Swap-O-Rama-Rama in Los Angeles!

Mark your calendars for Saturday, June 28th because Swap-O-Rama-Rama is back in LA for the second time! What is SORR you ask? Basically it's a huge clothing swap which encourages creative reuse of recycled clothes. First, clean out your closets and come to SORR with a bag of clothes you don't need anymore. All of the clothing for recycling is sorted into piles by volunteers and then you get to search for new clothes to take home. We'll have DIY stations set up for specific projects as well as sewing stations run by clothing designers who will help you alter and refashion your clothing picks to create something new. It's only $5 if you bring a bag of clothes and $10 if you don't and you get to leave with all the clothes you can carry!

Lori from Hip Line Media is producing the event again this year, this time with the help of AfterCraft, a newly formed group of crafters focusing on recycled and upcycled crafting. (That's where Four Idle Hands comes in!) Swap-O-Rama-Rama is a non-profit organization and all events are run by volunteers. We're still looking for help for the June 28th event so please email Lori if you can help.

Great Minds Think Alike

I recently ran across the web site of illustrator Melissa Kojima and discovered she's a kindred spirit when it comes to a wonderfully offbeat and quirky aesthetic with some dark humor thrown in for good measure. Her illustrations are filled with the most interesting characters and if you look closely you'll find some pretty amazing details. (I'm talking to you, girl with 4 legs in the illustration below!)
She has a terrific web site (check out the illustrated rollovers on the homepage - love those!) and she even shares images from her sketchbook. (Don't you love when artists let you see their sketches?) She also has a great blog where she features artsy finds and local happenings here in SoCal. Go check her out, you'll be glad you did!

Best Cookie Site EVER

Seriously, how can you go wrong with a site named Cookie Madness? I've been craving a certain type of chocolate chip cookie lately. Something thick and chewy with some good heft to it; not a flat crunchy type of cookie. After a few failed attempts at new recipes I finally figured out that maybe I should be looking for bar cookie recipes to get the type of texture I wanted. BINGO! The Cookie Madness site came up in my search results and my wonderful similarly-cookie-addicted husband found this Congo Bars recipe for which we just happened to have all the ingredients on hand. They were absolutely delicious! They're super easy to make, which is part of the appeal of bar cookies of course, and they received rave reviews when I took them to my crafty-superfriends meeting. (I'm sorry to say this isn't a photo of the ones I made. It's from the Cookie Madness site.) For our cookies we omitted the coconut and ended up baking it longer than 25 minutes but we a) have a wonky oven and b) used a glass pan so that probably explains it. Next time I think we'll try milk chocolate chips and macadamia nuts. And really, the basic cookie part of these bars is so good it seems suitable for all kinds of different combinations of chocolate and nuts and who knows what else. This weekend we'll be trying the S'mores Bars and next on my list will have to be Sweet and Salty Double Nut Toffee Brownie Bars. [drool]

Who Doesn't Have Boogers

I absolutely love these little tissue holders from our insanely creative friends at Social Studies Design. It's the little green beads under the nostril that really *make* this piece as far as I'm concerned. Check out their web site to read a great post-Maker Faire/Bazaaar Bizarre write-up complete with tons of photos!

More Non-Creepy Body Part Art

As long as we're on the subject of body parts, have you seen Margaux Lange's work? She makes beautiful jewelry using everyone's favorite childhood style icon, Barbie. And it looks like Ken is showing up in some pieces as well.
I love how adept she is at creating a well designed piece of art that integrates the doll pieces perfectly. She has an Etsy shop and you should check out her blog too!

Oppose the Orphan Works Bill With One Click

I posted about this earlier, and now the Illustrator's Partnership has set up a site which allows you to easily email your Senators and Representatives letting them know you oppose the Orphan Works bill. Please help spread the word!

Printmakers of Etsy Unite!

I recently joined an online group called Printsy. It is made up of Etsy printmakers who have banded together to talk about, share, and promote printmaking. The nice thing is that they are including only Etsy sellers who create original hand-pulled prints; not digital inkjet prints or other reproductions. Marissa of mLee Fine Art has just posted the first in a series of member-to-member interviews on the blog and she did a great job. The first interviewee is another Marissa, or fustian as she is known online. I always enjoy reading about other artists and how they work. Printsy also has a Flickr group if you'd like to see more!

Another Handy Item

Continuing with our hand theme, I can't believe I haven't yet shown you these little beauties! I absolutely *LOVE* these hand soaps by Foliage on Etsy. They're hand soaps that look like little baby doll hands.
Isn't this the best idea you've ever seen for hand soap? I've heard that some people think they're a little creepy but I don't see how they could be....they're BABY DOLL HANDS! They should flood your mind with happy, nostalgic, childhood memories. Don't you love how fat and chunky they are? I'd also like to see a bunch of these cast in ceramic so that I could display them all over my house. THAT would be even "awesomer."

Lend a Hand

Found these really great candles while surfing around on Apartment Therapy. As you might imagine we like almost anything and everything having to do with hands around here. They're from a company called Wakey but they only have a placeholder for a web site. Looks like I'll have to plan a trip to France to pick up these lovelies. Twist my arm!

Action Required - Protect Current Copyright Law

Take a look at this post from Illustration Friday and then read the comments for more links that explain the Orphan Works bill and how devastating it will be to everyone, especially those of us who make a living in the visual arts. Here's some good info from the Illustrators' Partnership:

Orphan Works - No Myth
Orphan Works Resource Page for Artists

You can also download copies of the House and Senate versions of the bill right from their homepage.

We need as many people as possible to take action on this. Please email or write to your representatives and senators asap to let them know you're opposed to this bill. You can find contact info for them here.

