As an added bonus, Anna has a free PDF pattern to make her Garden Wall Quilt.

This week in the CRAFT Flickr pool we saw:

• USC Trojan Amigurumi
  
• Needlefelted Presidents
  
• Handmade Shoes from Recycled Sneakers
• Crochet Fries and Shake

We also enjoyed:

• Plush Amigurumi Microscope
  
• Broken Heart/Valid Heart T-shirt
  
• LEGO Plush
• Pizza Plant
• Bright Lights Thread Ball
  
• Clothespin Zombies
• Felt Dissected Frogs
• Robot Kostüm
  
• Amigurumi Eel
  

How great are these Yo Gabba Gabba cupcakes by Flickr user AmandaAhHa? Absolutely adorable.

Related:
• Garth Johnson's "Muno" Shirt
• World's Greatest Grandma?
• Yo Gabba Gabba Needle Felts

Here's more about the event:

Fashioning Technology: Come Witness the Future of Crafting! What will our homes and clothes look like 5 years from now? 10 years? 50 years? If the new book Fashioning Technology (O'Reilly) is any indication, it will involve a healthy dose of "smart" crafting--a term coined by author Syuzi Pakhchyan--to describe crafting with "smart" materials that react and change in response to their environment. In this exciting new book, readers can learn how to make: LED bracelets, chandeliers and headphones; pattern-changing blinds; a space invaders tote bag that alerts you to incoming phone calls; a "birdie" brooch that "chirps" to sunlight; and much, much more!

Visit the book site, fashioningtechnology.com and join in on the new smart crafting community where you can post up your own projects, keep up to date with book events, projects, watch videos, and more!

If you're near Ypsilanti, MI this Saturday, be sure to stop by the Shadow Art Fair, featuring dozens of great indie craft vendors, including Molly Mast, Boh Bon Soap, and Clairigami.

Shadow Art Fair
Saturday, July 19 2008, 12pm-12am
@ The Corner Brewery
720 Norris Street
Ypsilanti, MI 48198
Ph: (734)480-2739

From the CRAFT Flickr pool: user seschloss added a photo of her friend Josh's shoes with custom made uppers (and recycled sneaker soles). He does a pretty thorough walkthrough of his process (ups and downs) on the Sewer Sewist blog, and even if the glue's a bit funky around the edges, I still think these new creations are pretty fabulous.

Saw these on Modern Craft: Holly Wales is a talented illustrator (check out her "Household Objects" series) who also creates fun assemblages and collage work. I love her animals made from tape.

Papercraft Paradise has links to a couple really neat paper models. Konicaminolta has a wonderful fiddler crab model. There are 2 PDFs - one has the parts, the other has instructions. And Kirin has a cute polar bear papercraft with a wobbly head; also has 2 pdfs. (you have to click through a couple times to get to the bear)

Spotted on Apartment Therapy SF: KnitSonya gave these tired, old movie theater seats a gorgeous makeover using a colorful array of Marimekko fabrics.

Last weekend, I took a quick trip to San Francisco, and was lucky enough to fit in a side jaunt to Sausalito to visit the Heath Ceramics factory for a tour. Peeking behind the scenes at this legendary mid-century pottery house was an amazing experience, which I really recommend you check out if you get the chance. (If you're not familiar with Heath Ceramics, read up on them here.)

Edith Heath was a leader of the midcentury California pottery movement, who started the factory with her husband Brian in 1959. The tour is full of fun stories about the couple, the craftspeople, and especially about Edith and her headstrong, artsy ways.

Edith was a child of the Depression, which definitely informed the Heath philosophies of limiting waste and using local materials whenever possible, a tradition which continues today. The clay is all sourced locally, the clays are fired using a proprietary low-fire method which uses less energy--and our tour guide even described how leftover glaze is scraped off the walls of the glazing areas and the pigment is re-used to make another batch. Heath was into "reduce, reuse, recycle" long before it was a trendy motto splashed on tote bags sold at Wal-Mart.

Even the blue manual jigger pictured above left is a perfect example of how thrifty Heath Ceramics could be--this machine was acquired secondhand when Edith's husband Brian dumpster-dived it (with permission!) from the legendary Wedgwood China Factory in England and shipped it back to Sausalito. Can you imagine?!

Heath Ceramics was purchased by new owners Robin Petravic and his wife, Catherine Bailey, shortly before Edith's passing in 2005. By all accounts, they've done a fantastic job helping to revitalize the company while honoring the traditions of craft Heath is known for. After taking the tour, I defy you not to snap up at least one piece of Heath in the adjoining factory store--especially considering the large selection of seconds and bargain-priced items available. If you'd like to check out the tour virtually, my Flickr photset is here.

Heath Factory
400 Gate Five Road
Sausalito, CA 94965
ph: (415) 332-3732
For store and general inquiries, please call x13
Open daily, 10am-5pm
Tours: Sat-Sun, 11am
(Call ahead for tour reservations)

While at Maker Faire in May, I got a chance to get a terrific demo from Vivian Lavinskas of Singer Sewing Company on their Singer Futura line of computerized embroidery machines. Having one myself and being a techie, I can vouch for how amazingly cool these machines are. They connect easily to a PC and allow you to embroider from pre-set designs or in the CE-250 and CE-350 models, you can also use your own images for embroidery!

