A clever New York City artist named Joshua Allen Harris turned trash bags into a fun art installation in the city. The trash bag art that Harris designed is placed on a subway grate. When the train passed underneath the trash art transforms into a giraffe or a bear. You can see the art in the AP video below.
Scope is an emerging art fair that focusing on multimedia and high tech art. Reuters says the Scope art fair "pushes the envelope of conventional art fairs." Reuters says Scope has been responsible for $125 million in contemporary art sales. Bobbi Rebell's report from Reuters below shows some of the unique art exhibits found at Scope. If you love computer graphics then this is the art fair for you.
Who says you can't be creative with old tires? This summer New York-based artist Chakaia Booker will make her mark on Indianapolis. Known for her work with recycled tires, Booker is creating nine large-scale sculptures for Indianapolis. This will be her largest urban exhibition ever. The nine massive artworks (each 5-15 feet high) will be on public display from July 22 through April 1, 2009. You can read more about Booker's sculptures here and here. You can visit Chakaia Booker's website here.
Michelle Kaufmann, a green blogger, is offering a free Earth Day Activity Kit. The kit contains instructions for building a number of green craft projects. Information about the projects can be found on Michelle Kaufmann's blog. The photo on the right shows an mkpocket which can be made from old jeans.
"Growing up in Iowa, I developed a deep understanding of the relationship between humankind and the environment, an awareness I strive to incorporate into everything I do," said Michelle Kaufmann. "I love showing people how easy it can be to make healthy green choices that also create more beautiful living spaces. That's why I created this kit especially for Earth Day."
Each activity in the Earth Day Activity Kit focuses on reducing, reusing, and recycling to transform everyday castaways into beautiful, functional objects. The Earth Day Activity Kit includes detailed instructions, videos and color photographs to help you complete these projects. Here are some of the projects in Kaufmann's kit.
mkPocket: Perfect for the "green teen," or anyone who wants to carry their iPod (or iPhone) in eco-chic style. All you need is the pockets of your old over-loved jeans to create customized fashion for your equally over-loved music/mobile device.
Ecobirdfeeder: Sleek, modular, green design is for the birds with this modern birdfeeder constructed of wooden chopsticks.
Eco Candles: Once you realize that paraffi n wax candles get their start in an oil refinery that golden glow just doesn't seem quite as romantic. The sustainable solution to this eco quandary is candles made of natural waxes
such as soy, palm, and beeswax. We show you how to make them yourself.
Waterwall: This project is perfect for the pragmatist who appreciates the beautiful things in life. Learn how to create a "wall" of water bottles that drastically reduces heat gain within your home and cuts your need for artificial cooling systems during warmer months. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy a naturally comfortable temperature, lower energy costs AND the sunbeams reflecting through the water that dance across your walls.
Plantable Paper: All you green thumbs out there can share the bounty of your gardens via homemade plantable paper turned into Earth Day cards.
Earth Day is April 22nd. You can learn more about it here, here and here.
Etsy Alchemy has returned earlier this month after popular demand. The service allows Etsy sellers to bid on making custom items for buyers. Buyers post requests for custom handmade items they want and and Etsy crafters bid on the opportunity to make these products. You can read a help page here.
The video description says: "Etsy Alchemy is going strong with over 600 active Alchemy requests after only a few days!"
It's best to blog about National Craft Month before it is over - which it nearly is. Etsy remined us in this entry.
But hey, for Storque readers, when is it not Craft Month, anyway? Not to poo-poo this celebration at all: we should take the time to reflect on our collective project here: the indie craft movement. It's an opportunity to spread awareness about consumerism, and to think about how entrepreneurship and hands-on learning can improve people's lives. CHA (the Craft and Hobby Association) is spearheading the "National Craft Month" promotion, and you can find out more about events they're sponsoring and ways to get involved here.
The Face Stamp from Design Office A4 is a smiley face stamp that can be squeezed to make several different expressions. The Face Stamp is soft so you can squish it to change the happy face into a sad, mad or confused face.
From Design Office A4, the Face Stamp let's you express emotion through stamps, but you only need one to do it! The soft rubber stamp is shaped like a normal smiley face, but pinching and using your grip and pressure you can manipulate the face to show several emotions, from approval to surprise to anger.
The Face Stamp comes in a handy storage tube and can be easily wiped off for cleaning.
