JENNIFER FORKER

13 - 1:08am

The home-improvement and design shows make it look easy: Take a simple sheet of inexpensive plywood and presto! In a few minutes, you've got a table, a cabinet or a lounge chair.

The home-improvement and design shows make it look easy: Take a simple sheet of inexpensive plywood and presto! In a few minutes, you’ve got a table, a cabinet or a lounge chair. It’s not that fast or dirt-cheap, but it can be that easy, according to woodworking experts who speak fondly of plywood’s many merits. “Plywood is the starting point for many of the things I build,” says artist and designer Jimmy DiResta of New York City. “With some imagination and inventiveness it can become anything.”

Make an advent calendar and a tradition 11/28/12 - 1:06am

The advent calendar, which eases anxiety by counting down those pesky 24 days until Christmas Eve, is as much a holiday tradition for my family as the tree. Sure, you can buy one and save the crafting time, but making an advent calendar adds to its allure.

Make an advent calendar and a Christmas tradition 11/30/12 - 5:50pm

Where artists create: How to design the studio space you want 08/12/12 - 12:05am

An artist’s workspace is as personal as the artwork. Talk to different artists, and you’ll get a variety of individual requirements for the spaces in which they create: Some need a lot of space, others very little. Some need quiet, others crank the music to deafening levels. There are those who want every piece of equipment in its place, and others who scatter their materials all over. The common denominator? Each finds that personal blend of the functional and the inspirational.

There's more to paracord bracelets than good looks 07/29/12 - 12:04am

It’s not every crafting project that can save a life. The paracord bracelet is 10 to 14 feet of tightly woven, military-quality, nylon parachute cord that can be unraveled to assist the wearer out of a jam. It’s popular now as a craft, especially among men and boys. Kurt Walchle, who says he invented the bracelets, can click off a dozen stories about how they have helped their wearers, from repairing a broken shoe to providing a life-saving tourniquet.

Crafters make Pinterest a community meeting place 04/22/12 - 12:07am

Pinterest is a relative newcomer to social media, but it has changed the way that many crafters and do-it-yourselfers organize and share ideas. “It should be called ‘Jessa Decker-Smith’s Interests.’ It’s made for me,” says Jessa Decker-Smith of Denver, who writes a craft blog called “Happily Home Sewn.” She says she spent “a solid two or three days obsessing” about Pinterest when she signed on a few months ago. She uses it to find, organize and share sewing projects and crafts, mostly, but also recipes, fashion and organizing tips.

Versatility makes this tape a craft favorite 03/11/12 - 1:13am

Duct tape has become a superstar in the crafting world, available in all kinds of vibrant colors and patterns, such as zebra, camouflage and tie-dye.

Duct tape — not so good for sealing ducts but great for patching or mending lots of other things — has become a superstar in the crafting world, available in all kinds of vibrant colors and patterns, such as zebra, camouflage and tie-dye. Want to get a group of teenage boys engrossed in a crafting project? Insert duct tape.

Crafts: For art's sake, take great pictures of it 02/22/12 - 1:10am

Today’s artists and crafters use the Internet not only to promote themselves, but to sell their wares. Good-quality images sell a product; inferior images don’t. So it makes business sense to learn a few tricks of the photographic trade. Whether your subject is curios or objets d’art, look for the best natural light and a simple background before launching into a photo shoot, advises Me Ra Koh, a Takoma, Wash., photographer and author of “Your Baby in Pictures” (Amphoto Books, 2011).

Crafting books to keep you up at night - creating 01/01/12 - 1:14am

Sewing

If your creative side requires an occasional boost — and whose doesn’t? — turn to a book. It’s a tactile thing: The heft in our hands feels good. Books, websites, blogs: They all provide inspiration for no-holds-barred creativity. Here’s a baker’s dozen of recent sewing, knitting and crafting books that might help unleash the power of your creativity in the new year. Sewing

Felting transforms raw material into art 11/06/11 - 12:39am

Seven years ago, Jenne Giles was a San Francisco painter and sculptor who didn’t know felting existed. Now she works almost exclusively in the medium, stretching the possibilities of felt in fashion. There’s a soft-sculpture aspect to wet felting that is attractive to Giles, who sells her ruffled scarves in museum gift shops and online at the Artful Home. It’s tactile and hands-on, like working in clay, she says. “It incorporates all the things that I love,” says Giles, author of “Felt Fashion: Couture Projects from Garments to Accessories” (Quarry Books, 2010).