via World Famous Design Junkies
Saturday
Friday
Thousands of Lanterns Aloft
Just found this amazing video over at Neat-o-rama, detailing the lantern launching ceremony that goes along with the Chiang Mai Yi Peng Festival. This from the site:
"The Chiang Mai Yi Peng Festival is an Buddhist holy day in Thailand. That evening, celebrants send send burning lanterns aloft, floating on hot air. According to YouTube user bugzila:
[...]it is the great festival of Lanna duly succeeded from ancient age. “Yi Peng” or full-moon day of second lunar month of Lanna villagers is corresponding to the full-moon day of 12th month of central region during the end of raining season and beginning of cold season when the climate is very nice and fair. One tradition of Lanna other than Loi Kra Thong on the river is to light up the lantern and float up in the sky based on their belief that to pay worship to Phra Ket Kaew Julamanee in the heaven or to relief one’ bad luck for more auspicious life."
Halloween Stories - Cathe Holden - The Lights Are On, But...
Although we live in a sleepy country neighborhood, our children love working our area for treats rather than driving to town for more action. Sympathetic to the great effort the kids must go to for their loot, walking from acre parcel to acre parcel- down long and sometimes dark & creepy driveways, our neighbors treat the kids with full size candy bars, loot bags and one gentleman even brings out his change jar for the each child to reach into and grab the most they can with one good scoop.
My husband, a firefighter, has somehow managed to be on duty during more of the kids’s Halloweens than not, so I have had to leave behind a full bowl of unattended candy many times as I walk our own children house to house. I leave the porch light on and a nice stash of popular candy bars on a small table or stool just below a sign on the door that welcomes visitors to help themselves. So if you need to leave your candy unattended while escorting your children, and your home is in a safe enough area for the honor system, here’s a free PDF download to print out for your door!
A big thanks to all the folks that have contributed to the series. It was great fun to read all of your stories and to have you as guests on my little piece of internet real estate. Happy Halloween.
DIY Halloween Votive Holders
Thursday
Skullduggery
Sort of surprised I haven't seen this brilliant bit of arrangement on Skull-A-Day, but nope, the fine ladies at Badder Homes and Gardens spotted it first.
Pommel Horse Furniture
Felice Varini Paints the Town
via Core77
Vespa Chair
via ackackack
Wednesday
Halloween Stories - Faythe Levine - Low Carb Blues
With just three days to go until my favorite day of the year, I am more than pleased, and a little bit surprised, to welcome craft icon and film maker, Faythe Levine to the series. Faythe is the founder of the popular mid-west Craft fair, Art v. Craft and is, of course, most famous for the excellent documentary: Handmade Nation, which will be available on DVD November 3rd. Here is her story:
Full article -->
Under Wood - The Work of Arne Quinze
Stephen Wiltshire Draws Manhattan From Memory
Tuesday
EVOL's Stenciled Cities
Paper Cuts - KMO Studio Takes an X-Acto to NYC
via NotCot
Monday
World's Smallest Model Train
Just found this 1:35,000 scale model train featured both on Gizmodo and Boing Boing. The entire scene measures 1/8" x 1/4". At one point in the video, a ballpoint pen comes into the frame and you can see just how tiny this thing really is. Kudos to model maker, David Smith from New Jersey, for this mini-marvel!
David Edgar's Plastiquarium
Vigil
Halloween Stories - Gareth Branwyn - Mr. Wonderful et al
With All Hallows Eve rapidly approaching, I'm excited to welcome Gareth Branwyn, senior editor of Make Magazine and sometimes contributor to BoingBoing to this series. Here's his story:
Full article -->
Sunday
Great Outdoors - The Work of Gregory Euclide
via BoingBoing
Mike Leavitt - Cardboard Shoes
Saturday
Felt Owl
Brave New World Lamp
via NotCot
Friday
Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!
Lynnerd!
Lynnerd will be receiving a copy of Bent Objects by Terry Border along with a signed bookplate from Terry himself! Congratulations and thanks to all who entered!
Stir it up - The Work of Jonathan Brilliant
Halloween Stories - Terry Border and the Dangerous Hombre
Continuing on, I'm thrilled to welcome Terry Border, author of the recently published Bent Objects and King of the Bent Objects blog. Here is his story:
"Way back when, long before the turn of the century, my brother and I formed a misfit tag-team every Halloween. Our outfits shown here were as close as we ever got to matching each other in theme.
I think we had some relatives go on vacation somewhere who brought back my Native American clothing, which I am wearing long underwear underneath, just like real Native Americans did back in the day. Looking at my face, it may appear as if I'm wearing a facial, but no, it's supposed to be warpaint. My great, great grandmother was full blooded Cherokee, and since I knew I was a whole 1/16th (!) Native American, this was not the first (or last) time that I donned an outfit like this one.
My brother is sporting a "bandito" costume, and not a Lone Ranger outfit as you may at first have concluded. If you look closely, you can see his curly mustache, and that along with his floppy red hat, is the tip-off that he is one dangerous hombre."
Thanks Terry! I love the look on your little brother's face. He seems to be looking for his missing horse rather than itchin' for a gunfight. Priceless.
Thursday
Terrific Article on Killian Mansfield
The Reclaimed Wood Installations of Henrique Oliveira
via Design Sponge
The Firecracker Press
The Magic LED Paint Roller
SWEATSHOPPE, 4spots, the landing extras from SWEATSHOPPE on Vimeo.
This trumps all the projector graffiti I've seen so far. Multimedia performers, Sweatshoppe have pioneered an LED paint roller that is tracked in real time by a computer connected to a video projector, revealing the video as the artist "paints". Super cool!
via Gizmodo
Halloween Stories - The Best Laid Plans, etc.
