Moleskine Goodness

I have always loved peeking at other people's sketchbooks, especially when they seem rooted in the wild and humorous meanderings of a mind that can take the ordinary and make it interesting. More here.

Robert The - Hole Punched

Robert The does some cool stuff with book alteration, that's for sure. I'm having trouble figuring out the process, though. Is it die cut? Laser? What's your opinion?

See more of Robert's work here.

Man on a Western Mission

I love it when people are so clearly possessed by their passion that the create a separate but equally valid reality around it. Take Henryx, here. He's a slightly off center character from Hungary who is completely obsessed by the American West. As far as I can tell, he is creating his own Western town with a museum, an Indian teepee, and a saloon. He also builds some pretty bitchin' things like the crazy side car/military bike project below. Henryx, a tip of the ten gallon hat to you, my friend. Rock on.

For even more stuff from Henryx, you can visit his site here.

via Gizmodo

Man Carve Skin With Knife, Make Art

No, he's not on his way to the pretty-boy knife fight. Those blades are for some primal art making! Mark Evans' work is pretty straight forward that way...he carves pictures on cow hide with knives, and the result is pretty damned impressive. You can check out more of his work here.

via NotCot

Fallout-style PSP Mod

 

CIMG1131
by bombe-h

Dig this crazy PSP mod by Thomson09! That is one crazy looking thing and, as you can see, it still works. More pics over at fungeeks.

Amazing Tape Measuring

They should put this in the winter olympics, at least as an exhibition sport. Way more exciting than the biathalon.

Make and Meaning Welcomes Guest Bloggers

Over at my other collab-o-blog, Make and Meaning, we have started to post articles by some of our favorite writers and artists from around the blogosphere. First up, is regular Make contributor, Chemist, and all around super hero, Sean Ragan. You can head over and check out Sean's first article, On The Care and Feeding of Ideas, here.

Motor Head - The Sound Sculptures of Zimoun

Zimoun : Sound Sculptures & Installations | Compilation Video V1.5 from ZIMOUN VIDEO ARCHIVE on Vimeo.

I'm digging the sound sculptures in this video created by using motors and other objects. Absolutely mesmerizing.

via MAKE

Wood Tech - Nick Falzone's Case Mods

I've featured some fairly impressive case mods here in the past, but there's just something about wood, isn't there? If I had to own a big tower, I would certainly want Nick Falzone to be responsible for the exterior. More here.

via Design Boom

DIY "Postage Stamps" Using Your Sewing Machine

That mad genius, Cathe Holden of Just Something I Made fame, is at it again with a smart little tutorial on creating realistic postage stamp perforations with your sewing machine. I can see some DudeCraft philately in my near future!

Graphic Design Posters

Web Urbanist has a pretty sweet post featuring graphic design posters this morning, including the one above. Which, by the way, I in no way manipulated for my own personal gain and I definitely did not photoshop in anything that wasn't there in the original. Just saying...

Post Xmas- Reader Portrait Mega-Post

Well, I had a feeling this might happen. After St. Nick made his deliveries, I got a slew of super cool reader portraits in the email. I love it that this project keeps on going and that so many people are having a blast with it. Below, is the most recent crop. Enjoy!

Joel did these two beauties as family presents. You can read and see more on his blog, The Salad Days

Christin created this touching memorial of her cousin.

John made this fantastic trio, featuring his grandsons. He's also created some others you can see on his website.

 

Debbie made a series of portraits, including some sweet type, as an inside joke between her and some friends who are enamored with the truly terrible film, The Room. You can read the story and see the other portraits here.

Laura put this under the tree for her brother and his girlfriend. Nice move, sis!

Finally, Stacy burned the Midnight oil to finish up this awesome portrait of Victor Wooten for her son, the aspiring musician.

Big thanks to all the folks who have sent in their work so far. I get a big kick out of looking at all the great things you've done! Keep 'em coming. If you haven't tried this technique yet but would like to, you can find the original tutorial here.

Grafitti Removal - The Subconscious Artform

I found this brilliant little doc/mock-umentary over at Wooster Collective this morning; it's premise being that the square and rectangular "cover-ups" that you see, dotting the urban landscape, have become an important subliminal art movement that is poised to become a new form of abstract expressionism. Interesting.

Snow Skull - Decomposition Update

Well, it's been a week (really? Seems like a month.) since the great Richmond snowstorm of '09 and since then, Noah has been dutifully documenting the demise of our giant snow skull. The ol' boy was doing alright until it rained this week. Such is life.

Audrey Kawasaki - Studio Tour

Over at My Modern Met, there's a sweet photo set of Audrey Kawasaki's studio as she prepares for her first solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery in NYC. Once again, I find it so much more fascinating to get a peek into an artist's space and process, than just to see the finished product. Something to think about if you're an artist/blogger.

Christmas Day Handwarmers

Yeah, in case you haven't noticed, I don't do "down time" very well. I always need a project going or I feel weird and start to fidgit after about an hour. So, I set my sights on knitting these handwarmers this weekend and, I gotta say, they're pretty dope. Here's the breakdown:

What I used:
Yarn: Mission Falls 136 Merino Superwash - Tri-color Granite (any DK weight yarn will work), This is my first project with this yarn and I like it a lot. Warm and soft.

Straight needles: Size 7 and Size 8

Tapestry needle.

The Pattern:
The pattern for these hand-warmers is basically this one (lots of other cool stuff here too), except I left out the eyelets and started with a slightly larger needle. Also, I used a twisted rib, knitting into the back of each K. The pattern worked brilliantly for my hands, with no alteration necessary.