The Face Stamp comes in three different colors: blue, black and pink. When are mailing a nice letter to your friend you can use the Face Stamp's normal happy face. But when you are paying a bill you can squeeze the Face Stamp so that you stamp a grumpy face on the envelope containing the bill. (via Trends in Japan)
South Carolina artist Jocelyn Chateauvert created "Lily Clouds" from flax paper and sterling silver wire. Lily Clouds is on display, hanging from the chapel ceiling in the Medical University of South Carolina's new 641,000 square foot hospital. The piece is one of 873 pieces of original, contemporary art completed by 54 South Carolina artists created to inspire serenity and a healing environment for patients, caregivers and families. You can see a few other Chateauvert pieces here on Guild.com.
How creepishly cute is Gertrude on the right? The monster bag from Felting in Fibrespace even has an eye that pops out when Gertrude isn't feeling too shy.
Gertrude is a little shy, see how her hair hangs in front of her face, she's trying to hide. However, when she's had a bit too much to drink, she shows her wild side. She has a tendency to poke her tongue out at people and with a little encouragement she'll perform her amazing party trick, not many monsters can pop their eyeball out of their socket!
Gertrude the monster bag is sold in Fireplace's Etsy store. Felting in Fibrespace also has a bag for dreamers named Duncan.
Everyone loves their Swiffer cleaning tools but the replacements dusters can be expensive. These homemade fleece replacement dusters are an interesting alternative. Clever Flickr user merwing (via Crafty Crafty) came up with the crafty Swiffer replacement idea. You can see some instructions for making them here. Not only might these crafty Swiffer replacements save you some money but it is also a greener way to clean. There are a few other Swiffer pad ideas here.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has added a cool art exhibit called Color Chart that showcases contemporary artists use of color. The exhibit can be browsed online as well. You can view the artist's work by artist or by timeline from 1950 to today. Cool Hunting says those attending the exhibit are encouraged to wear bright and vivid colors.
Color Chart celebrates a paradox: the lush beauty that results when contemporary artists assign color decisions to chance, readymade source, or arbitrary system. Midway through the twentieth century, long-held convictions regarding the spiritual truth or scientific validity of particular colors gave way to an excitement about color as a mass-produced and standardized commercial product. The Romantic quest for personal expression instead became Andy Warhol's "I want to be a machine;" the artistry of mixing pigments was eclipsed by Frank Stella's "Straight out of the can; it can't get better than that." Color Chart is the first major exhibition devoted to this pivotal transformation, featuring work by some forty artists ranging from Ellsworth Kelly and Gerhard Richter to Sherrie Levine and Damien Hirst.
The exhibit runs from 3-2-08 until 5-12-08. (via Craftzine)
The above Proboscian Sippy Mask is a cool entry in the costumecon from Jennifer Maestre. This would make for part of a very cool alien Halloween outfit. You can actually drink while wearing the bizarre mask. Be sure to check the Etsy listing (via Craftzine) because there is an awesome photo of the Proboscian mask under a black light.
One cool thing about this mask- it has a drinking tube up the proboscis. Nothing stinks more than having to remove your face each time you'd like a sip of something tasty at a party! Plus, it looks wicked pissah, watching red wine run up the tube.
Jennifer Maestre is very talented. Check you all these sculptures she makes with pencil tips.
Here's a cute Valentine's Day craft idea that's also quick and easy to make. It's a one-eyed heart or one-googly-eyed heart Valentine. Kids will love the Valentine's googly eye. You need seven items: scissors, card stock in different colors, hole punch, red yarn, glue, googly eyes and a marker.
Document this work in anyway necessary to prove to the world that you've made something new: write, take pictures, videos, post things online.
Do this everyday and post to the blog before midnight, 7 days a week.
You can upload pictures straight to this blog (limit to 200K per post) but you can also host your work anywhere online and post a link to it on the blog. If you have a Flickr account, use it please.
Introduce your daily accomplishments: give them a name, a title, a punch line, a description, anything that will encourage others to check out your work.
See what everyone else has been up to and steal ideas, comment on other people's work or reinvent something they did.
No recycled old work, no posting someone else's stuff unless you have explicit authorization from them. We'll welcome anyone who wants to join and we trust you know the basic net ethics (-we reserve the right to kick someone out if/when needed).
Thing-a-day.com will not send you reminders, will not harass you or threaten you if you don't do your daily post, once you sign up, you're on your own.
Yes, registration closed on January 31st at midnight and it started February 1st so you can't really play this year - unless you create on your own for the rest of the month. However, you can remember Thing-a-day for February, 2009.
