DIY City Blog

You´ve probably heard about Blurb.com where you´re able to make your own books about holiday pics, wedding pics and so on. Not many crafters and artists have realized that these blurb-books can also be made to portfolios or hardcover inspiration books! It would make a very good addition to your Etsy shop or website shop. With the prices starting from 20 dollars they are very affordable. Check out Blurb-bookstore Crafts&Hobbies category.

Lori Stanstedt aka lorimarsha has done just this. Her new book Re:find goods - Wear. Smile. Repeat. shows her clothing reconstructions and inspiration. It makes a wonderful addition to your craft book library. See the book preview here (40 pages, published: May 13, 2008).

Here´s how she describes her book, “Our culture glorifies the new. Trendy garments with built-in obsolescence quickly lose appeal when they appear on the “what’s not” side of the “what’s hot” fashion column. So they’re relegated to the back of the closet….stuffed into a bottom drawer… and, if they’re not dumped into the trash, they eventually find their way to thrift and consignment stores where they languish under the humiliation of multiple markdowns and overpopulated racks. As every savvy recycler knows, treasure often hides between purple power suits and polyester broomstick skirts. And the thrill of finding a mustard dupioni silk blouse or a fine gauge British wool dress makes the sometimes exhaustive searches worthwhile. I am proud to say that I design all of my garments from recycled materials.”

At the moment Blurb offers only 48 books on crafts and 8(!) books on recycling… I know you guys have talent to make more! You can fill your book from anything to product images, making-of-pics, inspiration book scans and drawings or sketches as long as they do not violate any copyrights. Of course book-making requires a certain ability for lay-out design and quality pictures from your items. But as I have written about DIY photography in the past, all this can be done at home. Just use your imagination and creativity. The Blurb.com book-design program is very helpful in this. Now how long it would take for me to construct my own book from my inspiration book pages or my trashion tutorials???

RECYCLE RUNWAY book written by Nancy Judd. Book detail HERE.
Check out their website.

by Outi Pyy