fidzu : Crafts

That's right! The crew from i3Detroit has been working hard all week to get their Twinkie car ready for Maker Faire. If you're lucky, you might be able to grab catch one as you're walking around!

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31 Jul 2010 4:30pm GMT

As you can see in this picture, it's a little drizzly out, but the gates opened to a line of folks waiting to get in to Maker Faire Detroit this morning, including our local TV crew. Let the good times begin!

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31 Jul 2010 3:30pm GMT

To get things started for Maker Faire Detroit, we gathered in Shed 3 at Eastern Market for an impromptu conference, calling all makers, crafters, thinkers, etc. From learning what business opportunities there are for the up-and-coming maker, to an all-local lunch from Detroit Evolution and meeting Lee Zlotoff, the creator of "MacGyver," (!!!!!!!), it was a great group of folks passionate about making it in Detroit and putting creative folks front and center. If you missed the lineup, check out our great group of speakers. Inspiring stuff!

Check out more photos here.

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31 Jul 2010 2:56am GMT

Our very own Brookelynn was waaaaayyy more relaxed then I was when she met a cockroach from one of the Detroit Maker Faire exhibitors at Can Do Camp. I stayed on the protective side of my camera just to be safe. We crafters are pretty gutsy (well, Brookelynn is!).

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31 Jul 2010 2:50am GMT

Lately I've been hanging out with a friend who is really into crop circles. So today I was thinking about crop circles, and then my mind went back to crafts, and then back to crop circles ... And I made a delightful discovery - this sweet crop circle quilt, made by Jaime Kuli McIntosh (Georgetown, KY) of Twisted Textiles. She documents her process on Craftster. I love the quilt squares in various shades of gray. This is not the bed covering of choice for those in fear of alien encounters. Who knows what that pattern communicates?

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31 Jul 2010 1:00am GMT

Susan Beal of West Coast Crafty brings us more of her excellent crafty finds in this month's Bazaar on Photography. I love how she made a Qoop calendar with beautiful photos of her daughter Pearl.

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31 Jul 2010 12:00am GMT

Feel like putting your crafty thinking cap on? Join us on the DIY Stage, located in the Automotive Hall of Fame, this weekend at Maker Faire Detroit. We'll have presentations every half hour.

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30 Jul 2010 11:00pm GMT

Jonathan Johns, a coworker of ours over at O'Reilly Media and a frequent volunteer at Maker events, sent us a great little maker story that we think everyone will enjoy.

My son, Christian, and his two roommates were on spring break in Arizona. As they were climbing up and around the hills, Christian's cargo shorts tore out at the knee, and at the pockets. They all proceeded to put their heads together and decided to fix them up.

Using a multi-tool and some Agave, they stitched up the shorts and pocket, and solved the problem. This may or may not be Makezine's cup of tea, but in my circle of friends, it was pretty exciting to see 19- and 20-year-olds having a MacGyver moment.

Thanks, for sharing the story, Jon. It's great to hear about inspiration when faced with adversity of any kind, at any age!

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30 Jul 2010 11:00pm GMT

Congratulations to Summer of London, Ontario, Gloria of Norwalk, Calif., and Kristin of Ames, Iowa, who each won a copy of The Art of Preserving. Enjoy the book and let us know your favorite recipes!

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30 Jul 2010 10:00pm GMT

Vickie Howell knows knitting. Check out the complete Knitting 101: Basic Stitches tutorial, including a special six-part introduction to knitting in this week's CRAFT Video. In the video above, learn the basic knit and purl stitches in the Continental style of knitting.

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, download the first m4v video directly, or watch the playlist on YouTube.

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30 Jul 2010 8:00pm GMT

Yesterday the Maker Faire hosted the Can Do Camp at the Eastern Market in Detroit. The day was filled with amazing discussions about the future of creative innovation and enterprise. Young entrepreneurs connected with veterans of business, and many amazing ideas were sparked. Yet it wasn't all business chatter, thanks to lunch and flowers from Detroit Evolution.

