Wanted! Contributors for a new Craft book

This Autumn sees the launch of my new book (pictured above) and I'm really excited to be starting on my next publication, scheduled for release Autumn 2013 now! It's a follow up to the forthcoming 'Glitter' book published by Vivays Publishing, but this time it will be '101+ Things to do with' a different material.

There are four categories inside the book:

• Fashion & Accessories
• Home & Interiors
• Cards & Papercrafts
• Food & Gifts 

And once again I'm on the hunt for exciting, unusual, original crafts projects designed by craft makers & designers from all over the world to feature in it.

If you are interested in finding out more, or would like to submit an idea that falls into one of the above categories, please email me at glittercrafts@ymail.com. You'll then be asked to submit a proposal describing what you would make for the book. If selected, you will need to make that project, and then send it to me, along with instructions for how you made it.

 

Proposals must reach me by April 30^th however before submission you'll need to know what 'special' material your project should include, so email me first and I’ll let you know what it is...

I look forward to hearing from you!

Momtaz x

 

Making and Teaching

As you know I love making stuff but I also like helping other people make stuff too! As a community artist and artist educator I get to work all over London with all sorts of people from different communities, ages etc.

For the last three years I have been working on the Geffrye Museum's Asian Women's project to engage the women of Hackney in East London with the museum. So far there have have been two groups, the first are an over 50s group who have lost their husbands and their children have grown up, so meeting up is an important part of their social life. They are all very lovely and so creative. Most of the time I just give them materials and they instinctively know what to do with them!

The second group is a younger Asian Women's group who live in a local estate. They are mainly in their 20s and don't work, so while their children are at school, they meet up and do craft activities together.

This Spring I worked with both groups to create an installation in the museum inspired at the recent Maharaja: the Splendour of India's Royal Courts exhibition at the V&A with the concept of creating a modern day Moghul living room. The groups created soft furnishings using hand embroidery, applique, sewing and painting.

The pieces aren't stereotypically Asian looking, they have a very modern East/West twist to them, representing the women's own lifestyles.

We started with an embroidery project, using different stitches to create a group wall hanging displayed at the back and then the women worked on individual projects for their own homes.

The quality of the work was amazing, one lady claimed she'd never done embroidery before but had seen her sisters do it and came up with this remarkable floral design! Wow! For most of the women it was the first time they had done any embroidery in ages but old school memories of learning the skill came flooding back to them in no time.

The installation is still on display at the museum in the downstairs art rooms so pop in and see it if you can!

Community crafting

It's strange to think that when blogs were invented they were about writing and now the emphasis is on how visual they are. For this reason I've not been able to blog for sometime and don't know when I can blog again as I don't have a camera! It's really frustrating as over the last couple of weeks I've been involved in lots of inspiring crafty projects and of course have been making plenty of my own crafty things.

Luckily I'm able to do this entry as someone else is letting me use their photos.

So these images are all taken from a workshop I ran for Northwood Community Arts Group last Saturday. Three artists including myself did a short presentation about our practice and then had two sessions to work with participants.

It was an over 50's group. To date I've only worked with women (apart from when I've taught children) so it was a really nice surprise to see such a high turn out of male crafters who all got stuck into sewing felt brooches.

For some of them like this gentleman above, sewing skills came flooding back to them as soon as they had the needle and thread in hand - you can just about see the lovely sparkly blue flower sequins he used to create a brooch for himself.

This man was younger than 50 and made a floral brooch as a valentines present. Another participant made one to take to his wife's grave.

I felt really proud to be able to get these men sewing again, even though some of them found it quite tough because they had eye sight trouble and less nimble fingers. There were no complaints, just quiet and creative working. I wish all my students were like this!