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Thursday, September 1, 2011

Talk Bach - DJparadiddle.

Watch and be in awe. By DJparadiddle.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The keds are all right - keds collective

One of the perks of working client side in digital marketing, is that I get contacted by throngs of cool agencies in the area... trying to get their foot in the door. Unfortunately, I cannot meet with all of them, but its such an honor to see what cool work is being produced by the brightest minds in advertising. After clicking through one such email, I stumbled upon Keds Collective. Keds, presumably with the counsel of a cutting edge agency, has brought in artists to design their classic white shoes - and if these artists designs do not strike your fancy, you can even design your own. Although these designed shoes come at a higher price point - $60 a pop - the investment is well worth it. The other option is to pick up a sharpie and a white pair of keds at $40 a pair and scribble all over the shoes... but those can be pretty cool too.



Monday, August 29, 2011

My own bottle of beauty - Chanel Peridot

 
Although I missed out on last years hottest color, Jade, by Chanel, I am in recent possession of Peridot. Peridot, technically an olive green gemstone, is also one of Chanels soon to be obsessed over fall nail colors. In the bottle, #531, limited edition Perdiot looks like petrol in the hot sun; it has primary base of green overlayed by gradient blues and speckled with gold and orange. The only thing equally as beautiful can be found in nature - the back of a beetle or the eye of a fly. On the nail, the color is like a chameleon and changes to its surroundings. At work, it reflects the taupe walls and plays it gold. At home and at night, its hue is olive green to almost graphite blue.  The photo on the left does not do it justice - please go see for your self and at least visually treat yourself to this gorgeous hue. To the chemists and colorists of Chanel, I praise you.



Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Fruits of labor II - ceramic bulbs

One comment I get most about any art I do, is that I should find one medium and stick to it. I disagree. I have found that experimenting with different mediums (painting, ceramics, wood) has helped me identify the common fiber in my work. One of those fibers is repetition of form and the desire to install.

In my ceramics class, I made useful plates and pretty wall tiles, but my favorite piece(s) are my slip casted light bulbs. They do serve a purpose, but the beauty of these repeating installed forms really resonates with me as an artist. Why go through so much pain just to make a damn ceramic light bulb? Because it allows you to make the same form - with very slight variation - over and over and over again. Its basically a stencil, but for clay.

Now, let me explain slip casting. Basically, in slip casting, the artist takes a bucket of viscous clay - aka slip - and pours it into a mold. In this shot, you see what the mold looks like while waiting for the clay to harden up. Once its hardened, the slip gets poured back into the bucket, and you are left with a hallow form. 

Slip cast molds

The light bulb, once out of the slip cast mold
Once the light bulb was out of the form, I dropped it on the ground, flattening one side, turning it into a hallow vessel. Flip it on its side, and you have a wall vase!







Monday, August 22, 2011

It's no accident - bleach for design

Mid day Thursday I received an email from a team member at Clorox, challenging us to get in on the web sensation and design our very own t shirt, using nothing other than bleach... yes, the very same substance we are all very so careful NOT to get on our colored clothing. But, as it turns out, there is a throng of people using bleach to design their own tee's. The winner takes home a gift card to Modern Coffee in downtown Oakland (nothing to scoff at, AMAZING brew) and a call out on Clorox's very own Facebook page... and it's exactly that social recognition that I am after!

Phelyx has a fabulous tutorial online that I leveraged to create my own, albeit simple, tee design. I tested this out on my boyfriends black hanes tee and a purple v neck of my own. This round, I created a stencil of repeating squares and sprayed the bleach around the stencil. Next time, I plan on cutting out the positive, and spraying bleach into the form. The results will look similar to the vinyl stencil I used on my boyfriends white tee, below.

Designs are due Monday at noon - my fingers are crossed!