In this video Madeline Merced - the How to Girl - teaches you how to easily make a cool and pretty Origami Valentine. Here's what you'll need.
scissors,
a ruler,
an assortment of origami paper (found at many craft stores),
and something sweet to add to your Valentine!
Madeline filled her Origami Valentine box with candy hearts that say sweet things like Be Mine and I Love You. Another good idea for your origami box would be those Valentine M&M's.
The BristleBot is an from Evil Mad Scientist Labratories - a great name for a company making bots. They define a BristleBot as a a simple and tiny robot with an agenda. It is the Evil Mad Scientist Lab's take on the vibrobot, a type of robot that is controlled by a single vibrating (eccentric) motor. To make a BristleBot you need one toothbrush, a battery, and a pager motor. You can find some instructions here on EMSL's website and in the video below.
Some of the Peep ideas in the book include Frosty Peepsicles; a Peeps Holiday Wreath and even a Peepinata. Also included is a list of resources
for all of your Peeps projects. Other Peeps inspirations include: S'More Peeps, Peeps Fondue, Peeps Mai Tai, Peeps in a Blanket, Molten Chocolate Peeps Cakes,
Peeps Checkers, Peeps Wedding Cake Topper, Peeps Leis and a Peeps Printed Canvas Tote. Kids love Marshmallow Peeps so any of these projects are sure to be a hit in your home.
Charity Ferreira is the author of Ice Cream Treats and has written for
Gourmet, Sunset Magazine, Bon Appetit, San Francisco Magazine, and Cooking Light. A graduate of the California Culinary Academy and former pastry chef, she lives in Oakland, California. Liz Wolfe grew up in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. She studied photography at Ryerson University's School of Image Arts in Toronto, where she lives with her husband and one-year-old son. Liz's conceptual photography has appeared in publications internationally.
This amazing video shows you how to make a cute puppy using a bath towel, a hand towel and a saftey pin. You also use colored paper for the eyes and the tongue to make it cuter.
This knitted hand warmers by Purl Bee look like they would be very comfy. They also look hip and trendy. They give your fingers some breathing room so you could still wear them on a day that wasn't quite as cold as it should be -- like so many of the winter days seem to be ever since global warming started. Mittens with holes that free your fingers also make it much easier to grasp things. You could select different colors than the Purl Bee used but you should make sure they are colors that work well together before you start making the hand warmers.
You can find a tutorial and pattern on the Purl Bee (hat tip Craftzine.
This is quite the Mountain Dew can Christmas tree. It's six feet tall and it took four hundred cans. You can learn more about the tree at www.mdewtree.com. The tree even has a MySpace page.
Woman Has Dozens of Christmas Trees For Her Ornaments
Mlive.com reports that a Michigan woman has 42 Christmas trees hang her large collection of Christmas ornaments on. She owns 2,000 Hallmark ornaments and 500 "generic" ornaments.
She started buying dated ornaments in 1975. When she ran out of room on the tree for more of those, she decided to buy another tree, then another and another. (Who says a house can have only one tree?) People have given her their old trees, and she calls these cast-offs her Charlie Brown trees.
Who says you can't be creative with old tires? This summer New York-based artist Chakaia Booker will make her mark on Indianapolis. Known for her work with recycled tires, Booker is creating nine large-scale sculptures for Indianapolis. This will be her largest urban exhibition ever. The nine massive artworks (each 5-15 feet high) will be on public display from July 22 through April 1, 2009. You can read more about Booker's sculptures 
Michelle Kaufmann, a green blogger, is offering a free Earth Day Activity Kit. The kit contains instructions for building a number of green craft projects. Information about the projects can be found on 
It's best to blog about National Craft Month before it is over - which it nearly is. Etsy remined us in 
How creepishly cute is Gertrude on the right? The monster bag from 
Everyone loves their Swiffer cleaning tools but the replacements dusters can be expensive. These homemade fleece replacement dusters are an interesting alternative. Clever Flickr user 
Here's a book that helps you get crafty with Marshmallow Peeps. The book is called 
This knitted hand warmers by Purl Bee look like they would be very comfy. They also look hip and trendy. They give your fingers some breathing room so you could still wear them on a day that wasn't quite as cold as it should be -- like so many of the winter days seem to be ever since global warming started. Mittens with holes that free your fingers also make it much easier to grasp things. You could select different colors than the Purl Bee used but you should make sure they are colors that work well together before you start making the hand warmers.
