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.
Creative Products
August 10, 2023

26 Quirky Candles To Cast a Creative Glow in Your Home

A candle is one of the easiest ways to add ambiance to your home. But just because they cast a soft glow in your living room, it doesn't hide the fact that they can look a bit banal. Luckily, there have been some clever candle developments over the past several years and otherwise ordinary balls of wax have been shaped into statement-making pieces for your home.

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Drawing
July 30, 2023

Learn the Basics of Charcoal Drawing To Capture the Intensity of Life With Art

You’ve got a lot of choices for tools when it comes to drawing. Pencils are the most popular, simply because they are so ubiquitous. But the more you get into drawing, the more you’ll want to experiment with media to figure out what you like using the best. Charcoal, for instance, is a popular tool for artists—especially those that like to sketch and do it fast. Why Should You Try Charcoal Drawing?

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Illustration
July 9, 2023

Learn About J.C. Leyendecker, the Illustrator Who Defined Men’s Style in the Early 20th Century

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, illustrators were celebrities. They were household names. It might sound strange today, but consider an illustrator's role in society; this was before photographs were routinely used in magazines and newspapers, so illustrators were the ones who helped define the visual culture at that time. Of the illustrators with immense cultural influence, J.C. Leyendecker was at the top.

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Photography
July 4, 2023

Learn About the Bokeh Effect, an Aesthetic That Makes Photos Feel Cozy

Photography, like other forms of visual art, has a variety of effects that allow you to express your creativity. One of the most popular is called bokeh. This effect refers to the aesthetic quality of the out-of-focus areas of an image, most commonly in the form of circles that dot a composition. One of the easiest ways to imagine bokeh is by seeing city lights from far away.

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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.