More than just a catering company, Detroit Evolution is a movement encompassing sustainable agriculture, education, and even yoga and bodywork. They created a vegan feast made with locally produced food, and my instantly fell in love with their amazing menu signs.

Created by the talented Jessica Reid, the frames of each menu were a stunning collage of scavenged materials that included wasps nests, bark, turkey tail mushrooms, and even metal bits from the abandoned Packard plant. I love that she incorporated tiny bits of litter like bottle caps and can tabs in with all the natural textures. She did a beautiful job turning information into art.

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30 Jul 2010 7:00pm GMT

Wrapping up this month's Design Studio tour we have the independently minded design company, Volume Inc., comprised of Adam Brodsley and Eric Heiman. Eric and Adam met while teaching at San Francisco's California College of the Arts. They founded Volume "at the dawn of the new millennium" and the rest is history. Living history, that is ...

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30 Jul 2010 6:00pm GMT

Cool, now I know what to do with all my dust-gathering knee x-rays! This anatomically awesome lampshade was designed by Sture Pallarp. [via Street Anatomy]

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30 Jul 2010 5:00pm GMT

Cross-Stitch Ninja created this cross-stitch piece based on one of the most famous quotes from Mythbuster, Adam Savage. She's even posted the pattern for it, so you can make one for yourself!

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30 Jul 2010 4:00pm GMT

Congrats to Emily from North Carolina, Leslie from Columbus, OH and Stephanie from Ontario, Canada for each winning a copy of The Sewing Answer Book by Barbara Weiland Talbert from our recent giveaway. Thanks to all who entered. More giveaways are coming soon!

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30 Jul 2010 3:30pm GMT

Matthew Borgatti makes these laser-cut t-rex skull cufflinks, perfect for that fancy-pants paleontologist in your life.

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30 Jul 2010 3:00pm GMT

Jenny Hart points us to the embroidered work of artist Peter Crawley. I love the crisp, stark quality of the stitched illustrations, and think Jenny sums it up well on her blog, Embroidery as Art:

Worked almost exclusively in black thread on paper, the precision and line work that could be mistaken for pen and ink is sweetly betrayed by the soft burs and errant fibers.

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30 Jul 2010 2:00pm GMT

Andrew loves this scarf. It's too long, but he wears it anyway, which is a testament to just how much he loves it. For a long time (omg, it's been *years*) I've been saying, "I can make it shorter." But now that I can knit, I thought I'd actually tackle this project.

It was super easy to unravel the woven-in ends, undo the knot between colors, and take out a row to shorten the end.

There's more! Read the full post -->

29 Jul 2010 1:36pm GMT

Michigan machinist GarE Maxton makes many different interlocking solid puzzles of this type, but this one, which he calls The Intimidator, is his masterpiece. Starting the disassembly process requires a special key. Once diassembled, about 20 of the pieces can be recombined to make a functioning single-shot pistol. Other parts of the puzzle separately and securely store "a customized set of tools, all necessary hardware, 45 caliber bullets, a standard sight, a laser sight, a cannister containing black powder pellets, a secure storage area for 209 shotgun primers, a spent primer removal tool and a ramrod for loading the bullets."

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28 Jul 2010 10:00pm GMT

By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics

Here's a challenge: Make something cool from binder clips.

It will be tough to beat this spherical construction by Yang Enqi. Using one handle, five clips of one color are linked cyclically into a pentagon. Using the other handle, twelve of these pentagons assemble like a dodecahedron to make the sphere. The above image is centered on a 3-fold joint, where three pentagons meet using one of the handles. The image below is centered on one of the pentagons, made from the other handle. Every clip has one handle in each of these two arrangements.

Notice that just six colors are used for the twelve pentagons, with opposite pentagons having the same color.

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26 Jul 2010 8:00pm GMT

I've written about my sweet bear, Neville, before. It's weird to realize he's almost 12 years old. A couple months ago I pulled him by the arm and heard a seam pop. I thought it was his arm socket, but it was his arm seam. Thank goodness, because that's easy to fix.

