magpie and cake: April 2006

the truth about ice cream stores

>> Sunday, April 30, 2006 – food

Starting a successful ice cream store does not happen by accident.

I know, I'm as shocked as you are. But this is what I learned when I clicked on one of today's Google Ad links on the righthand side of this blog. It had the provcative title "Start an Ice Cream Store"... and I thought "OK! I will!" (Note Google Ad's power of persuasion.)

But, as it turns out, the first line on the linked-to site explains that Starting a successful ice cream store does not happen by accident.

Sigh. Now I have to cross another dream off the list: Accidentally start a successful ice cream store.

Damn it. I really hope the same isn't true for the chocolate factory I've been hoping would spontaneously appear in my pantry.

you wear what you eat

>> – clothing, crochet, food, jewellery

Why is it that wearing food is so funny? Is it tied into why the old pie-in-the-face routine is a classic?

Whatever the reason, the creations made by Twinkie Chan over at Twinkie's Fridge are funny stuff - and would be super fun to wear.

Twinkie crochets one-of-a-kind scarves with food themes: eggplants, peas and carrots, spaghetti and meatballs, rocket popsicles, french fries... The list goes on and on. Check out all the goodies here. Think how much funnier cold winter mornings waiting for the bus would be if you had a bunch of spaghetti draped around your neck.

For a more subtle ode-to-food via fashion, try the silver food pendants by Pagliei. They've whipped up empanadas, wontons, gnocchi and other yummy dumplings, served up in charm bracelets and on necklaces. Mmmm.

a chandelier for every ceiling

>> Saturday, April 29, 2006 – lighting

Chandeliers. So elegant, so decadent, so so far over the top. I'm not really a chandelier person myself (too ornate; too much collecting dust) but I find them compelling to look at. Judged on the volume of chandeliers I've come across online in the past couple of months, designers seem to be lovin' the light, too. Here are a few variations on the cut crystal classic that really push things over the top of over the top.

Bughouse's hypoLUX syringe chandelier.

Lite Brite Neon's neon chandelier.

Moss' Spring Blossom chandelier.

Duffy London's flat canvas chandelier.

Michael & Nora's wine glass chandelier. This was also a project in Issue 19 of Readymade.

A fractal-inspired chandelier by I Am an Angel Chaser... with instructions on how to make your own!

And for the real chandelier enthusiast, Interior Couture makes chandelier blinds, cushions and wallpaper.

Taking a breather from hipstercraft for a moment, there are also good old fashioned antler chandeliers, like the ones found at places with names like Big Game Pro Shop and Horns-A-Plenty. Horns-A-Plenty apparently constructed the world's largest antler chandelier. At 10-feet in diameter and 12-feet tall, more than 600 natural deer and elk antlers went into making the chandelier.

Three hundred deer later, I'm ready to say goodbye to the real world and scurry back into hipsterland, tail between my converse and my ironic faux-vintage ringer T. I was welcomed back in style with a short "non book review" from Believer magazine on the subject of antler chandeliers:

Antler chandeliers add rusticity to any cabin near mountains, horses, and ski slopes, but “look better” in rooms with couches and tables rather than beds. To shout “Westernize!” to an antler chandelier owner means you want the owner to “turn on the light.” Light from an antler chandelier is called “western glow,” and shaking an antler chandelier gently so the branch shadows on the wall move eerily is called “scaring the kids.”

the small object

>> – illustration, toys

The Small Object is full full full of the cute. True to name, designer Sarah Neuburger produces a range of small objects - everything from Little Small Clothespin People to drawings of The Thumb War Battle of 1496 to stationery featuring drawings of tube socks. You really just need to visit The Small Object site to see all the adorable and hilarious things.

ice cream and information

>> Thursday, April 27, 2006 – food

There's no way I can put this any better, so here's what The Tactical Ice Cream Unit (TICU) has to say about themselves:

