Craft Rock Friday with Hudson

There's always something really lovely about pencil crayons. Simple cylinders of distinct colours. You can hold every colour in your hand, spread them out on the table, arrange them in infinite colour combinations... and, of course, draw with them to create whatever you like, in whatever colours you want.

Today's Craft Rock Friday features Melbourne musician Hudson's song "Against The Grain". And a whole rainbow's worth of pencil crayons.

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Etsy Treasury: Mountain Love

I just made my first Etsy Treasury. It's a pretty fun process, getting to curate a little collection of Etsy items. My Treasury's called "Mountain Love: Art prints for rock climbers and mountain lovers..."

Click here to see it on Etsy!

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Craft Rock Friday with Winter Gloves

Today it's a lovely Spring-like day in Vancouver. We even sat out on the patio for lunch. So it's somewhat out of place that today's Craft Rock Friday video is from a band called Winter Gloves.

It'd be tough to flip through a flipbook with your mitts on though....


WINTER GLOVES 'Let Me Drive' from the album 'about a girl'

Winter Gloves | Myspace Music Videos

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A Self-Congratulatory Guide to Personal Global Domination

This world map, which helpfully lets you plan your world domination, is ridiculously cute.

When I finally stopped clicking through the photos over and over again, I read the description and said, "Oh, it's by Oliver Jeffers. Of course it's cute."

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Craft Rock Friday with Lenka

This week's Craft Rock Friday is a 2-for-1, as Lenka has a bunch of crafty stuff goin' on in her music... Here are a couple of her videos that use collage, paper cutting, drawing and painting...

"The Show"




"Trouble is a Friend"

Lenka's album artwork also has a nice crafty style to it - as do her site and MySpace.

(Thanks for the link, Alexandra!)

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The World Cup... with Crayons!

Soccer fans, get ready to freak out, just a little.

Look at these amazing sculptures of soccer players.... made from crayons!

The pieces were created by artist Diem Chau - who you may know for her lovely work combining ceramics and embroidery.

She carved a whopping 66 crayons for this year's Nike World Cup press kits, on a commission from Wieden + Kennedy - the same ad agency that created this year's epic Nike World Cup ad.

Each kit contains 6 crayon sculptures of soccer players: Fabio Cannavaro in Antique Brass, Didier Drogba in Copper, Franck Ribery in Gold, Robinho in Silver, Cristiano Ronaldo in White, and Wanye Rooney in a colour called Timberwolf.

Check out more photos of the sculptures on Diem Chau's blog, The Pleasure of Tiny Things. (She also does supercute crayon sculptures that don't involve soccer!)

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Vancouver Draw Down

One more for the June event calendar... This weekend is Vancouver Draw Down!

Described as "a celebration of drawing in everyday life", Vancouver Draw Down runs Friday June 11 to Sunday June 13. All kind of events are planned, including a comic jam at the Roundhouse, button making at the Museum of Anthropology, and chalk street drawing across the city.

The "Making Place" event at the Vancouver Art Gallery sounds like lots of fun: join in the creation of a gigantic, collaborative, chalk pastel drawing of the perfect neighbourhood. Also, over at the Roundhouse, you can even ride your bike or skateboard through paint to create a big collaborative painting.

Check out the Vancouver Draw Down site for the full schedule of events.

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Craft Rock Friday with Neko Case, Modest Mouse, and a bunch of whales...

One of the things that got the whole city of Vancouver excited this week was a visit from a grey whale... He swam right into town!

Here's a video of the whale swimming up False Creek. Not to worry, he found his way out.

Today's Craft Rock Friday is a tribute to the False Creek Whale (who even has his own Twitter account, btw!). Neko Case's song, "People Got A Lotta Nerve" features these great lyrics about a whale:

We know, they call them 'killer whales'
But you seem surprised
When it pinned you down to the bottom of the tank
Where you can't turn around
It took half your leg, and both your lungs
And I craved I ate hearts of sharks
I know you know, that I'm a man, man, man
Man, man, man eater
But still you're surprised-prised-prised when I eat ya
Yes, I'm a man, man, man
Man, man, man eater
But still you're surprised-prised-prised when I eat ya

The video also starts out with some crafty goodness: girls knitting (though in a somewhat dubious looking cave). The artwork and illustration are by brother/sister team Paul and Julie Morstad. Julie Morstad also did the illustration on Neko's album, Fox Confessor Brings the Flood.



