I have a pair of VERY spoiled goldfish (in a huge aquarium, so back off Italian government) named Gargle and Grybowski. They had to guard my apartment last week while I was gone, so this image goes out to them. It's part of Worth 1000's daily photoshopping contest. This version of the contest, appropriately enough is a Jack-O-Lantern contest.
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October 2005
October 31, 2005
PUNKins
Happy Halloween, Extreme Craft! I've missed you all soooooo much. First, I was in Vancouver for work, then I had an emergency family thingy in Nebraska, but here I am again, safe and sound in the Craft-o-drome. To honor my return, here's a classic website to keep you company today. For those of you who haven't seen it, Extreme Pumpkins.com is a fine resource for violent pumpkin carving. One year, I tried out the ol' "Carrie Pumpkin" with a tiara and fountain of blood. Needless to say, I got some love from the neighborhood for that one. Other favorites include vomiting pumpkins, gunshot wound pumpkins, and a pumpkin drowned in a bag of water. If you need some last minute pumpkin carving inspirado, you could do worse than Extreme Pumpkins.
October 28, 2005
October 24, 2005
Oh! Canada
Greetings from Vancouver, British Columbia. I'm kicking it here for a few days, and having a great time. While I haven't exactly uncovered hoards of Extreme Crafting Canucks making maple leaf skull sweaters, I have found a LOT of craft. Vancouver is a great knitting town, but it's also a great ceramic town. Fresh off the boat, I paid a visit to the Gallery of BC Ceramics on Granville Island. The work of Maggi Kneer especially caught my eye--it's a melange of well-made pottery and fussy Victorian porcelain. Covered with floral decals (pronounced "deckles"up North, don'cha know) Maggi's work evokes her childhood tea parties with her grandmother--perfect for summer days spent with teacakes and cucumber sandwiches. I purchased a beautiful cup...much like the one you see here. My guess is that Maggi is a potter who actually owns a pair of closed-toed shoes.
October 22, 2005
Phoneblogging from the atlanta airport.
Phoneblogging from the atlanta airport. Terminal d features olympic drawings from the little children of the world. This one is called "i want to win" by a girl from the czech republic.
Phoneblogging from the mall. What
Phoneblogging from the mall. What better way to show your airbrush talent than hiking boots and a toilet seat.
October 21, 2005
The New Baby
October 20, 2005
Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn
Mouse over the image to reveal the secret. It sucks to be scooped by a gossipy British music magazine. I've been dragging my heels on posting a story about Secret Wall Tattoos for months now, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that if you snooze, you lose. I make it a point to hang around decadent rocker types, and I can report to you that like bored sailors doing scrimshaw, the road can drive musicians to pick up some crafty hobbies. One of my favorite road crafts is the practice of making secret artworks in hotel rooms, behind mirrors, headboards, and especially bad abstract and landscape prints. Sure, some bands might still be known for trashing hotel rooms, but you'd be surprised by some of the random acts of artmaking as well. Queens of the Stone Age frontman Josh Homme is a Secret Wall Tattoo practicioner, who is quoted as saying "It's like panties," he suggested of his artistic urges. "There's something better behind the mystery." The next time you're in a generic hotel room, stop worrying about 60 Minutes and their "semen light", and start looking for some hidden beauty instead.
October 19, 2005
Industrial Design is Mancraft!
Growing up, I wasn't an especially manly boy. I carried a purse that my Star Wars figures fit neatly into, and enjoyed having my fingernails painted when my Aunt Florence was painting my sisters' (she insisted on painting mine clear, which bummed me out). Even so, I enjoyed a brief flirtation with things like Nunchucks and butterfly knives. I appreciate the manly arts, even though I tended to excel in Home Ec instead. Manly man David Seah came to the realization recently that Industrial Design is essentially, "Crafting for manly men". Sure, lots of women are great industrial designers, but a look around any heavily designed products reveals a certain amount of...well...testosterone. Seah gives us some tips about D.I.Y. knife creation, and lusts for a rivet press the way that I might lust for some Sil-Pat nonstick silicone bakeware. Grunt!
October 18, 2005
Surviving with Style
It's been a banner week for craft. Healthy competition between crocheted zombies and knit robots can only be helpful for the craft world at large. Here's one more reason (as if you needed more) for crafters to hold their head up high. This morning, BoingBoing published a link to knitting website knitty, which brings us an article on KNITTED BREAST PROSTHESES! It seems that Beryl Tsang, creator of "tit bits" struggled with not-so-aesthetic prostheses, which, while they might jiggle just right, are heavy, and reminded her of a piece of liver.
Being a MacGyver type, she knitted herself a proud, luxe replacement:
I finished my first knitted titty an hour before the party and wore it with one of my favorite lacy underwires. When a friend, who had been following the whole titty saga, saw me she remarked, "You really did a great job! Your left breast looks almost as good as the right one -- a bit lumpy but very realistic."LINK to article and pattern via BoingBoing LINK to TitBits store
"You know," I replied, "It was my right breast that was removed."
"Orientation" - New Work From China
- This body of work was created during a Summer 2010 residency at the Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, China. These porcelain vessels explore traditional Chinese iconography as refracted through a decidedly Western point of view.
