Woodimals

Dan Goodsell reports on Woodimals.

The Wood-imals lived on Jungle Island across the street from Knott's Berry Farm. They were great folk art animals carved from wood and varnished by Forrest Morrow.

He also made smaller ones like I have above and sold the big ones with the following flyer. They are so simple and yet so engaging. Woodimals

Vietnam Zippos - "Pure Art without Ambition"

Photo: Michael Sullivan, NPR

Vietnam Zippos is an exquisite book of Bradford Sullivan's amazing collection of engraved soldiers' Zippo lighters marking their time in Vietnam. The whole of human experience is told in the stories on these lighters.

Photo: New York Times

Beyond the poignancy and dark humor of the subject, we would be remiss to not mention the book design which is suited to the topic absolutely perfectly.

Photo: Frank Zeller, AFP/Getty

Vietnam Zippos by Sherry Buchanan
NY Times on Bradford Edwards
NPR on Bradford Edwards

Elsa Mora

Elsa Mora Work (via, Rocketboom)

Public Embroidery Graffitti

Sweet illustrations and quick messages cross stitched onto bus seats. Leave it better than you found it.

Link (via Embroidery as Art)

Embroidery Charms

These little charms depicting embroidery stitches are utterly fascinating to me. There is an entire collection that includes a blanket stitch, french knot, bullion (which kinda looks like a little earthworm), and the above-pictured chain stitch and feather stitch.

Link (thanks Rachel!)

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.

Tokyo Design Week by Monocle

Monocle's video overview of Tokyo Design Week is an enjoyable way to spend 4 minutes. Particularly striking, the installation from Delight (?) that is slated for production - think of an abacus populated with LED throwie beads. Anybody find a link to Delight? Let us know!


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Suzanna Anna's Mid-Century Decorative Arts

For a while there, artist Suzanna Anna was offering really cool Gravel Art Kits like those from craft-days-gone-by, but it appears she's more focused now on table-top sculptures, burnt wood plaques and other wonderful, decorative arts I'd like to have in my 1956 ranch home.

Link and Link

Absurd Frankenstein Key Chain

The wide range of people that come into Coco's is certainly the most interesting aspect of retailing in Los Angeles. Yesterday, a fella came in who was in the midst of a garage clean out project and he sold me a pair of J.C. Higgins skip-tooth bicycle wheels. As a sort of tip, he gave me this key chain. Tiki Frankenstein by way of Tijuana?

1975 Cross-Stitch Book

The patterns in this 1975 cross-stitch design book called, simply enough, "Cross Stitch Designs" from Ondori Publishing (Japan) almost make me want to take up cross-stitching. The colors are incredible and the designs include a flute-playing princess riding a unicorn, dancing blue monkeys, urban architecture and no, I'm not making this up. It's a gem that's worth tracking down.

How to Make a Handbag from a Book

This purse made from an old science fiction book is all the better for the excellent choice of handle.
Link

Acorn Sewing Kit

Occasionally, I find stuff that I forgot that I had. These occasional discoveries are one of the benefits and penalties of serious garage saling.



Completely forgotten, I recently came across this wood acorn which seems to be a thimble-less thimble case. Inside is a spool of coarse thread with a hole drilled in the center which I assume is for a needle or two. After threading on some new thread and adding needles, I am certain I will have the most handsome mending kit in town.

At some level, I am always outfitting for a grand adventure.

Takahashi Bird Pins

Collection of Mister Jalopy - Click for Larger Version

Prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Yoneguma Takahashi supported his family with a produce stand near Knott's Berry Farm. When the war started, 110,000 Japanese Americans, including Yoneguma, his wife Kiyoka and their three sons, were compelled to abandon their possessions and were forcibly relocated to the Poston Camp in Arizona.

As was common at the camps, the families self-organized baseball leagues, built schools and conducted craft classes. At Poston, the Takahashis learned to make wooden birds. Carved from old orange crates with knives made from old hacksaw blades, the birds were often perched on a twig of desert sagebrush. The wire legs were fashioned from window screen wire and the bodies were painted with whatever paints could be found.

After being interned for 3 1/2 years, the Takahashis returned to Orange County and began carving birds in their home, which also served as a workshop and storefront. Yoneguma would carve, Kiyoka would hand paint, and the kids were paid a dollar a pop to make the wire legs. Despite the Takahashi's lack of self-promotion, the birds went on to be sold by such venerable retailers as Gumps and Abercrombie & Fitch.

