Floating around the office of late has been an extraordinary old book filled with
even older postcards and snippets, some dating as far back as the 1870's.
The lucky owner of this beautiful book is our Senior Knits Designer, Gianna.
The book had been passed from friend to friend for many years, with each of its
possessors adding to its pages while keeping with the general theme, until it
reached Gianna's uncle. After a time, he gifted the book, now full, to her, seeing
her inclination to art, drawing and the like. At this point, Gianna has had the book
for ten years, and has no plans to give it up! (Who can blame her?) I wanted to
share this wonderful book with you, since we have all enjoyed it so much,
and even gotten some scrapbooking inspiration from its pages!
Observe these wonderful flower girls created by Elsa Mora!
I have been perusing her blog and there is a lot of wonderful and interesting stuff!
You should check it out! She also has an Etsy shop for your pleasure.
You might have already discovered these, since I've talked about Love Forever so many times, I'm sure you have the blog bookmarked. But seriously, how amazing are these garlands? I'm in love. I want to go home right now and cut up little shapes paper and string them all over my ceiling.
Sophie Cuvelier is a French artist, from what I can tell because her site is all in French. But click on Diaporama and browse through all of her photos; I think there are a million of them. She also sells some garlands and Selvedge, and it looks like through her site too.
Mackenzie from our photo team makes these adorable creatures
by applying glitter to everyday objects one might find at the dollar store.
Here's what she has to say about them:
"I’m obsessed with glitter. It makes me happy! It always has.
I love peeps too...their facial expressions crack me up, they’re all so different."
I walked into the NY boutique LP & P this weekend, and I just stared at the back wall for a good two minutes before the shop girl snapped me out of it. The entire back wall of the store is covered in this super chunky huge amazing knit wall covering. Giant flowers and cables in tonal grey colors. It is amazing. The shop girl explained that they are known for their knitwear (which was not obvious from the summer collection, understandably) and they do doggie clothes and women's clothes as well. The shop is named after designer Catherine Fung's two dogs, Little Prince and Piggy.
The Coral Reef project has displayed in Pittsburgh and Chicago and is currently on display in New York. I had seen a small bit of it in the windows at NYU, and checked out the website for the Institute for Figuring and wasn't all that impressed with what I saw in person or the images on the site. But then, I saw the pictures posted on Love Forever and now I am excited!
The project is an effort to draw attention to the disappearing wonders of the marine world caused by global warming and the disgusting amounts of trash in the ocean. The crochet technique they used is called Hyperbolic Crochet, based on an algorithmic technique discovered by mathematician Dr. Daina Taimina.
Check out the Institute for Figuring; there is a lot to read about the intentions and process for this exhibition.
I spotted these on Bloesem. Ladak blankets are designed by Jantien de Wilde and Jane Stroink in Amsterdam. The blanket is made from a tough material of recycled sweaters, blankets, jeans and even parts of mattresses. They then embellish with pretty lace and trims. Not only are the blankets made from recycled materials, but 15% of the proceeds will go to a shelter for the homeless in Amsterdam. Your comfort is theirs!
I'm not sure if you can order these on the US, but it is a great idea to embellish an old blanket you might usually use for picnics.
A few people asked how they can buy the FP tutus from the photo I posted. We do not have them for sale, but Luren from the display team has some tips.
To make these tutus, Luren used camisoles from past FP collections and petticoats she found on the internet. But you can make your own!
It's easy to make a tutu: just find a color range of tulle and netting at your local fabric store and a thick band of elastic. If you have a sewing machine you can sew tiers of tulle onto the elastic band in a pleat-y way, folding an inch of the tulle under itself and sewing that inch, then folding more tulle under and sewing that inch so you're making pleat after pleat after pleat right on the elastic band.
You can make several tiers of pleated tulle on a thick elastic band. Then you can add little bands of pleated tulle onto the bottom of the layers of tulle for extra bulk. We layered bright colors under pastel colors so that when you saw the tutus from below you got a special surprise pop of color.
Then we sewed them to Free People camisoles. The effect of this can be achieved with your homemade tutu or any tutu you can find at a thrift store or a dance shop. Most dance shops carry the donut style tutu (really big and thick around the waist) and the more relaxed skirt-y tutu. You can just pin the tutu to the bottom of the camisole all around and then use a needle and thread to whip stitch them together.
