November 12th, 2009

(photo credit: Becky Sapp)

A lot of the crafters I’ve met first learned the importance of handmade skills when they were kids. Cheryl grew up in the Nebraska Sandhills, where she was taught by her family to crochet and sew at the ripe old age of four. She comes from a long line of crafters who seem to create magical environments within the sand dunes and prairie landscape. In the 1950s, Cheryl’s uncle took apart television sets and made dioramas out of them to put all around the house.

That imagination has certainly been passed along. After teaching workshops at Machine Project in Echo Park (including the talking amigurumi yeti in the photo), she was invited to take part in their show at LACMA. Cheryl crocheted 101 little birds at the LACMA entrance, and one gigantic crochet bird, nearly 5 feet tall, to sit beside his hanging friends. The event included an ongoing crochet workshop where Cheryl taught nearly a hundred people how they too could use their hands to create a magical creature for their world.

Cheryl came to The Urban Craft Center to add a few new skills to her repertoire. She’s picked up quilting, spinning and screen printing over the past couple of months. I am quite fond of her Yeti cards from our Yudu class. Adorable little beast, no? This design is a continuation of an image Cheryl created and had made into fabric. She’s started an Etsy shop, you can see it here, with more great items coming soon. For more information about Cheryl Cambras and her work, visit her website.

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