One of my favorite activities at summer camp when I was a kid was crafting. I wasn’t remotely athletic. The camp’s pond was a muddy brown, and I didn’t like to imagine what was beneath the surface. There wasn’t horseback riding and only a few hikes so I spent as much time as possible making friendship bracelets, creating images with Perler beads, and experimenting with Shrinky Dinks. I sadly didn’t know anything about Star Wars at that age (I’m a late bloomer), otherwise I’m sure I would have been making Leia buns from yarn and paper-mache astromechs.
It's just a fun way to express your fandom. Tons of fans choose to funnel their passion for Star Wars into crafting home goods and wearables.
Kiddý Ámundadóttir has been a fan of Star Wars all of her life. She lives in Iceland, and she would have to wait until the few copies of the film sent there made it to her town -- sometimes it took six months to a year! She and her brother had her parents drive around 330 miles so she could see Return of the Jedi when it opened. Now that's love. She started incorporating geeky touches into her crafting about five years ago, and she took it to the extreme by making possibly the best baby blanket ever:
Anyone who has cross stitched knows it's slow work -- relaxing but tedious. She invested six months of time into making tiny Xs and putting it together, and the end product shows her dedication.
If it wasn't mean to steal from children, I'd be tempted to put out a bounty on this blanket. Cad Bane could handle the job.
The sheer number of lifelong Star Wars fans always floors me, and Tabitha Davis is one of them. Return of the Jedi is the first movie she recalls seeing in a theater, and she hasn't looked back. R2-D2 beeped and booped his way into her heart and became one of her favorite characters so she channeled the Force into her knitting needles and made an adorable droid hat for her daughter. She plans to make an astromech-errific dress to go with the beanie.
Rebecca Miller has also turned to the clothing route and poured hundreds of hours into making amazing full reproduction Jedi costumes. It's taken trial and error to put the right components together over the years. She's fashioned the under tunic, over tunic, tabard and obi, pants, and Jedi cloak for her Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu costumes. She teams up with a leather-working friend for the belts, and she fashions the lightsaber hilts. She's resourceful! One of her hilts was made from a sink drain pipe, a sump pump hose, and a shower handle. As she says, "Lowe's for all your Jedi needs!"
She's also used her skills (crafters have their own kind of midi-chlorians) to make presents for friends. She's made Rebel Alliance coasters and a Sith scarf. I'm putting an application in to be her friend right now.
Have you ever looked at your living room and thought it was missing something? That something is a tauntaun skin rug. Autumn Massey came up with the concept, and Malaki Keller made it a reality. It's especially appropriate considering he's been a fan of Star Wars since he saw The Empire Strikes Back in theaters. If you can't tell from the photo, the head of the creature is 1:1 scale.
Don't worry though, no actual tauntauns were harmed in the making of this rug.
Amy Ratcliffe is addicted to Star Wars, coffee, and writing. You can follow her on Twitter at @amy_geek and keep up with all things geeky at her blog.