Courtney and Lizzy made some beautiful marbled papers for our "trend walls." As the designers are developing a trend, they designate a wall in the hallway where they post all kinds of inspirational images, artwork, magazine tears, trims, etc. You'll have to wait a few months to see what comes of the trend with the marbled colors... The painting sure looks like fun though!
Here are some of the supplies and tips:
Paper was from Pearl Paint
Big white tub was from Ikea
The marbling kit was from Pearl too.
Innovative Marbling Suminagashi Dye Ink Set:
6 colors, in 12 ml. tubes and it comes with instructions!!
The girls put a little baby oil (does not come in the set) in the water too, just to make it more interesting. Wherever the oil is, the paper will remain white.
Check out the comments from an expert marbler for some more tips...
Check out this amazing beagle birthday cake that Jill (the Training Manager at the Customer Service Call Center) received for her birthday. It was actually made by her husband Pablo, who works in the South Carolina fulfillment center where all Free People orders are shipped from. Pretty impressive. The design was likely inspired by Pablo and Jill’s dog Baylee, who they found roaming around the woods near the South Carolina facility. The beagle and doghouse are made of marshmallows!
You guys are coming up with all kinds of ways to recycle FP stuff like making jewelry from our catalogs, or turbans and headbands from our bags. My friend just sent me these photos of a clothes line she made in her back yard, and used the Free People gift wrap bag to hold the clothes pins. So cute! Good job Jill.
Ok, so it's not fall, not even close. But if I wait, I'll forget to share this with you. And I think this is really cool. So just bookmark this and save it for 6 months. Check out haha.nu for a the step-by-step to making roses out of maple leaves. This could be soooo pretty!
One of our designers spotted this photo on flickr and then we found the blogfullofjelly! Here is some more Free People recycling in effect. You have to check out her blog. She makes lots and lots of beautiful things...
A friend at FP turned me on to some new blogs this week, and I discovered small stump. Check out this crazy cute bunny vase she made from an old doll head. She says she has a few of the heads and has more ideas, so be sure to check her blog and etsy store for other fun crafts.
sfgirlbybay got a case of Gocco Mania! I've heard the word "gocco" but honestly didn't really know what the printing process entailed. She posted some great pics of the process. Check out her blog for the account of her illness.
On the back of our last catalog, we challenged you to recycle the paper in a creative way.
We received the most amazing note via email. One customer took our challenge and used the pages of our catalog to create this awesome jewelry. We are so impressed and surprised at how she re-purposed the book. Great job Ashley!!! You can buy these pieces and more at Ashley's etsy store or befriend her on myspace!
Did anyone else see that challenge on the catalog? Anybody else do something creative?? Leave your email in a comment!
I spotted these window films by Emma Jeffs on Oh Joy! They are beautiful! I love it on the French doors. They actually remind me of the window that caught my eye at barometer. Theirs is made out of some sort of lace, or a velvet burnout, but from afar it could look like these films.
Wandering through Chinatown this weekend, I was on the hunt for some craft supplies. As I made my way down Walker Street, my eye was captured by this amazing window on the second floor of an industrial building. The sign read Barometer. I rang the bell and went on up to discover the sweetest little shop full of "attic" objects and handmade jewelry. I met Miss Anna Studebaker, who curates the collection of objects. The jewelry is made by her partner, Jenna Wainwright. The shop is a bit like an attic, a bit museum, and a bit girly studio apartment. Check out their website and pay them a visit next time you're in NYC.
Check out these origami flowers made by artist/crafter/blogger ArguingTheMobius. Check out her blog for some info on works-in-progress and her etsy shop to buy her handcrafted bouquets!
We first posted photos of the sequined canvases when our NYC store opened. Now they are part of all of the FP stores' spring display. A reader commented asking how to make these, and one of our talented display girls had some great advice I wanted to share with everyone.
For our proto, our designer actually hand sewed each sequin on by hand, and then left a space for the screen printed flower applique. She does not recommend doing that yourself! Luren suggests going to a fabric store and buying a small amount of sequined fabric, maybe the stretchy variety. This could be a little expensive, so another great alternative would be to find some sequined wonder of a dress at a thrift store for a couple of dollars. That way you would be recycling material and not spending much $$. The fabric can them be fixed onto a frame of canvas stretchers and decorated as you like.
