Kathryn A. (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kerravonsen) wrote2023-12-15 11:50 pm
kerravonsen) wrote2023-12-15 11:50 pm
Best and Worst Gifts to Give a Crafter
Inspired by How to buy gifts for coffee people, I'd like to create my own guide to giving gifts to crafters; that is, people who are enthusiastic about some particular craft, with mentions of some specific crafts but also craft hobbyists in general.
- Cheap, generic supplies for their craft.
- Knitters/crocheters: cheap acrylic yarn
- Beaders: a packet of assorted beads of similar colours where none of the beads are identical (known as "bead soup"). Yes, that may seem like value-for-money, but unless the person is into the aesthetic of similar-coloured beads that don't match, bead soup is just a nuisance to deal with.
- Beaders: plastic beads; they are cheap for a reason
- Second-hand supplies for their craft. Especially second-hand supplies which require extra labour on the part of the recipient to extract the supplies in question.
- Here are some I have actually been given:
- A broken necklace, for the beads.
- A swatch of beads sewn onto cloth, which was clearly cut out from the dress it originally belonged to - again, for the beads. (This one distresses me, because the swatch of beads is beautiful and ought never have been cut out from the original garment they were sewn onto.)
- I have not been given any of these, but they are things along similar lines:
- a sweater, for the yarn
- copper wire from a demolition site, where the wire is still encased in plastic (for wire-wrapping)
- If you absolutely must give such second-hand supplies, at least do the labour yourself! If you do, then the labour is half the gift.
- Here are some I have actually been given:
- Gift cards. These are a rip-off, do not buy them, because they have an expiration date, which means if the person is busy, you have just thrown away that money. See below for an alternative.
- Cheap, poor tools.
- Don't get folding scissors. I have never found a pair which were not poorly made and uncomfortable to use.
- Plastic wool needles. Metal is so much better, it doesn't matter if you can get twenty plastic needles for the price of one metal one.
- Don't get a chainmailler cheap pliers, especially not cheap pliers with small metal handles - they are terrible for your hands. In fact, just don't get pliers for a chainmailler at all, unless you have bought them from The Ring Lord.
- Beginners kits -- because your friend probably isn't a beginner.
See also this video which has similar tips specific to yarn-crafters.
- For yarn-crafters, a yarn bowl is something they will either love or find completely useless. But a beautiful hand-crafted wood or ceramic yarn bowl can be lovely for someone who does actually use them. But beware, double and triple-check that the item is actually hand-made and not some cheap knock-off from China. Especially for a wooden yarn-bowl, because those cheap ones are roughly made, not sanded properly, and can snag (and ruin) the yarn. Also, get the type of yarn bowl that has a curved slot in it rather than a hole that one must thread the yarn through, because that hole means you can't remove the yarn from the bowl (say, if you want to put the project aside for a bit).
- Difficult-to-get craft supplies. This can be very hit-or-miss, obviously. However, if you're going on a trip somewhere, it might be to a place which has some unusual craft supplies -- which of course you would have to ask your friend about, so it wouldn't exactly be a surprise. Because I have an international audience here, I'm going to list various different places/countries which have interesting stuff:
- Czechoslovakia: glass beads (especially their fire-polished beads)
- Venice: glass (I'm not sure about glass beads, though)
- Austria: Swarovski crystal beads
- India: glass beads (quite a different style, but I personally love the large foiled beads especially the ones in dark, rich colours)
- New Zealand: possum wool yarn (this is a blend of possum fur and merino yarn, it is so soft and light and warm) (no, don't worry about the possums, they are a non-native species which is a pest)
- Japan: silk (cloth or thread)
- Thailand: silk (cloth or thread or yarn)
- "Hill Tribe" silver pendants or beads
- A subscription to speciality craft supplies. I don't know if this is done for any craft besides yarn crafts, but I do know that some speciality yarn places (such as hand-dyed yarn) do offer subscription boxes which usually consist of some lovely yarn and a project to make with it, sent out once a month for three, six, or twelve months.
- A craft-supply buying expedition. That is, besides buying them a gift card (or cash) make it an outing to that store (before the gift-card expires). This is especially appreciated by people with limited transport capabilities, if you pick them up and drop them back home with their loot. Obviously don't do this if you would be bored, but if you enjoy spending time with your friend and have them blather on about their craft (or if it is a store where you can also buy stuff for yourself), it can be great fun, especially if you go to a café afterwards.
