Whenever we need a business card to introduce ‘the improvised life’ or ourselves (with address and phone), we peel off a printed-at-our-local-copy-shop sticker and stick it onto…something. Pamela Hovland dreamed up the idea one day when we were trying to figure out an alt-business card that would say what ‘the improvised life’ is in a flash, and get people curious enough to go to the site. We began to imagine things that would be cool made into cards, like the oddly-printed discards and tests that printers routinely put in the recycling bin, or cereal boxes…or leather, bits of fabric, thin sheets of metal, used subway cards. Our favorite so far is the ribbon we bought at Hyman Hendler in the garment district, that we originally bought to make the ribbon on the Surprise Box. read more…
soft
wrap and tie a table?
What is it that we love about this? This wrap job is a whole OTHER thing than a mover would do. The use of twine and rope, akimbo, along with the fine lines of the unseen table (which could be made out of anything), turned it into a sculpture. We’re filing that in our heads for future “transformations” we might try on a piece of furniture we’re tired of, or that need something.
ipad + velcro (+ imagination)
We were charmed and enthralled by Jesse Rosten‘s video about expanding the world via an iPad and velcro, “two of mankind’s greatest inventions”…
….And we especially love his caveat:
“Note, this is an exploration of what is possible, not necessarily what is practical.”
…exploration of what is possible = the way to find the unexpected path…
Via Core77
hiding furniture with fabric
Sometimes there’s no way around keeping a piece of furniture in your place that you’re not crazy about; you either need it (like a file cabinet or storage chest) or you can’t get rid of it just yet (you’re keeping it for the next place). Here’s an example of using a great fabric to hide a piece of furniture, from the fabulous house designed by the great Mexican architect Luis Barrigan that we blogged last week. Laying fabric upon wonderful fabric on the table and folding the corners in neatly makes it look interesting and intentional, rather than like a disguise (though we don’t imagine Barrigan is disguising anything in that house.)
We think, the example from Lonny Magazine, below, works pretty well, though it transmits subtle inklings of “disguise”. We think it would have been much more complete with another piece of fabric, or a runner (even placed front to back) draped over it, a la Barrigan.
inspired makeshift: a year of personal fashion
Makeshift is a wonderfully expressive term for “making a shift”: shifting your thinking to come up with a creative solution that accomplishes the task at hand in a unexpected way. When you find you don’t have something you need, you improvise a substitute or “shift” what you are making to accommodate it. Makeshift is one of our favorite words.
So, of course, we LOVE the blog Makeshift, which documents the daring, ambitious art-and-research project of Natalie Purschwitz. For an entire year starting September 1, 2009, she’s wearing ONLY things she has made herself: clothes, socks, shoes, underwear, coats, jackets, hats, bathing suits, accessories, and…
“….anything else I might need to protect my body from the elements while trying to lead a fulfilling life. It will be an investigation into the relationships between ‘clothing’, ‘making’ and ‘living’.”
Even her shoes! We can’t begin to imagine the amount of work and thought that goes into each day’s outfit but we love seeing the results: everyday a new picture of her standing there forthrightly in her new outfit. We also love seeing the evolution of ideas, some of which Purschwitz writes about…like these amazing yellow shoes, which evolved out of a technique for making Christmas ornaments: read more…
pamela’s brilliant d-i-y wrist warmers
Designer and contributor-of-brilliant-ideas Pamela Hovland recently improvised wonderful wrist-warmers out of an old pair of wool socks. Here’s how this inspired bit of repurposing came about, in her own words and photos:
“I often wear wrist warmers while I’m working away at my computer as my hands are cold from the fall to the spring. I first saw them in northern Sweden; someone was selling hand-knit versions at an artisan’s market in a remote village. I remember that I didn’t know what they were; I was simply attracted to the colors and patterns. Once I figured it out, however, I bought a pair knit from beautiful charcoal grey and burnt orange wool and ended up wearing them nearly every day last winter.
A few months ago I washed some beautiful (and expensive) wool socks in the washing machine by mistake, and as a result, they shrunk. As I couldn’t bear to throw them out, it occurred to me that perhaps I could repurpose them somehow. read more…
great clip-on lamp shade (+ the search for glass fiber paper)
Right after I posted “Are you a secret lighting designer?” about down-loadable lamp shade plans and cool, flame-proof materials to improvise with, I came across this really inspired, inexpensive, endlessly useful clip-on lamp shade for sale at tweek. It’s just about perfect for hanging bulbs or wall fixtures. Still, I couldn’t help falling into an obsessive Google hunt to find the material it is made out of: read more…
blank-canvas furniture
Phil Mansfield for The New York Times
A while back, the N.Y. Times reported on a stylish mom whose muslin-covered John Derian sofa became a canvas for her daughter and her seventh grade class to decorate with markers. The article didn’t say whether she’d intended the white muslin sofa to be painted on or whether the blank canvas she’d meant only to be chic and minimal inspired a fit of improvisation. No matter, I suppose. It IS a great idea, and was taken a step further by her son, who embellished two muslin-covered arm chairs with Fabric Paint
diy patchwork headboard
Living Etc. via Style Files
I love the idea of this patchwork headboard from Lockwood Design. There are endless possibilities for combining cool fabrics and textures and it’s definitely a do-able project. I can imagine using all sorts of vintage fabrics, which can be found at flea markets and on Ebay. Or buying 1/2 yard of several fabrics from a great fabric store.
It’s basically an elaboration of a basic upholstered headboard like this one made from a tablecloth. (Tablecloths are often made of wonderful hard-to-find fabric. So why not use them like fabric?) Charming tea towels and linen place mats would make great patchwork panels.
via Designer's Library
There’s lots of info on the internet about how to make an upholstered headboard; I recommend reading a few to figure out your strategy. Here’s a start:
How to Make an Upholstered Headboard (sew a panel of patchwork pieces to use as their single sheet of fabric)
How to Make an Upholstered Headboard Using Pillow Shams (essentially a patchwork headboard that you could do with other fabrics).