Hope that helps! If you end up making the project, you should send me the photos and I'll post them on the blog! Just leave your email address in a comment and I will get in touch. Happy crafting!
Check out the flickr group featuring the crafts blog readers made for the Free People Valentine's Craft Swap! (If you sign in to flickr, you will be able to see the full photo pool. If not, you will only see a limited number of photos.)
I spotted these Valentine BigFoot pins on Tokyo Bunnie and had to share. You can buy them on etsy from PearsonMaron. Here's some of the description from their shop...
Now Bigfoot can be sighted whenever you please.
Inspired by The Patterson/Gimlin Bigfoot sighting film from 1967.
Your monsters will come packaged ready for gift giving.
It's the anniversary of our first ever Free People craft swap! Valentine craft swap 2008 starts now.
For those of you who have not swapped before, here's how it works...
You sign up to swap and are sure to give me you correct mailing address and email. I hook you up with another swapper anywhere in the world (or just in the US if you prefer). I email you all of your partner's information. You have a few weeks to make your partner absolutely anything you want based on the theme of Valentine's Day. Then you mail your gift to your partner, and they mail you one in return. And everyone has a happy Valentine's Day!
I just had to post Tara Murray's doily chair. Free People is always attracted to the modernization of old crafts, and Tara's work explores that concept. Here's a bit about the chair from her website...
The Doily Chair was an exploration in designing a new furniture piece utilizing an outdated object. The new composite linen doily has found its home supported on a wide walnut chair frame. The recontextualized doily provokes images of grannies and formal parlours of the past yet maintains its contemporary proportions and usage. The Doily Chair is a project from the thesis work on attachment and thus employs the six developed Design Tools to Encourage Emotional Attachment.
Black Eiffel posted these modern gingerbread houses. I love them! CBGBs is pretty funny. I have to say, the old classic gingerbread houses definitely lend themselves to the use of candy a bit more. Much more fun and whimsical. But I do love the idea of these mod houses! Check out Black Eiffel for links to the photos...
Check out the Free People gingerbread if you haven't seen it! Video and pics!
Over on the small object, there are some really great holiday craft ideas. Two of my favorites are made using recycled fabric scraps. If you do any sewing and are a pack rat, I know you have tons of little scraps you're saving "just in case". So here are two awesome ideas to use em up! Check out the stacking fabric trees and chain link garland...
Yoonie-at-home posted her tutorial for making shrinky dink holiday ornaments. She gives a super detailed step by step and even gives you a template to download. I love crafts that involve a childhood pastime for a modern craft. Check it out and get shrinking!
We got some comments asking for more details of our giant crochet tree display. Here you go! This is the prototype tree our display team made in their workspace at the home office.
The visual team crochetters worked from the top down, starting with a styrofoam ball, crochetting around it and then down, connecting to big rings as we went. Then we crochetted garland to drape on the tree, and crochetted around little styrofoam balls to be "ornaments." Then we had to chop the rings in quarters, folded the tree up, and sent it to india to be reproduced. As you can see from the pictures of the final one in the stores, they're all a little different. But it looks great and is a wonderful handmade treasure.
There are some cool events happening this week in NY that I thought I'd share...
One is the Bust Holiday Craftacular. This is one of my favorite spots for holiday gifts and new crafty ideas for stuff to make myself. It keeps getting better every year, so check it out this Saturday, Dec 8th at The Metropolitan Pavilion in New York City, 125 West 18th Street.
Also this week, is GenArt's SHOP NYC, full of amazing designers selling their wares for amazing prices. This Wednesday at the Puck Building from 6-10pm.
Let fiber keep you warm during the Etsy Fiber Art Street Team sale, trunk show, online events … and all year round!
Who: The fabulous independent spinners, knitters, crocheters, weavers, felters, and fiber artists of Etsy.com, your place to buy handmade!
What: A giant event, online and in person, celebrating all things handmade and fiber!
When: Sale in online shops from Nov. 1 - Nov. 16. Trunk show date is Nov. 16, online and at Etsy Labs 6 - 8 p.m. EST.
Where: Etsy Labs, 325 Gold Street, 6th Floor, Brooklyn NY 11201 , and also online at www.etsy.com and www.etsyfast.com
Why: Warm up your November with our great fiber artists! Great sales on items for the holidays, supplies, and more! Interact with our members, learning more about these products and techniques! Buy handmade.
