The essential how-to guide to major crafting techniques, including work from more than 150 contemporary artists for inspiration and projects to galvanize your creativity in every medium. No longer confined to the domain of the domestic, today craft is prized in almost every sphere of creative endeavor, whether architecture, food, fine art, or fashion. The Handmade Life serves as both inspiration and instruction manual for Etsy entrepreneurs, artists, and hobbyists alike - modern creatives seeking new ideas and techniques, and to sharpen their skills. Organized by theme and featuring thirty-four techniques (such as origami and appliqué), each chapter inspires with the work of contemporary artisans, one big project, and five project ideas, and informs with a short historical overview of each medium, design notes and things to consider before getting started, tools and techniques illustrated with a combination of hand-drawn diagrams and photography, and lists of websites and other sources for further reading. With over 150 artists featured and hundreds of project how-tos, The Handmade Life brings together information on a wide range of media and techniques into one essential manual.