Crafting Japanese: about Archives

September 16, 2007

new format

I got a few takers on the group blog idea, so we're going to give that a shot. My plan is to see how it goes and then maybe open it up to anyone else who wants to help (or even just post your own projects and photos).

To make the contributer list easier for us to handle, I moved it over to Bloglines and in the process may have lost a few of you. If you should be on the list and you aren't send an email to the new email address submissions@craftlog.org. This is where all the project/photo/shop/etc submissions should go from now on too.

Thanks! Hopefully you'll all see some new action around here soon.

Posted by maitreya at 12:52 AM | Comments (0)

August 21, 2007

ideas?

Hi. As you can tell, I stopped updating Crafting Japanese a while back, due to a constellation of issues. Considering the frequency with which people are still sending me links, I think there's still a big audience for something like this site, though. I would like to keep it going, but the existing format is just too much work for me. I think there are a few possibilities about how to continue:

1. Status quo. I leave the site up as a reference, but don't update it any more. Send people to Flickr or something instead for new stuff.
2. Handoff. Someone else volunteers to run the site. I could either give you an account here and you could modify my framework (I'm happy to continue to host), or I could give you all the existing data and you could start fresh.
3. Some sort of group blog. The way we do Whip Up is sort of the model; contributers would get accounts and be able to add their own projects. I don't think it would be too hard for people to navigate the Movable Type backend (I would write up instructions), but it does require extra initiative from contributers. Would anybody actually participate if I did it this way?

Other ideas? I hate to see my poor site die from neglect, but I just can't keep it up.

Posted by maitreya at 04:17 PM | Comments (8)

February 24, 2006

Crafting Japanese in the news

Two big pieces of Crafting Japanese news:

Craftypod interviewed me for a podcast about Japanese Craft Books!

Crafting Japanese got mentioned in a real life magazine that I bought at the store! Kim, the editor of Crochet Me, wrote a nice column for knit.1 about amigurumi and included this site. Welcome any new knit.1 readers!

Posted by maitreya at 10:30 PM | Comments (5)

February 18, 2006

Kinokuniya Seattle special offer

Mikio Funaki from the Seattle Kinokuniya just left this comment:

We, Kinokuniya Seattle store, now have a special display for Crafting Japanese till Mar.31. We are carrying most of the titles on this web site that are available. You can find these books and more! Just say "Crafting Japanese" at the cashier, so that you can get 10% discount for any craft books. Please visit our real shop & web site.

And here's their address:

Kinokuniya Bookstores of America
Seattle store
525 S Weller St.
Seattle, WA 98104
Tel:206-587-2477
Fax:206-587-0160

Thanks to everybody who emailed me to let me know about the Crafting Japanese display at Kinokuniya! Exciting! Welcome to any new Seattle readers.

Posted by maitreya at 12:03 PM | Comments (8)

January 09, 2006

January 2006 update

Hi everybody! Happy 2006! I'm all caught up on emailed submissions. Now I can start in on my ever-growing pile of bookmarks to add. Thanks for the enthusiam and the wonderful projects. I hit 200 books a while back, and there are 84 contributors. All in 6 months!

So, seems like a good time to do some housekeeping. If you have suggestions on how Crafting Japanese can be better and more useful, please email me or leave a comment. For example, I had a great suggestion a little while back about making some sort of web ring or something to facilitate visiting all the contributor sites. Also, now would be a good time to complain. Thumbnails too small? Can't tell which things are new each time I update a post? My mega-updates slowing down your RSS feed reader? Category missing? Let me know.

Finally, I'm changing the way I handle Flickr submissions. If you've made a project and have the picture on Flickr, nothing changes. I'm still linking directly to it and posting a thumbnail and attribution. I will no longer be linking to individual book pages posted on Flickr, though. There are so many, it's just overwhelming me. And it takes forever to make the links to each one individually. So, instead I'm linking to the ISBN tag for each book. Then all the pictures are in one place and I only have to make one link that updates automatically. For your pics to appear, please tag each one with isbn1234567890 or just 1234567890 (where 1234567890 = the actual ISBN number). As I update pages, I'm adding the Flickr links. There are a bunch of them up already. Thank you to the people already tagging!

Happy crafting!

Posted by maitreya at 12:40 AM | Comments (4)

August 31, 2005

100 books!

Hi everybody! Today Crafting Japanese passed 100 books posted! And who knows how many projects. *Thanks So Much* for the great reception, and especially thanks to all the people in the ever-growing list of contributors. It is so fun for me to do!

Just a reminder, if you've made something you'd like posted, please email me a link (craftlog @ huangfamily . com). I post emailed things usually within a week. For the weblogs I read, if you post something, I bookmark it and work through the list whenever I have some spare time + no emailed links (like, say, today when I was home sick). Please don't get mad and think I don't like you if you don't see your project posted! I've been behind on the updating ever since I started this thing. Also, remember I am only one woman and can only track so many weblogs, so I really appreciate the tip-offs from readers for sites I might otherwise not know about.

Posted by maitreya at 09:58 PM | Comments (4)

July 14, 2005

about this site

I'm starting this page as a resource for all the crafters out there who love Japanese craft books. When I bought my first book, on a visit to Japan in 2003, I had no idea there were legions of other crafters with the same interests. There's something about these books that makes them stand out over all other craft books - the simplicity, the beauty, the styling, the instructions even an illiterate American can follow.

The goal of this site is to collect reviews and completed projects from as many books as possible. I'll list all the local bookstores where you can go and page through them yourselves, and the online sellers too. Plus, I hope to have instructions on how to buy through the Japanese sites and links to inspiring shops and artists.

What I need from you: if you've posted about a book, or know of such posts, please email me the link (submissions [at] craftlog [dot] org). Same goes for stores and favorite links. I will collate them all by catagory and ISBN. Each book will get one post, which I will update whenever a new project or review arrives. You'll be able to browse by category or search by ISBN. Anybody who gives permission for me to post thumbnails of their projects will be listed as a contributor.

Feel free to send projects inspired by or modified from a book. The project should be associated with a particular book or online site, though.

Crafting Japanese

Japanese craft books resource