Learn about crafts

Published: 12:00am, 25 Feb 1997

If arts and crafts are among your favourite hobbies, there is much on the Internet to help you.

Are you willing to let those well-thumbed Isaac Asimov or Raymond Chandler paperback classics rot? Those interested in preserving old pulp paperbacks, using an archival binding technique, the long-stitch, can visit http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/jones/book/.

Douglas Jones teaches the essentials of bookbinding, with special regard to preserving pulp paperbacks. He also provides links to other resources.

CraftNet Village (http://www.craftnet.org/) is a virtual village for crafters. You may not be able to see the whole village in one visit, so go back often.

You can search for your favourite craft topic. Also, you can see an update of what's new in the village that day, Sarah Jane's Tip of the Day, and lots more.

Crafters of all sorts are invited to add their URLs to a free and ever-expanding collection of links to craft news and sales sites entitled The Crafts Fair OnLine.

This Web site is located at http://members.aol.com/craftworks/index.html.

Web-surfers can get in touch with individual artists by clicking their links in The Crafts Fair OnLine.

A World of Crafts at http://www.craft.com/craft/ is another site you may want to visit as it features plenty of arts and crafts information.

You can read craft publications online, shop, read comments and editorials from some of the Craft Industries' most influential people or leave a message for one of the many friends you are sure to make.

Decor Delights (http://www.xmission.com:80/decordel/) provides a big, busy resource devoted to the crafts of tole and decorative painting.

There is also a free newsletter called Teacher's Spectrum. It is the Loew-Cornell quarterly newsletter for decorative arts teachers.

Other than that, an IRC channel devoted to tole has also been set up.

At http://www.dfw.net/mcrafts/, it provides a small but attractive adjunct to a bi-monthly crafts magazine called Michael's Arts & Crafts Magazine.

Try your hand at a sample project, then fill out a form for a free issue.

Lastly, CraftBase's Kangaroo Korner (http://www.vistek.com/kangkorn.htm) keeps you updated on what is happening in the world of crafts, tips and locations for finding more crafts.

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