I can vouch for that, for sure. Isn’t creativity/originality/vision also very important?

@knitgrrl: You can’t discount vision/creativity, but it doesn’t matter HOW creative you are if you can’t get the work in on time!

@kpwerker: Since we’re on the topic of working with an editor, @knitgrrl, what’s one thing brand new designers should keep in mind?

@knitgrrl: Hmm. Just ONE? Relax a little. Editors are REALLY busy. Sending a million unnecessary emails = not endearing. However, if you really do need to solve a problem via email, make it short, to the point, and give them options to choose from.

@kpwerker: Before we leave the world of print to get all crazy about the Twitter and other social media, anything else to add @knitgrrl?

@knitgrrl: There’s a false dichotomy between print / “new” media, I think. They can each make use of each other to all our benefits.

@kpwerker: Would you please expand on what you just said, re: print vs. “new” media being a false dichotomy?

@knitgrrl: Seems to me everyone wants to declare print “dead,” or promo new tech at its expense. Both sides have a lot to learn from each other. I miss the often-more-rigorous editing standards of print, for example. Yet new technologies can foster better discussions and informational transmission (look at what we’re doing now!): there have to be ways to take advantage of both. In short, I wish either side would NOT automatically write the other side off as “antiquated” or “sloppy” (or whatever…)

@kpwerker: Ok, let’s spend the last 10 minutes of the “formal” twinterview chatting about… Twitter! And social media… So, @knitgrrl, overall, do you think professional knit/crochet designers and book authors GET social media?

@knitgrrl: Yes and no. We’re a BIG & diverse group, after all. The ones that get it REALLY get it, the ones that don’t, well… I think @Ravelry was a wake-up call to some more established designers; they’re now seeing what a difference soc med makes.

@kpwerker: How should professional (and soon-to-be prof) designers use @ravelry for their business?

@knitgrrl: Well, @Ravelry is INVALUABLE for research — what are knitters actually KNITTING? trends? colors? In real life it doesn’t matter how stunning something is if no one wants to knit it! On the flip side, if you’re doing something totally unlike all the other patterns on there, there’s an equally good chance YOUR stuff will hit the top of the charts & get popular… you can take more chances, you’re not committing to, say, thousands of dollars in ads to promote something that flops. Apart from trendspotting, I think community is key. @Ravelry helps newer designers learn “on the job” from others. There’s almost always someone with more experience out there who will gladly help you if you ask nicely. I love that.

@kpwerker: What about other, non-specifically yarn- or crafts-related social media sites? How should designers approach those?

@knitgrrl: Carefully. I don’t really censor myself on Facebook, for example, and I have a dual-purpose profile there. If you are a more private person, you probably want to do a 2nd “professional” standalone profile for yourself. There are other sites that count as social media to me, such as @Craftster and @Etsy. Your skills get noticed there & help build your following. I’m on @Ravelry more than @Craftster or @Etsy now, but still have a profile/shop…you never know where you’ll get found!

@kpwerker: What’s a giant social media no-no that all designers should avoid?

@knitgrrl: Spamminess. That’s the number one sin to me. I try not to be overly “sales-y” here. I’ll let people know if there’s something new, but I’m not going to shove it down their throats. People tune you out when all you have to say is “BUY MY STUFF.”

Here’s where we opened things up to Q&A from the audience.

@lelah: What is the first step someone should do after designing a pattern if they want to do this professionally, and have been absent from the Rav/Etsy/Craftster/knit blog scene for some time?

@knitgrrl: Post it for sale on Rav AND Etsy. Do a tutorial for any special techniques used on Craftster. Lots of designers I know STILL get email/attention for tutorials they wrote YEARS ago. Contribute to the community and you become trusted friend.

@Joanna__Johnson: so, @knitgrrl, do you think there are certain genres of book that work better for digital books? some for print?

@knitrrl: Digital will be the savior of indie-pub’d full-color books like crafts titles, due to lower production costs but digital can work well for any type of book, really. I’m looking forward to seeing more multimedia includes like video!

@BethToddCreatz: How do you choose which designs to publish and which will never see the light of day?

@knitgrrl: Good one, @BethToddCreatz! I tend to put a lot of designs “on probation” until they behave themselves. This means backlog. It also means “lots of guilt they’re not done yet.” The best designs, for me, have a real life of their own and WANT to be completed. My most popular sweater, Rivulet, was completed start to finish in less than a month. It just FLOWED…I usually take that as a sign that it’s going to work for the knitter on the other end, too.

