I am so pleased to share with you the cover of my forthcoming book, The Artful Bird: Feathered Friends to Make and Sew. 144 pages of bird sewing goodness, including 19 projects to make everything from a flamingo to a woodpecker, a swan to a wren. Step-by-step photos to show you exactly how to make a wire armature, all different options for sewing feathers and tricks for turning and stuffing successfully. And lots more.
Plus four interviews between me and some of my favorite fabric bird makers (Ann Wood, Abigail Brown, Tamar Mogendorff, and Jennifer Muskopf) and a gallery featuring birds by all five of us.
I was so excited this afternoon when I saw that The Artful Bird it is now available for pre-order on Amazon. The official release date is January 1, 2011.
Making this book has been one of the most interesting experiences I've ever had. Going into it, I knew that I had the ideas, the patterns, the concept for a pretty great craft book. Writing the proposal and preparing all the materials was all-consuming last spring. Researching potential publishers was interesting in and of itself. Who would be the best fit? In the end I chose the six I thought would be the best match.
I emailed it out and then I waited. A half hour. And Tricia at Interweave called. I almost fell off my chair. And then nearly all of them called. And the original concept evolved into something more workable. Then one publisher offered a two-book deal. And then they were all calling and I had to choose and it was really cool and really stressful. And in the end, I chose Interweave because I could tell right away that they got it. They understood my idea, my aesthetic, and they would make an awesome book.
I signed the contract and then I had eight crazy months to sew and write. The sewing (and buying all the new fabric) was the great part. Doing all the technical writing was torturous at times. Flying to Colorado to shoot the step-by-step instructions was a totally fascinating experience in and of itself. Blogging through these months was so hard. Sewing like crazy and not showing anything here! It was so weird. But by December, it was all done and in the mail.
Some editing in May. And I'm sure some more back and forth is to come, but now there it is, for sale.
The next phase still seems far away. First I have to birth a baby, after all. And then a book baby.
