Crafting Techniques – Learning is fun!

I don’t know about you but my first day of school was so exciting! I couldn’t wait to have a desk, my own pencil case and to have a jotter with my name written on it! Every day was a new adventure until something kicked in, perhaps the routine and the ‘growing issues’ which took all the magic away and rendered learning quite un-special.

I think it takes a little while but at some point, once you’re free from the constraints of education, learning once again becomes something to marvel at, to be proud of! Something that I’ve noticed about crafting is that it’s somewhat addictive. The thrill of learning something creative is often strong enough to provoke a euphoric search for something else to learn / make / do which is why many of our shops feature more than one craft and one of the many reasons the Folksy Forums (http://forums.folksy.com/) are such popular places for crafty chatter!

Folksy is not only a marketplace, it’s somewhere thousands of makers and artisans share a wealth of knowledge about their particular craft. We’ve got book binders, carpenters, seamstresses, embroiderers, metal workers, jewellery makers, knitters, painters… just to name a few! Something which struck me almost as soon as I opened up my shop on Folksy was the sense of community and other more experienced sellers’ willingness to help out the newbies and guide them through the early questions and concerns.

Until earlier this year stained–glass artist Amy Orange Juice was writing an excellent series for the Folksy Blog called Inspiring Creativity which focused on crafting techniques. Sadly for us readers but fantastically for Amy, her business started to really take off and she found that she no longer had the time to keep up with writing commitments. Around the same time, my own column , which had been focusing on genres and trends as opposed to techniques came to the end of its planned topics. I’m going to be doing my best over the next while to pick up where Amy left off… no pressure then!

I thought I’d ease myself in gently with knitting for my first post as it’s a subject close to my own heart. Should anyone have any ideas for topics they would like to see covered or plans to take up something new then by all means leave a comment or drop me a line konnie@konniekapow.co.uk.

I’m really looking forward to this!