Magazines : CRAFT: Transforming Traditional Crafts |
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Rating:  - * Great magazine, don't let one problem put you off ... A lot of the reviewers here have mentioned problems with one cover story. Don't let that put you off this mag. It and its sister mag MAKE are great. They show a different look at the craft industry than you get when you look in chains like Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Craft and diy are huge and it's not all about scrapbooking and decorative painting. There are heaps of indi crafters doing great things and who, until now, have been largely hidden from mainstream consumers. CRAFT gives these people a platform to showcase their stuff - and it is great - the only pity of it is that in publicising these new takes on old crafts indi is now becoming mainstream! Go figure. Do yourself a favor and check out the magazine - there is plenty to look at and to enjoy. There are things that provoke you to think about materials and crafts in new and different ways - it's not all about step by step projects (although there are plenty), it's as much about challenging you to think outside the box. Rating:  - * Not Enough Projects for the Price ... I'm glad I checked this mag out at the bookstore before coughing up the dough for a subscription. I looked at the "Play!" themed issue. It is not as thick as you would expect for a $15 magazine, and there are still ads. I was disappointed by how many articles were just, "Hey, look at pictures of the cool stuff these people are doing, but we're not going to give you any information on how to do it yourself." There were also way too many "articles" that were just advertisements for artists' products. Then there were silly columns on things like the pitfalls of making handmade gifts for friends and family. Who cares? Give me projects! I wish there were more projects in the issue for the price. Then for the 10 or so projects, the instructions for some of them seemed kind of skimpy. I see other reviewers here have also complained of incomplete directions. This is a relatively new magazine, so maybe they just haven't hit their stride yet. Maybe I will check back in a year to see how they're doing. Rating: - * you are smarter and more original and clever than this magazine ... This magazine might have a couple good ideas and articles, but it's way too much about its own hipness as the vanguard of the supposedly new craft/DIY movement, with more self-congratulatory paeans to neo-crafty scenesterism than actual inspiration. The DIY movement is not new. Rather, it is, in what I think is the most telling sentence in the whole issue that I read, a "$30-billion dollar industry." Well, there's this mag's DIY ethos in a nutshell: it's ok to be a consumer as long as your wallet is made of duct tape. Oh, and if you want actual substance, I guess you don't Get It, and you're never be one of the cool kids who are ever so free of this cookie-cutter world! There were a couple of articles about individual crafters that were interesting and I laud their commitment and talent. However, the editorial articles that purport to be so insightful about the "deeper meanings of the movement" are pseudo-intellectual horse-spoor: poorly articulated, scattered, and trite. Is it really news that there is a dichotomy and/or conflict between the concepts of art and craft? The essay was more about how cool and punk-rawk the writer is, and how she was ahead of everyone in "the scene." The supposed article about costumes through the ages was fluff rip-off, pure and simple. I get the feeling that the woman who wrote it, who has serious credentials, probably turned in something well-written and interesting, and then the editors thought it would be clever and neo to hack it down to five choppy, minimalist sections (some only one sentence to cover an entire historical period) and fill up the resultant white space with prancing pseudo-retro graphics. No, I don't expect a scholarly treatise in a magazine of this sort but way to eviscerate a potentially interesting topic. It's great that there's a resurgence of DIY and that people want to participate in creating the material culture of their own lives. I wholeheartedly support that. But the constant shouting from within the mag itself about its level of innovation is a complete sham. A quick perusal of the latest issue: natural dyes, wow, that's never been done a million times since the neolithic revolution. A decoupage tray. A pirate outfit for your dog-- not new, and by the way, horrendously cute in contrast to the constant protestations that this mag exists to deliver modern crafters from the scourge of cuteness. As someone who actually lived through the 80s crafting hell of twee, yeah, worthy goal, now get on it. Next, a birdhouse, a macrame curtain, how to make candles, sourdough starter. In other words, a rehash of a lot of 1970s craft mag projects. Apparently the editors think they are marketing to a crowd that can be flattered by the appellations artsy, intelligent, and cutting-edge, but who they secretly believe can't dig back more than 20 years or find anything if it's not on the internet. The only instructional morsels that were the least bit tasty were the article by Angie Pontani on how to make a Carmen Miranda-style headdress (not new, but a fun tutorial by someone who clearly knows her stuff), a little ditty on retro-style crocheted cocktail rings, and the monster-bra. On a more serious note, this mag treats more involved crafts with a level of superficiality that borders on dangerous- you really do kinda need to know what you're doing when working with dye chemicals, and apparently a previous article on home wine-making was so flimsy as to actually prompt a reader to write in and alert others that they risked botulism if they followed the instructions as written. Sure, some of these articles can be considered more as "prompts" to further exploration, but if so, why the heck are we expected to pay such a high cover price? So you know, transforming traditional crafts, not a crime. But could you please 1) at least actually transform the crafts instead of mostly poaching them straight from old magazines and books you found at a thrift store and pretending you came up with something innovative; and 2) stop incessantly badgering us about how new and fresh and hip and clever you are? It would make it a lot easier to swallow the bitterness of knowing I paid an around-the-world price for this dryhump of a magazine. Rating: - * Neat Magazine, The cover lies ... They don't give you the pattern for that robot, I have no idea why they would give coveted cover space to something they wouldn't tell you how to MAKE in a zine all about how to make things. I won't ever buy another copy. It has neat stuff in it, but on principle I just can't. Rating: - * Silicon is your friend ... It's a fine memory chip. Not once has it exploded, covered me with acid or radioactive goo, or allowed creepy ghostlike overlays of ancient tragedy onto pictures of my new house. Go wild, get one. |
