Dumbo Octopus

The dumbo octopus is the absolutely best reason I have ever seen to travel 500m below the surface of the ocean. This little charmer is simply begging to be recreated in felt with googly eyes and a pipe cleaner snout.

From Claire Nouvian's The Deep
Link

Recreation of Ternary Calculating Machine Based on Brief Written Descriptions and a Stained Glass Window

Printer and amateur mathematician Thomas Fowler decided that a Base 3 number system would streamline his job as treasurer for the Poor Law Union. After toiling in secrecy behind his printing press, Thomas constructed a working ternary calculating machine in 1840. Haven't heard of ternary? Me neither. It is one more, duh, than binary.

Unfortunately, neither the machine nor drawings survived and the only evidence of its existence is a brief written description and church stained glass window depicting the mystery machine. From this scant history, Mark Glusker recreated the machine from the sort of plywood commonly used for dinosaur skeleton kits.

An impressive piece of mechanical and mathematical history, but you better watch the video yourself to decide if it was really a labor saving device. It's complexity may explain why it didn't catch on.

Link (Thanks, Maria!)

Antique Italian Anatomical Wax Models

Yowza. Once again, art and science crash head on. These astonishing medical models are inspiring to see what lengths individuals will go to in the name of explanation.

Link (via boingboing)

Japanese Cantaloupe

Whether it is Fortnum and Mason (UK), Marshall Fields (Chicago) or Seibu (Tokyo), my favorite thing about old school department stores are the food cellars. I was recently thinking about how the metrics for perfection evolve over time. When you are working at the absolute zenith, the most subtle variations are amplified to separate the perfect from the merely great. The gift cantaloupe standards of the Tokyo department stores have evolved to define quintessentially perfect cantaloupe as a melon with vine tendrils reaching 6 inches from the stem.

A little Googling found Brad Templeton's site, but if anybody else has photos of extreme Japanese gift fruit, please email us! Brad mentions $125 melons, but I know I saw showpiece $600 cantaloupes when I was in Tokyo.

Link

Phil Ross - Chronic Revelator

Phil Ross was pushing time a little faster at Maker Faire as he subjected cameras from the recent past to a tumble in his time machine. Through the gentle abuse of tumbling in a mysterious abrasive medium, the cameras emerged as partially exposed skeletons with the satin polish of having tumbled down a gentle river.


Answers the question of what happens to cameras when dropped overboard from drunken cruise ships.


Link

Miniature Paintings of Kate Durkin

The sweet expressions of the Kate Durkin's paintings charmed me at Maker Faire . This melancholy, knobby kneed elephant reminds me of my high school friends. Shoulda bought it when I had the chance, but I was in a state of Maker Faire overload at the time.


Link

Detroit Agate

While at Maker Faire, Lenore showed me her "Detroit agate." A family heirloom, this rock tumbled artifact is not actually a stone but a chunk of sedimentary paint chipped from the inside of an auto paint spray booth.

Louis Wain

Following earlier posts about dressed cats from Alfred Mainzer and Harry Whittier Frees, I thought an entry on Louis Wain's work was in order. Wain was a British artist whose art focused heavily on images of animated, big-eyed cats in scenarios very similar to Mainzer cats. His work took increasingly abstract turns as he suffered from schizophrenia later in life, resulting in kaleidescopic and fractal-like paintings of cats. Oingo Boingo fans might recognize a Wain cat featured on the sleeve of an early EP.

Link

Russian Blocks Set

This set of blocks caught my eye in a toy store last Christmas and I'm still dreaming about them.

Link

Mysterious Zombie! Hangover Grip of Iron!

Check out this superb Wall Street Journal article about the legendary hangover machine known as the Zombie:

The Beachcomber issued a Barnumesque dare -- declaring the drink so potent that he would serve no more than two to a customer. (Drinks author David Embury would later note that the "fear-inspiring slogan" simply guaranteed that "everyone except Caspar Milquetoast, of course, comes back for a third.")

Don the Beachcomber came to be nicknamed the "Zombie Palace," and Beach kept four Filipino barmen cranking the drinks out. They were relegated to the kitchen to keep prying eyes from discerning the mystery drink's ingredients. And even the bartenders were in the dark about the makeup of certain key ingredients, such as "Donn's Mix."

...

Syndicated columnist Lucius Beebe seemed to think the New York Beachcomber was an extension of the original California club, which he described as "a gloomy grotto of strong waters specializing in rum toddies of paralyzing dimensions." In a 1940 article headlined "Rash of Tropical Saloons Spreads Across Nation," Beebe wrote that it would soon "be possible to cross the continent without ever emerging from a Zombie swoon."

Oh, for the days of gloomy grottos and rashes of tropical saloons. The article is entertaining, as drunken debacles always are, but the spoiler top secret recipe is below for those amateur mixologists who want to get started right away.

