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| Which Craft: D.I.Y. has hit the city. Here's how to sharpen your skills. By Rachel Strutt |
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| Knitting is the new yoga,
and scrapbooking has become the latest thing. Armed with glue guns,
bedazzlers, and skeins of yarn, modern-day Marthas are spawning a
local do-it-yourself revolution, scorning mass-produced products in
favor of one-of-a-kind wonders. With countless opportunities to be
original, it's time to get crafty. "The scene is booming," says Jan Stephenson of Spark Craft Studios, a new D.I.Y. emporium in Davis Square. "Young women are fueling the trend - but they don't knit bootees like their grandmothers do." Spark, which opened its doors earlier this year, is equal parts craft store, social center, and classroom (its curriculum lists quilting, crocheting, scrapbooking, and photo-mosaic making.) Those inspired enough to bring buddies can rent private rooms for prearranged art parties. Davis Square newcomer Magpie is also embracing the craft craze. It peddles such ingenious items as darling learn-to-knit kits. At Newbury Street's 1154 Lill Studio, shoppers tired of ubiquitous, brand-name totes can play designer, sorting through 20-plus bag styles and hundreds of fabrics before ordering a custom one that's wholly their own. In Cambridge, Beadworks, with its head-spinning selection of vintage and contemporary beads, provides a setting both inspirational and instructional. And at paint-your-own-pottery studios Clayroom and Naked Clay, customers spend hours personalizing platters, vases, and mugs with colorful stenciled figures. Still not enough? Head to Paper Source, and take a class in collage or paper-flower making. It's never been easier to do it yourself - and to create some personal flair.
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