Today I’m excited to talk about Vickie Howell’s new book Craft Corps (out May 10th), a book on the craft community featuring 30 influential designers of the industry. The book was inspired by NPR’s Story Corps which was an audio project collecting people’s stories and archiving them for posterity. In this book, Vickie does the same with a series of Q&A crafter interviews from Amy Butler, Garth Johnson, Kathy Cano-Murillo, Mary Englebreit, and more. Somehow in this amazing line up of crafters, Vickie even chose me as a crafter to feature in this book! Before each Q&A, Vickie talks about her relationship with the crafter and asks questions that really delve into deep questions or issues such as juggling new parenthood, the value of handmade, the struggle of making a living from crafting, and more. As I’ve been reading the other profiles of crafters, I’m getting to know them even better and have been inspired by what they say.
As an aside, Vickie and I did the interview for this book my first week back from maternity leave last year. My daughter Chloe was only 2 1/2 months old. Chloe took really good naps except of course, that one day and time were I had a phone interview. I remember trying to be as professional as I could but then I just stopped and realized that I was talking to a fellow mom as well. I told Vickie that I needed some time to get Chloe settled and she told me to take as much time as I needed. I think at that moment I realized how special of a person and friend Vickie is and how our wonderful craft community operates. No where else is there a group of people who understand the juggling of work, crafts, and family since most of us work from home. I love that we can have conversations that go on about yarn, fabric, or patterns, that suddenly switch to anything from baby advice to gossip about our favorite TV shows. There is something about our community that is so special and Vickie Howell brings it all to light in the Craft Corps book, and helps to continue the dialogue online through the Craft Corps blog.
Craft Corps Giveaway!
In celebration of the launch of this book, Vickie has 30 days of Craft Corps giveaways. Today being day 9, she has featured me on the site with a chance for readers to win a CRAFT Box Set! Head on over to the giveaway page to enter!
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