The TICU emerges at a time when most channels of distribution, communication, and social interaction are mediated and constrained by the fervor of financial exchange. Incorporating an alternative strategy of utopian potlatch, the Tactical Ice Cream Unit is envisioned primarily as a mobile distribution center for ice cream and information. [...] The Tactical Ice Cream Unit (TICU) rolls through the city in an act of intervention that replaces cold stares with frosty treats and nourishing knowledge. Combining a number of successful activist strategies (Food-Not-Bombs, Copwatch, Indymedia, infoshops, etc) into one mega-mobile, the TICU is the Voltron-like alter-ego of the cops' mobile command center. Although the TICU appears to be a mild-mannered vending vehicle, it harbors a host of high-tech surveillance devices including a 12-camera video surveillance system, acoustic amplifiers, GPS, satellite internet, a media transmission studio capable of disseminating live audio/video, and of course, ice cream. With every free ice cream handed out, the sweet-toothed citizenry also receives printed information developed by local progressive groups. Thus, the TICU serves as a mobile nexus for community activities while providing frosty treats and food-for-thought.

Get the full scoop here. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

TICU is brought to you by the Center for Tactical Magic, who are also responsible for a host of other projects, including Uprising, a community kite-building event in which participants send their messages up in the sky for all to see, and Vital Psigns, which explores the potential for human/plant communication.

pimpin'

>> Wednesday, April 26, 2006 – food

So there's this improv game called "Pimp My Scene." It goes like this: two improvisers are brought up and each (while the other has his or her ears blocked) gets a goal from the audience - something he or she must make the other improviser do in order to win. The improvisers playing don't want to lose, so you've gotta be sneaky about it. It's fun for the audience, because they know what each player's goal is, but the improvisers don't - it's neat to watch them figure it out.

Anyway, there's nothing sneaky or subtle about Pimp My Snack. It's all about "bigger is better" - all submissions are homemade giant versions of small things.

Behold, exhibits A through D: giant sushi, giant jam roll, giant wagon wheel. and giant hamburger.

I'm at once grossed out and amazed by these. Can you imagine trying to ingest some of these things? It would take an army. But at the same time, what a hilarious potluck/party you could have if everyone brought giant food. I've heard of the opposite before, a tiny food party, where you pretend your guests are all giants, but not this. This is definitely an event for hungry people.

sustainable fabric

>> – clothing, reuse

There's an interesting article in today's Tyee about fabric and the environment. They cover everything from the small (the preciousness of individual handmade pieces) to the expanding (the increased use of alternative-fibre fabrics like those made from bamboo or soy) to the mega-huge (NYC fashion shows are featuring sustainable fabrics and even Wal-mart is starting to sell (and radpidly sell out of) organic cotton yoga wear). Hopefully the latter will drive down the cost of alternative-fibre fabrics for general consumers; as it stands these fabrics and clothes are still priced way out of my range.

In completely unrelated but amusing fashion news, John Malkovich ran a fashion show where, instead of using models prancing down a catwalk, he got 20 Judo fighters beat each other up while wearing his designs. You can watch the trailer for the documentary about this event here.

bugs vs bunnies

>> Tuesday, April 25, 2006 – illustration

Cute + Compelling = The Essence of Rabbit. Over 1,500 bunnies by over 500 character designers, illustrators and artists from around the world.

Creepy + Compelling = A Terrible Beauty. An installation of real bugs transformed into wallpaper, by Jennifer Angus, now on at the Textile Museum of Canada.

big pink knitting

>> Monday, April 24, 2006 – knit

Very big instances of very pink knitting demand one's attention. So here you go.

A big pink knitted tank cozy by Marianne Jørgensen.

A big pink knitted motorcycle by Theresa Honeywell.

Bonus: Extreme Craft has kindly posted photos of Theresa Honeywell's current of her exhibit at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia, USA here, including knitted guns, tattoos and a tool belt. Not pink though.

some days you just feel like a demographic

>> – book

I mean, not only is Make getting their craft on with their new magazine, Martha is also pitching a new mag to the Readymade crowd. Blueprint: Design Your Life, which premieres in May, seems to be aimed at the 20/30-something DIY-inclined hipster crowd, covering everything from home decor to fitness to food to technology to beauty to dress patterns you can download. I have a feeling it'll be a little more polished than Readymade though - involving a little more coordination of soft pastels and a little less "how to sprout a sod couch" (which is probably best, since Martha would get her khakis dirty if she sat on that thing).

craft geeks make my day

>> – book, knit

Make Zine, the geeks who bring you the best in how to make the ultimate in geeky stuff, is now branching out into the craft-geek world.

