Posts by Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met and Manager of My Modern Met Store. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned her BFA in Illustration and MFA in Illustration Practice. Sara is also an embroidery illustrator and writer living in Seattle, Washington. She runs Bear&Bean, a studio where she stitches pet portraits and other beloved creatures. She chronicles the creativity of others through her website Brown Paper Bag and newsletter, Orts. Her latest book is Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread, published in 2014. Sara’s work has been recognized in Be Creative With Workbox, Embroidery Magazine, American Illustration, on Iron and Wine’s album Beast Epic, among others. When she’s not stitching or writing, Sara enjoys planning things that bring together the craft community. She is the co-founder of Camp Craftaway, a day camp for crafty adults with hands-on workshops in the Seattle area.
Photography
April 15, 2016

87-Year-Old Learns Photography and Expresses Her Creativity with Playful Self-Portraits

A creative spark can happen at any age–even when you're in your seventies. Kimiko Nishimoto was 71 years old when she used a camera for the first time, but the experience inspired her to get in touch with her artistic side. Her husband further encouraged her to learn about photography, and this push was the start of a new phase in Nishimoto's life.

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Photography
April 6, 2016

Tilt-Shift Photography Transforms Tokyo into a Miniature Playground

Japanese photographer Takahiro Yamamoto dwarfs the massive city of Tokyo in his series called It's a Small World. Using the tilt-shift technique, he selectively focuses on a tiny sliver of the overall image while the rest is left as a blur of color and shapes. The portion that's legible resembles the type of miniaturized toys you'd see on a model train set. Tilt-shift photography makes even the most mundane scene look fantastical.

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Design
March 31, 2016

“Blackout Tattoo” Trend Cloaks the Body in Black Ink to Make a Bold Visual Statement

As tattoos continue to grow in popularity, artists push the envelope with the color, complexity, and scope of their designs. The classic Sailor Jerry style of tattooing–which champions dark outlines and a limited color palette–is joined by other styles such as dotwork, watercolor, and cross stitch. Another popular and striking approach that has been gaining recent attention online is called blackout, which covers the skin with solid fields of black ink.

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Jewelry
March 26, 2016

Artist Excavates Discarded Books to Transform Their Pages into Stunning Jewelry

London-based artist Jeremy May gives discarded books a new lease on life with his wearable sculptures. Images and text are harvested from these publications and formed into modern rings, bracelets, necklaces, and more. Their colorfully layered and patterned designs hardly resemble books at all–instead, they appear as lustrous, stylish accessories that mesmerize us with their beautiful curves and shapes. May goes through the same meticulous process to create each piece of jewelry.

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My Modern Met

Celebrating creativity and promoting a positive culture by spotlighting the best sides of humanity—from the lighthearted and fun to the thought-provoking and enlightening.