How: RSVP at labs [!at] etsy.com, check www.etsyfast.com for more info, and be sure to visit us during our sale and show Nov. 16!
Our Dark Fairy Swap flickr group is filling up with photos of the amazing crafts you all made! Check out the photos, read about the swappers in the discussion page (come on swappers, introduce yourself!) and leave the crafters some comments. And FYI, if you have a flickr account, or want to set one up, you can view ALL of the photos in the group. If you don't have an account, you can only see a limited #. Not sure why...
I'll be featuring some individual photos from the swap in the sidebar to the right. So check back to see yours featured!
Recently I met the designer of AMH Design. She does these super cute, portable needlepoint kits and the end result is functional as well. Here's a bit from Amy's bio...
Amy Holbrook, the founder of AMH Design, discovered needlepoint when it was recommended to her as a great stress relief activity. After living in Italy for several years where her most stressful daily event was trying to navigate Rome's traffic on her Vespa, Amy returned to New York and enrolled at Columbia Business School where she soon became a stressed out, sleep deprived MBA student looking for a job. To combat the stress of her grueling schedule, Amy started needlepointing. She was instantly hooked by this craft that kept her hands busy, calmed her nerves and put her into a meditation-like state.
After stitching numerous floral motifs, eyeglass cases and pillows with cute sayings, Amy decided that if she was going to continue stitching, she wanted to be making something that would fit in with her urban lifestyle and home decor. She searched needlepoint shops and online stores and couldn't find what she was looking for. So, she decided to design them herself- AMH Design was born shortly after graduating from Columbia.
Check out her site for fun ways to craft and customize your own journals and photo albums!
How About Orange posted these free pumpkin carving patterns from World Wildlife Fund. Check her site, she also posted some other pumpkin carving sites. I did a google search to try to find really amazing pumpkins, but all I could find were pumpkins carved into creepy animals or presidents' heads. Does anyone have any cool links???
One of my favorite blogs, Poppytalk, has just launched a new project! Poppytalk Handmade is a monthly online street market to showcase, buy and sell handmade goods of emerging design talent from around the world. Click on a designer and see a selection of products plus links to their blogs, websites and etsy stores. Check it out!
Hi Swappers! Just wanted to let you know that sign up time is over for the Dark Fairy craft swap. It is a bit of a process to match up partners and email you, so I will send you a message sometime later this week. Thank you all for participating!!!
If you have visited etsy lately, you have seen their new blog/newspaper/ezine called The Storque. It's really cool, covering topics about etsy crafters and all that surrounds the crafting lifestyle. I like that blogs are morphing into these more magazine-like entities are creating such a tight knit community (no pun intended).
There's just a few more days to sign up for our Dark Fairy theme craft swap! The more swappers, the more fun. So can you help spread the word? Post about it on your blogs and email all your crafty friends!
The girls at our store in Short Hills NJ wanted to share a project with you. Do you have more Free People cloth shopping bags than you know what to do with? Maybe you should make some headbands!!
First, cut a long strip from your bag, twice as wide as you want your headband.
With a contrasting thread, whip stitch the long edges together, and then turn the tube inside out.
Use some scrap fabrics with a cute print to make patches of color on your headband.
Sew em on there however you'd like.
Cut a triangle in each end to make a cute tail, then whip stitch the edges so the fabric doesn't fray.
Fellow FP girl reccomended this event and I thought it highly appropriate now that we have a store in Austin!
Check out Stitch 2007 on November 10th, and get tickets because they sell out! Indie craft fair and fashion show goin on, so go and support the community. The money raised benefits the Stitch Grant awarded for Indie and Craft Upstarts. Woohoo.
Our next craft swap theme is inspired by this month's catalog, Dark Fairy. Think about woodland creatures, fairy tales, A Midsummer's Night Dream, and gothic stories (or whatever else you can think up...). Feel free to comment with inspiration ideas!
Sign up will be from now until next Wednesday September 26th. We will have a month to make the crafts and can ship to partners the last weeks of October. Let's get our gifts swapped so that everyone receives theirs before Halloween!
Sign up here. PLEASE double check your info and make sure your email address is correct. If your partner emails you, please respond so they know you are still swapping. If something happens and your gift will be late, give your partner a heads up. If you decide not to swap after signing up, PLEASE email me so I can match up your partner with a different swapper.