- For yarn-crafters, a project bag with accessories.
- with a separate zip pocket, which one can easily fit one's hand into. Can be on inside or outside of bag.
- Bonus points if the bag closes fully (e.g. zipped, or drawstring) (but the zip-pocket is more important)
- Accessories:
- small sharp scissors with a cover
- stitch markers in a small container (not in a bag)
- The kind which are like safety pins can be used by both knitters and crocheters; the ones like loops can only be used by knitters
- a test-tube/cylindrical container with a few good-quality metal tapestry/wool needles
- (for knitters) a couple of pairs of needle-tips (whether you get sober ones or novelty ones depends on the taste of the recipient)
- (maybe) a row-counter, if you can find an interesting or handmade one
- And put all the accessories in the zip pocket.
So what do you think? If you're a crafter, what have been your worst/best gifts to receive? Have you ever owned a pair of folding scissors which were well-made and comfortable to use? If you're not a crafter, but you know one, what experiences have you had with gift-giving? Are there interesting craft supplies near where you live? Or in places you have been?
Leave a comment, yeah?
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As a bookbinder, I agree with all the above. In the 2 years since I started, what makes me pleased it's to receive paper, good quality acid-free paper for my endpapers. My sister brought some from one of the oldest shops in Barcelona. This was 10 months ago, and I still don't dare using it, it's so lovely! People tend to give me scrap book paper, which I appreciate and sometimes use, but it's not the thing for this craft.
Hubby, is the super gifter. He has made most of the things I have: built the workbench, built multiple wooden tools, cleaned and painted my old iron press, he made my shelf for paper storage and my paper making tools. He is a crack. The secret: He asked and worked with me to adapt things to my needs.
I think that, unless one knows a little about the craft, it is better to ask someone knowledgable about it. There are plenty of trinkets sold as "must have" that aren't really that useful.
What can be nice:
Books, not just DIY but coffee table books with examples of beautiful things in that craft. I spend hours looking at book designs, even if I can't create them, I learn by illustrating my eyes.
Organizers. Crafters are hoarders, and we always run out of space. In two years, I went from working on a folding table to using the smallest bedroom in the house as a workshop. Finally, I dismantled the home office to use a larger room - it's now full of stuff! It's a joy for me that everything has its place and is well labelled and easy to find. All my friends keep the pretty packaging boxes for me. They know I will use them to store materials.
In my experience, most book binders have a well-loved bone folder, you will never be wrong giving one. Other tools that can't go wrong: a good all-purpose bookbinders knife; metal squares and rulers are welcome too.
As I live in a place where the paper market for this trade is miserably poor, getting reams of 105 gsm short-grain cream bond paper is a feast.
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That is a very good point about coffee-table books for inspiration. One of my favourite beading books is "The Complete Book of Beads" by Janet Coles & Robert Budwig, and the reason why I love it so much is that it isn't just about techniques and projects, but because it starts out from a position of aesthetics/history/culture and the projects follow on from that. And LOTS of pretty pictures. It is intended from the start to be inspirational.
True, organiser things are highly desirable, but also very personal. I'm thinking of the time when my father gave me a set of square ceramic dishes to use for bead-sorting and/or temporary storage... and while they were nice ceramic dishes, they totally were not suited for that purpose (they were too large and clunky). It's just something which one has to "ask me and work with me" for... someone may already have their system set up, and getting stuff which does not work with that system... Look, I have a huge very specific setup for storing my stuff. Big metal shelves for the yarn, and boxes of specific sizes which go on those shelves (so as to pack them in efficiently). Tiny things like beads, maille rings, and charms go in multi-compartment semi-transparent plastic boxes with lids, but not just any kind of multi-compartment boxes, there are a specific size and shape, and they stack up on top of each other neatly.
So, like, I wouldn't trust anyone to buy me storage containers.
Oh, bone folders. Soooooo useful. In my case, useful for Origami. (No, I don't make little origami animals, what I am interested in is making boxes.) Hmmm, a good metal ruler is always useful too.
