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more on inspiration and other visual journals + scrapbooks

After reading ‘ted muehling and the inspiration journal’, designer Pamela Hovland wrote about the many kinds of visual journals she’s kept over the years: “one for my garden, one for my house, one for my summer cabin in Minnesota (all of which are ongoing projects). I keep a visual journal for art and design inspiration, another for wardrobe inspiration (as sometimes I’ll attempt to make a skirt I’ve seen or ask a tailor to do the same). I even have a journal devoted to all things black and white.”

Pamela mentioned Jessica Helfand’s wonderful book Scrapbooks: An American History. That sent me on a path that expanded my view of what journals and scrapbooks can be. One of Helfand’s own scrapbooks commemorates the ritual cleaning of her graphic design studio; it includes bits of dead insect, chicken meat, angel hair pasta, a Prednisone prescription, and Clementine peel into glassine envelope. read more…

10.11.09 | comments (3) | in gifts, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, inspiration books + zines, media, projects + play, tools |

a perfect, portable knife for errant cooks

opinel-500-px1

When I’m camping in a borrowed or rented house out of town, I love the challenge of cooking in the invariably rudimentary kitchen with whatever is there. It’s fun to devise solutions to small dilemmas: making roasting pans out of tin foil, or rolling pins out of wine bottles. I’ve made cheese souffles in cast-iron skillets, and used the same skillet to smoke trout using dried twigs from a nearby apple tree. These small challenges are somehow gratifying.

The one thing I always bring with me, though, is a good knife – NOT a set of chef’s knives bound in a leather roll – but a simple, inexpensive, picnic knife from France, the Opinel. read more…

09.15.09 | comments | in cheap + great, eating, gifts, housewares, road warrior, tools |

are you a secret lighting designer?

lampshade-plans

I was just imagining how my friend Matthew, who is a gifted paper artist, might design a light out of a paper shade and hanging bulb were he given the challenge, when I came across some free, origami-like down-loadable plans on the internet. They are the “gift” of Arash and Kelly, an industrial design studio with a mission “to help to re-connect our global culture”. A video of their Octopus light being made gives a sense that this is really something an anyone might improvise upon.

But even more inspiring and full-of-info is a video of a light for which they don’t give exact plans, but do show the assembly of: plastic leaves with perforations along the edges that “zip” together to make a number of configurations. It made me think: “There’s a great approach to d-i-y lights and shades”: read more…

07.20.09 | comments (3) | in hard, how-to, materials, plans, resources, stores, tools |

make your own music

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I am blown away by Andre Michelle’s awesome visual music synthesizer, an instant d-i-y way for anybody to make charming syncopated Steve Reich-ish music that repeats endlessly. The more boxes you touch with your cursor, the more complex the tune becomes. If you get tired of a tune, continue to build it, listening as it evolves. (Also try clicking on the pale, tiny words under the synthesizer screen for other of Andre’s intriguing “studies”, or find them on the main menu.)

The synthesizer is the antidote to the workmen hammering outside my office window, providing a gorgeous meditative background sound that, along with ear plugs,  blocks out the pounding on walls going on around me, and is perfectly conducive to working.

This is going on my bookmarks bar.

via The Daily Dish

05.27.09 | comments (2) | in art, media, tools |

sewing advice for beginners

sewing-artists-cards

I have a lot of sewing projects I’d like to do – making pillow covers our of sari fabric, aprons out of gorgeous linen, for example -  but didn’t know where to begin. So I asked my friend Lydia, who is the absolute best and most gifted textile person I know.  (She’s masterminding some projects that I’ll be posting, with patterns and pictures for d-i-y. ) Here’s Lydia’s advice for beginners: read more…

05.23.09 | comments | in how-to, learn, resources books + zines, solutions, tools |

cool on-demand paint color matchers

i-phone-paint-app

Fernando Ariza, The New York Times

ColorCapture Ben, a new iPhone and iPod Touch application, allows users to zoom into a particular color in a picture on their device, tap the “match” key, and see a display of paints closest to the color, along with a range of lighter and darker shades. (The app, created by Benjamin Moore,  will reference its 3,300+ paint colors.) You can save the color “chips” on your phone for future reference.

Its an incredibly useful app, if you bear in mind that the color match is of a photo, which are often different than real-life colors.

ColorCapture Ben will be Available in June 1, free of charge at the Apple App Store.

If you don’t have an iPhone and/or are really serious about paint colors, Benjamin Moore has a more accurate standalone alternative,  Pocket Palette Device, that will do the same thing, with more serious calibrations (for about $300).

(via The NY Times)


05.23.09 | comments | in reimagine, resources, services, tools |

free music to work by

esopus-magazine1

One thing lead to another and I stumbled on Esopus Magazine’s website. The magazine presents content from all creative disciplines in a seriously non-commercial format. It is a swell magazine, living its mission of trying to connect artists with a broader public. Each issue includes a free online MP3 player of music created by various artists such as Devendra Banhart, Asobi Seksu and Tom Kruegeraround,  around the theme. My favorite is “Ouija” and “Spam”.  It’s especially good music to work by. read more…

02.18.09 | comments | in art, inspiration, inspiration blogs + sites, tools |

a kids’ drawing program for adults

Bob Staake, creator of the charming children’s book Donut Chef and dozens of New Yorker cartoons, draws with a mouse using an ancient version of Photoshop. This video speaks volumes about the virtues, and humanity, of computer-generated art, and how fluid the process can be, once you loosen your head up (which this video will do). It instantly had me yearning for an accessible, fun drawing program. read more…

02.02.09 | comments | in kids, learn, media, projects + play, tools, why not? |

big black bag

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Really big bags are essential for all sorts of projects, like hauling food home from the farmers market, or a brick or two or a piece of pipe from a construction site, or [rocks] from out of town.  I’ve had a variety of bags over the years, some which are still with me, though pretty down at heals (including really dirty looking – despite washing –  classic white canvas satchels. Lately, I’ve been looking for a big black bag to add a little style to the huge bag category. Here’s a bargain, designed by Andy at Reference Library and sold through Kiosk. $60 and handsome. There are some nice testimonials on his site, including a guy who hauled home 4 gallons of paint.

01.29.09 | comments | in apparel, road warrior, stores, tools |

 
 
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