This is how I sleep with Neville. I think this is called a sleeper hold. I know he looks like he's trying to escape, but he loves it.

Some quick work with a needle and thread fixed him right up. Seeing how thick this faux fur fabric is amazes me once again that a sewing machine could handle it.

See? Good as new.

26 Jul 2010 1:18pm GMT

This beautiful Starling Handbag was made by karin @ made by k. If you follow that link you'll find a twin of the bag with a cross-body strap, which was made seamlessly and looks AWESOME.

Kelly posted this cute black Starling Handbag in her Ravelry account. I can't wait to see the fabric she picked to line it. :)

I found this octopus, named Sybolt, posted on Cut Out + Keep. I love the button eyes with the X and O stitching in the button holes.

24 Jul 2010 8:09pm GMT

On Wednesday we had our regular 3rd Wednesday of the month get together at Yerba Buena Park. We could only take about 30 minutes in the freezing cold wind before we all trekked over to Grove. What a great coffee shop!

Clockwise around the table: Alice (me), Steve, Rita, Mo, Kelly, and Ann, Bethany. (My apologies to Bethany for taking a blurry photo when it was my turn and then photoshopping blurry-her onto the awesome photo she took of the rest of us.)

I am so happy that we've found somewhere indoors as an alternative when the weather isn't great for being outside. And it's only a block away from the park, so it's super convenient ... and big ... and inviting.

Rita, Steve, and Ann were at last month's meeting, so they are totally OG now. Bethany and I are IRL friends from WAY back. I've hung out with Kelly, who knits amazing lace, a couple times at Craft Bar. And Mo just showed up out of the blue with a beautiful crocheted blanket to work on and made my night by saying he knew about the meet up because he reads my blog.

I*love* hanging out with people who are making stuff. I love our conversations about crochet hooks, ways to avoid wrist pain, projects we're hoping to work on, and general maker-nerd stuff. And this time, we had several quiet moments where we were all immersed in our projects. So cool.

So, if you're in area and think you might want to come MARK YOUR CALENDAR because the next one will be Wednesday, August 18th at 5:30. And, now that we have a place to move if the weather isn't good, I can see this going year round every 3rd Wednesday from now on. No. Matter. What.

Everyone is welcome! Especially you. I mean it. All of us are so nice. And if you don't already know how to knit or crochet and you want to learn, we'd be happy to teach you. Seriously.

23 Jul 2010 4:10am GMT

MAKE pal Andrew Lewis, who's part of the Upcraft.it team, created this Arduino powered, servomotor actuated sewing machine:

The servos are attached to an Arduino that is programmed to operate in one of three modes:

1) Basic Zigzag - This duplicates the functionality of the original zigzag machine.

2) Pattern Mode - Choose from one of 10 preset patterns stored in the Arduino's memory.

3) Full CNC - Connects directly to a computer via USB, and accepts custom pattern instructions from the machine. In this mode the machine can control fabric and needle direction, so with some clever thinking I should be able to program it to do letters and numbers.

It's still a work in progress and Andrew promises more updates as he develops the idea further.

Update:
Andrew posted this video on the YouTubes, showing the machine in action and the CNC add-ons.

CNC Sewing Machine

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22 Jul 2010 5:00am GMT

Episode 5 covers handles of the Starling Handbag.

Here are all of the Starling Crochet-A-Long videos.

Here is the foundation single crochet bridge tutorial.

This is the last video! Big thanks to karin @ madebyk for telling me about the video software (Movie Maker. Free!) that I used to edit together and add titles and music to this video. See what I mean about the sparkles in my theme song?

I also learned how to better make videos now that I can edit parts together and add transitions between bits so you can see fsc 1,2,3 (nice fade) 23,24, 25. The actual recording time for this one was MUCH shorter. The software was super easy to use and made putting the whole thing together so fast.

