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August 31, 2006

Craft studio inspiration - create a fabric wall

Belladia Craftroom2
Our CRAFT friend Cassi Griffin of Bella Dia recently redecorated her craft studio into a completely drool worthy mecca of crafting heaven. Take a look at the inspiration. Link.

Fabricwall
She also created these fabric panels to decorate the room and just posted up a tutorial on how you can make these yourself. Link.

More:
Flickr group: Craft Rooms - Link.

Doknit - knitted donut pattern

Mmmm...donuts. Why does this look oh so ever appetizing even though it's made out of yarn? ax174 says, "If you like knitted food, you'll love the free donut pattern by rogue knitter, Matie Trewe - she of the squid hat and knitted digestive tract patterns. I've knitted this pattern many times (results here, as have many other bloggers (e.g. here). It's a nice, quick knit, and is seamless too." Link.

Knitted hand sanitizer cozy

Andrea of SpinnySpinny shows you how to make a fun knitted drawstring cozy for your hand sanitizer. Link.

Clothespin Dolls

Recently, Kath at Whip Up did a post on clothes pins and it reminded me of these wonderful dolls that my friend and crafter Chrissa Banner makes. I love the accompanying sets she creates so the dolls really fit in a scene. She was inspired by the children's book series,"The Borrowers" and because of her I've almost read them all. There's something fascinating about a small world you can create and how it can emerge from something so simple as a wooden clothes pin. Link.

Chrissa says "These photos are from a birthday story I made for a friend involving a magic present - a handbag - that whisked her around the world on a birthday adventure. Fritz the cat went along, too." Link.

Lulubliss
Here's a close up of another one of Chrissa's clothespin dolls based on one of our friends and her brand Lulu Bliss. From her own flickr Clothespin Portraits group. Link.

More Clothespin Dolls
Stenopad
The Small Object Steno Pad makes some cute clothes pin dolls for sale. At left is No. 403 Ric Puffy Rac and at right is No. 399 Sweater Bird. See the flickr photo group of all of The Small Object's pieces. Link.

Pegdoll1
Vintage handmade peg doll from Kath's blog, red current. Lots of resources here on how to make your own clothes pin dolls. Link.

More T-Shirt Options: Stencils and Dishwasher Detergent

David Harris sent in some pics of tshirts he made, both are innovations of the bleach idea from my podcast. Way to go David!

So here are two shirts I made inspired by the spray bleach idea. A
couple of months ago I started getting into the whole stencil art
thing and I had made several out of strong paper, after a couple coats
of spray paint these things will hold up to most anything -- including
bleach it seems.

The first is a stencil of my wife -- using sprayed bleach.

The second, i brushed on cheap-ass knock off cascade over the stencil
and left it on for 15-20 minutes, I like the subtle globbiness of it.

Sticker Stencils

Lenore says, "I thought you might like our how-to on painting using stickers for masking. Demonstrated with pin boxes and a lunchbox used for sewing supplies. Would be perfect for personalizing your psp carrying case." Link.

August 30, 2006

Super Eggplant's Tote Bags 101

One of the founders of Super Buzzy (seller of great Japanese fabrics) is Super Eggplant and her tutorial on how to make tote bags is the best. You'll be making lined tote bags in no time! Link.

The Soft Electric by Grace Kim

The Soft Electric is an exploration in wearable fashion technology, designed by Grace Kim for her final thesis project at NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program. Grace knit and felted the caplet by hand and embroidered the piece with conductive thread. The thread carries electric current to LEDs that are beaded into the embroidery. The LED beads flicker, acting like a sequin in the light. Link.

Gkim Tutorials

To help you get started in creating wearables yourself, Grace was nice enough write up an idea for a smaller project and she also posted up 2 of her tutorials on her flickr. Thanks Grace!

Tips from Grace:
One could make a simple LED bracelet using one LED, some wire, and a 3V coin cell battery. Twist each leg of the LED with a length of wire (make sure each leg is wrapped with a different piece of wire, so you don't short the LED out), wrap the wires around your wrist, then tape the wires to the corresponding sides of the battery. Instant, though somewhat crude, bracelet!

However, if you wanted to make a little softer and more wearable, you could substitute the wire for conductive thread. Curve the legs of the LED with roundnose pliers so they form loops. Whip a length of conductive thread around each loop a few times, then knot, leaving long tails. From here, you can do several things: you can sew the thread to a length of ribbon, felt, or leather to make wristband, make a soft battery holder for a more secure power connection, and make a power switch by using a metal snap to connect the line to ground. You could also get a little fancy and embroider the conductive thread on the surface of the band or use an LED sequin instead of the standard, round-top LED.

The most important thing is to start with a simple circuit. Get the technical aspects working, no matter how crude it looks, then slowly substitute hard components in the circuit with soft materials. Once you've done that, go back and rethink your circuit, shrinking the number of electronic components or rethinking the placement of elements on your board. Then rethink some of your soft materials. The hard electronics will inform the soft components and vice versa.

It took about a month for me to finish the capelet. It took 3 days to knit and felt the capelet and about forever to embroider it and incorporate the electronic components.

Tutorials:

How to make an LED bead (left) - Link.
How to create a soft battery holder (right)- Link.

Fabric Tales - Japanese Fabrics Gallery

The online Japanese fabric store called Fabric Tales has a great gallery featuring user submissions of projects featuring the Japanese fabrics bought at the store. Pictured left is handmade dog collars made by Jacqueline Broussard and right is a Blythe doll "Pura-chan" in a Japanese kimono made by Ryoko. It's fun to browse through all the inspirational craft projects. Link