ZOMBIE
1 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz fresh lemon juice
1 oz pineapple juice
1 oz passion fruit syrup
1 oz white rum
1 oz gold rum
1 oz 151-proof Demerara rum
1 tsp brown sugar
1 dash Angostura

Muddle the brown sugar in the citrus until it is dissolved, then shake all the ingredients with plenty of crushed ice. Pour, without straining, into a tall highball glass and garnish with a sprig of mint. And remember, don't even think about having a third one.

Link

Maria Mortati - Power of Prototype

Dinosaurs and Robots posting was rather light last week as Mark and I were at Maker Fair - busy napping under trees from Bakersfield to San Mateo.

It was my intent to 'live blog' from the fair but my duties were not insignificant and I selfishly used every free moment to experience the awesomeness. Maker Faire is certainly the geek paradise that is portrayed in the media, but that is a description that is too limiting to explain what is really going on.

Chris Luomanen's Origami-inspired Tessallating Wall Dividers

One of my favorite exhibits was The Power of Prototype by Maria Mortati. As a professional curator, her creation was a small scale museum exhibit on the importance of prototypes. A proletariat, mass consumer product like a Glade fragrance spritzing machine is not classically inspiring, but Mike Strasser's foam core prototype is completely captivating when you are able come face to face with the original idea. One wouldn't think there would be a celebrity quality to prototypes, but when you have the singular relic in your hand, it is easier to be awed by a fragrance dispenser than you would think.

Kal Spelletich's Compact Version of a 22' Fire Breathing Robot

As a curator, Maria selected a breadth of objects to make you realize that prototyping is a tool of the creative process and not a mere instrument of corporations refining manufacturing. Kal Spelletich's compact monster in a suitcase was a terrific example of the prototype as a finished product. Sure, I imagine the full size flame spitting beast was exhilarating to see, but the salesman sample version inspires an immediate narrative of a Music Man-type charlatan roaming the countryside with small town dreams of locals owning their own monster.

Why did Maria go to all the trouble to curate an exhibit - complete with a catalog - for Maker Faire's run of only two days? And what about it being drowned out by Tesla coils and the seemingly ever present chattering of R2D2? I imagine she created it for the same reason as everybody else at Maker Faire. She thought it needed to be done.

Link

John Edgar Park's RFID Conveyor Belt

I saw this at Maker Faire 2008. John Park created a neat conveyor belt with an RFID reader under it. When you place one of the wooden tiles (with an RFID chip) stamped with the icon of a website or application on the moving belt, the reader sends the ID to a computer, which loads the corresponding website or application. John's how-to project will be in a future issue of MAKE magazine.

LED Clock Kit

I took this photo of an LED clock at 9:35 in the morning on Sunday at Maker Faire. It was built from a kit, which you can buy at the Maker Shed online store The kit does not include the wood and copper tubes.

Perforated Building Threatened

Photo from Docomomo

I have always thought the Curran O'Toole building looked like recently separated paper perforations. The cantilevered segments make the hulking structure look like the paper was just ripped as the floors moved forward. Preservation Magazine reports that the former National Maritime Union building may be torn down to make way for a new hospital.

Designed as the headquarters for the National Maritime Union and now a part of Saint Vincent Catholic Medical Centers, this midcentury classic, set in historic Greenwich Village, is one of the most flamboyant in New York. With cantilevered levels and a facade covered in tiny white tiles, the structure is a playful anomaly among more sober neighbors, its highly expressive style reminiscent of buildings by Edward Durell Stone. It is also massive, spanning an entire city block. In 1964, architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable wrote, "There is no reason why the [National Maritime Union] could not have … added another cheap, dull, routine box with a shiny facade and a big sign to the New York scene...It decided, instead, to go for architecture. Whatever reservations may be held, New York needs more of those decisions." Today, the financially beleaguered Saint Vincent's wants to construct a new, more manageable hospital on the site, leaving the fate of Albert Ledner's building in doubt.

Link

Grid Beam Building System

The Grid Beam Users Group came to Maker Faire in San Mateo.

From the gridbeamers.com website:

Grid Beam is a reusable structural system that allows you to dream-up and build complex projects faster than any other construction technology that you or I have ever seen!





As designers, we all strive to build products that will be relevant 50 years from now. But, since none of us knows what that future will really look like, design flexibility and reusability is essential. You might think of Grid beam as a structural glue that allows us to mix, match and mate different technologies together in new ways. This means that all of the components and custom parts that we make, or purchase and use together, share the same hole spacing as the Grid beam. This creates maximum parts interchangeability and design flexibility.





