HobbyPrincess blog

Hama bead brooches for Lisa

A good friend of mine, Lisa, is opening a summer shop called Kukko (le coq) in Fiskars next weekend. Along with well-known brands such as Marimekko and Nanso, the shop will stock some less-well-known (and some as-of-yet completely unknown!) designers. Nearly all my friends have been enrolled in the work party! I decided to use Hama beads to make summer brooches that you can wear on your swimsuit. In four hours I managed to create three lines:

1) Crazy Kukkos

2) Rocking Tipus

3) Not From This Planet Creatures (Jyri made the blue and the green one)

Crafting an iPod cozy

TidBITS have collected excellent examples of how people try to protect and personalize technology in the mac users' community. Take a look at the discussion and pictures of iPod cozies!

Statistics on crafting in the US

Nancy Monson, author of The Healing Power of Crafts claims that crafting is a multibillion-dollar business in America, and over three-quarters of American households have at least one family member who spends an average of 7.5 hours weekly engaged in crafting or related hobbies. According to the American Hobby Industry Association the size of the craft & hobby industry in the United States rose up from USD 20.0 billion in 2000 to USD 29.0 billion in 2004. Out of this, needle crafts accounted for 29 %, floral crafts 43%, painting and finishing 18 %, and “general crafts” 10 %. Their study also indicates that a “heavy user” on average spends USD 1,500 on crafts per year, and that across all user segments, the most common usage for craft projects is gifts (79%) and personal use (67 %). Some 15% of American crafters make items to sell.

It would be absolutely great to have equivalent numbers from other countries. If you know any, please send me a link!

Local exchange

Crafting is like cooking: much of it is about finding the best materials. In a community of crafters, vintage fabrics, ribbons, pins, buttons and other materials can also serve as a sort of local currency, which entitles crafters to participate in a swap.

Inspired by the Open Money Manifesto, I decided to explore materials swapping. As a start, I invested in five kilos of vintage buttons. Consider this my initial capital as a trader on the market. In the next two weeks I'm going to find out what I can buy with this currency and how.

Here are some examples of what I've got.