Craftster
Craftster is an online community for crafting and do it yourself (DIY) enthusiasts.[1] Users post pictures of craft projects they have made and others comment and ask questions about how it was made.[2]
Type of site | Craft Content / Online community |
---|---|
Founded | May 2000 |
Headquarters | , |
URL | http://www.craftster.org/ |
Advertising | Yes |
The site's tagline, "No tea cozies without irony", refers to the fact that many of the projects posted are irreverent, off-beat, humorous, clever, etc. While projects posted on the site tend to be made using traditional techniques such as knitting, crochet, cross stitch and sewing they often convey modern sentiments such as images of a favorite rock band, or motifs from a favorite 1980s video game.[3]
The site has over 190,000 registered members.[4] It has been written up in publications such as TIME Magazine, The New York Times, The Guardian, and The Washington Post.[5] [6] [7] The membership is over 190,000, and readership is over 1,000,000 unique visitors per month and over 10,000,000-page views per month.[8]
The site has been called be one of the forces behind the renaissance of crafting among a new, young, contemporary demographic.[9]
History
The site was started on June 27, 2003[10] by crafter and computer programmer Leah Kramer.[11][12][13] The term "Craftster" is a portmanteau of "crafty hipster" and a nod to pioneering peer-to-peer sites Napster and Friendster.[14] Prior to starting the site, Kramer was one of the organizers of the Boston Bazaar Bizarre, a yearly "punk rock craft fair," begun in 2001.[15]
References
- NBC News. "Designer combines the nerdy with the crafty".
- TIME (March 1, 2005). "Pretty Crafty". Time.
- The Daily Record. "It's Sew Easy To Make & Mend".
- Associated Press. "Get crafty for holiday gifts".
- Washington Post (February 5, 2009). "Feeling Crafty? Inspiration Abounds on These 5 Sites". The Washington Post.
- New York Times (July 2, 2006). "Crafster Founder Interview". The New York Times.
- SeattlePI (January 9, 2008). "Sewing Hip". Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
- "Statistics Center". Craftster.org. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
- Associated Press. "'Alternative' crafters bring new eye to crafts".
- "Craftster.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS. Retrieved July 5, 2016.
- SFList. "Interview with Craftser Founder". Archived from the original on January 22, 2010.
- Boston Globe (July 26, 2006). "Calling all craftsters". The Boston Globe.
- Boston Globe (June 22, 2006). "She and Kitsch Go Way Back". The Boston Globe.
- "About Craftster". Retrieved October 14, 2016.
- "Crafting gets attitude". Boston Globe (December 7, 2005). Retrieved October 14, 2016.