CRAFT: Make Cool Stuff will be available on newsstands this Fall - hopefully in Canada as well as the US. Their pitch: Find out how to make everything cool and crafty from silkscreening basics to making your own LED shirt. Sounds good to me. If it's anything like the Make:Blog - which is a daily read for me - it'll be awesome.

Plus, Jess Hutch's knit robots is on the promo cover, so it's bound to good.

It's time to take a break from crafting...

>> Sunday, April 23, 2006 – music

...and dance!

I bought the new Flaming Lips CD today, and although I'm only half-way through listening to it so far, I'm lovin' it. It perfectly captures that dancing-in-your-livingroom / dancing-as-you-blog / dancing-as-you-bake-cookies feel-good vibe.

Which is the vibe of the day today. Today was the first truly "It's SUMMER!" day here in Vancouver, and I took advantage of the sunshine to walk around outside for most of the day. I was desperately in need of catching up on Birthday Present Shopping. I was behind on 3 presents, and have 4 birthdays coming up in May - all for Very Special People In My Life. So I went a spreeee! I have never bought so much stuff in a single day, but it felt good, as I bought everything from locally-owned stores I adore, and practically everything was made by Vancouver or Canadian designers. I would post photos of what I bought, but I don't want to ruin at birthday surprises.

So the morals of the day are: Buy local. Buy fun stuff. Dance. (And meeting up with friends for a a pint and walk on the beach doesn't hurt either.)

knitPro needlecraft art show

>> – art exhibit, knit, music, technology

microRevolt, who I blogged about earlier, now presents the knitPro Needlecraft Art Show. The show exhibits stitched craftwork made from microRevolt's freeware knitPro, which translates digital images into needlecraft patterns.

My favourite, also the winner, is the Fendi guitar. Also of note are the Kurt Cobain laptop cover (I need one of those - though not Kurt for me), and this manifesto on art vs craft. You can see the whole show online here.

small wonders in an empty lot

>> Friday, April 21, 2006 – gardening

I love discovering wonder where you least expect it. Like in an empty lot.

On my way to work, there's nothing much around the place where I transfer from Bus One to Bus Two. Except an empty lot. Which really doesn't make the wait between busses any shorter. I mean, it's not like waiting for the bus at a stop next to a newsstand, or a pet store, or a Rube Goldberg machine.

But a couple of weeks ago, on a Monday morning, look what had appeared!

A garden! On stilts! With roots showing! Fantastic!

It stayed there for a week or two, then disappeared again.

Then...

A crop circle appeared! Ok, a gravel circle. But still!

I don't know what's going on, but I like it.

fab finnish fabric

>> – sew

A couple of photos of the gorgeous illustration-based fabric coming out of Finland, as seen in a show I stumbled across at the Pendulum Gallery in Vancouver. On till April 29th, the show is called "School of Cool - Fresh Finnish Design" and highlights Finnish fabric and chair design, and architecture.

Afrikan kuningatar (African Queen, 2004) designed by Oiva Toikka (...Isn't Oiva is a great name?)

La Boca (2005) designed by Maija Louekari

Both are designed for a textile, clothing and products company called Marimekko, which has some of the coolest looks - from Finland or anywhere else, for that matter.

eat salmon loops for dinner tonight

>> – art exhibit, food, vancouver

If you're in Vancouver, check out tonight's opening at the Belkin Satellite Gallery (555 Hamilton Street): Sonny Assu: As Defined Within the Indian Act. This is the first solo show by friend Sonny (of previous bear-painting fame). If you can't come tonight, Matthew Hills will give a curator's talk on Saturday, 22 April at 2:30pm at the Belkin Satellite gallery as part of Gallery Hop Vancouver. The show runs until May 21st.

From the press release:

Combining a Pop aesthetic with traditional Northwest Coast style and forms, such as the button blanket and formline, Assu cultivates a wry critique of current artistic and socio-economic issues pertinent to contemporary culture. The exhibition will include several new paintings and sculptures that experiment with notions of commodification and the ready-made. The result is an engagement of tradition that refuses to acquiesce to the stereotypes of First Nations art and artists, while respecting Native culture and addressing an urban context. Placing an emphasis upon the exploration of identity, Assu’s practice compels the viewer with incisive wit that undermines notions of a static First Nations identity and temporarily allays the ubiquitous misrepresentation of First Nations cultures and peoples.