Now I just need a camera that doesn't make me sound like I lisp. :)

21 Jul 2010 1:55pm GMT

Inspired by 19th Century Standhopes, Bristol artist Luke Jerram (of "Play me, I'm yours" fame) designed this elegant and inspired portrait projecting ring for is wife Shelina Nanji as a wedding ring. Working together with jeweler Tamrakar, Jerram created a ring that, in a darkened room, with a light source behind it, will project a series of portraits from a selection of miniature slides. [via DVICE]

More:

• Binary wedding ring
• Universe ring
• Vicodin Ring
• Gear ring is shiny, spins
• HOW TO - Make a Green Lantern ring
• Bento Box Ring

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21 Jul 2010 12:00pm GMT

Hannah Perner-Wilson and her colleagues in the High-Low Tech group at MIT have been experimenting with circuit board etching of copper fabric using only salt and vinegar! Vaseline is used as the resist.

More:

Craft Meets Tech at MIT

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20 Jul 2010 8:30pm GMT

For those of you who consider coding and design a craft project ...

I had some fun changing my comments last night. There were a couple things I'd been meaning to do for a long time to make the comments easier for me to use and for all of us to read.

HERE IS WHAT THE COMMENTS USED TO LOOK LIKE:

I'd differentiated my comments from reader comments and I'd threaded my replies (put them after the comment to which I'd replied). But over all, I feel like this text is all a jumble and hard to read or quickly scan or quickly understand.

HERE IS THE NEW COMMENT STYLING:

(1) First big change is the outline around each comment. I feel like these are the "talking bubbles" of my comment conversation. So much better than the blocks of text in the before image.

(2) My whole comment is in a purple box. I'm taking a que from iHanna and her pink comment box.

(3) My reply comments say "futuregirl replied ... " Whew! That's been bugging me for a LONG time.

(4) I took the date out of the box and put it below on the right. I like having the date for context, but it's not an integral part of the conversation. The old way, where it was on a line between the name and comment text just cluttered everything up.

(5) A change you can't see, but is super helpful for me: When I'm logged in, each comment has a "reply" link that allows me to leave a threaded reply comment. Now, when I click the link, I automatically add the beginning reply text "YourCommentName ..." in the comment box. A little change, but a big help since I kept clicking the links to your blogs when I'd try to copy and paste your name.

And that's how I spent my craft time last night. I went to bed wishing I had more time to code for myself. :)

20 Jul 2010 8:29pm GMT

I love to modify and enhance packaging to reuse it. I haven't shared many of my construction mods here, but trust me, I'm a whiz with thin cardboard, invisible tape, and binder clips. But the absolute best is when you can reuse packaging without any mods at all.

These bulk salad containers are one of those things. They are boxy, spacious, see-through, and stackable. Perfect for stash storage!

I keep things that I access a lot, like crafting tools, in more sturdy boxes (the ones on the left with the clamp-on lids), but for yarn I'm hoarding, these salad boxes (on the right) are great.

They are also good for holding the supplies I'm using for a project. I recently worked on a super-colorful project that involved lots of skiens of yarn. I tucked them all in one box. It made it easy to move around the apartment with me AND kept all the yarn tangle-free.

I'm also thinking of using the boxes for my WIPs instead of the gallon ziplocs I used to use. The ziplocs just become a dog pile of "why aren't you working on me." Maybe the salad boxes will seem more like a smorgasbord of orderly crafting choices.

20 Jul 2010 12:14am GMT

Really great Tron socks! Chris Wass designed a chart to use in the knitting pattern, too.

Originally designed to be a gift for my big brother, whose TRON fandom and enthusiasm over the release of a second movie inspired the sock design. The pattern is written for toe-up socks, with instructions for the Turkish cast-on and two-at-a-time magic loop after the chart pages. Working the foot of the sock is quick, solid knit work with a few contrast stripes. The excitement comes in with the fair-isle stranded color work around the ankle. To get a mirrored pair with a wrap-around design, you'll need to be able to read the cart both forwards and backwards.