Stencil with positive cut out
Stencil with negative cut out - bleach sprayed around stencil



Sunday, August 21, 2011

Fruits of labor I- ceramic tiles

When I signed myself up for a ceramics class at the California College of the Arts I was thrilled I was going to have fresh new content for my blog. I would finally have an opportunity to create and the space to curate my inspiration and process. The only problem, I discovered, is time: there is a reason artists are not curators. As a result, you are going to see my inspiration posthumously. Each installation, or series or pieces will be shared in a different blog post.

Blog I - ceramic tiles.

These pieces, 9 in total, are inspired by the color blocking technique utilized by the American painter, Mark Rothko . Our mediums and scale may have been different, but the color blocking technique is universal.





Painting by Rothko

Painting by Rothko

Painting by Rothko









Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Organic Mondrian stoneware

Today concluded the third class of "Hand built ceramics for the home" at California College of the Arts in Oakland California. The syllabus is extensive and places emphasis on production, production, production. Thus far we have crafted wall tiles, platters and vessels (some even holding water). My fear was that this class was going to place me in the category of 'crazy cat lady, house adorned with crappy hand built ceramics', but, if done properly, ceramic work can be executed with a fine sense of design. Also, my cat lives in Michigan and I live in San Francisco. Technically, I am not a crazy cat lady - let's just be clear.

My blog inactivity (See exhibit A, blog archive) these past few months clearly are evidence that I have been too busy to make and share any creative projects. But not for long!

Check out my first recognizable piece from my ceramics class, a set of four 9"x9" plates, adorned with a Mondrian-esque underglaze. The next steps are to glaze further and fire. Inspiration also seen below.









Sunday, July 17, 2011

Out of Print - shirts on a mission

I dont know about you, but my head is ALWAYS stuck in a book. Currently, I am reading a childhood favorite, The Princess Bride, by William Goldman that I stumbled upon while moving my childhood room out of boxes and into 1.) storage 2.) my San Francisco appartment 3.) the donation box. I found some other old classics: the Old Man and the Sea, Animal Farm, Brave New World and Break Fast of Champions.

Most recently, my mainstream favorites are: The Help, the Hunger Games and the Girl with Dragon Tattoo series. Strangely enough, all four of these either have been created into films or are in production. Speaking of recent books turned film, the final Harry Potter production - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part II - shattered all box office records by bringing in a record $168.6 million across Canada and the U.S since Friday!!! Crazy.

Placing the success of the Harry Potter series aside, I wanted to share Out of Print with you - an online clothing store that features tees and sweaters with cover art of old classics. You get to wear a soft tee commemorating your favorite book and Out of Print dontates one book to Books for Africa. Although Borders may be going under, everyone, from the media to tee shops to non proffits values the importance of books.

Oh, and if you have any book recommendations, please shoot them my way! I am going through my oldies but goodies too fast...



Thursday, April 14, 2011

I DARE you - ASCII business cards

We are all familiar with ASCII, ranging from a smiley face made of a colon and a parentheses to more complex designs of bunny rabbits (for example).

DARE, an award winning creative agency, actually found a useful purpose for this type of computer art, using ASCII to create portraits of each card holder. Not only does this provide a 'wow' factor to recipient, but also serves as a visual reference, making it easier to remember that moment and time and conversation the recipient had with the card holder. 

_     _
                   _
                   /_/_      .'''. 
                =O(_)))) ...'     `.
                   \_\              `.    .'''B'zzzzzzzzzzz
                                      `..'
                
                            /|      __  
                           / |   ,-~ /  
                          Y :|  //  /    
                          | jj /( .^  
                          >-"~"-v"  
                         /       Y    
                        jo  o    |  
                       ( ~T~     j   
                        >._-' _./   
                       /   "~"  |    
                      Y     _,  |      
                     /| ;-"~ _  l    
                    / l/ ,-"~    \  
                    \//\/      .- \  
                     Y        /    Y*  
                     l       I     ! 
                     ]\      _\    /"\ 
                    (" ~----( ~   Y.  )   



Sunday, April 10, 2011

Wool buddies!