Thought I'd pass along this recommendation to all of our crafty readers. I spotted this book on Lena Corwin's blog and it definitely sounds like a must read for all of you small business crafty girls. Check out the website and Lena's review!
Thank you to Bloesem for intoducing me to the work of Margo Slinger. You have to check out her website of work. It is so clever and funny and beautiful. All of the buttons on her website are little vintage buttons (an one silly rabbit?). The navigation is a little tricky, and it's easy to get lost in Slingerland, but so much fun...
Loveforever posted this photo from our catalog on both her blog and her inspiration board. But, she also questioned, is this lace or lace wallpaper? I had no idea, so I asked the catalog team. They said it was wallpaper, and that it looked so real, it even tricked your eyes when you were standing right in front of it. It was in the bathroom of this amazing house they shot at in London...
Spotted this over on craftzine.com and had to share. Images above are by Audrey Penven. She sews on film negatives in a darkroom wearing nightvision goggles. Pretty amazing.
I managed to get a hold of some more pictures of our new showroom to share with you. The visual/display team adorned the walls with tons of artwork, similar to the way they do the fitting rooms in all the Free People stores.
The way they work is they gather inspiration and ideas and make some sketches. The designs are all roughly planned out before they attack a wall. But then the scale is enlarged and each piece is hand drawn or painted, so each one comes out a little bit special. Here are some photos of the finished pieces!
The Free People display team is in the process of decorating our new New York showroom. The showroom is where we sell to all the other stores that sell Free People. We display all of our upcoming collections there and the girls in the showroom work with the buyers of each store to choose the best styles for their particular customers and locations.
So here's a few shots of the supplies and process. I'll try to get some photos for you of the finished showroom too!
Attack of the giant tomato pincushion! No, it's a bean bag chair, and you can make it. Spotted on love forever and find the tutorial on how to make your own at etsy labs. I wanna take a field trip there!
Just wanted to share a few photos I snapped in the display team's workshop. Doesn't that first picture look like the most girly hardware store you've ever seen? So out of all this madness comes our beautiful displays. Our fall store displays are being installed now, so I'll get you some photos and the inside scoop later this week!
The New York Times has made made an announcement. Craft is cool. Check out this article highlighting some of our favorite craft pioneers like Debbie Stoller and the folks at Etsy. Obviously, we're way ahead of the NYT, and the fancy designers officially making crafts fashionable. But I always like to see what the big dogs are making a fuss about. And it's nice to see some of the people we support getting such attention. So check it out.
Photo above is from the article, featuring a sewing class at Make Workshop in the Lower East Side in NY...
Have you seen this? French musician Camille's video for her song "Ta Douleur". Check out a little blurb from wikipedia...
"This album incorporated an avant-garde concept - a string, or thread ("le fil"), which was a drone that persisted throughout the entire course of the album. All of the songs in this album are based on the exploration of the voice, with only a double bass or double bass and keyboard as accompanying instruments."
Did you miss the Renegade Craft Fair this weekend? Or maybe you're thinking about checking out the Chicago scene? Poppy Talk did this cool guide to the fair that can catch you up on what you missed... Above image from rock paper scissors
Etsy has teamed up with Instructables for this Sew Useful contest. So you know that Etsy is all about supplying a marketplace for the independent artist and crafter, and Instructables is a community created to share the how-to's for useful projects. I love how Instructables encourages the sharing of finds and ideas. I mean, that's what blogging is all about, right? Anyway, combining these two ideas, you get the ultimate way to support the handmade community. And there's prizes...
I was flipping through the third issue of Craft: magazine (the one put out by the makers of Make:) and this picture was just so striking. This is just one little corner of a garden created by Diane Salavracos in Belgium. She buys odd colored spray paint from graffiti shops and then paints dried flowers, broken branches, Halloween pumkins, pine cones, etc. to create a year round colorful wonderland. Not as environmentally positive as a growing green garden, but it looks really cool.
We had a baby shower last week for our Planner (she figures out how much we need to buy of each style, what stores to send which styles, she manages all the numbers). All of her coworkers from the buying and web teams made her these adorable onesies! They have heat transfer graphics and are hand dyed. So cute, right!
So our travel themed craft swap is coming to a close. These photos are just a few of the amazing crafts the particpants have exchanged. Check out our flickr group to see the rest, and leave these guys some comments! The creativity of all you swappers is seriously incredible. Hope you all had fun!!!!
