My Favorite Tool

I've mentioned before that I can't draw but I sure can trace and adjust to make something my own. When I need a large image I use my Artograph projector. It can project a printed image not just transparencies. My hallway is fairly dark so I put my projector on a high stool, tape paper to the wall and trace away. My favorite paper for large project patterns is red rosin paper from Home Depot. It comes on a big roll and is 3 ft. wide, very durable and inexpensive. Building contractors use it to protect finished floors.

Images in the Harvard Collections

VIA is a catalog of visual resources at Harvard related to art, architecture, archeology, ethnography, and material culture. VIA includes information about slides, photographs, artwork, and artifacts in the University's libraries, museums, and archives.
I was interested in finding inspiration for chinoise style painted panels and searched for "Chinese illustration".

There are trade cards, daguerreotypes and Chinese rubbings in the collection.
I also found some very interesting designs with a search for "printed textiles"

Pantone Colors for Fall 2008

Pantone color report available as a downloadable pdf. It looks as if teal and purple are back. The color report includes designer drawings, a list of fashion must haves and designer color picks for interiors. Click on Preview colors for Fall 2008.


Found via Something to Say

Diane's Reverse Applique Tote Tutorial

One of my favorite craft bloggers, Diane Gilleland aka Sister Diane of CraftyPod, has contributed a tutorial for this tote to the fabulous CraftStylish blog. Diane's projects are always well written with step by step photo illustrations. She's also the author of DIY Alert, her blog about all the crafters and crafty stuff happening in Portland. You will wish to live here in Oregon!

The Craftsman magazine 1901-1916

Full facsimile copies of the Craftsman magazine edited by Gustav Stickley.

Hosted at the Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture at the University of Wisconsin.

Reading these magazines gave me a good glimpse into the lifestyle and philosophy of the Craftsman movement.
The magazines explore home and building, arts and crafts, gardening and landscaping. They contain patterns and plans for homes, furniture and decorative arts.
This picture is of decorations for doorway drapes August 1903

Spoonflower On Demand Fabric Printing

Stephen and Kim Fraser are posting tips on the Spoonflower blog for preparing the artwork for your printed fabric. Visit, get help and ask questions. I can hardly wait and wish them all the success in the world.

Floorcloth Design Source

While I'm thinking about floorcloths I want to share my best design source for rug designs. Google Patents has more patent designs than I will ever be able to explore.
Some search terms might help here.
Search with the word design and look in the list for patent numbers that have a capital D in front of the numerals.
Design for a rug, linoleum, Congoleum, oilcloth, Bigelow etc. One search term at a time.
Some of the designs from the 20's and 30's are surprisingly modern. Click the pictures above to be taken to those designs. If you are willing to dig there's a wealth of inspiration.

Ponoko Jewelry Challenge

Ponoko has chosen the 25 entries who have made it through to the Invitation Round.
Visit the Ponoko blog to see the fantastic designs.

Craft: magazine blog

I really am behind the times and only just started to read this really great blog. I do most of my searches through Google Images but have found that often this blog already had that resource. They have posted tons of links to tutorials, sources and pretty much anything you can think of. If you haven't visited and like my posts, you will want to be a regular reader! Subsciptions to the magazine are available there too.

Lost Crafts

Preserving The Crafts And Trades Of Yesterday One Book At A Time.
Lost Crafts is an online collection of free crafts and trades books. The collection covers bookbinding, papermaking, blacksmithing and making tin can toys.

Personal Laser Cut Manufacturing

This site caused me to say OMG out loud! You design, they laser cut it for you. They are currently having a jewelry design contest. Do explore this site.
Ponoko is the world's first personal manufacturing platform. It's the online space for a community of creators and consumers to use a global network of digital manufacturing hardware to co-create, make and trade individualized product ideas on demand.

Found via ReadyMade

Publish Your Own Book

Dad, this is for you.

esprit cabane

le magazine des idees creatives et ecologiques. Hey! We're creative, ecological and like ideas. This was a fun visit. Click the categories listed on the right and at the bottom of the pages click "page suivante" to see older posts in that category.
Lots of projects and patterns. Here are just a few that I've linked the picture to the project page.

Digital Archive of Lace

I don't make or collect lace but am fascinated by it. The motifs and repeats serve as inpiration for quilting designs, stencils, carved stamps and motifs for collage. The information in this archive is downloadable as PDF files. I like opening these in Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro so that they can be manipulated to make patterns or an image to print and use in a collage. I hope you enjoy this archive as much as I do.

From a catalog, Carl Abildgaard, Kobenhavn, 1916, 8 pages

This archive contains articles, full page books, illustrations, catalogs, salesman's sample books and much more. This huge resource is kept by Ralph E. Griswold in the Department of Computer Science at The University of Arizona, Tucson. In 1995, he retired to have more time for his research, programming, and graphics interests. His current work is in number theory and the computational and mathematical aspects of weaving.

Decoeyes Mannequins

Decoeyes
Exquisite Period Mannequin Recreations

Our primary objective is to create precise replicas of the 1920's through 1950's display heads. We feel that materials, tools, paint styles, and techniques should be identical to those used on the originals to insure integrity of the replica.