Were you involved in any kind of crafting community before the advent of the internet? If not, did you spend as much time crafting then as you do now? In other words, has the internet community changed your crafting habits and made it easier to come out of the “closet”?
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Good Cookie Creations 
I have always crafted but since being in touch with more people and sites on the internet I have crafted more. I find it very inspiring and also if I don’t know how to do something I can find it quickly and easily. I have only been dressmaking for the past few years, mainly beacuse I got a part time job and needed somehting to fill the time and I really wanted to get back into sewing.
I do talk about crafting with more people now too, I used to keep creative bits secret, not sure why, but I had some really good feedback and I met one of my best friends who is crafty and now we craft together 🙂 I’m actually making a poppet for her at the moment 🙂
My family has always been very crafty/artistic so we have always had days full of crafting and fun. Time for us to work on handmade items together. I found Craftster.org and I don’t know what I would do without it now! It opened up a whole new world of crafting and crafty people. I treasure my friends I’ve made through swapping and posting in threads. I craft more now than ever because I’m always inspired by things I see.
I’m a young’n so the majority of my crafting has been during the “age of the interwebz”. However, growing up, my crafting was mainly contained to small gifts for friends and projects for school. I personally do not know very many “crafty” people. Don’t get me wrong, I know lots of artists but they are the serious painter/illustrator/photographer types, not the “jewelry making/stuffie sewing/crocheting” type like me.
As I grew older, I began to craft more simply because I needed it to keep my sanity. I purposely became the historian of all my high school clubs so I could make scrapbooks. I organized “craft days” for my National Honor Society group and a local nursing home as a volunteering opportunity for other kids, things like that. I grew a small circle of friends who crochet and craft but nothing to the extent of the friends I have online who craft.
Now that I have craftster, I make so much more. I participate in swaps because I LOVE making things but I hate keeping it. I get to have a creative outlet without keeping the “clutter” (as my family refers to it). I gain so much more in terms of inspiration because I get to see what other people have made on craftster or even etsy!
I was never much of a group kinda person, and I would feign being grounded to stay home and draw, read, and craft alone, or with my brothers. I remember being 10 years old and being teased that I was an old lady because I was crocheting. But that’s what my mom did and I wanted to be as good as her! That’s when my crafting went underground.
The only time I really had a “community” was the critique sessions during college as I majored in studio art and finally found an outlet for my creativity. Gosh I miss those days! Everyone had constructive things to say, good or bad, and not only did I feel like I was learning and growing but I had people that UNDERSTOOD me!!! After that ended, there was nothing until Craftster. During that long art hiatus, I tried jewelry making because it was small scale and portable. I never really was consistent. I just realized that I don’t really thrive without input, as most my work is sporadic or commissioned. My last big project before Craftster was a series of paintings when we decorated the room for our first baby. The creative energy that flowed out of me was so exciting!
After finding my peeps on Craftster, for a mom with 2 toddlers, I do craft quite a bit. My little internet community and the whole concept of swapping crafts and sharing ideas has definitely boosted my craft rate, and also dented my pocketbook. I check Craftster more than my Facebook, and my repertoire has expanded, starting with pincushions, and thanks to ghilie and the gang I have added not just sewing but Dolls!, which includes pattern drafting, sketching ideas again!, clothes making, wig-making, creative material substitution, painting, and more…. And I now am out of the “closet” as you say, posting my creations on my Blog! and Etsy Shop! and sharing stuff I made and received on Facebook. I am especially glad and thankful for my community because I now have mentors, critics, peers, helpers, admirers and whole lotta inspiration!
Before gaining Internet access I was not part of a crafting community. I’ve always crafted but not as much as I do now. The Internet has given me a lot more exposure to new crafts, new techniques and has pretty much expanded my crafting horizons. I see crafts and think – That’s so cool! And then I try it! Thing is whenever I see something awesome, I think – I’m going to make that! The result is that I have a long craft ‘To Try’ list which grows every time I visit a crafting website. It’s also great to belong to an Internet crafting community in which I can share projects and ideas. The Internet is also a great resource tool for free patterns, crafting advice and tips!
As long as I can remember growing up my aunts would find craft projects for when they would get together. They would each bring a project and the materials for each to make one, granted they only got together 4 or 5 times a year but that is how I grew up. As I got older they stopped this tradition I am no sure why and I may try to revive it. But my mother and grandmother are the ones who have taught me to crochet and sew but I never had friends that understood me.
I would have to say that finding Craftster really opened me up creatively. I find so much inspiration and it is like a flood gate once it is opened you are constantly doing things I have expanded my abilities and also am not afraid to try new things. My mom says I have surpassed the teacher, while I dont know about that I do know that I am much happier now that I have the creative outlet opened up to me by Craftster and Ghilie who started me on the poppet train which is what really started it all. Thank you again.