Old Habits Die Hard

I'm a little late to the party on this one (tons of people blogged about it when it first came out, which is why I've always had it in the back of my mind that I needed to read it when I got a chance) but you never know when a book or an article might hit you just right and give you some inspiration just when you need it. So I'm going to go ahead and tell you about Twyla Tharp's book The Creative Habit: Learn It and Use It for Life and hopefully someone else will find it as helpful as I have.

Here's one of my favorite parts of the whole book. She writes this under the heading of How to Be Lucky:

"Be generous. I don't use that word lightly. Generosity is luck going in the opposite direction, away from you. If you're generous to someone, if you do something to help him out, you are in effect making him lucky. This is important. It's like inviting yourself into a community of good fortune."

Now, of course we all try to help people whenever and wherever possible. But to frame it in this way, by pointing out that generosity is really luck going in the opposite direction, somehow puts it in a new light. There's a lot of power in the realization that you can positively affect someone's situation, make them "lucky", just by being generous.

Tharp goes on to say that whenever she's "....working in a groove it's invariably because I feel I am being the benefactor in the situation rather than the beneficiary. I am sharing my art with others, lending my craft to theirs, interest-free with no IOU. I want the dancers to look great, so I try to give them great steps. In return, they live up to the potential I see in them. Then I am the one who feels lucky. In the luck equation, who is the winner here?"

Isn't that a great way to put it? I checked this book from the library but I'm definitely going to get my own copy because a) it's the kind of book that you could pick up at any time just for a mini-dose of inspiration and b) there are a lot of good creative exercises that don't necessarily need to be done all at once. Again, you could pick it up and do one of the exercises when you need to shake things up a bit.

Home is Where You Hang Your Hat

I was very excited to see these Knife Wall Hooks because they go nicely with my Voodoo Knife Block. They're a little pricey (they are a limited edition after all) so I started searching around to see if anyone else was making something similar. This led me to the Stuck On You hook which looks like a saucepan sticking out of the wall:
I also found these arrow hooks and hand hooks :

And then, I found Lightbulb hooks! Made from concrete! I just love these. In fact, I'd like a bunch of them (minus the lag bolt of course) to display in a bowl as a centerpiece. Beautiful!

Internet Don't Fail Me Now

I've been surfing around looking for inspiration lately so I thought I'd share some fun things I've run across:

Book By Its Cover - amazing peek into the sketchbooks of some artists and illustrators you might recognize including Ashley G, Takashi Iwasaki, and Meg Hunt
via five and a half

TED talk by Paola Antonelli: Treating design as art

You can never go wrong with Dru Struzan's work, check out these drawings

Nice little interview with Lisa of U Handbag. Lisa's blog is chock full of inspiration and will make you stop whatever you're doing and go sew a bag

What's inspiring you lately? I'd love to hear about it!

Misty Watercolored Memories....

My Mom is testing out her new camera and sent this photo of my brother. I can't even tell you how many photos he has "enhanced" over the years by adding a little something special.....a middle finger, a buttcrack, a nosepick. Let's just say a lot. Maybe even enough for a blog dedicated just to him. (hmmmm, that gives me an idea!) This photo makes me homesick....I teared up a bit. I miss the nosepicking. sniff sniff

Moo-Moo-Ka-Choo

Get it? Instead of Koo-koo-ka-choo? I crack myself up sometimes.

February 4th was my lucky day last month because I won the Moo giveaway from Illustration Friday! I was delighted to learn that I won a free pack of MiniCards, Stickers and Postcards. My dilemma now is to figure out what is Moo-worthy enough to put on them. I'll post photos of the finished products as soon as I make a decision and get them back.

Here's the Moo Flickr group if you'd like to see what others are doing with these adorable little cards and stickers.

Many thanks to Illustration Friday and the Moo team!

Super Easy Photo Contact Print Tutorial

I just posted a great contact print tutorial over at Craft Tutorials. I love this project because it's fast, easy, and not messy at all. It's a fun way to give your photos a hand-printed, artistic look. The print above is one of my favorites....it's from an old photo of my Grandmother and her sisters. I printed it on tan BFK Rives printmaking paper, which is my paper-crush-of-the-moment. The paper looks better in person than in this photo and the tan really goes well with the vintage photo.
I'd love to see the results if anyone experiments with this technique! You can post photos to the Craft Tutorials Group on Flickr.

Pop-Up Books Light Up My Life

I love, Love, LOVED pop-up books when I was a kid so of course I couldn't let this one pass by without comment. It's a book with a lamp in it! This linen bound book by Takeshi Ishiguro hides a pop-up paper lamp sporting LEDs which are powered by a low voltage adapter. So clever! There's also a Parisian Streetlamp version you might want to check out.

via Uncrate

Hey, We've Been Buzzed!

We're number 4 on the BuzzFeed list for Scrabble Fashion! woohoo! Thanks to whomever submitted us!

Reveal Your Inner Pirate

No time to don your full-blown pirate regalia? Need a glimpse of your inner pirate to set your swagger for the day? Look no further then this awesome pirate mirror from designers Choe and Tomlinson. But wait, it gets even better.....they have a skull mirror! You can also pick from antlers, a mustache, pearls, and a songbird. Who needs a songbird when you can have a skull!

via Uncrate.

The Ultimate Linoleum Block Printing Press

I've heard of people using their cars in lieu of a printing press (sandwich the plate and the paper between two pieces of wood and drive over it) but using a "road roller" is taking it to the next level! This video on YouTube shows some folks in Brighton, England using a small steamroller to make a very large linoleum print. It was apparently a publicity stunt for an arts and entertainment event, the Brighton Festival. This avant-garde printmaking session can also be seen in photos from Fred Pipes on Flickr. Absolutely brilliant! I wonder if any of my printmaking cohorts have access to a steamroller?