December 27th, 2011

Hello! Been wanting to learn to sew? How about knitting…or that other one with a hook…crochet! We’ve got a wide variety of classes, whether you’re curious to try
something new, or destined to perfect every craft that comes your way.
Not finding the class you want this month? Email us with your suggestions, or sign up
for a private lesson!

How to register for a class: By Phone: Give us a call in the studio, 310-392-0139
In Person: Drop by the studio any time during normal business hours, 11-7 every day.
Online: Go to our Web Store to see which classes are available.

DOWNLOAD FEBRUARY CLASS SCHEDULE AND MATERIALS LIST HERE

General Refund Policy: If you cancel class enrollment a week or more in advance
you receive a full refund. If you cancel within a week to 48 hours before the class
we can issue you 50% store credit. If you cancel within 48 hours we are unable to offer a credit
a refund but you may send another person in your place.

Please note: the correct time of Intro to Crochet is Sunday January 22nd at 4-6pm
Intro to Knitting has been rescheduled. The new date is Sunday January 29th from 4-6pm
Download January 2012 Class Schedule

April 21st, 2011

Happy Earth Day everyone (or tomorrow if you read this on thursday)! Rather than feel guilty about the ways we are wasteful today, we’d like to encourage you to take a little time to create something reusable you can feel good about. Celebrate the earth we live on and the many opportunities we have to help it! Here are a few crafts you can make today and everyday. Enjoy!

Reusable Coffee Sleeves

Whenever I get a cardboard coffee sleeve from a coffee shop, I always feel a little bad that it gets tossed away so quickly. You can turn your old wool sweaters into reusable coffee sleeves and cast that green planet guilt aside for a little bit. :-) Kitschy Cosby sweaters or holiday sweaters are great for those looking for a mini conversation piece, or an earthy brown or rustic toned sweater can look nice and calm you down while you sip a warm cup of chamomile.

How to make it
Do what everyone tells you never to do, throw your wool sweater in the washing machine on hot, then put it in the dryer. This will felt your sweater. Using a cardboard sleeve as a template, cut your sweater. You can double check your size before you sew the ends closed by wrapping it around a standard to-go sized cup. It’s better to make it a little snug than loose since your material can stretch a bit.

Use the blanket stitch to sew the ends together with embroidery floss, then sew around the raw cut edges of your sweater. You can use a contrasting color since it’s a nice looking stitch, or a color that matches if you’d prefer it blend in. Embroidering a design or your name is also a nice touch.

Join us tomorrow for the event in the Edgemar Courtyard, Friday April 22nd from 10am-1pm and try it out for free!

Recycled Cereal Box Journal

I’m sure a lot of you have been to or frequent a local Trader Joe’s market with their crowded mini parking lots and delicious name brand goodies. Perhaps you also have a collection of their stylish paper bags that you’ve been waiting to use for….something. I’m a fan of Joe’s Os myself and turned one of the cereal boxes and a shopping bag into a this little recycled journal to make my shopping lists inside. We’ve been making a lot of these in the studio lately!

How to make it:

1) Use an Xacto knife to cut the cereal box into the size you’d like for the cover. Then cut your desired number of pages out of your paper bag or bags. You’ll want to make the pages a little smaller in width than the cover in order to fit nicely in your journal. I decided to include some of the artwork on the bag into my journal too!

2) An awl and a Japanese screw punch are two great bookbinding tools to create precise holes through your layers of material. Be careful – this is sharp stuff! I cut three holes through the spine of my book and pages; one in the center and two on the sides about 3/4 of an inch from either end.

3) Used some waxed linen bookbinding thread to make a pamphlet stitch to hold the pages together. After it’s put together, you can decorate the pages and cover with paint, glitter, decoupage, even fabric!

Plastic Bag PomPom Garlands

I recently heard that Santa Monica will be banning plastic bags from most or all of the retail stores and restaurants in the city! They’re wasteful and abundant, but with a little thought, this soon to be contraband material can transform into a lovely decoration in your home.

We have these great little pom pom makers in the store, from small to jumbo in size. You may have made them using cardboard circles when you were kids! I made them in different sizes, out of plastic bags and yarn, then strung them together using baker’s twine.

February 26th, 2011

Crafts From the Ground Up
Free Event open to crafters of all ages
7-9pm @ The U.C.C

Meet Mike Metzger. A self described “very tall man” who has taught Paleolithic Toolmaking and Survival Skills classes at Machine Project, The Learning Garden and now, classes at The U.C.C! He’ll be teaching basket weaving and candle making classes this month and we are excited to host this free workshop on making flowers from palm leaves. Mike will also be demonstrating other crafts such as spinning wool into yarn and will have drop spindle sets for anyone who is interested in trying one out or purchasing one of their own!

