My marriage proposal picture from earlier this week prompted an outpouring of other crafty wedding proposals. Chief among them is my friend Ian, who handcrafted these four bowls then invited a couple of friends over to have a meal with him and his beau, Kari. When the two couples joined the clean plate club, (what were you serving, Ian? It looks like some very romantic granola!) there was the proposal. Any other crafty proposals? Feel free to email them to me!
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December 2005
December 22, 2005
Sarah-Maria's Got a Brand New Bag
This fetching mermaid handbag was lovingly handcrafted by my friend Sarah-Maria. Somehow, it makes me want to do yoga and drink loads of coffee!
Doh! Now I feel like a dick. The Mermaid is actually Sarah-Maria's family Crest. Starbucks has been bitin' her flava for years!
A "Model" Home
Jellio is a design studio dedicated to translating pop culture artifacts from GenX childhoods into whimsical items of furniture. From Rubik's Cube tables to squirt gun fountains, you can relive your childhood while showing off your grown-up wealth and taste. Jellio just introduced Turbo, a limited edition wall sculpture made to look like a snap-together panel from a Revell model car. Gentlemen, start your wallets!
December 20, 2005
Droidel, Droidel, Droidel
Here's a Holiday shoutout to God's chosen people...the Jews, of course, but especially the NERD JEWS! To keep you out of trouble, here's a link to Starwars.com's DROIDEL...a papercraft R2D2 Dreidel that you can print out and assemble. If that's too complicated for you, I'm sure you could make a simple mudpie Golem kit with a hose and some dirt!
LINK via BoingBoing
December 19, 2005
On One Knee
I've been writing about myself waaaaay too much lately, but those of you who are curious, knock yourselves out!
Go, Trabi Go!
Holy Moly! Artist Liz Cohen is hard at work at the Färgfabriken in Sweden, turning an East German Trabant into an American El Camino. As if that weren't mind-bending enough for you, she'll be sculpting herself into a chiseled "Snap-On" Calendar bikini girl simultaneously. The art space, a former factory which previously hosted David Byrne's "Playing the Factory" installation, is playing host to "Gender Turntable", an equal opportunity art forum meant to examine social issues, roles, and mores. Cohen's project, Bodywork, is as involved as they come, incorporating elements of performance, object-making, and inevitably, plenty of discussion. I can guarantee that the Swedes will be quick on the uptake, and parlez-vousing plenty of "Lowrider-ese" in a very short time. Now, if they could only see the way I transform those little red gummi fish into a huge American Ass!
December 14, 2005
Stop Gocco?
Nooooooooooo! Stop the presses! I just got the news that Riso is going to be stopping production on their lovable Print Gocco products. For those of you who have been living in some 70's macrame craft cave, Print Gocco is a very user-friendly way to do small-scale screenprinting. The unit consists of a little unit that exposes the screens with an old-fashioned flashbulb. I heard that Print Gocco was particularly all the rage in Japan, but reportedly, the phenomenon is running out of steam....probably because of those damn internets the kids are crazy about. If you'd like to save the Print Gocco, pay a visit to savegocco.com, where you can download designs for T-shirts, buttons, and flyers, as well as ideas that might help you save Gocco. Let the hoarding begin!
Costumes that Suck!
The other day, I purchased a Burberry Plaid skin for my iPod from DecalGirl.com. Bling Bling! Instant Gangsta Cred for me. People have been "skinning" their applications video games and applications for quite a while now, but now, technology makes it possible to get a cosy or decal for almost anything. Enter MyRoomBud.com, makers of "costumes" for your Roomba Vacuum cleaner. Imagine the ooohs and ahs that you'll get with a cute little zebra, tiger, leopard or cow trundles by, sucking the dust off your floor. Better yet, teach fido to groom the floor, and cut out the middleman!
December 12, 2005
From Red...to Redneck..to EWWWWWWW!
From the time I was 10 years old, my family spent some serious time in Branson, MO. We first started visiting Branson when it began smelling like NashVegas in the early 80's. We would stay in a run-down cabin on Table Rock lake and waterski with my Uncle, perhaps pausing along the way to buy some Horehound penny candy and whittled cowboy figures. Music was just starting to take off in Branson. I actually remember when Johnny Cash opened up a theater there...this was a few years before Rick Rubin turned him into a badass again (can you imagine the alternate universe possibilities?).
My biggest Branson surprise, though, was when Yakov Smirnoff opened a theater there. This was the early 90's, in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, and I think Branson was the only place where people were genuinely unaware that the evil empire was gone. Yakov could keep recycling his old jokes for a blissfully backwards crowd, and everybody goes home happy! I think his tagline was...from RED--TO REDNECK! Yakov even opened an "International" food court on the premises. Somehow, I don't think that the tourists were filling their belly bags with Ethiopian food...or even Russian food for that matter. Imagine my delight when I was perusing the Onion's annual gift guide, and found YAKOV'S FREAKIN' JESUS PAINTINGS! To wit:
"This is the biggest portrait to me. I have it in my living room, bedroom, my office, everywhere. It reminds me to focus on the joy of life, as I'm sure He would have wanted us to. The Bible talks a lot about Jesus rejoicing but you don't see depictions of that very often. It struck me that divinity and laughter would go hand and hand. God loves a merry heart. To me laughter is the Language of God -- laughter is a gift that God gave to man and it's very precious; it is unequal to anything else. I believe that love and laughter are inseparable. Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. Laughter is a confirmation of energy flow in the right way and the energy is Love. So painting this I'm thinking God is Love so He's also Laughter."If you're really into creation...another Onion suggestion impregnation with Vincent Gallo's semen! It'll only cost you a cool million dollars...more if you prefer "natural insemination". Mr. Gallo also has some...um... interesting comments about genetics.
December 09, 2005
Another Bust!
Cheers to the anonymous University of Georgia Ceramics 1 student who created this likeness of Seinfeld's Kramer.
"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.
