Mear One Gets it Done

You know how much I love to see process!

via Wooster Collective

X-Ray Lampshade

Diggin' on this x-ray lampshade by Sture Pallarp that I found over at Craft!

Mad Men Case Mod

Speaking of outrageous case mods, Jeffrey Stephenson has been cranking out the retro enclosures for some time now. Over at Core77, he shares his latest work in progress, a danish modern piece fit for Don Draper himself. Pretty great.

Case Monster

I've featured some pretty out-of-control case mods on DudeCraft in the past, but this Dreadnought that lights up, speaks and has spinning guns, has to be right near the top.

via Kotaku

The Longest Photographic Exposures in History

Ran into this little gem of a story about the longest recorded photographic exposures in history. Absolutely fascinating images. Well, to me anyway. Maybe you think it's dreck.:-)

Tatted Up LEGOs

I'm loving this campaign for Pilot Ultra-Fine Ballpoint Pens, with points so fine, you can draw some awesome looking tattoos on all your LEGO characters. Sweet!

via BoingBoing

txtBOMBER

The one-handed, battery-powered, arduino-controlled, statement machine! txtBOMBER allows you to roll out any sentiment you so desire just by moving it along a flat surface. According to its inventor, Felix Vorreiter, it only speaks German at the moment.

more at Behance

We Are the Champions

Just happened to run across this insanely detailed and highly stylized, paper version of Queen by People Too over at Behance this morning. I mean, check out all the little bits on Brian May's Guitar and Freddie Mercury's costume. Pretty amazing.

Signal Shed

My love for small buildings is no secret. Something about shackitecture that reminds me of the forts I used to build when I was a kid, I guess. Also, the draw of ultra simple living. So, obviously I'm loving this 130 sq. ft. signal shed by Ryan Lingard Design in collaboration with Greg Morrow and Sons Inc. More pics and story over at architecture4us.

via NotCot

Wiggy, Wiggy...What?

For an exhibit called "Back in the Good Old Days", artist Fabien Clerc created this fully functioning, highly decorated, ceramic DJ rig that looks like it would sit more comfortably in a Regency drawing room than in a dance club. Nonetheless, I'm diggin' it.

via Design Boom

DUO does Pinball Wizard

Some of you, apparently, can't get enough of that ukulele rock! Here's another, just for you.

Not Sure Which I Prefer

Ran across this story about an old experiment involving LSD and creativity over at the Jailbreak. It's pretty fascinating stuff. This from the site:

"The general premise is quite simple: A doctor (in the employ of the US government, of course) dosed an artist with acid. The artist was given an “activity box” full of crayons and pencils. Over the course of his trip the artist drew nine different portraits of the doctor and, along the way, reported on his psychological state as his trip and his portraits progressed.

As you can see from the drawing on the left above, the artist is highly skilled, technically speaking. And as you can see from the drawing on the right, the acid has an absolutely remarkable effect on his work, leading him to pure abstraction."

Not sure what drawings I prefer, to be honest.

3d Printed Fashion

I just about fell over when I saw this piece by young fashion designer, Iris van Herpen, this morning. I'm digging that the entire collection is a collaboration of fashion, architecture and high tech fabrication, This from the .MGX site:

"At the opening soiree of the Amsterdam International Fashion Week on July 14, Dutch fashion designer Iris van Herpen provided a preview of her SS11 collection “Crystallization”. Included in the preview was a breathtaking 3D printed piece, created in collaboration with architect Daniel Widrig and .MGX.

The 3D printed piece is the first in a series of three. Two additional creations will be produced by .MGX in time for the Paris and London fashion weeks in September. The 26-year-old van Herpen, who interned under Alexander McQueen and counts Lady Gaga among her customers, was inspired by the transformation of water to crystal and combining handcrafts with new, innovative techniques."

via NotCot

Tokujin Yoshioka's Snowscape

Part of a group show dealing with man's relationship to nature, Tokujin Yoshioka's snowscape, an ever changing environment of feathers being blown around by fans, is surely one of the most impressive and beautiful installations I've seen.

Many more pictures over at Design Boom

Art Crush - Julie Hill

Okay, I admit it, I have sort of an art crush on illustrator, Julie Hill. Can you blame me? Check out that map. Awesome.

Warning: link contains partially nude illustrations of the female form. Very mild.

via Spray Blog

Durham Ukulele Orchestra

Well, it's not exactly craft related, but many of you have asked about my ukulele band over the past few months and we happen to put up some videos yesterday, so I thought I'd share them here. You can find the other 5 songs over here on YouTube.

Mitsuru Koga's Sea Stone Vases

These took my breath away this morning. Check out the delicate beauty and balance in Koga's series of miniature vases. I'd love to own these.