Another video that combines both whales and craftyness (and what a fine combo it is!) is the one for Modest Mouse's "Whale Song". I love that multi-pencil drawing device at the beginning of the video!



Let's see, what other great whale-related music comes to mind?

1. "Sad, sad Song" by M. Ward:

And so I went to the whale
I said "killer whale, please, what do you do when your true love leaves?"
He said "I only have but one trick up my sleeve
I sing it over and over till she comes back to me

2. "Grounds for Divorce" by Wolf Parade:

You said you hate the sound
Of the busses on the ground
You said you hate the way they scrape their brakes all over town
Said pretend it's whales
Keeping their voices down
Such were the grounds for divorce I know

3. "Last Great American Whale" by Lou Reed:

Last great American whale...
Some say they saw him at the great lakes
Some say they saw him off of Florida
My mother said she saw him in Chinatown
But you can't always trust your mother

4. Anything by Noah and the Whale.

5. Anything by Freelance Whales.

Can you think of anything else? Let's make a whale of a mixed tape...

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I wonder if Darth likes cuckoo clocks?

I just saw this over at Share Some Candy, and I had to re-post it here. At first I thought it was a paper cut, but I think it's actually an illustration. Still, pretty darn awesome.



"The Dark Side of Switzerland" by Alberto Russo

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Craft Rock Friday with My Robot Friend

Today's Craft Rock Friday brings you a sweet song, a sweet story ... and some sweet stop-motion paper-cut action.

Using cut paper and pen and ink drawings, artist Liam Stevens (whose other drawings are pretty great, too) has created a truly lovely little music video for the acoustic version of My Robot Friend's song, "Waiting", featuring the lovely guitar of Jay Kauffman.



Listening to the song, I hadn't pictured a traditional Japanese setting - but I think it works quite well. The palette and the hand-drawn feel - as well as the charming story - all really complement this version of the song.

Oh! And one more delicious piece of crafty goodness for you - I'll leave you with the brilliant artwork for My Robot Friend's album, Soft-Core. Ha!



(Today's Craft Rock Friday tip was sent to me by the ever-awesome Dan - a big admirer of both paper and robots. Thanks, dude!)

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More at MOV

Not only is The Museum of Vancouver (aka MOV) screening Handmade Nation this Friday, they're also hosting another DIY Night!

MOV AT NIGHT: DIY @ MOV 2
April 09, 2010 / 7:00 PM

Back by popular demand! A social-crafting night featuring workshops and a craft market by Birkeland Bros. Wool, Collage Collage, and Got Craft?.

An event for craft newbies and seasoned creators.
Music – Bar – Free Materials – Workshops
$15, Members free

The first DIY Night was lots of fun. I could hardly believe the line-up to get into the event! The museum was filled to the brim with creative, crafty people. My advice: get there early! Most of the supplies were already taken before I got there (except for the insanely huge pile of yarn!). But there was still lots of paper and pens left, so I grabbed a pink marker and spread out the floor to draw.... I left my drawing there (on purpose), and guess what? The MOV used it on their website to advertise the new DIY Night! Nice!!


Kirsti Wakelin (who also designed the Art Of Craft exhibit) posted a great set of photos from the first DIY @ MOV event up on Flickr. And if you haven't yet seen the Art of Craft exhibit, this is the perfect chance to catch it before it closes on April 11th.

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pencils delivered to your door & put up on your wall

25 coloured pencils sent to your home every month, for 20 months.

Add that up. It's a thing of beauty.



Read more in the New York Times Gift Guide and on Social Designer.

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craft rock friday with mixel pixel

Mixel Pixel's “Monster Manual” video is full of doodles and drawings. Unicorns, wolverines, masterdons, dragons... yup, they'll all here. Just the kind of thing the boy sitting behind you was churning out in grade 8 math class.