@StefanieJapel: Q for @knitgrrl, how have distributors responded to your self-published books?

@knitgrrl: Really well, @StefanieJapel! The distro that sells into the most LYSs picked it up at #TNNA as soon as they heard the topic! In addition, my printer is tied into Ingram, which is one of the largest (THE largest?) distributors around, so that helps.

[I asked Shannon if she has tips to share about working with a distributor.] Doing your research = key. LONG before your book is ready you need to be talking to the distributors. Many distributors have salespeople going out to presell titles up to a year in advance. Our (crafty) niche is a different, but you can help your book by getting the word out yourself. If you already sell patterns to LYSs, for example, you can ask them if they’d rather order directly from you or from the distributor. Find out which distro(s) they buy from, and tell them your book is coming out, the stores that already buy from you are interested, and would they like to distribute it, too?

@zigzagstitch: @knitgrrl is it worth it to take a book you’ve pub’d yourself around to local yarn stores? better to go bigger first?

@knitgrrl: Depends on the audience. Is it something specialized? For ex, a group of Portland crafters did a joint book to help drive business to local craft stores. If the content was very Portland-specific, it might not appeal to a nat’l distro. However, if the content isn’t specific like that, I’d like to start an indie craft book trade assoc so we could all benefit from co-op advertising, shared distro, etc!

@kpwerker: Apropos of nothing @knitgrrl, do you think a brand new designer should self-publish their 1st design or submit to a magazine?

@knitgrrl: Magazine=more eyeballs, but be careful about giving up rights to your work. Tradeoff doesn’t have to be brutal. (An anon. lit. agent in the book talks about the digital rights grabs going on in the publishing world right now…I think we designers need to be aware of what’s happened in other fields, such as freelance writers’ court case on digital rights).

@kpwerker: You said the magic word: “rights.” What should new (and established) writers and designers keep in mind?

@knitgrrl: You take a project for 1 of 2 things: money, or publicity. Sometimes you get both, but if it isn’t worth just ONE, don’t! I have taken projects where I wouldn’t have made ANYTHING after paying the sample knitter/etc, but was great PR. However, it was MY CHOICE — anyone touting a project solely for publicity or “exposure” should be immediately suspect. Our hilarious friends @Ravelry got it right: http://bit.ly/a1wgBm.

@BethToddCreatz What about publishing to online mag like Knitty.com, do you think this is good for exposure?

@knitgrrl: I think @knittydotcom has gone above & beyond to prove its ability to create value for our community. 1. They pay their designers, & 2. readership is enormous, 3. they’re highly respected and 4. they aren’t out for quick buck. So, in short: I love @knittydotcom (and my alma mater @yarnforwardmag ’cause designers get all rights back after 6 months!)

@kpwerker: Any designers/writers doing totally awesome things we all should try to emulate, @knitgrrl?

@knitgrrl: Also, @kpwerker artists who inspire: @VendettaBella (my studiomate), @mollycrabapple @CynthVonBuhler etc. (I mention this because my new pattern collection draws inspiration from some art stuff.) @blondechicken @spunkyeclectic @helloyarn @SisterDiane = examples of good business sense + personality. I follow a lot of book industry people on Twitter to keep an eye on what’s next: such as Apple opening up the iBookstore! A good online directory: http://bit.ly/d2l9mk — you can narrow down depending on your interests. Oh, and @InterweaveNews!

@kpwerker: Nearing the end of our chat/twinterview, what are you working on next, @knitgrrl?

@knitgrrl: My new pattern collection, the Fresh Designs books (http://bit.ly/cMUfdD) and a summer read/knitalong (http://bit.ly/9Q7L31).

@Joanna__Johnson: @knitgrrl now that you’ve published your own book, is there anything you would do differently next time?

@knitgrrl: Next time, @Joanna__Johnson, I am not scheduling publication for the week before 2 giant events! That was madness!

@petitepurls: What do you do when you’ve been accepted into a book for publication but your contact person doesn’t reply to questions?

@knitgrrl: Good question, @petitepurls! I have been there! Best advice = do what you think is best and then adjust if told differently.