Since our design group of Gridbeamers began adopting gridbeam building techniques in 1976 from Ken Isaacs book, How to build your own living Structures, we have found that it has dramatically improved our prototyping capabilities. Gridbeamers can take on more challenging ideas with less hesitation. Because now, goofy ideas and "mis-builds" can now be completely disassembled and reused on your newest brainstorm!





We all know that talk is cheap and that ideas are a dime a dozen. How do you separate good from bad ideas? How do you test your idea? How do you actualize your dream?

Only by building it!

A working prototype is proof of clear thinking, or not. After all, nothing beats a real working prototype that you can actually test.

Free Cadillac Mug with Purchase of New Car

The case could be made that this garage sale found "Have a Happy Day... Cadillac Style" mug is nothing but a cheap piece of swag that denigrates the monumental purchase of a new Caddy. When I bought a new car, all I got was a survey to rate everything from the cleanliness of the washroom to the efficacy of the credit department. Ostensibly, my agreeing to the task of filling out the survey would create a better customer experience for the next buyer, but it just felt like I was being asked to do some work.

Comparitively, if I had received a mug emblazoned with my name, I would have been sure to mention that on the comment card but big companies end up taking themselves way too seriously. If the manufacturers can't lighten up, then the dealers should rock it Cadillac Style.

Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants

I live in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, where 108 degree summer days are not unusual. Most of the 1/2 acre lot our house sits on is covered with a thirsty lawn that turns brown the instant it is denied its daily drenching of water. It's ridiculously expensive and wasteful to use that much water on grass that can't even stay green, so my wife and I are looking for alternatives to a traditional lawn. Our search led us to the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants, an organization dedicated to the understanding and preservation of California native flora.

From the website:

Theodore Payne was born in North Hamptonshire, England and served an apprenticeship in horticulture. He came to Los Angeles in 1893 and fell in love with the California flora, dedicating his life to its preservation.

Even in the early years of this century, native vegetation was being lost to agriculture and housing at an alarming rate. He urged the use of California native plants and lectured across the state on preserving the wild flowers and landscapes native to California.

In his own nursery and seed business, which he started in 1903, native wildflowers and landscapes were his specialty. In 1915 he laid out and planted 262 species in a five-acre wild garden in Los Angeles' Exposition Park. He later helped to establish the Blaksley Botanic Garden in Santa Barbara, planted 178 native species in the California Institute of Technology Botanic Garden in Pasadena, helped create the native plant garden at Los Angeles' Descanso Gardens, and advised the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden in Orange County.

By the time he retired in 1958, Payne had made over 400 species of native plants available to the public.

We drove to the Foundation, which is in Sun Valley on the far north side of the San Fernando Valley. To get there, you have to drive down a street lined with auto body and metal recycling businesses that go on for miles. Once you hit the foothills, it suddenly becomes rural and picturesque. (Click on photos for enlargement)



The woman who ran the seed store at the Payne Foundation showed us this drought-tolerant native grass. It stays green, and I like the way it sits in multi-directional clumps. I asked her how I could get rid of my existing lawn and she said I should water it thoroughly -- so the water soaks down eight inches into the soil, then cover the lawn with clear plastic. All the grass and weed seeds will germinate and die within six weeks. Then I guess I have to remove the dead grass and broadcast the native grass seeds. If we end up doing this, I need to call her and ask her for detailed instructions.




This woman was drawing plants by first tracing their shadow on her drawing paper. Cool idea!




Here's where you can take classes about growing native plants.


The wall-less shed where you go to get your bill for the plants you've selected is an example of simple and elegant design. The paint color selection is nice, too.


Here's what we ended up buying. It doesn't look like much. Once we put them in the ground, it still won't look like much. It will take three years for these native plants to really take off. The woman in the store told me that the first year, the plants will sleep. In year two, they'll creep, and in year three, they'll leap. I'm prepared to wait patiently for the leaping to commence.

World of Interiors by Anne Hardy

Building, 2006

Anne Hardy builds fictional interiors as sets for her photographs. Rather than constructing simulacrums of private or public spaces, Anne builds rooms that seem to have a purpose in some alternate world. As voyeurs, we have all seen private bedrooms but there is something terrifically more compelling about these semi-public spaces that we imagine behind every closed door.

Everything in each image is entirely constructed. The point of the construction for me, as opposed to working with found spaces, is that what is rendered is entirely fictional. It is important to me that there is not a definitive explanation for any of these places you see in the images that is tied back to somewhere that really exists.

Drift, 2004

Link

Outpost, 2007

Harry Whittier Frees

John says:

The things we do to animals, real or only depicted. I can't look at Mainzer dressed cats without thinking of Harry Whittier Frees.

There is a seemingly universal desire to see animals dressed and going about the business of their inferiors - people. From the first time you scoop the poop, the dog knows the battle has been won.

