I think Shannon Buck's prints have such a wonderful light, carefree quality. Which is really something when you consider the process by which they're made: the old, old technique of carving the image, backwards, into the surface of a printing block. You can see lots more at her business website, Loaded Hips Press - AND get a tarot reading, too.

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What is it about old-fashioned printing methods like block-printing and letterpress that appeals to you? Every part of the process is hands on. It's easy to understand the mechanics of printmaking. The power's off and I’m still printing! There is something simple and pure about it.

I also believe that art making doesn't have to be expensive. Basic tools can be found objects, a good press is a one-time expense, or using a communal print shop is even better, cans of ink that last forever, printing leaves from off the ground, this is what I'm into. There are some amazing things going on with digital art, but the process doesn't excite me.

How did you come to build a business around them? It was purely circumstantial. I started making the prints about 5 years ago while I was still in school. It was during summer vacation when everyone was out hiking and camping and having fun - I was in the print room like a crazy person but building up an inventory. I sold the prints locally in shops and at the Handmade Bazaar. I had such a positive response I couldn’t stop making them! I'm sort of breaking some printmaking rules by not creating editions, but that's why I price them low. I never imagined I would still be printing them today.

It's fortuitous that this Handmade Cultural Revolution thing is going on, too, although I'm certain I was destined to follow this path in some form or another. My great grandfather in Germany was an amazing illustrator and draftsman. He was commissioned to make family crests and he designed puppet sets in his spare time. I feel like in some sense I'm passing that tradition on. Making a living off of it feels like luck. I feel lucky every day.

What inspires the images you draw and print? Postal cancellation stamps, flamenco dancers, old advertising illustrations, empty buildings, 19th century paintings, rich colors, the Great Northwest, faded signs, imperfections, unrealistic figures… I'm always drawing or collecting ephemera and what inspires me is always evolving. There are always new characters in my head and I have to tell their stories, this is why I make art. It's an unresolved dilemma with my work, nothing ever looks the same.

Tell us about your Whirligirls, too! How did you get started making those? I collect old "how to" books, anything from furniture making to scrimshaw. The older the better – this is where the best crafting ideas come from. I always thought of whirligigs as those ducks with the mad feet flapping in the wind. Then I came across a folk art book about whirligigs and whimmy diddles. Go ahead and say that out loud. I thought, "Cool - I can make this." I borrowed the construction design from the book, but I significantly altered the figures and made kitty cats and pirates and bathing beauties instead of the sailor in the book. The arm construction had to be improved, in fact I'm still repairing most of them. But I had a couple working and I showed them off to a friend in a coffee shop. These ladies were like "How adorable! Where can we buy them?"

How do you define the difference between "Art" and "Craft"? I'm glad you asked this question. It feels like the two are merging more and more every day, or maybe they never should have been separated to begin with. I guess it's about who's buying and what's selling and who's representing you? In art school, there is so much pressure to push the envelope, and less time to fully develop technique. How can we push limits when we haven't yet grasped the basics? So maybe when I think of craft, I think of going back to the basics, and when you're really good at what you do, that's when you start to blow everyone's mind.

What are some of your favorite creative spots in Portland? The bus. The downtown public library. Sitting on the hill at Chapman Elementary School, dreaming about the swifts. Powell's bookstore. The Independent Publishing Resource Center – those folks have been so wonderful to me.

I squealed when I first laid eyes on Dolls For Friends - these cute and slightly-edgy little personalities practically climbed out of my computer to introduce themselves. They are designed and brought to life by Jill and Erin Lynch, who also run a design studio called eljl. I'd highly recommend a visit to the Dolls For Friends Etsy shop, where the product copy will have you giggling all day.

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How did Dolls for Friends come into being? Jill and I had talked for quite a while on what we could do as a collaborative project. We always liked the idea of doing a project as a husband and wife design team, but the opportunity had never presented itself. Jill had started making little hand sewn dolls for herself and our kids as an alternative to a lot of the traditional, store bought products. We also had a hard time finding soft toys that we really liked in stores.