@kpwerker: Ok, lovelies. It’s time to wrap up. Thank you so much for following along and participating tonight! Shannon Okey/@knitgrrl‘s next stop on her blog tour is this Thursday on @yarnthing‘s blog. You can see the schedule for her whole tour here: http://www.knitgrrl.com/?p=1129

—
* I don’t know why more authors, designers, and people in general don’t use Twitter as a live interview platform. It’s so easy, and has tremendous potential for audience engagement. If you’re intrigued, drop me a line.

Win a Copy of The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design! is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

She’s just started a blog tour to promote the book (see the schedule, below), and next Tuesday, July 13th, I’ll be interviewing her live on Twitter from 4pm-6pm Pacific / 7pm-9pm Eastern time.

We’ll be giving away a couple of her books, too.

Just follow the hashtag #knitgrrlguide. You don’t have to have a Twitter account to follow along, but you do need one to participate. And what’s a live interview without Q&A? (Also, being able to do things like this is just one reason Twitter is awesome.)

Follow me on Twitter as @kpwerker, and Shannon as @knitgrrl.

Here’s Shannon’s blog tour schedule:

• 3 July, Annie Modesitt, @modeknit
• 5 July, Diane Gilleland, @SisterDiane
• 7 July, Natalie Zee Drieu, @craft
• 9 July, Marnie MacLean, @MarnieMacLean
• 11 July, Daniella Cortez/Craft Culture, @danidocrafty
• 13 July, Kim Werker, @kpwerker
• 15 July, Marly Bird/Yarn Thing, @yarnthing
• 17 July, Ellen Gormley, @GoCrochet
• 19 July, Kerrie Allman, @yarnforwardmag
• 21 July, Vickie Howell, @vickiehowell
• 23 July, Melissa Wehrle, @neoknits
• 25 July, Julie Holetz, @skamama
• 27 July, Donna Druchunas, @druchunas
• 29 July, Amy O’Neill Houck, @plainsight
• 31 July, Jasmin Canty/Knitmore Girls, @knitmoregirls

Chat with Shannon Okey During Live Twitter Interview July 13th! is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

Thankfully, when Sister Diane asked me to be on Craftypod to talk about my pet topic, she had a specific focus in mind – Creative Commons for crafters. She also had lawyer Martin Ertl of LexPublica/Contractually on the show. He did a great job outlining the legal bits, and I spoke specifically about how and why crafters might choose to use less-strict-than-traditional-copyright CC licenses on our blogs and/or patterns, whether we sell them or distribute them for free.

Diane does what she does best – she edited our conversation into a solid high-level overview of a very complex topic. The complexity of copyright is what trips people up about it so much. We all love concrete answers, especially when we’re asking for business reasons, but copyright law isn’t the same kind of law as criminal law. It’s evolved over centuries not according to societies’ moral codes, but according to the circumstances we perceive in society that affect our ability to balance the interests of creators, consumers and the general public.

It’s my opinion that copyright law as it currently exists in much of the English-speaking world isn’t doing a very good job of achieving balance. I think it’s structured to favour creators too much, which kinda sucks for consumers and the commons. Aaaand, my toe’s approaching the edge of the rabbit hole, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Anyway, go give the podcast a listen – I swear it’s not controversial. If you have questions or comments, fire away!

Copyright, Creative Commons and Crafts is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

• 

  Sheryl MacKay & Me, at the CBC studio

  After a decade wondering what it would be like, I was on the radio. Not live radio, but radio all the same. In a studio, with a schmancy microphone. Sheryl MacKay interviewed me about Mighty Ugly for British Columbia CBC’s arts and culture show North by Northwest last weekend. It’s the first segment in the May 8th podcast, which you can download here, or here’s a direct link to the mp3.

• After six weeks wondering what it would be like, I held the very first Mighty Ugly workshop at Plush on Main last Monday. It was full, it was fun, and there’s video evidence of it here.
  • Speaking of, I’ve delved into previously barely-explored territory in using YouTube for Mighty Ugly. Till last week only a casual watcher of videos, I’ve now set up a channel for the project and embedded a playlist and everything. My early-adopter-o-meter is sitting perfectly still in the too-late zone, but whatever.
  • The next workshop at Plush is on Monday, 7th June. If you’re in Vancouver, you should sign up!
• I never wondered what this would be like, but that doesn’t diminish the pleasure I feel when I say, “I was profiled on MSN Money.” Uh. I swear I don’t mention stocks or refer to human beings as numbers. I’m actually very happy with how she (local journalist Kerry Gold) put the article together – Can You Make a Living by Blogging?
• I’ve been making stuff. Behold:
  
