Following on from our top 10 art articles for 2015, we now wanted to pick out the most popular crafts articles on Creative Boom throughout 2015. It's a relatively new category for us, and one we created due to popular demand halfway through the year – so it's interesting to see what turned out to be the most viewed posts on everything crafted with thread, wood, glass and ceramics. Counting down to number one...
10. Laser-cut and densely layered wooden artworks by Gabriel Schama
California artist Gabriel Schama works with several layers of laser-cut mahogany plywood to create incredible wooden artworks that take on 3D forms and geometric shapes. Schama originally worked with paper and mixed vintage materials using a layering technique to develop beautiful artworks. He soon moved on to large scale abstract works and that was when he discovered the benefits of using plywood, sketching his designs onto the wood before using a laser cutter to create each layer of his beautiful wooden designs... Read more
9. Deliciously crafted food sculptures made up of knotted thread
Ed Bing Lee has been perfecting his knotting artistry for over 40 years. He started as a commercial fabric designer in New York and Philadelphia and then became an instructor, teaching at Moore College of Art and Design, The University of the Arts, and the Art Institute of Philadelphia. Working with coloured thread and thousands upon thousands of knots, Lee transforms a simple material using a common technique into a unique form of contemporary fibre art... Read more
8. An intriguing peek inside one of the only handmade globe studios in the world
A home or office isn't complete without a globe. A beautiful sphere of the world that we can spin on its axis and dream about the next faraway land we'd love to travel to some day. But if you've forgotten about the beauty of traditional globes and opted instead for the more technically advanced apps and websites, such as Google Earth, then you should definitely take some time to consider Bellerby Globemakers – one of the only handmade globemakers in the world... Read more
7. Handcrafted paper installations that burst with colour and insanely intricate detail
If you're mad about paper art, then you'll no doubt be familiar with the work of Zim&Zou – two French artists who are famous for creating stunning paper installations that burst with colour and enjoy insanely intricate attention to detail... Read more
6. Beautiful miniature wonderlands captured in molten glass by artist Jenny Ayrton
British artist and crafter Jenny Ayrton captures miniature wonderlands in molten glass; tiny stage-sets where you may project your own story. Many of her beautiful scenes have a domestic twist and are directly influenced by her own surroundings... Read more
5. Artist embroiders delicate sculptures that mimic elements of nature
Australian visual artist Meredith Woolnough creates elegant embroidered sculptures that capture the delicate beauty of nature in knotted threads. Through a delicate system of tiny stitches she creates intricate and complex openwork compositions that are then carefully pinned in shadowboxes, just like preserved specimens... Read more
4. Beautifully patterned jewellery crafted entirely from coloured pencils
Czech Republic-based jewellery designer Anna Čurlejová of Čarbičková takes ordinary coloured pencils and transforms them into patterned necklaces, brooches and earrings. How she does this is by cutting layers of each pencil and bringing them together to create an effect, such as a honeycomb-type pattern using the ends of lots of pencils... Read more
3. Space Glass: Mini solar systems, planets and stars encased in glass spheres
Remember that pivotal scene in Men in Black (spoiler alert) when Agent L realises that there's an entire galaxy inside a glass sphere on the cat, Orion's collar? Well you're going to love glass artist Satoshi Tomizu who crafts small glass spheres that contain their own solar systems and galaxies... Read more
2. Illustrator delicately embroiders intricate animals to create stunning artworks
Oxford-based artist Chloe Giordano loves to embroider tiny animals onto fabric, creating beautiful threaded artworks no bigger than a thumbnail. From delicate little rabbits and fawns to colourful birds and crafty foxes, each threaded animal has astonishing detail... Read more
1. Embroidered patches that interact with famous clothing logos
Illustrators Maricor Maricar have teamed up with creatives Stephen Cross and Simon Connor to create ‘Graffitees’ – a fun series of embroidered patches that compliment and interact with famous clothing logos... Read more