The rest was really just a very natural process. We started talking about putting together pieces as part of a project where we would create custom, handmade dolls in the likeness of individuals that we found to be inspiring from different media areas. These were people that we personally considered "doll worthy"; individuals that had inspiring personality traits that we admired. We wanted to create one of a kind art pieces that we could share with these individuals as a gift to say thanks for their inspiration.

After the first few pieces were completed, we started talking about doing other plush dolls that we could offer to everyone. It was an opportunity to create the types of dolls we wanted to make and that we thought other people would enjoy as well. We then started looking into craft shows, gallery submissions, an online presence, marketing and design. Essentially the building blocks for a brand new design team.

What kinds of things inspire your doll designs? And, how do the two of you collaborate? Comic books, children's books, humor in everyday life, overactive imaginations, wishing that we were as eccentric as our overactive imaginations, movies, cartoons, quirky senses of humor, street art, the amazing and intimidating talents that already exist in the art world, stuff like that and more. Too much to list.

It almost always starts at the sketchbook level. We draw then we look at each others stuff, talk about what we want to accomplish with the piece, whether it's worth making and how it should be made. The fun part starts when we start to dig through our massive collection of reclaimed and new fabrics, vintage buttons and accessories. Materials are selected and played with until the exact look and feel is achieved. The doll is then sewn and photographs are taken. We essentially work with each other and give each other input from beginning to end.

What would you say are three things that a doll needs to have in order to be really lovable? The expression and overall look of their face is right at the top of the list. So much of the actual "feel" of the piece is captured in the face. You can change the mood of the entire piece by how you handle the facial expressions and construction of each feature.

The next would be the shape and tactile feel of the body. Soft materials, squishy and huggable are major requirements for our pieces.

Third, the material selection and detail work of each doll. While we love the clean lines and feel of a line like Ugly Dolls (we own several), we also really like dolls that are layered and textured and are visually arresting. Just adding a few vintage buttons and some reclaimed material allows you to create something completely unique and special - a truly one of a kind piece, something that will be treasured because you know that you're doll is tailored to your personal tastes and that it's going to be the only one like that or one of very small line.

Do you have a favorite among the dolls you've created? Erin: For me I'm really in love with the Hanetori line. We've done three versions of our little winged bird, and they get better with each iteration. We have plans to do a large scale, completely custom version later this year for a gallery in New York that we were just approached by, and I can't wait to see how he turns out. We also have some more "creature" based plushies that we're putting together, which really speaks to me due to my love of anime and comic book culture.

Jill: I so appreciate Erin's love of the creature/monster style dolls, although I tend to be a little more girly and love the sweeties like the jellies, my big doll Fifi (which I have decided not to part with), and I love the Hanetori dolls! it's so hard to decide, and this may seem like a contradiction, but I really really loved the Pigmo dolls we've done so far. Wait a minute. Oh, I don't know. I really love them all. Each piece is so personal for me, and I have a definite attachment to each one. I love to look at them, pick them up and admire them. They're quickly taking over our studio space!

How do you define the difference between "Art" and "Craft?"

We had originally talked about answering this question separately, but after talking about it for a bit we discovered that our answers are in fact very close with one another. We don't necessarily think there is a difference between "Art" and "Craft". We think that one is a natural extension (or expression) of the other. When you start defining the difference between the two you begin to set one up as being better (the subject of high brow art vs. low brow art is a real pet peeve of ours), or more valuable, than the other. Which again, leads you to the question of "What is Art?". It's so subjective, but we view them to be two parts of the same whole. It's all creative expression.

What are some of your favorite creative spots in Portland? We really love the boutiques and custom toy stores (Missing Link, Oblation, Upper Playground, Compound Gallery, etc.) in Portland. There's a lot of local work in the shops that you can see and the abundance of creativity in this city is impressive.

The real creative spots, though, are out on the streets. We are huge fans of urban art, graffiti and public art display. There are so many talented individuals out there who inspire us with their body of work through spray paint, stickers, murals, stencils and installation. I know that many people view this type of work as more nuisance than anything else, but they fail to see the beauty and meaning in the work being produced. Street art is what helps to shape a city, to make it unique, and Portland has a strong community of writers who we admire.