• Yesterday I ordered a Dyson Animal vacuum cleaner. With taxes, it cost nearly $800 CAD. Which is an obscene amount of money to spend when you’re on a pretty tight budget, on a household appliance that probably averages around $150 in price. But when I asked the Twitter, 9 times out of 10 people responded that we should get the Dyson. And not only that we should get it, but that we won’t regret getting it, and that it will work wonders on the little tufts of gift Cleo leaves all over our house, all year ’round. I’ll let you know if it changes our lives after we get it in a couple of weeks.
• Last week I drove a reader away with my clearly stated opinion about a writing style. I consider this to be indication I’ve crossed some sort of invisible threshold of blog success. I’d thank her, but she no longer reads the blog.
• I skipped book club last night because we’re in the final throes of our adoption application – compiling photos of ourselves and writing a letter to birth moms. The former is annoyingly narcissistic (“Does this photo portray us well as, you know, people?”) and the latter is downright uncomfortable. Not uncomfortable because the thought of conversing with a birth mom is uncomfortable, but rather because we have no idea who will read the letter. Writing one generic letter to be read by any number of women who have different personalities, different sets of values, and are approaching their adoption plan from completely different perspectives just strikes me as somewhat insulting to them. I’m doing my best to get over it and just perform this part of the process like a good prospective adoptive parent, but it’s hard not to want to reach through the paper to look the reader in the eyes and say, “I can’t imagine what you’re thinking and feeling as you read this, but I’m a human and you’re a human, and I respect you. For what it’s worth.”

Housekeeping! is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

GEEK. (That's me last weekend speaking at Northern Voice, wearing the Jayne hat I crocheted during the interview frenzy). Photo credit Carol Browne (CC-by-nc-sa licensed)

Have I ever mentioned that the whole let’s-do-an-interview-about-crafts-with-Joss-Whedon thing was the most fun I’ve ever had online? Well, if I failed to mention it, consider it immortalized here in bytes (until the EMP strikes and all this work we’ve done is obliterated).

The fun started nearly two years ago, the interview was in November of ’08, and yesterday Sci-Fi Wire resurrected it, much to the totally hilarious chagrin of its readers, if the comments are any indication.

During the interview, I asked Whedon if his then-soon-to-premiere-show Dollhouse would contain crafty elements like Firefly did. His response was facetious and funny, and Sci-Fi Wire running an article saying that the absence of decoupage is what killed Dollhouse makes the little green men that flutter around in my heart sing with a special song of laughter and joy.

One of the things I love about Whedon’s approach to talking about his work is that he brings both intense seriousness and great humour to pretty much every interview. If the audio from our chat had been any good, you’d have been able to hear that I was nearly shitting myself with nerves at the beginning of our conversation, but after a couple of minutes my high-pitched phone voice relaxed into its normal range, and we simply chatted for nearly twenty-five minutes. His being a nice guy with a good sense of humour is what allowed me to chill out. And dude, if I’d known he was as knowledgeable about crafts as he is, I’d have prepared totally differently for the interview.

There’s great overlap between the crafts and sci-fi communities (just skim the comments on the original post and over at Whedonesque), and knowing that this interview contributed to both just makes me happy.

Thanks for reminding me of the happy, Sci-Fi Wire. Thanks for reminding me of the happy.

Lack of decoupage doomed Dollhouse – Sci-Fi Wire is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

I met Teresa when I went to Portland last spring for the epic craftgasm. She gave me a ride in her Dodge Dart and she let me watch over her shoulder while she worked on a bead piece. We’ve been in touch ever since, and when she sent me a press release about a show she just did in Tucson*, I jumped at the excuse to write about her and her work.

First, here’s a video she pointed me to, so you can both hear her voice and see her beading in action:

Teresa Sullivan Bead Artist Documentary from Ian Lucero on Vimeo.

Teresa was kind enough to answer five questions, a blog interview format I’ve been experimenting with**. Note that her email signature says, “putting beads where they don’t belong since 1994.” I love her.

KW: Why beads?

TS: Because they have holes—the most important part of a bead is its hole. How much more existential can you get? It’s these holes, the “nothing” parts, that actually provide the basis for their structural stability. The best stuff comes from nothing.

Also, they are small and travel literally all around the world, carrying their stories with them, or if the story is lost, they inspire new stories. The oldest beads are estimated to be 80,000 years old. No existing book or painting is that old.