I started crafting waaaaaaaaay back – I remember making mutant clothing for my Sindy doll when I was about 4 but I’ve only felt ‘normal’ since finding places like Crafster. I guess the biggest impact the internet has had on my crafting is the obvious inspiration (who knew I liked moustaches on sticks?) and also the kick up the butt to try something different rather than staying in the tried an trusted sewing rut. And I get to download amazing things from sites like Urban Threads to use in my embroidery machine which, I suspect, would not be nearly as interesting without t’internet.
I wasn’t part of a crafting community before the internet. The closest I got was sitting in my driveway with a few friends making friendship bracelets out of embroidery floss.
I don’t feel that I was ever “in the crafty closet,” but I do craft more often now that I am part of an online crafty community. I also try (or just learn about) many more crafts than I would have if not for the internet.
I only just recently joined a crafting community. Before the internet I was not involved as it was hard to find somewhere that would accommodate me (homeschool mum).
The online communities are a wonderful thing as you can connect, create, inspire and be inspired.
I have certainly done more then I would have, and have even learnt new techniques because of it.
Well, crafting community, no, but I did learn how to do many crafty things at my Gramma’s knee. She taught me crochet and knitting (both of which I have forgotten most of but it got me in the swing of things), embroidery, stitching, etc. We had such a fun time and it was a great way to connect with her. We kept that connection all her days too, into adulthood for me. I credit her with getting me started on this life-long love of mine, without a doubt she was the inspiration, the motivation, the drive and desire to CREATE instigator for me.
I went on to study art in school and that was fine, interesting in it’s own way but not as free form and impulsive as choosing crafts to do out of love or need for an item or a gift. Still, I learned a lot and gained in confidence.
The crafting community of today has certainly influenced me a great deal. Not only have I learned how to do so many new things, I’ve seen crafters make attempts at stuff I’d never have imagined doing for reasons that would never have occured to me. Yes, it has opened up new worlds of possibility for me and often given me a push towards crafting for no purpose other than love of art, the creative process, expression. And this sort of thing is gaining in popularity and acceptance, not to mention support! Crafting is art become accessible to the masses, a demystifying of the whole deal and presenting it as ultimately doable, desirable, purposeful and fulfilling.
Out of the closet? I’d have to say yes to that one.
My Mother was crafty/creative/artistic. Or I should say *is* She’s still here, but does a lot less now. That’s not the point. The point is the only “crafty community” I was ever involved in at a young age was my Mother and Grandma. Family. It’s thier fault. LOL Mom let me sew. Grandma had fabric paints and pillow cases. She also taught me how to knit.
As I grew up, i was the only one in my 11 person class that took home ec. No crafty comunity there either.
Once onto Fashion Design school, there was of course the other would be designers. But does that really count as a community? I suppose it does, but we all payed an arm and a leg to be there…
After Fashion design there really was no one crafty in my life, and I fell out of crafting and creating, little funds and lack of inspiration I guess. It wasn’t until I stumbled on Craftster that I really fell headlong back into creativity and craft. The community there is so suportive! I love it there. In “real life”, or life off the internet, it seems that I can find people who craft, but thier interest in developing a community for it is severly lacking. No “Stitch and Bitch” groups, no “Scrappers” clubs, No Spinning guilds. Nada. So internet it is for me. I don’t actually get to craft with people but I can share what I did and share my sense of accomplishment and hopefully inspire others!
No, I wasn’t a member of a crafting community before the internet. I craft a lot more now. Crafster is such an inspiration! I attempt crafts that I would have never thought of touching before after seeing others beautiful results. And it helps me complete projects to know that I can take a pic of it and get other crafters advice and praises for what I have done.
Being only 23 the time in which we didn’t have internet seems a very distant memory. But I always remember having a craft box even when I was very small, I’d craft for my barbies and such like while my mother sat and cross-stitched, crocheted, made cards, scrap-booked or was sat at her sewing machine. I suppose you could call Brownies and Guides a “craft community” of sorts, I was an avid member of the guiding community from ages 7-19.
I only really discovered the wonders of the internet as far as crafting goes when I finally got the hang of crochet in april 2007, it got me searching for patterns and that is when I discovered craftster.
I crafted before the internet and before online communities were common place. My crafting community at the time consisted mainly of my mom and the nice ladies at my church and the local fabric store.
Since becoming involved in online crafting communities I actually craft less, but that has more to do with time in life than online habits, but my online involvement has inspired me to try new things. Online crafting sites have also made it easier to track the craftyness of real life friends who live far away.
I can’t remember a time that I didn’t do some kind of crafting. As a child, I did the crewel embroidery kits constantly, loved origami, made doll clothes, paint by number kits, etc, etc.
It wasn’t until after college that my crafting got “serious.” Carving my own rubber stamps introduced me to the world of internet crafting and suddenly, crafting was no longer a solitary effort. Even if I was still sitting in a room all by myself.
I am spending more time crafting but that’s because the benefits that crafting brings to my made it worth me taking the additional time. The internet’s just another tool for crafting.