Standing sentry in the northeast corner of the third floor of our Main Library you will find a piece of art that is stunning in its beauty, history, dignity, and power.  It is a piece that reflects the imagination and character of its creator and the curious grace of the material from which he forged his work.  This is a piece of ornam    >> Read more

Are you a teen with a camera and an itchy trigger finger? Have you always wanted to star in your own production? Do you have a script waiting to jump from page to screen?  Richland County Public Library is looking for young filmmakers to participate in Reel RCPL: A Young Artists' Showcase.    >> Read more

Living in East Tennessee for fourteen years, I loved the rich culture and natural beauty of the area.  The nearby Smoky Mountains offered an endless source of entertainment, and the friendly manner of the locals made it easy to feel right at home.    >> Read more

The current issue of the New Yorker, which happens to be the 85th anniversary issue, has a fantastic article on veterans of the civil rights movement.  The article is accompanied by striking black and white photographs of people like the Little Rock Nine, John Lewis, Myrlie Evers, Tommie Smith, and John Carlos by Platon, a Greek-English staff photographer.    >> Read more

Here at the library, we get a lot of great art magazines, and we get a lot of great craft magazines.  We also get a few magazines at the intersection of arts and crafts.  Fiberarts will not teach you five easy afghans to knit.  In fact, for most of us the textile arts in Fiberarts are way out of reach - it's all extremely technically extraordinary, and some of it is downright weird.  It's a magazine about arts people make out of textiles and other fibers, and the creativity and skill on display is absolutely mindblowing. 

For a magazine that seems so specialized, there's a surprising amount of variety in the articles.  Several artists are profiled in each issue - the current one has a lady who makes clothes out of cedar bark, somebody who creates elaborate dioramas inspired by colonial styles, and an artist who makes felt purses that explore associations of felt with the concept of protection.  There are also some more concrete articles - there's a really good one on cleaning vintage clothing that I found very helpful.  Each issue also includes a lot of book and museum exhibit reviews.

If you're interested in what kind of art creative people can make out of textiles, you should definitely take a look at Fiberarts.  It's a fascinating look at a part of the art world you might not find in a traditional art periodical, and I promise you'll find something you like and something you hate in each issue.    >> Read more

Last week, a dear friend gave me a beautifully crocheted scarf. She makes hats, scarves and baby blankets for everyone she knows and keeps a collection of such items to donate to the needy in the winter.

My scarf is so soft, and the weight and length is just right. When I wear it, I hardly know that I have it on, and the warmth it provides is very much appreciated! I can knit, but I've never learned to crochet.

Beautifully, that is. I got tired of either paying extra for gift wrapping or giving an unappealing package. Once at an office party, my gift was one of the last gifts picked, even though the gift itself was well-received by the taker.

The wrapping was so unappealing that no one believed that a nice gift would come in such a package. I immediately decided to put the same amount of time into wrapping gifts that I took to select them.     >> Read more

Oh no - it's almost Halloween again, and I haven't even started on my costume!  Periodicals to the rescue!

As I've told you many times, we go to the newsstand several times a year to get magazines to fill out our collection.  Some of them are special issues of magazines we do subcribe to, some only appear for the holidays and some are titles we don't get at all and might evaluate for subscription.  When it starts to get a little chilly outside, you can bet we'll be picking up cozy craft magazines for all your knitting and crocheting needs!

I've got a couple days and some scrap yarn, so I picked up this Crochet Today (I already told you I don't knit) because it promised quick and easy Halloween stuff.  I'll warn you - I've never done much in the way of complicated, shaped crocheting.  I'm more of a scarf girl.  So I had certain doubts about "quick" and "easy."

I picked out an adorable little fake mustache pattern.  I thought it was really cute, it only needed one color, and it's small enough that it wouldn't take long to rip out any mistakes.  Low commitment project, in other words.

It turned out to be a clever pattern that really taught me a lot about increasing and decreasing to make shapes!  It just uses the basic stitches (slip stitch, decreases, half doubles and doubles) and turned out very well.  I liked it so much I made one for everybody!

Here's your Periodicals team!  From left: Big Al, Triple D, Magazine Queen, Broadsheet (that's me!), Dewey Damsel and Coop De'Ville.  In the middle, Evening Post Pete.

So when you find yourself in need of a quick and easy project, don't forget about Periodicals!  We have a lot of magazines that cover just about every craft you can think of, and when we get a new batch of newsstand magazines the old ones go into circulation, so you can take them home for a happy Halloween!

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Piecework is almost the opposite of the last magazine I told you about, Family Handyman.  I love Family Handyman because it makes me want to do all the projects in it, and they're entirely within my reach.  Piecework is a magazine I love to read, and I'll probably never do a project from it as long as I live.  I mean, I sometimes sort of mean to, but you know how that goes.  (It isn't even that I don't have the skills, although if you ask me there is way too much knitting and not enough everything-else, but I think that in general about the craft world.  Now, stumpwork, that I want to see more of.) 