What is a bookbinder's knife? Well, obviously, a knife used by bookbinders...
Aye, there is paper and paper. My interest in paper lies in finding suitable paper for acrylic pouring, which needs a glossy paper which will not warp or buckle when it gets wet. I did a side-trip into Watercolour paper for that, but found that the main method for watercolourists to avoid paper-buckling is to actually dampen the paper first, stick it down to a board with tape, let it dry, and then do their painting with the paper still stuck down. That's a greater degree of preparation than I am willing to do.
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What is a bookbinder's knife? It is a knife more like an old-fashioned penknife, with a very sharp edge and no point. It is useful for cutting paper. You are right about the organisers. I store material according to size and frequency of use. I find old shoeboxes very useful in general. One issue is where to store large rolls of paper and vinyl. I solved it by hanging some heavy duty Pipe Brackets on the wall. It is interesting what you say about paper. For the book covers, I have to use cardboard with papered cloth on one side and endpaper on the other. All this, at different times, is glued with PVA glue. Paper, cardboard and fabric react with the glue liquid. If you don't do it right, your cover will get wrapped. The paper tends to shrink with the humidity, but the cardboard resists it. You have to be very careful with the direction of the grain of each material. Hours in the press cannot solve the issue of the forces of the different materials reacting to moisture in different directions.
"I do not have sufficient patience to master" It takes like four hours to bind a book from scratch. Basically, it is just folding, sewing, cutting and gluing materials. It's super relaxing. Yet, I couldn't do beads, it requires a level of fine motor skills that I don't have. It would make me very tense.
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Oh, the pipe brackets are a clever idea for storing paper rolls!
What you say about the different materials reacting differently to the glue and the tension between them reminds me of what my brother-in-law has said about woodworking; the way he has to take into account the grain of the wood and how wood will shrink and expand depending on the humidity; something rather important when making wooden boxes that one doesn't want to warp or break either.
I didn't realise that paper and cardboard had a grain like wood does. How is that determined?
It is fascinating that with craft, one person's "relaxing" is another person's "boring". And yet, to get the most enjoyment out of any particular craft, it has to be one where you enjoy the process and not just the end result. That's why I gave up sewing; I liked the end result, but the process, as you say, made me very tense. Whereas I find crocheting and knitting to be very soothing.
Another thing that all crafts have in common is how important it is to know your materials. For each craft, that will be different, and unless you know that craft, you don't know the quirks different materials have, nor why those differences are important.
And so on.
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To be honest, I am not very good at determining the direction of the grain. There are several ways, one is by folding the paper, if it cracks and tears, you are against the direction of the grain. Another way is to bend the paper. The grain direction is the direction of least resistance. You are right about knowing your materials. Sometimes people think that creativity is innate. I, on the contrary, consider that you have to know your craft to be creative, which implies among other things knowing how the materials you use work.
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There are discussions of what's best. There are people that like Teflon folders as they are softer and more flexible than bone ones. Bone folders might mar your surface, but it never happens to me. I'm in love with my bone folder, and I like that it's more rigid. I also made my own wood folder, it's nice but not as good as it really stains the surface and leave it with a bright sheen. I have to put something over my surface and then use it. Not very practical. As I live in the countryside, it's not rare to find old dry cow bones laying in the field. A goal for me is to carve my own one from a discarded bone.
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I really don't know. I think it might be the friction between the two materials that finally makes the surface I work with shiny where my wooden folder passed through.
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You are from the land of fire-polished glass beads. Be proud!
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I don't actually know anyone else who knits, but wish I did, or that there was a group that meets. I'll have to see if there is.
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I'm with you there on finding a group that meets. There's a local yarn store that does a "stich and bitch" thing, but they have limited space and thus limited spaces which were, of course, all full up. Oh well. At least I investigated?
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There was one in our library here where I could also have taught interested new immigrants how to knit, but it was at the same time as our Pilates class. I don't think it's still going anyway, but I should check to see if they are, and have maybe changed the time.
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I think I would hate a subscription. I like to acquire yarn for specific projects, and the goal is to have less yarn as the years go by, not more!
Also, I recently acquired a tiny pair of folding scissors, and they are perfectly fine for the task of cutting off yarn ends, but I doubt I'll ever do anything else with them.