PlanetJune Blog: Latest News, Patterns and Tutorials

The lovely Sister Diane interviewed me for the latest episode of her podcast, CraftyPod #97: Two Ways to Publish a Craft Book, with June Gilbank. We talked about our experiences in print and eBook publishing. If you have any interest in publishing a craft book at some point, either the traditional way (through a print publisher) or by self-publishing an eBook, you should definitely listen – there’s a lot more to publishing a book (either way) than you might realise!

For my non-crafty family and friends who don’t have any interest in the subject matter but just want to hear me and my English accent, my section starts at 13 mins through

I’m also very happy to be able to reveal my latest punchneedle design, entitled Serengeti Sunset. Distinctive acacia trees are silhouetted against the African sunset as giraffes and an elephant wander the plains of the Serengeti:

This design is a little different from my others – I laid it out as a long landscape, which would make a great embellishment for a purse or bag, as well as a stunning wallhanging.

I also modified the design to create a tapered coffee sleeve to fit over a standard disposable coffee cup. The loops of punchneedle embroidery form a thick, dense fabric which is perfect to use as a barrier to stop your hand from being burnt while holding your hot beverage of choice! Look stylish while you help save the environment by not using a second cup or a cardboard disposable sleeve each time you buy a coffee:

The full instructions for both the flat rectangular embroidery and the tapered coffee sleeve (with full assembly instructions) are provided in the Serengeti Sunset pattern.

The Serengeti Sunset pattern costs $5, or take advantage of my new special offers:

• Purchase any punchneedle pattern for half price when you buy my eBook, The Punchneedle Handbook
• Buy any three punchneedle patterns for only $11.25 with my custom set listing

I’ve set up a new mailing list for my punchneedle designs, so please sign up for that if you’d like notification when I release new patterns!

I hope you like my latest design! Please leave me a comment if you
do…

This weekend is your last chance to take advantage of my introductory offer of a FREE punchneedle pattern of your choice when you buy my eBook, The Punchneedle Handbook.

Praise for The Punchneedle Handbook:

The book is brief, clear, direct, logical. It includes everything you need to know to get started. And, best of all, June tips us off to the most common errors and explains how to avoid or correct them. I know exactly what I was doing wrong now (several things), and I can’t wait to try it again.
Excerpted from CraftGossip review by Denise Felton

June has done a bang-up job of outlining everything you need to know to get started with this craft: how to prepare your materials, how to thread the needle and punch stitches, how to get perfect outlines and color effects, and how to troubleshoot problems while you’re learning. June also covers the basics of finishing your work and preparing it for incorporation into other crafts. It’s all illustrated with nice, clear photographs.
Excerpted from Craftypod review by Diane Gilleland

New pricing will be in effect from Monday, so if you haven’t got around to buying The Punchneedle Handbook yet, now is the perfect time to take the plunge!

(Also on Monday, I’ll have a brand new African-themed punchneedle design to show you…)

As you may or may not have picked up from reading my blog over the past few months, I’ve written a papercraft book, to be released exclusively through Barnes & Noble. I finished writing and illustrating the book months ago, but haven’t seen a copy of it yet, so it all feels very unreal at this point – did I really write a book?! Maybe I just dreamt it…

Well now, thanks to my friend Jana and her camera, I have proof that it really did happen! Although it doesn’t yet appear on their website, a search for “June Gilbank” on the in-store Barnes & Noble catalogue computers reveals:

That’s Paper Chains and Garlands: Easy-to-Make Decorations for Parties, Holidays, and Home Decor by June Gilbank! It really exists!

Not long to wait now – I hope I’ll be able to show some pics from the book itself shortly! I can’t wait to finally be able to show you the result of all the hard work I put into it.

I’ll be teaching again at the Creativ Festival in Toronto this October. This time I’m going to teach this adorable one-piece amigurumi whale design:

I loved this concept as soon as I came up with it because it’s all crocheted in one piece, so that means there’s no sewing required! It’s perfect design to teach in my class.

My class is on Friday October 18th, 5-6.30pm. Class registration is now open on the Creativ Festival website.

If you’re at all crafty and you’ll be anywhere near Toronto in October, you should definitely check out the Creativ Festival!

I was in Chapters bookstore yesterday and I thought I’d check out the latest issue of A Needle Pulling Thread magazine:

As I flipped through, the Editor’s letter page caught my eye.

A closer look:

It’s meee! Wearing my PlanetJune T-shirt at the spring Creativ Festival! What a nice surprise, although I have to say it’s pretty surreal to see my own face smiling back from inside a magazine…

Thank you, Carla and John, for featuring me in your designers’ gallery

This post was originally published on my old papercraft site, Folding Trees.

As a lifelong Star Wars fan, when I saw the instructions for an X-wing origami model [via @avgjanecrafter on Twitter] yesterday, I just couldn’t resist trying one!

Pictured above is my attempt, using a 6″ square of silvery grey origami paper. It was all pretty easy until the last step – folding up the 4 wing tips (I can never get this part looking neat with origami cranes either – it’s just too thin!). Still, I think it looks pretty cool.

The Great Dane has been on my list of AmiDogs to create for a long time, but it presented a few logistical problems:

I wanted the Dane to be a bit larger than my other AmiDogs, because when you think Great Dane, you think BIG, but trying to support a larger body on long thin crocheted legs wouldn’t be possible without some kind of wire support inside the legs, which I didn’t want.

So, that led to the decision to make a seated or lying dog. I didn’t want to make this design much more difficult to follow than my other AmiDogs patterns, so I couldn’t use the same tricks that I used for the legs on my Ring-Tailed Lemur pattern.

Finally, after much prototyping, I got it! All the pieces are really simple to make. The finished Great Dane is 10″ long (including his tail) or 8″ if you don’t count the tail, and the pattern has instructions for a single-coloured and dual-coloured dog. I’ve also included 2 different ears in the pattern, because Great Danes look so different when they have cropped ears:

…and when their ears are left natural:

The AmiDogs Great Dane crochet pattern is now available for purchase in my store. You can buy it individually, or did you know that I now have a listing for a custom set of AmiDogs? You can mix and match to create your own set of any 3 AmiDogs patterns for the same bargain price as a regular set of AmiDogs!

I hope you like him!

Wow, someone in the gaming/tech world discovered my amigurumi lemmings last week, and there’s been an explosion of interest and blog posts featuring them ever since! Welcome, gamers, to the world of PlanetJune

Please click through to see the full-size image – it looks so much better that way!

I’ve been getting so many requests to make sets of lemmings, I thought I’d address the issue here to save me answering it hundreds of times…

Click through to see the full-size image

I don’t think I could create a duplicate of all the lemmings I made – the walker and blocker would be fine, but the accessories for the other three took literally hours and hours to make each one, which would make my price ridiculously high! But if you’re interested in some walkers and/or blockers, I’d be happy to create them for you. Here’s an example of a commissioned set of two walkers and a blocker that I recently completed:

My rates are artist’s rates as I’m a busy designer and writer, and don’t have time to create all the creatures I have requests for on a daily basis. If you think my prices are too high, you don’t appreciate the time and care I put into each one of my creations. If you’re interested in one or more custom-made lemmings, please e-mail me and we can discuss it!

So that I can stay sane, I will only accept a couple of orders per month – I have no desire to become a lemming-making factory – so please let me know if you have an urgent deadline or are prepared to wait a while for your lemming(s)