Read more here.

If all of that is still not enough for you , I helped sew the buttons onto the blanket. So come check out my mad button-sewing skillz. I am a sewing machine!

Got some extra cash sitting around?

>> Wednesday, April 19, 2006 – clothing, decorate, sew

"Oh, if only I had somewhere to spend the excesses of money I have lying around in heaps," I hear you saying. Oh yes, I can hear you. I can smell that cash burning a hole in your pocket from here! Well, I've got some suggestions for you. That's right, you can spend money via the interweb.

[1] ATYPYK

Atypyk prides itself on creating things for people to buy that are really of little to no use other than to put a smile on your face. (For instance, buttons that look like buttons.) They have lots of great stuff that I've seen featured in a number of magazines, in print and online.

[2] Salvor NYC
Click on "fauna" up in the top lefthand corner.

Love the t-shirts, love the pillows. Cuteness! I'd like a gorilla t-shirt.

[3] Squidfire

Squids and squirrels are the new deer/owl/wolf (i.e. hipster animals). Cuteness!

searching for Martha

>> Monday, April 17, 2006 – organize

Behold, the Marthadex.

knit a naughty nautiloid (try say that 5 times fast)

>> Wednesday, April 12, 2006 – knit, toys

The Spring issue of Knitty is out, and the best thing in it is prehistoric.

Here's a pattern to knit nautiloids - fossils from the early Palaeozoic era.

Crafty, cute and oh so geological!

drinking straw art

>> Tuesday, April 11, 2006 – food

Dang. These are really neat.

Also in the "neat-o" category: transparent laptop screens.

patterns for hipsters, patterns for free

>> Monday, April 10, 2006 – clothing, tutorial

Sometimes the Burda patterns at Fabricland just don't cut it.

So Fitz is offering some hipster sewing patterns to download. Many of them are free, and some (like the Karina hoodie, which I like) are available for a small fee ($3 Australian).

There's an interview with Fitz's designer, Lisa Howden, on the Make Blog.

shout out to socks

>> – book, photography, toys

I know, I know, even with yesterday's sock monkey extravangaza post, you still haven't got your fill of sock monkeys. Well, let me share some more sock monkey love with you.

I recently bought a fantastic book of portrait photography... with sock monkeys as the subjects. Sock Monkeys (200 out of 1,863) is a book about just that: 200 portraits of sock monkeys from a collection of 1,863.

What's amazing about this book is not only the sheer number of sock monkeys, but the variety of sock monkey faces - from adorably cute to downright frightening and everything in between - and the personalities that those faces hint at. A few monkeys scattered throughout the book have had their stories imagined by authors, including Jonathan Safran Foer and Neil Gaiman.

sock monkey town

>> Sunday, April 09, 2006 – toys

The good people of Rockford, Illinois gathered this weekend to celebrate a cornerstone of modern society: the sock monkey.

The Sock Monkey Madness Festival took place this weekend at Midway Village. A full weekend of sock monket themed events took place:

But wait, there's MORE.

It turns out that Rockford is instrumental to the invention of the sock monkey as we know - and love - it today. Rockford resident John Nelson invented the seamless sock knitting machine back in 1879. The famous Nelson Red Heel sock was made Rockford.

But wait, there's EVEN MORE.

The party doesn't end this weekend. There's also an exhibit on through December 2006 called "The Missing Link: Socks, Monkeys and Rockford’s Industrial Past". The website invites guests to "Enjoy Sock Monkeys, Red-heeled socks, and stories about the sock knitting invention." How could you not?

But wait, there's STILL MORE.

Apparently Rockford was imbroiled in some patent litigation that won Rockford its “Home of the Sock Monkey” title. And the sock monkey used in the case is on display.

But wait. Guess what? MORE MORE MORE.

Rockford also boasts a fine collection of seven foot tall sock monkeys made out of fiberglass.

Road trip, anyone?

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