Hi. I'm Rose and this is my site, FineCraftGuild. It's the blog where I've shared over 1500 creative ideas that either dazzled me or that bubbled up in me over the last 10+ years. Now, I focus mostly on patterns.
I stand for diversity, inclusions and work tirelessly towards ambitious sustainability targets in the world. We are bold and adventurous and believe in living life to the fullest. I create patterns for modern, seasonal items and contemporary everyday essentials, using vegan yarn, inexpensive, reused or recycled materials where possible. My patterns are made with accessibility in mind. With FineCraftGuild, a richer life doesn’t cost a fortune. Most of the 1500+ ideas on this blog are free, the rest super affordable.
My vision is for FineCraftGuild to be ‘the destination-blog’ for easy, eco-friendly DIY Crafts & Home Décor tutorials & patterns. It takes inspiration, research, experimentation, practice and time to raise a creative project from ‘good’ to ‘great’. I present easy, inspiring and green how-tos, tutorials and patterns. And offer extensive input on what works and what doesn’t. This way, I help readers create craft, DIY and decor projects better: simple, economical, beautiful, trendy and eco-friendly.
Who is Rose, when not at FineCraftGuild?
Because of my day job, I write this blog under the name of Rose. I consider 'Rose' the persona in me who lives like an artist, and embellishes everything in sight pretty. My home is filled with art, crafts and DIY projects. (Yes, lots of UFO's too)
Travelling is part of my life. Compared to most people, I travel a lot! Sometimes to far and obscure places like Mauritius or the Canary Islands. But mostly to The Netherlands, France (Paris!), Italy (Rome), Canada and the US. And for the last 10 years, I've lived in wider London, England, by the sea.
Before I come home from my travels, I fill my suitcase with fun, decorative and often 'a bit crazy' finds. Often literally 'found items' or purchased, but the basis for something unique to make with. Like 'remnants of yarn' found in an op-shop or yarn shop. Those are my 'souvenirs'.
So, in my home, you can find a personalised tourist-y aprons from Rome, recycled felt flowers from the US, handmade jewellery and paintings from Canada, vintage table cloths from Italy, and loads of recycled or found materials made into artwork.
Over the years I collected stacks of beautiful fabric found on those wonderful Dutch outdoor markets. And you'll see these used in my projects Plus some of the happiest-colored high-quality mercerized yarn from Dutch knitting shops, which are just the best stocked in the world, in my opinion.
I also tend to create art projects when I travel. For fun. Some of these may be transient but often 'something' from that art experience comes home with me.
Even just a photo. Like this sand-tray circle-of-friends. I found this tray with sand somewhere in a shed outside a restaurant somewhere in a seashore village, just North of San Francisco. I poked around the sand with my finger...Then I decided to create a circle of friends, and put love in the center. Now, do you want a tutorial for this? Possibly not. However I had fun creating this setting, just for a photo.... Am I crazy? (Don't answer that).
I paint. In acrylics, but I don't write much about this on this blog. Making art is one of those things that I don't want to teach, but do. But it is here, and no doubt influences my sense of color, composition, etc. in my projects. (Mostly, it makes a gigantic mess in my house, and being a 'painter' justifies that, doesn't it?!)
I think I have landed in the world from pastels, after a decade of bright full-color artwork. Here's the latest abstract painting that I just made for my friend in Canada who wanted just that.
She wanted a pure abstract made with the colors of her new sofa, her flooring, her dining room chairs and those lovely turquoise and blue hues that she likes. And there it is. It's huge! 60 x 24". Don't know if you can call it art as it's literally made to please her and match her living room! She's happy, that's the main thing. Want a tutorial or tips on how to make your own loft artwork? Or commission an abstract artwork for your living room?
I learned knitting as a teenager. Did not knit for most of my life - too busy with my 'day job', and then my baby. Never learned to crochet till 10 years ago. These are flowers on my craft work table. The circles were meant to become a crochet girls cardigan. The pretty crochet flowers, well, they go with just about anything, right?!
About sewing: I tend to write about what inspires me more than about my actual projects.
Beyond my writing, I also feature guest writers from time to time - artisans from all over the world, covering different crafts.
Like me, they love to create DIY, Crafts & Home Décor, and have a keen interest in eco-friendly designs.
We've had two regular guest writers. For a couple of seasons, the wonderful Tammy Henderson, a natural home decorator, wrote for Fine Craft Guild. Tammy is incredibly creative. (... used to own a craft shop....) Her weekly illustrated tutorials feature DIY beautiful seasonal arrangements that use recycled materials'. Her photos are stunning!! They make you overlook that she typically uses mere dollar store trinkets, cheap vintage finds, recycled materials and free garden clippings. Beyond our weekly feature, Tammy used to write her own beautiful blog OneMoreTimeEvents, but this is no longer an active site. Life moves on.
We also hosted Janeen van Niekerk, who lives in South Africa, loves paper piecing and Quilting. For almost half a year, every Thursday she featured a free post with what started as tips for beginning quilters, and evolved into a series of free online workshop for easy quilt projects you can do on your own with her detailed, illustrated instructions. When she was not on our blog, you could find her quilting at www.quiltartdesign.com, wheres she shares her quilting adventures. As of April 2023, she is no longer at FineCraftGuild.
Who else? Occasional writers are active crafters, jewelry makers, quilters, seamstresses, crocheters, knitters, home decorators, renovators, furniture DIYers, upcyclers and other artists. We share DIY & craft tutorials, tips and techniques on this blog. We feature what inspires us!
Last but not least, behind the scenes at FineCraftGuild.com we have a guy dubbed 'Michael'. He is the technical to-go-to guy, and has helped overcome many hurdles with this blog. So that you can be reading this here today.
Fine Craft Guild's Privacy Policy
There is a privacy policy page, with lots of details, but let me sum things up:
We don't sell email addresses or anything crazy like that. In the course of ads being served on this website, third parties may be placing and reading cookies on users’ browser, or using web beacons to collect information. Please read Google's latest, most up-to-date information about your user options for cookie management. I don't do anything special - it's the same for all websites within the Google ad network.
Fine Craft Guild's Disclosure
Our articles contain mostly Amazon affiliate links. We often make recommendations for products we believe in and will earn an affiliate fee if you were to buy them. We do however sincerely recommend them. We hope you will use these links to purchase your craft materials. Earning little fees for each sale helps to maintain this blog.
As mentioned, there are (way too many?) Google ads on this site. We will receive a small return if you were to click on these image-links. And all these little amounts have helped us to pay expenses and keep Fine Craft Guild alive and well and continue to grow and be maintained.
Support structure
To more successfully and securely manage this blog and several other websites in specific niche markets, e.g. by sharing cost of shopping carts, blog development software, etc. we set up a little company called Aryta. So, in the paperwork you'll find that FineCraftGuild.com is now owned and operated by Aryta Ltd, registered at 1 Rosemont Road, London NW3 6NG, England. But don't expect a big corporation or anything. It's just me, Rose.