Katie Witham - Knitwear

'Beauty Pressure' is a collection by the UK knitwear designer Katie Witham. The collection takes inspiration from societies' obsession with changing, altering and improving bodies to achieve cultural perceptions of beauty.

A warm welcome to our newest crafthaus members:

Cindy Gibson, Ruston, LA

Lauren Eve Skelly, Providence, RI

The British Library Puts 1,000,000 Images into the Public Domain, Making Them Free to Reuse & Remix

Artists rejoice: Earlier this week, Oxford’s Bodleian Library announced that it had digitized a 550 year old copy of the Gutenberg Bible along with a number of other ancient bibles, some of them quite beautiful. Not to be outdone, the British Library came out with its own announcement on Thursday:

We have released over a million images onto Flickr Commons for anyone to use, remix and repurpose. These images were taken from the pages of 17th, 18th and 19th century books digitised by Microsoft who then generously gifted the scanned images to us, allowing us to release them back into the Public Domain. The images themselves cover a startling mix of subjects: There are maps, geological diagrams, beautiful illustrations, comical satire, illuminated and decorative letters, colorful illustrations, landscapes, wall-paintings and so much more that even we are not aware of.

New job listings:

• Assistant Professor of Furniture Design (Tenure Track) @ Kendall College of Art and Design, Ferris State University (KCAD) in Grand Rapids, MI
• Assistant Professor, Curator and Director of Exhibitions @ University of Arkansas, FAYETTEVILLE, Arkansas
• Assistant Professor of Ceramics @ Kennesaw State University, Georgia
• Art Full-time Faculty, (Metal Arts) @ Montgomery College - Rockville, MD
• Revere Academy Seeks Receptionist/Student Liaison
• Etsy is seeking Vintage specialist Marketplace Integrity Agents to join Trust and Safety team
• The American Museum of Ceramic Art (AMOCA) in Pomona, California, seeks an Executive Director
• Gold and Silversmithing Lecturer @ School of Art, Research School of Humanities and the Arts, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Canberra Australia

View these and other listing details on crafthaus (member sign-in)

Open Call for Emerging Jewelry Artist's Work: “F-1”

You are invited to apply for the exhibition “F-1”, curated by Platforma, a newly established initiative by Bella Neyman and Ruta Reifen.

“F-1” will open on May 3^rd, 2014 at Brooklyn Metal Works, Brooklyn, New York and will be on view through June 2014. The exhibition is timed to take place during the highly publicized and much anticipated New York Design Month.  The exhibition will be accompanied by a series of promotional events.  “F-1” is the first exhibition in a series of curated projects by Platforma. The goal is to present new work to an audience that is not familiar with art jewelry.

Wedding Gift - Snuff Boxes in Shoe Form

Just like the inkwells described in a previous post, with society frowning on smoking and snuffing for quite some time now, old fashioned wooden snuff boxes have all but disappeared. But take just one look at these lovingly made compartments and you might feel a tinge of nostalgia. Not so much for the smoke-filled locations we no longer have to endure, but for the tiny objects made to hold the tobacco. What beauties.

Want to attend the NCECA conference in Milwaukee?

3rd Annual NCECA conference scholarship awarded exclusively to a crafthaus member! 

Deadline to apply: Feb. 7, 2014 @ 6 PM Pacific via email. NO SUBMISSION FEE for crafthaus members.
Jurors: Cindy Bracker, NCECA Communications Director and Sam Chung, NCECA Director-at-Large

ENTRY INFORMATION .....

Blacksmithing

- blog by Melissa Cameron

For his most recent birthday, His Nerdness (TurboNerd - aka my partner, Bruce) asked to do a blacksmithing course. After lining up all the options for learning blacksmithing in Seattle we both enrolled at the Pratt Fine Arts Center on a 6 week Monday night course, which we finished just before the holidays. If you know me you know that I’m not much into hammering metal, so this was a challenge, that especially in the week before, I was not relishing the prospect of.

Gwen van den Eijnde - costume

The costumes by Gwen van den Eijnde (*1981) recall many aspects of the forms of Baroque costumes. Van den Eijnde, who was born in the Netherlands and currently lives in Paris, has developed a specific form of performance that situates itself between haute couture, design, craftsmanship, and sculpture. Drawing inspiration from pattern books, films such as Jarman’s “Caravaggio” or Fellini’s “Casanova,” he meshes these influences into an individual style.

Call for entries: 'Play That Funky Music !"

More listings/calls for artists on crafthaus (member sign-in)...

Interviewing NCECA Emerging Artist Lauren Gallaspy

- blog post by Kalika Bowlby

NCECA 2013 Emerging Artist Lauren Gallaspy's work spans many disciplines including functional and sculptural ceramics, painting, and drawing.  Through all of her work there is a theme of exposure, a sense of expressing tangibly that which is not immediately visible.  Lauren kindly took time from her busy teaching schedule and studio practice to speak about her artistic process.

The last word...

Safety Pin Couture - Sorcha O'Raghallaigh

Fabric, fashion and jewelry by Sorcha O'Raghallaigh constructed from 100,000 safety pins made into capes, collars, cuffs and tiaras creating an iconic look and raising the humble safety pin into haute couture of startling beauty.