Ken Price’s work is so beautiful on the outside I kind of want to explore the inside too, don’t you?! Very excited to go check out the show at LACMA today. For more than fifty years, Ken Price, born in 1935 in Los Angeles, California, created remarkable and innovative works that have redefined contemporary sculpture and ceramics. His work is beyond beautiful. Read more here and here.
Published in a small format paperback in 1971, the Peter Max Paper Airplane Book is beyond cool. Each page features amazing graphics, and a foldable paper airplane so that kids could “get [their] message across with a paper airplane in cosmic colors!” Yes please.
who needs barneys or bergdorf, brooks brothers or j.press when you could knit him something so much more special … 
"the belted pullover vest in green" is suave yet sophisticated
you could even go bold and try it in stripes! tres chic.
Or maybe that special someone in your life is more of a Greek Shirt kind of guy. Just looks at those flexing ribs, and the elegant simplicity of this magical shirt!
You could even do a his and hers version! and just hang out around the house together.
It certainly doesn't get much more classy than this crocheted beauty.
then there is the color carnival skinny rib pullover. need i say more?
you both need a skinny rib undershirt vest for walking through the forest together. how romantic.
better get to the yarn store fast!
Why can’t toilet paper be cute? Or a hot dog? And though doughnuts and pancakes warm our tummies, why shouldn’t they also warm our hearts? Heidi Kenney has solved that great conundrum, and filled that ginormous void in all of our lives.
She has a website (with a great crafting section), an Etsy shop, a book, and she sells her wares at Kidrobot. I can just about guarantee that adding even the tiniest bit of her cuteness to your life will keep you smiling even in the most miserable of moments …
Jason Mecier has a vision unlike most. He is an artist, and a creator or some pretty rad portraits, but he does not imagine his subjects in pastels or watercolors, pencil or acrylic; instead, Meceir creates his masterpieces out of junk – everything from bubble gum and pickles to sunglasses, deodorant, and makeup.
As a child Jason’s grandmother encouraged him to create masterpieces using whatever he could find, and he says, “I learned from her that I can make art out of anything I want to, and that there are no rules.” So true, so true.
In 2002 Meceir completed a true masterpiece. A project that he worked on for half a decade. A piece made of 185,252 pencils in the house of Jaina A. Davis in San Francisco, CA. It is called Pencil Vania—the “Forest of Pencils.”
I know I have done a few posts on origami before, but I am just kind of fascinated by it. What can I say. It is as ephemeral as art gets – delicate paper, with no more than creases and physics to maintain its shape. It is one of the most specific of art forms with its inevitable dependence on the laws of science and geometry. You could argue that the origami medium is math, just as much as it’s paper.
Between the Folds, is an amazing documentary film by Vanessa Gould, about the origami obsessed around the world. These experts are not your typical artists; they are more like mad scientists “working in the shadows between art and math.” People like Eric Joisel, a French artist whose tiny elfin sculptures involve thousands of folds – he admits his dedication to the art form makes him “le masochist”. Or Vincent Floderer, an “avant-garde” origami artist who uses “the crumpling technique;” he sees his form of paper-folding as “abandoning the imposition of order.”
On the other end of the spectrum are origami-ists like Chris Palmer. He spent a good parts of his life living in a cave in Granada, and his creations are rigorous and complex geometric arrays. And there is Erik Demain, MIT’s youngest professor ever, who was homeschooled in math, computer science, and origami.
This movie is beyond interesting, and nothing but fun. So release your inner nerd, and get in the groove of the fold!
Originally titled “oreore-nai,” in Japanese (a playful way to say‚ “I cannot fold properly”), Origami: Strange Faces uses mixed images of faces to fold into some odd looking characters. While instructions are included, you can fold the paper in all sorts of different ways for some very unexpected results. This easy origami kit comes with 15 square sheets of paper printed with photo images of cropped faces. When folded the sheets transform into bizarre kaleidoscopic versions of a face, as if a few people got together and went crazy with Apple’s Photobooth effects.
Here are some incredible needlepoint/cross stitch creations!
Should you find yourself inspired (I certainly am!), there are a few ways for you to turn any picture you want into the perfect needlepoint pattern. The first is photoandstitch.com. You send them a photo, they create a pattern for it, and send you all of the different color yarns you will need. It’s pretty excellent. Otherwise, you can go to pic2point.com and create a pattern for free, but you’ll have to go track down the right color yarns on your own. Either way, your creation will certainly make for an excellent summer project!
You may know Grier as a all star defensive tackle who played in the 50s for both the Giants and the Rams. Or perhaps you are familiar with his many guest appearances on television (Daniel Boone, Make Room for Granddaddy, and The White Shadow), and his amazing performance in the all too bizarre movie The Thing with Two Heads (1972).
But what you may not know about Rosey Grier is that he is a superstar needlepointer. Yes, you read it right folks, needlepoint. He elevated the craft to a whole other level in his book Rosey Grier’s Needlepoint for Men (1973). Hey, at 6’5″ and 300 pounds, he didn’t care if you thought he was a sissy or not.
Amazing!
If you like drawing, building, designing, or just playing with paper you may want to look into origami. Just in case you aren’t familiar with the craft, origami is a traditional japanese art form that involves folding paper into all sorts of amazing designs. The goal of this art form is to transform a flat sheet of paper, cardboard, or cloth into an object or sculpture using nothing but folds. That’s right, no cutting or gluing allowed! I know it is Spring Break, and lots of kids are at home this week looking for fun stuff to do, so why not an origami crafts project? All you need is paper!
If you are ready to start today and don’t feel like leaving the house check out the Origami Club online. They have all sorts of fun things to make with easy to follow diagrams. Otherwise, you can order one of the really cool origami kits below!
Furniture Origami Set
The Furniture Origami set allows you to build dozens of mini pieces with no more than a few sheets of paper! The awesome kit will show you how to use the classic Japanese paper art to create sofas, chairs, tables, shelves and more. 100 sheets of paper are included, along with a how-to guide. $12
Buy it now from Fred Flare
The Most Amazing, Fantastic Book of Origami & Other Fabulously Fun Fold-Ups
Have fun creating incredible and fantastic fold-ups, from Japanese paper cranes to American paper-engineered planes. Learn how to make secret notes, dollar bill rings, cootie catchers, leaping frogs and more! Comes with 90 origami sheets.
Buy it now from Shure Products
Fast Food Origami
This fun, and very Japanese origami kit comes with pre-printed paper so you can make everything you see on the cover. The paper is not only printed with the food textures, it is also printed with faint lines that help you to fold without mistakes. The instructions are in Japanese, but are very clearly illustrated with step by step drawings. A fun set for any origami fan!
Buy it from Amazon.com
Foldschool Origami Furniture
Foldschool Furniture
And once you’ve had a bit of practice, why not make your own origami, full-sized furniture?! Check out Foldschool and see how you can complete this DIY project at home. All you need is a printer, cardboard, origami practice, and a bit of imagination!!
