Our Editors
Athena Preston
Name: Athena Preston
Job Title: Senior Associate Craft Editor
Date started at company: in the craft department, November 2005, but I first worked here on the Kmart Holiday line way back in 2001
First story: Ribbon lettering for the December 2005 well openers
Hometown: Washington D.C.
Education: BFA Rhode Island School of Design, MA in the History of Decorative Arts and Design, Cooper-Hewitt Museum and Parsons School of Design
First Job: I worked at an ice-cream parlor called Thomas Sweet. I gave a lot away for free.
Astrological sign: Gemini
Personal crafting/artwork: various silkscreen, stenciling, and block-printing projects.
First craft memory: tea-dyeing white tights with my mother so they’d match the crocheted lace collar of a very special brown velvet dress. Also, around the same time- wallpapering my dollhouse
Things you collect: manufacturer’s samples of ceramic plates with handwritten notations and pattern swatches, Tove Jansson picture books, old rulers painted bright colors, paper ephemera, my co-workers’ discarded craft efforts
FAVORITE . . .
Color (Pantone): Pantone # 178
Holiday: Valentine’s day, I never tire of the palette
Pizza topping: fresh ricotta
Kind of Fabric: Prints of all sorts. Scandinavian linen and cotton, certain crazy chintzes (but certainly not others!), mill-engravings and other tiny patterns, lately nearly any fabric that combines pink and blue
Dessert: Yakimochi from Café Zaiya
Source: the library at the Cooper-Hewitt
Editor's Archive
Posted by Athena Preston
Here are some images from a halloween story Marcie and I worked on a few years back. The idea was carving trompe l’oiel sillhouettes of spooky objects into the pumpkins, hopefully making it look sort of like they were real objects in the room… It turns out this story was popular with our readers so …
Posted on October 30th, 2009 in Inspiration Board | direct link to this entry |
Posted by Athena Preston
If you are finding yourself dazzled and awestruck by the image above - it’s probably because it was painted in glitter! For the November issue of Living, we developed a new technique called glitter painting, based on the idea of paint-by-numbers, but using various colors of superfine glitter instead of paint. It was a new craft …
Posted on October 16th, 2009 in Behind the Scenes | direct link to this entry |
Posted by Athena Preston
Above is a selection from our library of vintage books… always inspiring and entartaining look through! The first is an early book on paper flowers, which the crafts dept has made many varieties of over the years. I always think of Jodi when I see them. This book is really sweet and has good instructions. …
Posted on October 9th, 2009 in Our Library | direct link to this entry |
Posted by Athena Preston
Here is a behind-the-scenes look at the development of an upcoming halloween project, making mushrooms from pumpkins and squash. We are always trying to dream up new things to do with pumpkins each October, and I was casting about for a good idea – which came to me on the subway of all places. I …
Posted on September 17th, 2009 in Behind the Scenes, Inspiration Board | direct link to this entry |
Posted by Athena Preston
I’ve recently become somewhat obsessed with the idea below – which comes courtesy of our ingenius collecting editor Quy Nguyen. He has lots of beautiful and special books, and he covers them all in semi-transparent vellum. Its so nice because you can still read the text on the covers and spines of the books, but …
Posted on August 28th, 2009 in Make It | direct link to this entry |