From takahashibirds.com:

The Takahashi family endured many hardships and even so do not harbor any animosity towards the United States for how their family was treated. They were able to transcend the treatment they received and to look on the bright side of their situation. Also, they learned the craft that allowed them to achieve their "American Dream" in the Japanese-American Internment Camp in Poston, Arizona. Their cage became their teacher. One can only hope that if forced to relinquish freedom without explanation or cause one would raise to the level of understanding and forgiveness displayed by the Takahashi Family.

I didn't know the Takahashi story at the time, but when I saw the bird pictured above I was immediately smitten by its exquisite detail and glossy perfection. Though made in the United States and crafted by Americans, the birds have an undeniable Japanese influence of restraint in both materials and execution. Hand painted and sealed with coats of lacquer, they seem to reflect more light than they absorb, so much so that a Takahashi bird appears to glow from within. Since I don't wear jewelry, I will frame my Takahashi bird in a tiny shadow box.

There is nothing more American than a Takahashi bird.

Link to Takahashi Birds, maintained by Yoneguma and Kiyoka's granddaughter, Carol
Link to Wikipedia entry on Japanese Internment Camps

Pantalaine: Provisioners of Plural Clothing

Link (via Handmade Nation)

Protective Power of a Thousand Stitches

Embroidered senninbari garments ("Thousand Person Stitches") were simple caps, belts or vests that Japanese women would give to soldiers to wear before they went into battle. I love the public-stitching-jam aspect of making one: "a woman from the family or community would stand in a busy location like the entrance to a train station and entreat passersby to add one stitch each. When one thousand stitches had been collected, the belt was believed by some to have special power to protect the bearer from the hazards of battle." Beautiful.
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D+R Guest Blogger! Jenny Hart!

At Maker Faire Austin, Mark Frauenfelder and I were lucky enough to see Jenny Hart's presentation on her art, her techniques and her adorable little company, Sublime Stitching. It was a standout presentation as Jenny let the audience behind the curtain to explain her process of making art. When an artist generously shares the magic, it really feels like Houdini's tricks are being unraveled and it is exciting to catch those sparks of creativity. Half way through her talk, Mark said, wide eyed, "It makes me want one!"

Though her works could stand as illustration, the embroidery brings a bittersweet sentimentality that is completely and strikingly personal. Sentiment can be cloying but this isn't empty nostalgia for a revived craft of samplers and pillowcases. These are intimate brush strokes that feel so close to the artist and make Dolly's tears a melancholy shared. How I do want to touch those stitches!

Jenny Hart's work has changed how I think and I am excited to see what inspires her. Please welcome Jenny Hart as D+R's newest guest blogger.

From Sublime Stitching FAQ:

Sublime Stitching is...

...the first design company to bring tattoos and rock-and-roll to embroidery design. Good-bye bunnies, teddy bears and geese in bonnets! Since 2001, Sublime Stitching has inspired thousands to try their hand at embroidery and remains the leading innovator for alternative embroidery Patterns, Kits, Tools, Textiles and Education for this once-dying hobby. Sublime Stitching is the original independent company that fired up the needlework revolution for the DIY movement and remains the driving force enticing anyone and everyone to try embroidery.

Who are you? Who creates all this stuff?

Jenny Hart founded Sublime Stitching in 2001 to bring back embroidery! Frustrated at the overabundance of tepid, cutesy needlework patterns and boring, stiff instructions that offered little encouragement to a new generation of stitchers, Jenny decided to start a design company of her own with a new take on stitching. The first line of designs launched in 2001 under the company name Sublime Stitching® to worldwide press and exclamation over her mix of art and craft.

Link to Sublime Stitching
Link to Jenny Hart's Fine Art

Space Spores in Search of the Perfect Martini quilt

It's a good thing Silly BooDilly doesn't know what a pimento is, because its mysteriousness is what inspired her to make this quilt. She calls it "Space Spores in Search of the Perfect Martini." Link (Via Craftzine)

Uncommonly Beautiful Tiles from American Rag

Let's face facts - I am screwy for handmade, matte-glazed, French tiles of red sea turtles.

Link

Laurie Crogan's Absolute Knock-Out Inlaid Linoleum Floors

Laurie Crogan doesn't know it, but I have been a big fan of her work for years. What look like painted floor designs are actually hand-cut linoleum or cork inlays. If you have ever wrestled with a linoleum knife, you'll appreciate just how astonishing the fine line work is.

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