American Craft magazine has undergone a wonderful redesign of both the print publication and Web site. The current issue's cover article is about the work of Kathryn Pannepacker, who is painting murals in Philadelphia derived from global textile patterns. There's also an article called "Craft & Community," with a Q&A with contemporary quilter/success story Denyse Schmidt. There are several other fiber- and stitching-related articles online from both the current issue and the archives.
Oh, and they have a blog that will keep you busy following fascinating links . . . . bookmark this one.
I haven't done much stitching at all in the last few months; I'm not sure how that happened. Last night, though, I took the latest mirror-and-stitching piece and added some fabric strips around it, at the suggestion of a friend. Now I need to find something for a batting layer and do more stitching in the areas I've added. I know I tend to create relatively formal arrangements that I hope still have enough complexity to be interesting and not static; I'm not fighting it right now.
When I read this post a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't going to comment on the American Craft redesign, but since you gave me permission when we talked about it, here goes:
Personally, I find it nearly unreadable. They took a very nice, clean design and totally mucked it up. I suppose they're going for some kind of trendy retro look, but I find the typography is terrible, with some sections rendered much too large for the reading distance, others much too small in a light color, and type blocks run over photos without enough contrast for readability. An apparently haphazard placement of elements and mixed justification of type blocks prevents an ease of flow, and every bit of space on every page is just crammed with stuff. There is no white space to let my eye breathe a bit, except when it's "trapped" by surrounding elements. The pull quotes are styled with a rule that goes right through the descenders and includes the punctuation. Yuck.
But at least they got rid of that horrid half-page flap that came with the first couple of issues, so I have to give them credit for that.
Well, I guess I had more of an opinion on this than I realized. Apparently I've been stewing about this ever since the first redesigned issue, and I thank you for letting me vent so I can now get on with life.
On another note, the stitched piece you posted is very beautiful. I love the formality of it, a kind of modified log cabin block design. The contrast of strong color and neutral grays really works.
Posted by: Deidre | June 05, 2009 at 07:49 PM
Interesting links, thank you. I'll be visiting the site again. Shame all these tallented people are so far away I can't see their work in person, thank goodness for cyberspace. What did we ever do without it?
Really like the combination of colours in your piece. I don't think it's static at all, the mirrors and the stitching which conects them give it lots of movement.
Happy stitching
Posted by: Jane | May 20, 2009 at 04:12 PM
hey thanks for the link and as always i appreciate all the work you do to present all this information.
i love your piece, it has a nice freedom. this is a method i use too. a central panel with add as you go framing. it grows for as long as you let it.
i like how your stitching has crossed the boundary. maybe they will be tellers of fortune....
Posted by: jude | May 20, 2009 at 06:03 AM