Cheers.

Merry Christmas from DudeCraft!

photo via

That is, if you celebrate Christmas. If you don't, I hope your having a fabulous day off, and if you're stuck at work, I'm truly sorry.

I managed to not buy anything new this year. I knitted and sewed a few things and I totally scored at a vintage shop in Richmond last weekend to knock off the rest of my list. Let me know what crafty thing you gave or got in the comments.

Reader Portraits - Homey

Sandi's boyfriend is about to spend his first Christmas in twelve years without his faithful friend, Homey by his side. I wish I could say I didn't know how that feels. At least her boyfriend will have this amazing portrait Sandi did to comfort him on Christmas morning. How sweet is that? Great job Sandi!

Want to try your hand at your own portrait? You can find the original tutorial here.

The BAM Trike

Whoa! Check out this "personal mobility vehicle" from the mind of student, Alexander Vittouris. Quite the concept, wouldn't you say? This from the project description:

"The parts required for construction of the recumbent chassis have been reduced to encompass the outer framework of the vehicle. By using large molding sections of bamboo fiber, combined with Polylactide resin, the overall assembly complexities are reduced. The philosophy behind this innovative approach..."

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, design school. Enough of your chatter. When do I get to dress like a Viking, get in this thing, and start slaying my enemies?

More information on the project can be found at Yanko Design.

Building Code - The Work of Sarah McKenzie

I happened to run across the work of Sarah McKenzie quite by accident this morning and was smitten by her portrayal of construction sites in various states of completion. If you're lucky enough to be in New York City during February, you can catch her solo show at the Jen Bekman gallery. For now, you can check out a full gallery of her current work here.

via drew-o-rama

Cathe Holden's FREE Vintage Printer's Cuts

I imagine, in my imagining time, that Cathe Holden's house is filled to the brim with books containing all the magical, vintage graphic goodness that exists in the world and that she is doling it out to us, one page at a time, for fear that we might be overwhelmed by it's collective power. Or alternately, she's a nice lady who gives us free stuff! This time, Cathe has scanned some beautiful vintage printer's cuts for us to use on our last minute Xmas cards or to tuck away in our clip art stash. Head over to Just Something I Made for the free downloads. Thanks Cathe!

Recycled Leather Belt Flooring

Oh, yes. This has DIY written all over it, and at $600 for the round example above, it had better. Now, which one of you is going to tell me the best way to make old belts into a rug? Speak up leather people!

via Dornob

More Reader Portraits - Andrea's Grandparents

I got this sweet picture of Andrea's Grandparents all the way from Rio de Janeiro in my email last night and immediately loved it. I'm sure her family will be thrilled to unwrap it on Christmas morning. Great job!

Still haven't made a paper portrait? Well, why not? The tutorial is right here and it's easy!

Alphabeasts

This book is like a dream come true for the designer/parent set. Now you can teach your child about typefaces and animals simultaneously. H is for Helvetica, oh, and Hamster. Neat! Check out more images from the Alphabeasts book by Werner Design Works here.

via Ribambelles & Ribambins

Start Sewing Guide

I get a lot of questions here at DudeCraft. One of which is: "what tools do I need to start sewing?" It popped up again today, so I decided to hunt down a beginner's guide that I could get behind. Lo and behold, I ran smack into a great little post over on Threadbanger about this very subject. The guide is pretty comprehensive but feel free, as usual, to speak up in the comment section if there's anything you'd like to add.

via The DIY Blog

The Mantle of Cthulu

I've been really into the prop thing lately. Not because I want to own the pieces or because I'm into LARPing (I'm not), but because I'm just amazed at how passionate people are about building these pieces and how much attention to detail they contain. Case in point: Check out this incredible Mantle of Cthulu, built by DeviantArt member, Poison and Bones. Made from real bones (of his enemies?) and resin, I imagine there's upwards of 100 hours in this thing. Awesome!

The Well Groomed Business Card

Smart! I love smart! These cards, developed for the Glammer Institute (not a misspelling) in Thailand by Y&R, allow aspiring students to have a little style practice before they move on to living, breathing people. I just think it's a cool idea.

via World Famous Design Junkies

The Modern Gingerbread House

As you know, I'm a huge fan of the modern architecture, but I'm an even bigger fan of things I can eat. So, imagine my delight when I found this Modernist Gingerbread House Competition over on Core77 this morning. This from the site:

"The Vancouver collective Creative Room is holding a newly-formed annual Gingerbread Competition and Charity Auction, tasking architecture firms to put their design prowess into houses made of gingerbread. The houses are then auctioned off to the public, with this year's proceeds going to benefit Architecture for Humanity."

The auction, unfortunately is over, but there's always next year.

via Craft

The Best Laid Plans - Snow Skull

Noah Scalin from Skull-A-Day and I have been emailing back and forth for the past two months about collaborating on a project together. A month ago, we decided that I'd drive up to Richmond, VA on this weekend and we'd get to work. Noah secured an awesome warehouse space, I got together video and still cameras to document the process and then...snow. Lots of it. So much, in fact, that there was no way we could get down to the warehouse by car. So, what do you do when all your careful planning is ruined by nature? Naturally, you build a gigantic snow skull.

I don't know what would have happened if we had made it to the warehouse but we had a ton of fun, freezing our butts off and running around like kids in Noah's backyard. Sometimes, plan B turns out to be the best one.

*Update - The morning after has brought sunshine and a dusting of snow to our little art project!