Letters

 

“Crafting Is for Lovers” by Jean Railla). As a crafter and a scrapbooker, I don’t get this. Crafts like crochet and knitting, which used to be the domain of little old ladies, are OK, but scrapbooking is not?

I recognize that scrapbooking is often viewed as the world of teddy bear stickers and soccer moms, but that simply isn’t the case anymore. Look at the artistic and inventive work of scrapbookers like Emily Falconbridge, Ali Edwards, or Cathy Zielske. These are women recording their own histories in creative and beautiful ways — telling their own stories, not just highlighting photos of their children’s dance recitals.

Having said that, what if all scrapbookers were suburban moms arranging photographs of their Regarding the origami “Three Dollar Flower” children? Would that make it OK to dismiss this (see CRAFT, Volume 05, page 52): Everything form of craft, just because it didn’t conform to some made sense (sort of) up to Step 18 … and kind of hipster definition of what was “cool craft”

then, voilà, we make a quantum leap to Step 19 with and what wasn’t? —Callie Appelstein virtually no explanation other than “fold it back up.”

Huh? I’m supposed to fold up 3 pieces of paper that are all offset at odd angles, but they should look exactly like the 1 piece of paper as it appears in Step 15?

Please consider testing your instructions on a real person before you publish them. No, I’m really not as cranky as I sound … but c’mon, if you’re gonna show us a really cool way to leave a three-dollar tip, please give us the real deal, OK? —Jim Kofalt

Thanks for writing, Jim. We test our projects, big or little, and this one was no exception. Our interns agreed that step was tricky, but doable, as they showed us the final product before we printed the magazine. But we know that origami steps can be hard to illustrate in limited space, so after reading your note, we’ve produced a video podcast of the Three Dollar Flower (pictured above), plus an expanded PDF illustration, at makezine.com/go/ flowerpodcast. Here’s hoping they help you easily fold the flower!

Thank you for your letter, Callie. Most (if not all) of us at CRAFT agree with you — we’ve run scrapbooking projects in the last few issues and plan to run more.

Like all our columnists, Jean Railla shares her opinions; similar to the op-ed page of a newspaper, our columnists have their own points of view that we hope our readers enjoy, even if they don’t always agree.

Also, I think Jean was confessing to the very bias you’re speaking of, and taking herself (and other crafters) to task for this bias, in acknowledging that iMovie is basically digital scrapbooking.

I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy this particular column, but I hope you continue to enjoy CRAFT as a whole.

—Carla Sinclair

••••••••••••••••••••

I’m an avid reader of CRAFT and a huge admirer of the indie craft world in general. I’m continually inspired by blogs, Flickr groups, Etsy, etc.

I love the DIY spirit, the sense of community, and the freedom to bend (or break!) the rules.

But I’m often puzzled by the dismissive and
condescending attitude in the craft world toward
scrapbooking (see CRAFT, Volume 05, page 12,

Got something to say? Write to us at editor@craftzine.com.