For months, I have been excited for the cherry blossom festival in Japan town. I imagined the scene would be serene with cherry blossom petals floating from the sky while silent onlookers observed traditional seasonal ceremonies and sipped cool green tea. Instead, I found Japan town blocked off to traffic, streets filled with Sapporo stands, spam sushi and lots of cool art stands. Yes, the Cherry blossom trees were beautiful, but Wool Buddies stole my heart.

Jackie Huang began making hand made owls, penguins, dinosaurs and much more, soon after the birth of his daughter. The pieces range in size, from fitting in the palm of your hand, to a 7 foot tall giraffe! If you choose you can buy these cute critters already made, or buy a kit and make your own! I, of course, could not resist and purchased an owl felting kit.

Although the kit was labeled as 'easy' I am already scheming up my next needle felting project: a life size deer or goat bust mounted on my wall.

To find out more about wool buddy and Jackies work, click here.








Saturday, April 9, 2011

Jaim Telias - wood chandelier

Jaime Telias will be showing this folded wood veneer pendant lamp at Milan Design Week 2011.

The Ale Lamp, made out of wood, reminds me of an origami tessellation or a satellite dish unfolding in space. Although a paper replication with be flimsier than a wood form, the piece would be easy to replicate by folding and pasting repeating origami forms. A sewing machine - sans thread - could be used to create the perforated spaces allowing the light to seep through.

Check out more of Telias's designs after the jump.




Monday, March 28, 2011

Carole Young - undesigned

Carole Young is an LA based designer. Her clothes are versatile, and this video exemplifies that. My favorite part, however, is in the production, direction and sound. All of the music in the film was generated from the sounds of the machinery used to fabricate her designs. The sounds a stitched together so seamlessly - you do not realize the soundtrack is made from machines until the machines sounds are isolated at the end.



Sunday, March 27, 2011

The making of Hypae by Nervous System

In case you missed it at Nervous System's site, here's a little 'making of' the river bracelet video. As I understand it, all pieces are modeled in 3D software and sent to a 3D printer... how cool.


Hyphae - growth of the River Bracelet from Nervous System on Vimeo.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

3D printed jewelery giveaway from Nervous System

My only wish is that I had found out about this giveaway sooner! Nervous System, a "design studio that works at the intersection of science, art, and technology" is giving away select pieces from their jewelery line, Hyphae. The concept behind this line is pretty cool:

"Hyphae is a collection of 3D printed artifacts constructed of rhizome-like networks. Inspired by the vein structures that carry fluids through organisms from the leaves of plants to our own circulatory systems, we created a simulation which uses physical growth principles to build sculptural, organic structures."

Want to own one of these pieces for free? Learn how.



Thursday, March 24, 2011

The illusionist - Gabriel Drawl

Similar to Megan Gecklers work, Gabriel Dawl takes countless threads in multiple colors to create form and shape from repeating lines. I love Dawl's work, the threads create beautiful shapes that, from a distance, are indistinguishable from their original form.






 Think you wanna get a project like this started? Find thread on Amazon - 50 pieces thread for all Sewing Machines

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Banana boat

HAHA. Banana boat. I love the play on words. That's all I got this Saturday, no whitty commentary.

Friday, March 18, 2011

My American Dream

Today, while surfing on Mocoloco.com - I can be found doing this on a weekly basis - I stumbled upon Adam Wallacavage's chandeliers. These highly provocative, macabre pieces not only remind us of life's ephemeral nature, but brings new meaning to 'antler chandelier'. Additionally, these baby's come fresh off the 3D printer, not fresh off a living animal. Imagine... a sustainably built timber cabin (made from timbers of invasive species of course) encasing these beautiful chandeliers. Good bye poached animals!

After appreciating this chandelier, I think I may identified my own American Dream: a highly designed, sustainable 'cabin' containing mid century furniture and all of my favorite books.


Here is some prefab inspiration and the Eames Chair that belongs in it...