Piecework is a magazine about historic fiber arts, from crochet to quilting to crewelwork to felting and everything in between.  Each magazine generally has a theme (the current one is miniatures) and articles include profiles of people working in that area, projects you yourself can do based on historical pieces, in-depth looks at specific pieces and scholarly articles about ethnic and historical textiles.  There's also a lot of information on museum exhibits and related activities in historical and heritage textiles.

One of my favorite things about Piecework is the articles on fiber arts from other cultural traditions.  I've read fantastic articles about Russian lace, Finnish knitting and costume design from Benin.  They're well-written, interesting and often very scholarly, but unlike an academic historic textiles journal there's often a project where you can learn some of the techniques documented in the article! 

Piecework is a bi-monthly magazine that you can find here in Periodicals at Main!  Maybe you'll do better than I have at actually creating some of these lovely pieces!    >> Read more

Do you wish you could brighten up your walls? Thinking of painting a room in your house but can't decide on a color?

Philip Simmons, the renowned Charleston blacksmith, died Monday at the age of 97.  His decorative ironwork can be found throughout South Carolina and elsewhere, including the Smithsonian Institution.  Here in Columbia, you can see his work at the State Museum and on the third level of our own Main Library!  He has been presented with numerous awards, including the Order of the Palmetto, the National Heritage Fellowship of the National Endowment for the Arts and induction into the South Carolina Hall of Fame.  Over the years, many magazines have published great articles on Philip Simmons.

Ironwork by Simmons displayed on the third level of the Main Library.

The November 2006 issue of Charleston Magazine features an article on the Philip Simmons Project.  The Philip Simmons Foundation received grants to document and begin preservation on Simmons' pieces, many of which are unmarked and unknown.  Some pieces have been stolen from properties, while other homes featuring his work are in disrepair and at risk from new development.  The article includes lovely pictures of Simmons and his artwork.

Hunt, Stephanie. Charleston Magazine. Nov 2006, vol. 20 iss. 12, p. 138-149.

Charleston Magazine also did a profile article on Simmons in their January/February issue of 2000.  The article discusses the artist's life, work and personality.  In addition to pictures of Simmons' work, some of his design sketches are included.

Hunt, Stephanie. Charleston Magazine. Jan/Feb 2000, vol. 14 iss. 1, p. 54-57.

The May 2005 issue of Martha Stewart Living includes an article on Charleston's ironwork in general, with specific focus on Simmons.  The discussion of the history of ornamental ironwork in general is quite interesting, and the photographs include Simmons' work among other iron artists'.

Kreamer, Anne. Martha Stewart Living. May 2005, iss. 138, p. 76-78.

Additionally, the library has several books and films on Simmons and his work.

Charleston Blacksmith: The Work of Philip Simmons

Catching the Fire: Philips Simmons, Blacksmith

Keeper of the Gate: The Life and Works of Philip Simmons    >> Read more

Cake-smeared faces. Colorful, pointed hats. Silly clowns. Everybody has a different idea about what a child’s birthday party should be like. Some people approach planning their child's birthday party with anticipation and gusto. Some break into a cold sweat.

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Have you begun to experiment with collage art or scrapbooking? If you are looking for a that can help you create more interesting backgrounds for your art, look no further than Collage: Textures and Techniques with respected artist Claudine Hellmuth.   You can learn how to transfer images using heat, create the look of peeling paint, or tear and stain paper to create an    >> Read more

What better time to gather yourself and some craft supplies to make extra special greeting cards to send to family and friends than during the upcoming holidays? For the complete beginner or the seasoned paper crafter, there is plenty of instruction and inspiration found right at the library.
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Scrapbooking is a popular way to preserve personal and family history through photographs, printed materials, and other keepsakes. Once the storehouse of yellowing newspaper clippings and a dried prom corsage, scrapbooks have become a popular way to create and keep memories using archival quality materials, elaborate layouts, and polished graphics.     >> Read more

Are you dreaming of a country cottage or decorating a Georgian/Victorian house without a major investment? Make a dollhouse!    >> Read more

Did you have a doll house as a child?    >> Read more

Instead of buying mounds of impersonal greeting cards during the holiday season, I find that making my own is a great way to spend time with my family and express my creativity.    >> Read more

When I learned to knit, I thought I would never get past how awkward it felt to hold two sticks in my hands and attempt to wrap yarn around them and create something.    >> Read more

Do you go to family functions, take hundreds of pictures and then store the prints in a shoebox, never to be seen again?    >> Read more