The other thing I like about beads is that it’s more challenging and wide-open for me than other media. I used to draw almost constantly when I was a kid, making my own cartoons and paper dolls, but I don’t feel I would add as much to the drawing/painting world as I would to the beading world. I’m excited as hell about ways I can link beadwork and comics (and nutty Spanish-language game shows, William Burroughs’ and Brion Gysin’s “cut-up” method, etc.).

KW: What tools do you always have within reach? What have you learned you really don’t need?

TS: This is another thing I love about beadwork. It’s simple and low-tech. I have a bunch of beading needles, scads of beads of all sizes, found objects (send me your unwanted chrome car decals please!), scissors, professional tailoring thread in a bunch of colors, a lump of beeswax, and most importlantly, a righteous stereo with a lot of vinyl records within 10 feet of me. I love that beading is very portable and social when done in public. I met a Bulgarian expat from San Diego during a 3-hour flight delay while doing beadwork in the Portland airport recently.

I work at a desk facing a window, with a desk lamp on; lots of light. It helps to focus at a distance while working on tiny objects. I also have an unlined notebook handy, although I normally don’t sketch out designs ahead of time. The notebook has more words than drawings in it.

(Short answer: music, beads, beading needles, thread).

What don’t I need? The tendency to second-guess myself; indiscriminate people-pleasing; people who tell me one thing and mean another.

KW: Do you support yourself with your art, or do you have a day job?

TS: I support myself with my art. For a few years I told everyone that I was “weaning myself off of my day job,” and I made it happen (you can too, if you want to badly enough). My parents had day jobs throughout their lives, but were thinkers and dreamers. This gave me motivation to think and dream—and manifest. I worked at a very working-class, punch-the-time-clock job for ten years (I was certified to operate a forklift, which sounds pretty rad until you realize their top speed is about 3 miles an hour, plus it’s pretty hard to pop a wheelie on one). I literally did my own version of a prayer/affirmation at every first 10-10:15am break until I got outta there.

I teach workshops and sell beads (raw materials) as well as sell artwork (contact me for any of the above). I’ll be teaching a workshop at Sitka Center for Art & Ecology next September called “Plein Air Beadwork” that gives us a chance to explore sculptural forms inspired by the world around us.

KW: Who are your influences? (Musicians always get asked that, and I think artists should get asked it more, too.)

TS: That’s okay, I’m a musician too (I played bass guitar and sang in a band called Living Eyes for 11 years).

Musical influences: Don’t get me started… okay, too late! Here’s a tiny slice: MC5, Stooges, NY Dolls, Dictators, Lord Sutch, Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, Funkadelic, Black Sabbath, Radio Birdman, FYX, Ramones, X-Ray Spex, the Vibrators, the Bags, the Who, the Small Faces, the Cockney Rejects, ah, hell, it’ll take too long…

Art influences: Robert Williams (just had a radio interview that was put onto YouTube), Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, S. Clay Wilson,Zap Comix, hundreds of unnamed Yoruba sculptural beadwork artists, Gary Grimshaw, Joyce Scott, Emsh (the compressed nickname of a great science fiction pulp artist), Powers (a stratospheric and prolific sci-fi book cover artist), hundreds of unnamed pulp fiction book cover artists.

Literary: William Burroughs, Philip K. Dick (he wrote some “mainstream”/non-sci-fi novels that have been reprinted and are at least as mind-blowing as his science fiction ones), Zap comix, City Lights Books, more.

Also, fearless people who persevere in their particular form of being, which to some appears to be madness.

Vehicular influences: 1970 Rebel station wagon, 1974 GMG truck, 1972 Datsun, 1973 Chrysler Newport (that’s Living Eyes in the front seat), 1981 Chevy wagon, 1974 Chevy truck (current), 1968 Dodge Dart (current), homemade Tibetan Yak-driven Cart (timeless)

KW: You’ve recently started playing a lot more online. Are you enjoying yourself? Have you found inspiration? A sense of community? Just a bunch of overwhelming blather?