This particular girl was named Lisa and I would have walked through fire to be with her (although, that would probably have been a short walk with a lot of fire considering how much product was in my hair). Anyway, my friend Matt and I were sitting around Lisa's house with our other friend Lisa (you seeing a pattern here?) on Halloween and the girls thought it would be fun to empty the contents of their make up bags onto our faces. At this point, I believed that this was a good idea, mainly because I thought it would probably be the most intimate thing that would ever happen between Lisa and myself. My teenage brain probably also believed that putting make up on me would act as a gateway drug for Lisa, making her realize just how much she needed to be with me. Yep, pathetic. And yep, that never happened.
But none of that is really the story. The night didn't really get exciting until the girls sent us to 7-11 to purchase refreshments and we ran into a group of highway workers who were freshly off the clock. Let me just say, that it was a lucky thing that we were two big boys and also that we could run fast. These guys looked and sounded like they would have enjoyed beating us up immensely.
We escaped with our lives (barely) but, suffice to say, with the exception of my Viking rock band, I have not worn make up in public since, nor have I been involved with anyone named Lisa.
Wednesday
My Mom Goes Big Time!
Haynes Manual Graphics
via Design Milk
Terrible Yellow Eyes
via Grain Edit
Unexpected Halloween Story - Chuck Scalin - Noah's Dad!
Just read Noah's Halloween costume story on your blog. It brought back fond memories and thought I'd share this Halloween photo of his artist/educator parents (me and my wife) in homemade costumes before he was born.
The photo was taken in the bathroom of a colleague's house for a VCU School of the Arts faculty/student Halloween party in 1970, a couple of years after I began teaching at the University.
I remember that there were some pretty amazingly creative costumes there that evening. So eventually, of course Noah would also be dressed in several awesome Halloween costumes with themes he decided on that were either fabricated by us or partially fabricated by some of my students.
My wife is pictured here as Marlene Dietrich from the film "Blue Angel" and I came as her companion. Both of us in black (and white)--still our color of choice!
How sweet is that? Check out those mutton chops on Chuck! Noah, I think you and your Dracula cape just got OWNED! And by your own Dad!
Thanks for the great picture and story, Chuck! If you want to see more of Chuck Scalin's work, visit his website here.
Tuesday
Vincent Van Gough's Letters and Sketches Sent to Theo
Pug v. Dalek
from Mostly Forbidden Zone
The Falcon - Short Film with Hardware
The Falcon from The Shamptonian Institute on Vimeo.
I'm loving this short film by the Shamptonian Institute called The Falcon. Ingenious use of hardware to make both characters and scenery and set to a groovy little piece of music by Thunderball. Definitely worth watching.
via NotCot
Halloween Stories - Rachel Hobson - Walk Like an Egyptian
I love and have always loved Halloween. This year, I thought it might be fun to collect some Halloween stories from some of the coolest artists and craftspeople on the web. I'm happy to report that there was no shortage of enthusiasm behind the idea and in the days leading up to All Hallows Eve, I'll be posting one or two stories per week. Feel free to post your own in the comments section!
Continuing on, I'm excited to welcome Rachel Hobson of Craft Magazine and Average Jane Crafter who, in my opinion is anything but average. Here is her story:
Halloween has always been one of my very favorite holidays. I love to dress up, and I particularly love blood and gore. When I was in high school, some friends of mine and I made a gallon of fake blood and poured it all over ourselves. That was our costume ... blood! Before I got so in to gore, though, I was a sweet, Halloween-loving kid with a passion for pop culture. I guess it was 1986 when my mom gave in and made a Halloween costume for me that was based on my favorite song at the time: Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles. I loved that song *so* much (and, heck, I still do!) and my mom patiently created an Egyptian-inspired costume for me. I felt like a complete badass. I had red press-on nails (not sure why, but I thought they were rad!) and wore loads of eyeliner. I got totally in to it, and loved that my mom did that for me. Outside of costumes, carving pumpkins is my favorite part of Halloween. I love pumpkin guts! No one else wanted to dig in and scoop 'em out, so I gladly took on that job. Blood, Egyptians, guts! What's not to love!?
Thanks Rachel and, by the way, you do look like a total badass in that Egyptian costume!
See Halloween stories part one with Noah Scalin of Skull-A-Day
Monday
Book Review - Bent Objects by Terry Border
In less skillful hands, I imagine that a project like this could get tiresome fairly quickly, but Border's Far Side-type take on things keeps surprising the reader, page after page, and the way that he is able to create such vivid characters out of bits of wire and things from his fridge is nothing short of amazing. I continually found myself empathizing with eggs that were about to be beaten, hot dogs that were shunned by buns, and toilet paper rolls after a rough day at the office.
Basil Leaves
In addition to the characters Border creates, he also includes a nice introduction in the book that details his journey from childhood to a career in photography to the defining moment that led him to making tiny wire sculptures out of stuff in his house. He also provides commentary and sketches on a selection of pieces throughout the book that shed light on the genesis of some of his ideas. Finally, in the back of the book, there's a nifty "how-to" section that shows you how to make your own characters out of corks and wire.
and Rosemary is Crushed
If your looking for a great gift with which to kick off your Christmas shopping, Bent Objects would be a perfect fit for the creative and clever folks on your list.
You can see more of Terry's work and read his musings on his blog .
*Giveaway*
I will randomly select one commenter to win a free copy of Bent Objects, so comment away. ***Update: Terry says he'd be glad to sign a bookplate for the winner. Awesome!
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