As mentioned in the podcast, each month a new embroidery motif is available for free download from the projects section of the Singer web site. You can also check out the many great sewing and embroidery projects as well.

My first project with the Singer Futura CE-250 embroidery machine was to test out the CRAFT logo above. The software was really simple to use and imports lots of file formats, then coverts it over to embroidery stitches that the sewing machine reads. Then I used that design template to embroider the logo onto vintage tablecloths which were used at our booth at the recent ICE Atlanta craft fair.

If you're in the Portland, OR area on Sunday July 20th, Susan will be teaching the Solo Earrings project from Bead Simple at the final meeting of the Church of Craft.

From the site:

HAT ATTACK! is a friendly kill or be killed competition where the weapon of choice is a hat. You will receive a target and original weapon pattern. Your goal is to knit and mail a hat to your target before you are killed before receiving one yourself!

I love the swirly, organic feel of this knitted skirt Mintyfresh worked up during a recent 30-hour flight (!) to Singapore. More details and pix at her blog.

I was pleasantly surprised to open the LA Weekly today and find a fun article about plush food collector Sarah Jo Marks. Marks curated last winter's Stuffed show at Munky King, which was a sight to behold. I especially love how this article gives so many shout-outs to talented plush makers like Dan Goodsell and Planet Tokki--even referring to Heidi Kenney as the "Monet of the plush-food art bunch".

Just what I've always wanted for my desert cardboard sculpture garden: instructables user delappe created this tutorial for turning your Gandhi avatar (or any 3D avatar, really) into a cardboard sculpture. Via Collin @ MAKE.

For far too long, Exclusive Buttons has been a closely-guarded secret in the craft world, where covetous creative types would hoard beautiful vintage deadstock buttons all for themselves. Having visited the shop myself last weekend, I've decided to pull back the curtain and tell everyone I know about it--as this magical place needs and deserves all the business they can get.

Exclusive Buttons is a teeny hole-in-the-wall shop in El Cerrito (a bit north of Berkeley, CA), where the walls are lined floor-to-ceiling with a mind-boggling array of colorful buttons you won't find anywhere else. The owner, Mary, and her husband Vince (who passed away last year) were button wholesalers back in the day--which is why some of the button cards still carry the name "Exclusive Buttons". They've been in their current retail location for 20+ years!

There's something for everyone at this shop, whether your tastes run to Shabby Chic-style distressed rhinestone buttons, colorful Bakelite beauties, delicate pearl closures, rustic wooden or bone buttons--the choices are endless, and Mary is more than happy to run you though their choices and explain the provenance of each selection. It's so wonderful to meet someone so in love with their job, especially in their later years. Do yourself a favor and make the trip! (PS: It's cash only.)

Exclusive Buttons
10252 San Pablo Ave
El Cerrito, CA 94530
ph: (510) 524-5606
Hours: Friday & Saturday, 11am - 4pm

Marc @ MAKE writes:

PrintingPlans.com has free plans [PDF's] for making your own 4-Color press. The key to multi color printing is accuracy and repeatability. Make sure if you attempt to build this that you build it very sturdy as mentioned on the website.

You can even purchase all the hardware needed to make this press from Michael Phipps' Etsy shop.

Japanese artist Takashi Iwasaki paints, draws, and does collage--but it's his embroideries I'm nuts for. Iwasaki hand-embroiders each piece, which feature a visually arresting blend of bright candy-pop colors, geometric patterns, and free-form organic shapes you just can't tear your eyes away from. See more at Takashi Iwasaki online.

I've fallen hard for this ingenious little necklace from Sherry Truit Studios, which features a genuine piece of slate chalkboard mounted within a sterling silver bezel pendant setting. You can write fun messages in chalk, then wipe 'em clean. This would make a killer gift for a teacher, am I right?

Austin Children's Museum
201 Colorado Street
Austin, TX
(512) 472-2499

Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy whipped up a batch of these deliciously summery "Tanglewood" bags, which sold out in a heartbeat--but lucky for us, she's put together a PDF download of the pattern, which you can purchase for only $10. She's also put together an assortment of impeccably edited pre-cut fabrics you can buy to make your bag, called Precious Bundles.

Turn a spare bike wheel into a fun pot rack, like the peeps at Handmade Detroit!

Visit the Creativity 350 site to find out more on the contest and enter either the Craft Contest or the T-Shirt Contest. And don't forget-- just by entering the contest, you're helping spread the word about a very important cause and about the amazing climate change awareness organization 350.org.

He's all sold out now, sadly, but how cute is this whale-shaped pincushion by Blueberry Bandit? I love the way the multicolored pins form a spray of water shooting out from his blowhole. Here's hoping there are more of these in her shop soon!

Learn to make these clever candlesticks using pipe parts by tuning into Creative Juice on Thursday--or visit hostess Cathie Filian's blog for a tutorial!

Hope at Stitch Lounge shows us how to turn a shapeless old muumuu into a stylish drape-neck top. Who knew?!

I love the clever way House on Hill Road gets her kids involved in packing for family trips: she gives them a visual packing list, which is a fun way to turn a chore into a game while ensuring the kids will bring everything they'll need.

Related
Becky Stern's Instructions on How to Read a Resistor