TS: It’s funny, I tend to think I learn techie stuff out of necessity, but I know it’s just a new/other way to reach out to people. I know that the art, writing and music of the above cited people really helped me persevere and keep creating during difficult times in the past, so if some of these old f#ckers like Mike Davis and Dennis Thompson of the MC5 and Deniz Tek of Radio Birdman (and me?!?) that are still alive have blogs (an easily-accessible voice), all the better! The privacy issues are creepy, but privacy has always been an issue historically. And of course, there’s plenty of blather, but that’s a pre-existing condition, and no one’s forcing us to spend any time on the boring stuff. I’ve found reinforcement on the internet – and in traveling to teach workshops – of things that inspire me, which in itself is inspiring, and that might constitute community. Believe me, there have been times (I’ll tell you when, but that may make me seem old) when I thought I was just one of a handful of people who had these preferences (perversions?!). It’s my job not to bore myself or others, and be real to myself. I began a blog, thanks to Sister Diane, called Rock ‘n Roll Bead Patrol, that I revivified just this evening; you’re the first to know. I swear I won’t bore you to death on it (soon).

KW: Anything you want to add?

TS: Lots! C#rist on a crutch, I didn’t even get into the background material on the [Tucson] exhibit! To make a long story slightly shorter, I’m poking fun at the notions of hierarchy in the art and craft worlds. Each corner of the exhibition has a color and idea theme. There are also some fun items displayed on pedestals that accentuate the themes. I’ve attached a picture of one of the neckpieces that is now in the warm, arid atmosphere of Mesa, Arizona. Did I mention that there’s a killer fabric-by-the-pound store near the Mesa Arts Center that the preparator took me to during installation? Did I mention that I’m now a member of the PHUCS (Phoenix United Crafters), thanks to the legendary Alicia Velasquez, nee Alice Bag? …

Thanks, Teresa!

You can find Teresa at her blog and on Twitter and you can learn more about her work at her website.

**Is five the right number? What do you think?

Interview with a Bead Artist: Teresa Sullivan is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

So today I’m pleased with the status of my geek cred. Congratulations to me.

He doesn’t seem to have comments enabled over there, so if you’re a dog lover and have something to say or ask, please do so here.

Interview: Coffee with a Canine is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

I wish I had more time to write right now, but I’ve (gasp!) started a full-time job. More on that soon, but now I must get back to it.

Hey there, crafters! is a post from Kim Werker's blog.

So, that interview with Joss Whedon, eh? Yeah, that was a major rush. As I’ve said before, I am not a fangirl. I’ve never been a fangirl—of anything. In fact, my default is usually to distance myself from anything other people are compelled to shriek or swoon over. No boy bands in my youth; no Corey or Corey heart attacks.

But again, as I’ve said before, I am a fan of Joss Whedon (still, if I were to bump into him, I would neither shriek nor faint). There are few people whose work I respect more; I respect him both as an artist and as a businessperson. He has a vision—of the grand sort—and he doesn’t compromise it. He’s a creative genius who manages to play nicely with others, and the results are pieces of pop-culture that are fun to watch and still pack a punch. And when he’s done, he speaks honestly about his work and his experiences. He’s infinitely quotable, but not because he tries to be, and not only because of his trademark hilarious sarcasm; people are quotable when they speak their own truth.

Much of my admiration for him, really, stems from my own desire to do the same. So you might imagine how incredible it was to speak to him, and to have him say things that, were I not concentrating so hard on doing a proper interview and on not using inappropriate language, would have led me to nod myself into a concussion and to exclaim that I’ve said some of those very same things myself, and possibly to muse aloud about how I might love to work with him someday on something.

During the interview, I was most taken with his simple description of what he sees as the difference between art and craft: that art involves a loss of control. This strikes me as profound in its simplicity, and its simplicity speaks volumes to me. What do you think of it? He talked more about it in the interview. Do you agree with him? Do you see other contributing factors?

I was also tremendously satisfied to talk with him about online independent media. You may have noticed that I ended up working in a lot of questions that crafters sent to me before the interview, but the questions about online media were from me. Even before it was released and proceeded to become immensely successful, I was blown away by what he and his collaborators were attempting to do with Dr. Horrible, both because I am a very big fan of trying things that have never been done before—and trying them in a smart way that’s also creatively satisfying—and because he collaborated with people he clearly has a great time with, and made something that fully transferred that good time to an audience.

I didn’t plan to conduct the interview just as I was getting ready to announce all the crazy things I’m getting into, but it sure ended up happening at a time when I’m extremely focused on making very deliberate choices about what I want to do with my time and how I want to help support my family as I do it. Joss said a lot of things that will fuel me in my quest, and that will keep me remembering to stay in touch with my own vision and principles as I explore my art and craft.

Did anything he said resonate with you?

When Your Hero Speaks and Says What You’re Thinking is a post from Kim Werker's blog.