Tarp Surfing

Simple. This is just a ridiculous idea made totally awesome by the enthusiasm of the guys who are involved. Looks like a blast. Here's to homegrown fun! I'm off to buy a giant tarp now.

via neatorama

Temple of Faile

This goes beyond, way beyond, street art. Artist collective, Faile has erected a ruined temple in the streets of Lisbon for Portugal Arte 10. From a distance, you might even believe that it belongs there, but as you get closer and start to see the details hiding within the classical form, you know that somebody is pulling your leg. I'm just blown away by the sheer magnitude of the undertaking. It must have taken an immense amount of planning and sweat to pull this off.

via Animal New York via Wooster Collective

Trouble with Tribbles Posters

It's difficult to express how much I love these posters by Olly Moss. Read more about the project here.

via BoingBoing

Ridiculously Romantic Wedding Ring

To say that Luke Jerram, working with jeweler Tamrakar, hit it out of the park with this ingenious wedding ring/projector design is putting it mildly. I can hear you swooning from here.

via NotCot

The Lacemaker

Dutch artist, Tord Boontje has taken lace and turned it on it's head. In his new exhibition, The Lacemaker, he has taken traditional techniques and paired them with non-traditional materials, culminating in an amazing array of objects, large and small. Check out that black couch!

via Design Boom

Not So Secret Beeswax Recipe

Kudos to Amber Dusick, for revealing the full recipe and secret ingredients of her beeswax wood polish. Great bit of generosity and sharing there. Thanks, Amber, for the info!

via Craft

Akane Takayama's Dog Days

UK artist, Akane Takayama had an idea. The idea is pretty simple. You enroll school kids to make 1000 cardboard dog sculptures and then participate in their installation around various London parks. But it's so much more than that. The kids get to make something, then they get to take it home and photograph the situations that the "dog" gets in to. Then they get to be a member of this cool, secret art club that goes around London, installing hundreds of cardboard dogs in parks. Then they get to watch the public interact with their creations.

Good thing we are systematically eliminating art classes in this country, or this kind of thing might happen here too.

via NotCot

Correction: Seems that I got this story backwards. Thanks to Jack for straightening me out. This from him:

"Actually you have got the story wrong which I thought you might be interested in, especially
as you appear to have a thing about the disappearance of art in schools (we absolutely agree).

What Takayama did was actually totally brilliant and innovative on every level and the fact she
did the whole thing herself as an independent artist makes the achievement, in this bureaucracy,
even more amazing.

She was absolutely certain from the outset that she didn't want to be another artist going around
doing "social inclusion projects" just to get arts council funding and use a load of kids to work for
her. She is a passionate artist, very erudite in her subject, totally committed and a genius at transmitting
art knowledge and skills to kids.

What she decided to do was to run sculpture workshops for primary school children showing them how
to conceive of, design and build four dimensional sculptures from readily available materials. From the
outset she was determined that the children should express their own creativity and be their own artists
rather than be harnessed to her work. The involvement of the DOG Sculpture Installation was for the
children to see an artist in the process of a public art work and for them to understand that such projects
are also within the possibilities of their own lives.

She approached, on her own, many schools and 19 responded. She prepped up teachers, designed a fluid
workshop module and then went and delivered the workshops to the children who then created their own
sculptures:

See:

http://dogsculpture2010.blogspot.com/search/label/Social%20Inclusion%20Element
&
http://dogsculpture2010.blogspot.com/search/label/Childrens-Sculpture

Do take a look at these because some of the work the children produced was stunning."

Time Lapse Birth of a Jedi

Who can resist a time lapse movie of Robert Burden's painting, Birth of a Jedi? Not me, certainly.

via Gizmodo

Sarah J. Coleman's Mockingbird

I was in the bookstore the other night and was admiring the 50th Anniversary cover design for To Kill a Mockingbird (paperback version), designed by Sarah J. Coleman. What a nerve-wracking task that must have been. I would have loved to have been in that meeting..."Okay, Sarah, we want you to take one of the most beloved books of all time and update it, you know, make it fresh." The very idea gives me stomach pains. I think she did a good job though. What say you?

via NotCot

Robert Bradford's Plastic Fantastic

I'm digging UK artist, Robert Bradford's series of recycled plastic dog sculptures at the moment. Not only are they cool looking but, as a side benefit, he sure is keeping a lot of junk out of the landfill, isn't he?

via Coolhunter

Jeff Nishinaka's World of Paper

It's a little hard to believe that I'm so late to this party. Usually if someone has this much skill and talent, I've heard of them. So, imagine my surprise and delight when I happened upon Jeff Nishinaka's site this morning and started rooting around in his portfolio. Absolutely breathtaking stuff!

via Upon a Fold

Cycling Cap Tutorial

Cycling Cap Tutorial from Paul Overton on Vimeo.

Yes, it's finally here. But first, before you watch it, a warning. It was about 105 degrees in the studio when I filmed this, therefore, I am totally out of my mind during the whole thing. Also, there are ZERO production values in this tute. I'm drowning at my real job at the moment and decided to skip the fancy titles and music in favor of just getting the information out there. Also, it's epically long at just under 23 minutes. That's not to say that the information isn't good. I think I covered everything pretty well. Finally, if you're an experienced stitcher, you can probably skip the tute all together, download the pattern and just get on with it. Resources below...

Download Hat Pattern Here.

Jon Contino, Alphastructaesthetitologist

I'm digging all the hand lettered work that NYC artist, Jon Contino is cranking out. Especially the weathered, nautical looking stuff. Beautiful work.