Craftster

Last updated

Craftser
Craftster Logo.png
Type of site
Craft content / online community
FoundedMay 2000;23 years ago (2000-05)
Headquarters,
U.S.
URL http://www.craftster.org/
Advertising Yes
Current statusclosed
Website closed on December 19, 2019

Craftster was an online community for crafting and do it yourself (DIY) enthusiasts. [1] Users posted pictures of craft projects, and others commented and asked questions about how it was made. [2]

The Craftster.org website closed on December 19, 2019.

The site's tagline, "No tea cozies without irony", referred to the fact that many of the projects posted are irreverent, off-beat, humorous, clever, etc. While projects posted on the site tended to be made using traditional techniques such as knitting, crochet, cross stitch and sewing they often conveyed modern sentiments such as images of a favorite rock band, or motifs from a favorite 1980s video game. [3]

The site had over 190,000 registered members. [4] It has been written up in publications such as Time , The New York Times , The Guardian , and The Washington Post . [5] [6] [7] The membership was over 190,000, and readership was over 1,000,000 unique visitors per month and over 10,000,000-page views per month. [8]

The site has been called be one of the forces behind the renaissance of crafting among a new, young, contemporary demographic. [9]

History

The site was started on June 27, 2003, [10] by crafter and computer programmer Leah Kramer. [11] [12] [13] The term "Craftster" is a portmanteau of "crafty hipster" and a nod to pioneering peer-to-peer sites Napster and Friendster. [14] Prior to starting the site, Kramer was one of the organizers of the Boston Bazaar Bizarre, a yearly "punk rock craft fair", begun in 2001. [15]

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References

  1. "Designer combines the nerdy with the crafty". NBC News.
  2. "Pretty Crafty". Time . March 1, 2005. Archived from the original on March 4, 2005.
  3. "It's Sew Easy To Make & Mend". The Daily Record.
  4. "Get crafty for holiday gifts". Associated Press.
  5. "Feeling Crafty? Inspiration Abounds on These 5 Sites". The Washington Post . February 5, 2009.
  6. "Crafster Founder Interview". The New York Times Magazine . July 2, 2006.
  7. "Sewing Hip". Seattle Post-Intelligencer . January 9, 2008.
  8. "Statistics Center". Craftster.org. Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  9. "'Alternative' crafters bring new eye to crafts". Associated Press.
  10. "Craftster.org WHOIS, DNS, & Domain Info - DomainTools". WHOIS . Retrieved July 5, 2016.
  11. "Interview with Craftser Founder". sfist. Archived from the original on January 22, 2010.
  12. "Calling all craftsters". The Boston Globe . July 26, 2006.
  13. "She and Kitsch Go Way Back". The Boston Globe. June 22, 2006.
  14. "About Craftster" . Retrieved October 14, 2016.
  15. "Crafting gets attitude". The Boston Globe(December 7, 2005). Retrieved October 14, 2016.