If the song reminds you of Dungeons and Dragons, you're right. Here's the band's explanation of the song and the sketches:



Love the Pyramid of Calaxion Stone! Heh.

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craft rock friday with coldplay & oren lavie

Coldplay is SO ready for summer holidays. Drawing all over the sidewalk in chalk, wearing a superhero costume, and going on fantastic, heroic adventures...

From their new video for "Strawberry Swing", it seems that Chris Martin is just as comfortable on the playground as on the stage.



The top-down stop-motion animation style reminds of the lovely video for Oren Lavie's song, "Her Morning Elegance". Beautiful, fun, and dream-like videos, both.

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stranger than fiction

I am totally loving this project by UK designer Rob Matthews: he takes illustrations by Tom Edwards and recreates them as photographs.

The results are funny and brilliant. Some things just make more sense on paper.

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let the wild rumpus start!

How terribly, terribly wonderful is this?

Terrible Yellow Eyes is a new project started by Cory Godbey, who has invited artists to contribute their own tributes to the classic picture book, Where the Wild Things Are.

Over the coming weeks and months I'll display a growing collection of works created by invited contributing artists and myself. We share a love and admiration for Sendak's work and the pieces we present here are done as a tribute to his life and legacy.

Simply put, like a visual love letter to the book, with Terrible Yellow Eyes I am seeking to celebrate and promote the original masterwork by Maurice Sendak in the best way I know how -- with pictures."

Read the rest of Cory's heart-felt explanation. I'm sure many of us can relate to what he says about this book and Maurice Sendak - I know I can.



There are already a lot of amazing pieces posted on Terrible Yellow Eyes. I can't wait to see what else emerges as the project evolves.

Pictured here are works by Mike Lee and Jared Chapman.

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craft rock friday with xoxo, panda

Today's Craft Rock Friday is mixin' up the categories of 'craft' and 'rock': using a retro music material to make some crafts. And what else are you going to do with cassettes these days? (Sigh.)

Here's XOXO, Panda's video for "The New Kid Revival":



It reminds me a little of the classic animation series, La Linea. Love that guy.

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craft rock friday with department of eagles

It's not every day that a band's music video gets premiered at a major art gallery. But that's what happened with Department of Eagles' latest video - for "No One Does It Like You" - which was screened at the MOMA last week.

The video was directed by Patrick Daughters (who also worked on the video for Feist's "1234", in all its lue-lame-jumpsuit glory) and Winnipeg artist Marcel Dzama.

Marcel Dzama is a favourite of mine: I love his bizarre drawings that straddle fairytales and nightmares. This video really brings Marcel Dzama's artwork brought to life (and, um, death).



This video's edging towards the darker side of Dzama's work - where there are fewer schoolgirls walking hand-in-hand with bears and men with tree trunk heads playing the upright bass - and more death, destruction and dismemberment...





You can see more of Dzama's art at the Richard Heller Gallery.

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craft rock friday with angus and julia stone

This video had me right at the start, when the miniature elephant strolls along the arm of the guitar. (Yes, I still want a house hippo.)

The fact that it turns into a puppet show / pillow fight / dance party? Bonus.



The song is "Just A Boy" by Angus and Julia Stone.

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craft rock friday with of montreal

Oh, I am so in love with Of Montreal's latest album, Skeletal Lamping. It's one of the best CDs ever to listen to on your headphones, while walking down the street - though it does come along with the danger of starting to dance-walk a little or singing along. And with Of Montreal, you might end up saying some kinda inappropriate things aloud on the sidewalk without realizing...

Well, my love only grew when I saw the crafty video for "Id Engager", in which a game of Exquisite Corpse comes to life. Exquisite Corpse is that game where you draw a head on a piece of paper, fold it over and pass it to your friend, who draws a body, folds it, passes it, and so on. Hilarity ensues.



Of Montreal is, of course, an all-round super-crafty band: their crazy costumes (and multiple costume changes during live shows!) are a celebration of glorious excess. Never too many sparkles, face paint or bedazzling for them! And in this case, I mean that as the highest compliment.

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