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Name: Athena Preston
Job Title: Senior Associate Craft Editor
Date started at company: in the craft department, November 2005, but I first worked here on the Kmart Holiday line way back in 2001
First story: Ribbon lettering for the December 2005 well openers
Hometown: Washington D.C.
Education: BFA Rhode Island School of Design, MA in the History of Decorative Arts and Design, Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Parsons School of Design
First Job: I worked at an ice-cream parlor called Thomas Sweet. I gave a lot away for free.
Astrological sign: Gemini
Personal crafting/artwork: various silkscreen, stenciling, and block-printing projects.
First craft memory: tea-dyeing white tights with my mother so they’d match the crocheted lace collar of a very special brown velvet dress. Also, around the same time- wallpapering my dollhouse
Things you collect: manufacturer’s samples of ceramic plates with handwritten notations and pattern swatches, Tove Jansson picture books, old rulers painted bright colors, paper ephemera, my co-workers’ discarded craft efforts
FAVORITE . . .
Color (Pantone): Pantone # 178
Holiday: Valentine’s day, I never tire of the palette
Pizza topping: fresh ricotta
Kind of Fabric: Prints of all sorts. Scandinavian linen and cotton, certain crazy chintzes (but certainly not others!), mill-engravings and other tiny patterns, lately nearly any fabric that combines pink and blue
Dessert: Yakimochi from Café Zaiya
Source: the library at the Cooper-Hewitt
Tonight I’m going to a birthday picnic in the park for two old friends of mine whose birthdays are this week, Carrie and Ana. As usual I’m in a scramble to make something to give them, so I’ve turned to my never-fail birthday card which I’ve made a zillion variations of over the years. All …
Morgan recently pointed out to me that one of my most favorite craft supplies is this humble glue, Yes! Paste, which I used for the first time on a story about making jewelry boxes several year ago. I used it to glue very heavy paper, very thin rice paper, and silk and velvet fabrics and was …
Not long ago we shot the cover for our July issue here in our photo studios…. as often happens, we shot quite a few different versions to be chosen from afterward. The theme of this issue is Amazing America – all departments here at the magazine worked very hard to research the best regional and …
Father’s day is around the corner, so be sure to take a look at our gallery of handmade Father’s Day gift ideas. I also made a perusal of the Father’s Day offerings on Etsy, and found the selections below.
A sweet card, which I love because it reminds me of Eric Ravillous somehow… Though …
I recently came a across this online shop, Upon a Fold and was so taken with it I had to share it… Based in Sydney, Australia, this business is the vision of Justine Fahd, a graphic designer and lifelong lover of paper crafts. The shop sells a beautifully curated collection of things; books, stationery and …
Several months ago, we shot “All Set for Summer” a story that appears in our June issue. This is a sort of unusual one for us because it combines quite a few simple, doable crafts with other strategy ideas for easy summer entertaining, all of it relaxed and fun. I loved working on it in …
One of our most useful resources here in the Crafts Dept. is an enormous collection of clip art books. For those that don’t know, clip-art is basically copyright free imagery, and takes many many forms. I think of our clip art collection as a vast library of visual material and use it constantly as reference …
The book launch party held in our offices last week was pretty cool for us because we got to meet so many of our readers in person and hear all about thier own interests and projects. As described in earlier posts, I spent quite a while demonstrating a fabric stenciling technique, which gave me time …
Basic techniques for sewing, applique, embroidery, quilting, dyeing, and printing, plus 150 inspired Projects from A to Z.
