DIY Woven Art by Rachel Denbow + Win a copy!

I’ve been following Rachel Denbow’s weaving series on A Beautiful Mess for a couple of years now, so I was so excited when I saw she’d come out with a book, DIY Woven Art: Inspiration and Instruction for Handmade Wall Hangings, Rugs, Pillows, and More! (released this past August). Written for beginners and more experienced weavers looking for fresh inspiration, there’s fruit of the loom for a variety of skill sets and tastes. Step-by-step instructions (and three DIY looms!) take you through 15 projects and several different techniques. Make a loom from a scrap of cardboard and some thrift-store yarn and try a simple wall hanging in candy-coloured stripes or use your trusty frame loom and that special wool roving you’ve been saving to make a more complex statement piece. 

Rachel’s style is boho-chic with pops of colour, lending a modern vibe to a craft that’s been around forever. Although she’s been sharing her craft projects for years on her blog, Smile and Wave, Rachel only taught herself to weave in 2013 and was soon selling her wall hangings and teaching classes. (Impressive stuff!) The Flighty Wall Hanging above was inspired by a nature walk with a forest school group, where the leader taught the kids to make makeshift looms from sticks and weave with natural materials like twigs, grasses and wildflowers.

“It was a beautiful sample of the forest when it was finished,” Rachel says, “but it also opened my eyes to how many different elements can be woven through a warp to create a beautifully textured piece of art.”

There are 10 other wall hangings of varying difficulty, plus the Take Me Somewhere Clutch (above), Indigo Dreams Table Runner, Fringe Benefits Pillow Sham (which totally reminds me of something you’d find at Anthropologie — must make!), and Positive Vibes Rug. (Don’t you just love the names?)

Rachel and Janae Hardy did the photography and it’s both instructive and beautiful — you can almost feel the texture of the different yarns and materials on each page. I’d love to see Rachel do a kit with project instructions and materials included. Hopefully something like that is already in the works!

In the meantime, we’ve got this wonderful book. Are you excited to get your weave on like me?

GIVEAWAY!

(Woot woot!)

To enter to win a copy of DIY Woven Art, tell me how you’re crafty in the comments below. Do you weave? Knit? Sew? Build birdhouses? I’d love to hear! This entry is mandatory.

For an additional entry, follow try small things on Facebook and share this post, then tell me you did so and your name on Facebook in the comments below.

You may also tweet the following once per day and leave the url for your tweet in the comments below (one entry per tweet).

Get your weave on! Win Rachel Denbow’s DIY Woven Art from @trysmallthings http://bit.ly/WinDIYWovenArt CAN/US 10/23 #DIYWOVENART

The giveaway is open to Canadian (excluding Quebec) and US residents 18+ and ends at 11:59 pm EST on October 23, 2016. The potential winner must respond to prize notification within 48 hours, including the correct answer to a skill-testing question, otherwise another winner will be selected.

Update October 24, 2016: Congratulations, Julie A! 

F+W Media sent me a copy of DIY Woven Art in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. Excerpted from DIY Woven Art Copyright © 2016 by Rachel Denbow and published by F+W Media, Inc. Used by permission of the publisher. All rights reserved. Photos courtesy of Rachel Denbow and Janae Hardy.