Mike stopped in the other day to do some spinning and I got in a few interview questions with him to share with you. Feel free to pick his brain on Tuesday night, he has a lot of skills that he is eager to share!

Hello Mike! What can people expect on Tuesday?
I love to teach and show people how to connect to nature and how to participate in nature by making crafts. I teach many other skills such as rug-making, making bone tools, making rope from plants, making fire without matches, etc. I’ll be discussing some of these skills, teaching how to weave roses out of palm leaves, and sharing my knowledge on how to use the amazing natural resources we have right here in Los Angeles. So, please come on Tuesday and learn a new skill and feel satisfied by becoming more self-reliant!

What do you value about making something yourself?
Making your own crafts has so much satisfaction that is rarely to ever found by buying anything. The simple act of knitting your own hat or felting your own shoes give a person the sense of true fulfillment and happiness.

Who first introduced you to spinning?
I took a class at Amano yarn store in venice a few years back. I became fascinated with spinning much due to indigenous tribes who spin their live stocks’ hair and make blankets and tents, especially in the middle east. A very nice teacher showed a group of us how too spin and every since i’ve been hooked.

Why do you like nature? What’s wrong with the mall?
Nature is so beautiful and magical, it’s where the fairy’s, wizards and goblins live (laughs)! Deserts, forests, grasslands, mountains are so inspiring in so many ways and support so many amazing ecosystems, animals, plant life, fungi, insects. You don’t find this sense of wonder and amazement in shopping malls or department stores. You wont find good fresh air in a mall and you wont find all of the amazing beauty that is right here in your own backyard. Better yet, it’s all free.

What other hobbies do you have?
In a perfect world i would like to have a space to do blacksmithing, which i love doing. I love to knit and spin wool into yarn, Making stone cutting tools, wood carving, basket-weaving, net-making, I love studying arabic, I love clay and making pots, candle-making, feta-cheese making and many more.

What goals do you have for the upcoming year? (here’s where you can talk about your boat!)
I am planning a few ocean crossings in the next year. I am sailing to hawaii on a 48′ sailboat leaving from San Francisco in June and i plan to sail from Hawaii to Australia before the end of the year. I eventually want to to sail all the way to Oman, which is a very traditional arab country in the gulf where i would like to live farming, herding and making crafts.

February 17th, 2011

Hand Forged Metal Journals Supply List:
Required
Various found objects: These can be anything you might want to incorporate into your work: old rulers,
interesting pieces of metal, old buttons, pins, found wood, old signs, etc.
Some beads and charms.
Awl.
Scissors.
Ruler.

Optional:
I will have plenty of everything on this optional list, so DO NOT feel like you need to bring any of this stuff.
Dremel tool with various bits.
Small ball peen hammer.
Metal Alphabet Marking Tools (typically 1/8″ and / or 1/4″)
Metal Stamping Block
Smooth File
Sandpaper (around 400 grit)
Various Jewelry pliers, wire cutters, and tin snips.
1/8″ and 1/4″ wide flat brass strips. Try and get it in .22 gauge thickness if you can.
1/16″ drill bit.
5/64″ drill bit.
3/8″ drill bit.
Pieces of leather. This can be old coats, gloves, sample pieces, really any kind of leather. Small pieces are fine.

To sign up for this class online, check it out on our web store.

3-D Mixed Media Supply List:
Required:
* 3 canvases sized 8×16. These can be the really deep ones or the skinny ones. They can be wood
panels or canvas panel’s. If you simply can’t find the above size, bring something around the 8×10 size.
I found the 8×16” Winsor & Newton 13/16” canvas’s for $20 for a box of 6 at www.jerrysartarama.com.

Bring any collage you really like along with color copies from your journal that you might want to use.
I will have collage for you to use but it’s fun to add in some of your own as well.

Bring a small jug of Golden brand soft gel medium in semi-gloss.

A glue brush (roughly 3/4” flat or 1/2” round or so…something cheap). and a brush for acrylic painting
about the same size. I want you to have 2 different brushes because the glue brush needs to remain
dry when you use it.

2 pieces of 6mm fun foam in black (other colors are fine if black is out…we’ll just paint it). This is
the thicker stuff. Most JoAnn’s or Michael’s craft stores have this in the fun foam aisle. The size is
9”x12”.