Here's a whole new spin on book and zine-making: make 'em from fabric instead of paper! Here's a simple method:

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First, choose some fabric. This project works best for woven fabrics. You can use solids or prints, and you can use several different fabrics in the same book.

Next, decide what size you want your finished book to be. Cut yourself a template from lightweight cardstock. It should be the same size as your book would be if it were opened flat.

Then, trace this template onto several pieces of fabric, and cut them out. (You can use between three and eight pieces of fabric for this method.)

Easier-way instructions: If you own a rotary cutter, then just cut yourself a series of fabric rectangles, all the same size. And watch your fingers.

Now, let's talk a bit about your fabric choice. If you're using a fabric that has the same appearance on both sides, then your pages will all look the same. If your fabric has a distinct "right side" and "wrong side," then some of your book pages will be showing that "wrong side." If you like, you could fuse your rectangles together back-to-back, so only the "right side" shows. This tutorial shows you how to fuse.

Once you have your fabrics as you like them, stack those rectangles up as shown here.

Fold this stack of rectangles in half, and press them with a steam iron.

. . . .This creates a helpful crease where the spine of your book will be.

You'll want to sew along this crease line in order to bind your book together. The easiest way is to stitch it up with a sewing machine, but you can also do it by hand. If you're stitching by hand, a simple running stitch or backstitch work well.

And voila! This puppy is a blank canvas, practically begging for embellishment. Consider these ideas:

- You could embroider on the pages before binding, and then fuse them together back-to-back, to hide the backsides of your embroidery.

- You could draw on the pages with puff paints. (Just be sure to allow lots of drying-time!)

- You could write on the pages with paint pens.

- You could stitch or glue paper ephemera to the pages.

- You could sew beads or sequins to the pages.

- You could fuse cuts-outs from other fabrics to the pages.

I think the fabric book has great potential as a children's picture book, or an art journal. Have fun!

This week's project will be familiar to some of you, but it sure is perfect for this week between Christmas and New Year's. It's based on an idea which exists in many spiritual traditions: that lighting a candle for someone or something you love gives it special reverence. So this candle is covered with reminders of your favorite people, places, and things. Make one to ring in 2008!

So first, get yourself a pillar candle. I like to use white or off-white ones, but if you prefer colors, knock yourself out. And then, go through all your old magazines and precious bits of paper and cut out a lot of images and words that have significance to you.

You can use photographs on your candle, but I’d recommend that you make color photocopies of them for this project. We're going to decoupage here, and photos tend to be too thick to decoupage well.

Now, we'll be gluing all these images and words to the sides of your candle. Mod Podge is excellent for this - and I like to use the glossy-finish version. But, if you have no Mod-Podge, no worries. Use good old-fashioned Elmer's Glue instead.

Just spread some glue onto the candle, and press your cut-out into the glue. After that, I like to spread a little more glue on top of the cut-out, to make sure all the edges lie flat.

You'll want to cover just a section of the candle at a time, and then leave it alone to dry for 20 minutes or so before moving on. Here's a good trick: take two ordinary pencils, Tape them down to your work surface, parallel to each other, and about 2" apart. Set your candle on its side, between the two pencils, and it won't roll around.

Once you've glued nice things all the way around your candle, and it's had about 20 minutes to dry, then take that same Mod Podge (or glue) and spread a fairly thick coat all over your work, to seal all those cut-outs in place.

(By the way, this sponge brush I'm using here is great for decoupage, but if you don't have one, a regular paint brush works fine. Heck, if worse comes to worse, so will your fingers!

Okay, now leave your candle alone for a couple hours to dry again.

. . . And then, if you like, you can glue on some glitter, or add sparkly things here and there. Just dab on some more glue, and stick 'em down. Then let 'em dry.

A little safety note:

You’ll want to burn your candle so that you don’t end up damaging the collage you’ve so carefully built on the outside. So, the first time you light it, watch it carefully. When it’s burned down to the point where there’s a good-sized well in the center, blow out the candle. After it cools, trim the wick all the way down to the wax. Then, insert a tealight candle into this well, and burn that instead. Now your celebration candle will last forever! And, as they say . . . never leave a burning candle unattended.