How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread

A long time ago, I was on “book leave” from Brown Paper Bag… and sort of nev­er returned. (Yikes!) Well, I’m hap­py to announce that the text and fiber-arts-focused projects I was work­ing on are now a book avail­able for pre-order!

Titled Threads of Treasure: how to make, mend, and find meaning through thread, it’s a craft book that examines the idea of treasure as it relates to textile art.

I do this through 13 artist pro­files and guid­ed cre­ativ­i­ty prac­tices. The book, pub­lished by Schif­fer Craft (an imprint of Schif­fer Pub­lish­ing), will be avail­able on April 28, 2024.

Threads of Trea­sure is divid­ed into three realms and exam­ines tex­tile art in three ways. They are:

1. Trea­sur­ing the things we love. In this sec­tion, I speak with artists whose work uti­lizes found or dis­card­ed objects: Hillary Waters Fayle, Janis Led­well-Hunt, Claris­sa Calle­sen, Jes­si­ca Grady, and Shan­non Moser. The sec­tion ends with a project prompt: cre­ate a work of art inspired by a trea­sured object of your own.

2. Trea­sur­ing the things we own. This part of the book focus­es on mend­ing and adorn­ment to make some­thing tat­tered or stale look or feel new again. I talk with Aroun­na Khoun­no­raj (aka bookhou), Tes­sa Per­low, Lind­sey Gradolph, and Ste­fani­ja Pejchi­novs­ka (aka Dama­ja), who all work on cloth­ing. This sec­tion con­cludes by show­ing a basic mend­ing technique—patching—and how to cre­ate a sew-on patch to give a gar­ment a new pep in its step.

3. Trea­sur­ing every­day moments. In this final sec­tion, I focus on mak­ing as the trea­sure itself. I speak with artists who have worked on long-term art projects: Amy Jones (aka Cheese Before Bed­time), Amy Read­er, Steph Evans, and Han­nah Claire Somerville. At the end of this part, you’ll be chal­lenged to start and com­plete a week-long project to con­nect with the dai­ly act of making.

Speak­ing with these artists was inspir­ing, and I came away from the writ­ing process being remind­ed that there is no one way to do things—especially when it comes to cre­ative endeav­ors. While that could be daunt­ing (there are so many pos­si­bil­i­ties!), it’s also excit­ing. I hope these artist pro­files and sug­gest­ed projects help aid your cre­ative journey.

Threads of Trea­sure is now avail­able for pre-order. Here’s where you can buy it online!