Sarah Hart Boone: Crafter and Soap-Maker

I live in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood in a 100-year-old, leaning 3-flat with my partner Scott, my 8-year-old daughter, Annabelle, and my 5-year-old son, Meka. We also have an 18-year-old terrier named Nancy Drew, an aquatic turtle named Chang and a Russian hamster named Harry.  For the past 11 years I have been working on a gigantic mosaic project covering much of my back patio. Nearly every inch of our house is painted, tiled, covered in quilts or otherwise adorned.  It is sort of like the “Addams Family” meets “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.” My interests included handmade homes, gardening, any kind of crafting and community advocacy. 

For the past 11 years I taught arts and crafts to children and adults at a small Chicago storefront called The Ukrainian Village Children’s Center.  I now share the space with 15 families and we are running it as cooperative community play space where members put on classes for one another, share skills and try to build community. I have broad experience teaching arts and crafts, whether it is the traditional skills like needlepoint, soap making and paper maché, or more far-out topics like Pirate School for Boys and Girls.

I recently started publishing phone apps featuring simple crafts for families and adults. So far I have put out “Nativity Clothespin” and “Soap Made Easy.” “Beach Crafts” is on the way. It is a collection of traditional camp and beach crafts, games and food. You can see some of the things that inspire me on my Pinterest board.   

I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and spent part of my summer in Northern Michigan in a cottage shared with a bunch of cousins and aunts and uncles. Now I stay in the same cottage with my own family and enjoy the same crafts I did with my mom growing up. Apart from teaching children useful and entertaining skills, I think crafting is an important skill to share with your family because it helps demonstrate the value of handmade craftsmanship over mass-produced products, and it allows you to spend time together as a family learning new skills together without resorting to TV, video games or structured activities.