Acrylic paint (can be liquitex soft body jars or any type of tube acrylics) in black.
colors that you would like as the backgrounds of your paintings.

Pair of scissors

To sign up for this class online, check it out on our web store.

December 20th, 2010

My friend Kathy is a bacon fiend. Eating it is a recreational sport for her, and for the past few years I’ve been making bacon inspired presents for her. Starting with a felted bacon strip, moving to the bacon image button magnets, and rounding out with bacon vodka, I’m running out of bacon ideas. So this year I am playing the ace, I’m making her bacon soap from the bacon grease from a years worth of bacon eating. Yes, you read correctly. BACON SOAP.

I took inspiration from several web sites. This one, this one, but ultimately used this recipe.

My method:
Once I remelted and strained it through a bunch of layers of cheese cloth, I had 2 ½ cups of bacon grease. I halved that amount to get the water, so 1 ¼ cups of tepid water, and weighted out 2 ½ ounces of lye. I collected my equipment:

safety glasses
gloves
mask
pyrex measuring cup
wooden spoon
spatula
crock pot
stick blender
bottle of vinegar

***A word about lye-always wear protection on your hands and eyes when working with lye. It heats up and is caustic, so there is the potential for chemical and heat burns. But with the proper caution, you’ll be soap making without fear. Always use cold or tepid water, and always pour the lye into the water, not the water onto the lye. And make sure to have some vinegar around, it neutralizes lye so if you do splash it on yourself or any where, just douse it with some vinegar. Once you have finished the soap, rinse all containers that had lye in or on them with vinegar before washing with soap and water.***

To continue, I put the fat in the crock pot and started it warming up.

I donned the gloves, mask and safety glasses and put the water in the pyrex mixing cup.

I then slowly poured the lye into the water, stirring the whole time (never pour water onto lye, always pour the lye into the water). I stirred until the solution went clear.

Once the lye was added, I plugged in the stick blender and placing the end flat on the bottom of the crock pot, pulsed it until the fat and lye mixed began to blend.

I then continuously blended the mixture until it “traced”. Tracing is when the soap thickens to the point that the stick blender leaves a trail as you stir. It will coat the end of the blender if you pull it out, like a thick custard.

At this point I removed the blender (putting it in a safe place to be doused with vinegar) and put the lid on the crock pot. I left the mixture to cook. About 5 minutes later I checked it and found it separating. I had to sprinkle a little more lye into the mixture and reblend for a while to restart the chemical reaction. Once it was thick again, it began to cook properly.

Once the mixture began to go translucent I began to stir it.

It took on a creamy appearance, with a little bit of gloss to it, with all the custard like consistency gone, so I dumped it into my mold (a cardboard box lined with wax paper)

and let the reaction finish. It took a while but once it was cool to the touch, I took it out and cut it with a kitchen knife, and packaged in a pretty tin for my friend. And you know what, it still smelled like bacon!

Good luck with your own bacon soap-we’d love to see pictures if you make some!

Angharad

December 2nd, 2010

We’ve all got the Holiday bug today here at the UCC! Everybody’s flitting around the studio, busy with their projects. Here’s a look at what we’re up to!

Quilted Lunchbag Angharad whipped out in an hour from Our Lunchbags! book.

Miranda cutting Fat Quarters for Renegade!

A cute sample from our upcoming Gift Wrap Clinic.

Our Martha Stewart Christmas Treeeeee!!!!

An addition to Cheryl’s window display, aaaand part of Crocheted Peppermint Swirl Pillow.

I spent some time with the Cricut cutting out letters for our sale sign. I remember the infomercials for the Cricut, and how cheesy they were…but it’s actually really cool and handy for making cards, tags, signs, and embellishments n stuff. You have different cartridges with all kinds of different themed images, and you pick the size and paper, and what you want to cut out, and voila! Perfect die-cuts!

Last but not least, the peaks of Cheryl’s felt trees in the window!

August 4th, 2009

After taking Alissa’s Coin Stacked Quilt class last month, we’ve been practicing our new skills by making lots and lots of quilts. Devon found some patterned hand towels and transformed them into quilt blocks and Jamie was perfecting the coin stacked baby quilt to give as gifts for friends and family.

Somehow the summer quilt bug caught on. Below is a slideshow of the amazing quilts being made in the studio this month. Click Here to see more of Flickr photos. Alissa will be offering her very popular class twice in the next session. The new schedule will be out in the next week – sign up for our newsletter to get the first look!

August 1st, 2009