Eric Taylor Basket Workshop - St. Louis

If anyone is interested I will be hosting a workshop with Eric Taylor this July in St. Louis, MO. Eric is a nationally renown black ash basketmaker with a unique style that blends Shaker and Nantucket basketry into something totally contemporary, yet traditional.

Check out all the great baskets we will be making over on my blog.

Cottage Dresser Tote10.5"(l) x 5"(w) x 5.5"(h)

Tony

John C. Campbell Folk School - Shaker Box Workshop

I just got home from a great week at the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC where I took a Shaker box making class. There were six students in my class and about 100 in a dozen other classes, ranging from creative writing, to open-hearth cooking, to blacksmithing. The teacher's goal for the class was for us to make at least eight boxes, of course, ever the overachiever I made 17!

If you ever have a chance to go to the Folk School jump at it. This was my 6th time and I am already counting down the months until I can go back again. It is so wonderful to spend a week with 100 plus like-minded crafts people.

Tony

eClips

I recently got an eClips with eCal software. Unfortunately I have been so busy that I haven't gotten to play with it a whole lot. I have been watching lots of videos online and trying to learn all the ins and outs of the cutter and software. As some of you may know, I have my own custom stamps and one of the things I want to do with the eCal is to make my own print2cut fines. So far so good. Fortunately I know Adobe Illustrator so I am able to make .SVG files. You can make these directly in the eCal software, but I was already proficient in Illustrator and already had some drawings made that I wanted to cut.

Here is a video of the cutter in action (hopefully it will play).

Here is one of the little journals I buy and then decorate. I sell these at basket workshops. They aren't anything too fancy, I keep them fairly simple so that I make and sell them at a reasonable price.

Tony

The Weekend!

Ahhhh, Let the weekend begin!

I love the quiet of the weekend mornings. It's "my time" to catch up on all the blogs I follow. I love grabbing a cup of coffee and catching up on the things I missed during the week. Sadly, I rarely give myself this time. I need to learn to slow down and enjoy that cup of coffee rather than the effect it gives me! LOL!

There are so many incredibly creative people out there. It's so inspiring! There are also so many different crafts out there that I would love to learn! Oh, the time....See, the coffee effect is already kicking in!

This week has been very challenging at work. When this happens I feel drawn more and more to my studio to craft and think. What a blessing it is to have a place and a "thing" to go to when things get rough. I come out of that room refreshed and ready to face another day.

This week, I have been working on albums. I have designed and written a tutorial on an album that holds 7 tags per page. I call it Policy Meets Tag Mini. It was a blast to make. Here are a few shots of it...


Masculine Version-

Feminine Version-

Thank you all for your awesome blogs and for the inspiration!

Have a Great Weekend!

Jim

The Gentleman Crafter

TheGentlemanCrafter.typepad.com

Cartonnage, another project in the making

Sunday at Christine's studio with Anh, Elhadi et Yun! Started an octagonal box. Need to get equipped and finish of work in progress. Next rendez-vous 11th March

 

TonyR Brighton: love ....

TonyR Brighton: love ....: i have been a little absent again ... sorry folks! i saw a project that sir tim had made in one of mario's blogs, and was inspired to...

New Lighting Setup

I finally broke down and built a new set of lights for my studio. So far they seem to be working well. I wrote up a description of how I built them.

Tony