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 6 year-old son Meka. 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. My
interests included handmade homes, gardening, reading mysteries, any kind of
crafting and community advocacy.
For 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 mache or more far-out topics like Pirate
School for Boys and Girls.
I recently released an eBook called Summer Nature Crafts
that is available for various reading formats like Kindle and Nook. Recently I
started publishing phone apps featuring simple crafts for families and adults.
So far I have put out “Nativity
Clothespin,” “Soap Made
Easy,” and “Family
Beach Fun.” You can see some of the things that inspire me on my pinterest
board: http://pinterest.com/shboone/.
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.