Funky Kingston Mobile Music Store

(Thanks, Coop)

Cornell Lab for Orinthology Poster by Charlie Harper

The Cornell Lab has a nice little interview with Charlie Harper about the creation of the epic We Think the World of Birds poster.

I start with a sketch. For the Lab's painting, I cut out a lot of bird shapes and pushed them around until I was sure they were where I wanted them to be. This let me try different combinations and different compositions very easily, and then, when I finally decided where to put them, I stuck them down with rubber cement. That gave me the basis for the painting. The problem is that I kept wanting to make changes and every time I did that it added another hour or two to the process. I tried so hard to make this painting the best thing I've ever done, which is a measure of how important it is to me.

Link

Mainzer Dressed Cats

When I was a little girl, taking piano lessons from sweet old Mrs. Bean, she would reward me for having practiced my lessons (which was not very often) with a post card from Alfred Mainzer of cats dressed as people, getting into all sorts of shenanigans. Colorful, slightly violent and totally engrossing to study in detail, I still love these cards. The artist who painted these imaginative scenarios was Eugen Hartung, but Mainzer Inc., NYC, published the cards from the 40's through the 60's. They've been re-published as a complete set of 126.

Link

Phragmipedium Caudatum in Bloom

Dr. Hypercube of "Diary of a Mad Natural Historian" has a Flickr set of the lady slipper emerging from his Phragmipedium caudatum orchid.

Squirrel Assembles a Chair

Here's a video of a man in a squirrel suit assembling a nice-looking $99 Real Good chair from Blu Dot. You are asked to ignore the burn mark on his hand.

Powder-coated steel ships flat and folds along laser-cut lines to create a dynamic and comfortable chair. As skinny as a supermodel, yet far more sturdy. Available in two glossy tone-on-tone colors, and satin black and glossy red.

If you have $849, you can buy Blu Dot's Buttercup Rocker.

Smart Car Customized by Catalina Estrada

As a long-time admirer of Catalina Estrada's delicate, rich vector art, I was pleased to see this Smart Car with her illustrations.



Her laptop stickers are great, too.

D+R Guest Blogger Mark Allen Explains

Credit: Donald Judd

When pressed, Mark Allen explains his posting style as minimalist. In certain circles, it is known as Marfa-style blogging.

Oh, Mark Allen! You nutty artist-type!

Winning Typefaces from Type Directors Club

Logo Jr. Black

Studio Lettering Swing

Studio Lettering Sable

Fondo

House Industries, D+R's favorite font shop, had four winners in the Type Directors Club 2008 grand tourney, including the particularly beautiful, soon to be released Studio Lettering collection. Check out those ligatures, baby!

See the other winners for another 17 reasons to not use Helvetica.

Link
Link to House Industries

Jenny Hart's New Blog - Embroidery as Art

Michael Aaron McAllister

Jenny Hart, D+R mega-friend and guest blogger, has a new blog called Embroidery as Art. Clearly, this is a must read blog to add to your list as it has already featured some mind blowing work as well as details of the Jenny Hart artistic process.

Link

Link to Sublime Stitching, Jenny's cool embroidery business

Wrench Auction

Ratcheting Monkey Wrench Prototype

With over 2000 wrenches, the breadth of the Don Ervin Antique Wrench Auction is completely staggering. It is like the ultimate Mystery Tool Monday. As you click through, you will find oddball wrenches you own but that were destined for some specific piece of machinery you will never set eyes on. For example, a Crown Cork and Seal Company wrench (#35) manufactured for the express purpose of servicing a piece of bottle capping machinery.

Bicycle Wrenches

Link

(Thanks John IV!)

Civil War Diorama Drama

There's a rather bizarre little news item involving the Camp Mabry Museum here in Austin. The museum's Executive Director, Jeff Hunt, is accused of destroying a 5-foot-by-10-foot diorama of the Battle of Palmetto Ranch, apparently unhappy with historical inaccuracies it portrayed. Hunt maintains it was carefully disassembled, but museum employees say they witnessed him having an emotional 'tantrum' over the diorama, and that he spent an after-hours weekend last October irreparably destroying the display. The diorama had been constructed for the museum by the students of Glen Frakes, a history teacher in Gilbert, Arizona.

Glen Frakes...says his students spent more than three years and thousands of hours building the diorama for the Camp Mabry museum, and Hunt tore the diorama apart, soldier by inches-tall soldier, over the course of a weekend last fall...Over the years, Frakes and his students have had dioramas placed all over the country, including in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, D.C.

The story takes an even more bizarre turn when it's revealed that Hunt authored a book about the Battle of Palmetto, which served as a reference by Frakes and his students for accuracy when building the diorama.

Link (via The Austin Chronicle, above photo by Glen Frakes)