'Crafter Culture Handbook' by Amy Spencer

Marion Boyers Publishers, $17.95, 288 pages

By Meghan Murphy
Published: May 5th, 2007 | 10:10am

<img src="http://venuszine.com/stories/crafterculture.jpg" border="0" height="240" width="206" alt="crafterculture.jpg" align="left" hspace="5" />The <i>Crafter Culture Handbook</i> truly lives up to its name. It's full of inspirational projects for both the seasoned crafter and the interested, but uninitiated DIY-er who asks the question, "Where has this new craft scene come from and how can those of us who've never picked up a needle get involved?" Author Amy Spencer attempts to find answers with features on hip and well-known crafters such as Leah Kramer of craftster.org and Julie Jackson of Subversive Cross Stitch, each sharing a craft for anyone from beginner to seasoned to try out. The projects include clothing (such as a smock-dress/shirt, a skirt, and a camisole), beauty products (like a creamy avocado and yogurt face mask) and cute house wears (primarily kitchen items such as aprons and pot-holders).

Spencer muses on the subversive, radical, or even revolutionary nature of the contemporary DIY movement, while encouraging involvement simply because crafting is a lot of fun. There are tips on how to start your own crafting group, suggestions for crafting resources, and a list of the coolest craft fairs around.

One project stood out as my favorite: "Little Birds Mobile" fashioned out of felt and embroidery by Emerald Moseley, "a London based self-employed interactive designer." The mobile is the perfect little handmade item to decorate a baby nursery. Despite how darling it is, it's not so saccharin sweet that you couldn't also add a fanciful touch to your own, grown-up wall.

Chapters include "Needlecraft Revolution" (with simple and useful sewing projects such as a laptop case, and a few pages dedicated to suggestions for stocking your sewing box), "Good as New" (with how-tos on salvaging and reusing items like plastic bags and sewing scraps), and "Homemade Beauty" (which, as the title suggests, describes how to make everything from citrus fizzing bath balls to creamy avocado yogurt face masks).

An extra helpful tool at the back of the book is the conversion tool, which transcribes measurements in the "makes more sense" metric system to the one we use in the United States.

The most impressive thing about "The Crafter Culture Handbook" is the wealth of get yourself started inspiration and information. With this book on your bookshelf (although, I doubt you'll keep it there — you're more likely to keep it your tote bag or next to your workspace), you'll never have an excuse for being bored or creatively blocked. The book will help to turn rainy, "blah" days into fun and crafty afternoons and those stay-at-home Friday nights into indulgent homemade spa evenings.