[via CRAFT]

More:

• Get ready for the Tron-ifying of everything
• Stop motion Tron sequence
• Daft Punk/Tron costume
• Homeade TRON Arcade joysticks
• Printing press gets Tron-ified
• TRON-style glow lamp

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19 Jul 2010 4:09pm GMT

After a long wait, Makers Market seller John Young of West Chester, PA (aka Tikaro) finally has his coveted QR-code "p8tches" back in stock, and with several fancy new designs. Besides the velcro-backed patch itself, each p8tch comes with a unique user ID and password that lets you redirect its hard-coded URL to any personal URL you want, whenever you want, as many times as you want.

More:
In the Makers Market: "P8tch" redirectable QR code patch

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18 Jul 2010 3:00am GMT

Aubrey made this beautiful, monogrammed bag.

The lining is quilted. Imagine how much work *that* was.

I love the little peek of pink stitching on the dark lining fabric. And I had to include a close up of that slip stitched B. Gorgeous work!

Terhi from Finland made this Starling Handbag. I'm a big fan of simple horizontal stripes. I also own that great IKEA fabric she has in the background. Small world!

You can read the sweet story about this handbag on Unschcool Plus. Aren't those felt flowers gorgeous on the handspun yarn? It looks like a soft, luxurious handbag.

17 Jul 2010 8:04pm GMT

Craft in Public! Wednesday, July 21st at 5:30 until about 8:30 or so in Yerba Buena Gardens nearish the waterfall. Everyone welcome!

17 Jul 2010 12:31am GMT

Our own Becky Stern makes these beautiful drawstring pouches in three different sizes. They feature custom-designed knit patterns inside and out, with an extra layer of padding to protect your valuables. Good for your LARPing inventory, precious amulet, digital camera, or phone. Becky makes these to order, and will gladly produce any size/pattern/color combination from among those displayed in her shop.

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15 Jul 2010 5:30pm GMT

After letting the sweater sit for months, I got the urge to try and fix the armhole and neck line situation.

In this "before" photo you might notice that the front and back are just two big rectangles sewn together at the sides. That means the arm holes are just slits ... which leads to your armpits getting stuffed with knitted fabric. I decided to fix this.

The arrows show you where I did some armhole shaping. Well, "shaping" might be too fancy a description ... I just bound off 7 stitches on each edge. It looks like there's a nice slope, though, doesn't it? That's what I love about knitting (so far): you can be a little lazy and no one will be the wiser. :)

Oh, no. I just noticed in the photo that I forgot to drop the stitches when I bound off the straps. It's funny how often I discover my crafting mistakes in my blog post photos.

Here you can see the back. I've got about 20 more rows to do before it's finished.

It was a little tricky getting the sweater back on the needles even though I'd already dropped some of the stitches. What I did was fix the runs with a crochet hook up for about 10 stitches. Then I wove my knitting needle under a row of stitches (as described in the Stitch & Bitch book), and then frogged the top down to my needle.

Since I fixed the runs (as opposed to just ignoring them), I can re-drop the stitch at the neckline and it will run down to where I picked the stitch back up.

Once I get everything looking good up top, I'm going to try to fix the *bigness* of the midsection. You guys gave me a bunch of great ideas. I think I can make this "wearable" eventually!

15 Jul 2010 1:28pm GMT

Episode 4 covers side rows of the Starling Handbag.

Here are all of the Starling Crochet-A-Long videos.

OK, I've got to get on the ball this weekend and record AT LEAST the next one ... but hopefully I get them all finished up. There can't be that many more that needs to be done ... starting the handles, crocheting the handles, and finishing the handles are the only steps left. Think I can fit that into 5-6 minutes?

14 Jul 2010 1:55pm GMT

Designer Siren Elise Wilhelmsen built this 365 clock that tells time by knitting a scarf very slowly. In this case, it knits one round of the scarf every 24 hours, creating a new clothing item for you every year. It reminds me of just-in-time manufacturing techniques- wouldn't it be cool to have a set of them, one that builds you a new piece of clothing for each season, that finishes just as you need it? [via Dude Craft]

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13 Jul 2010 6:00pm GMT

"Pneu" by Belgian artist Wim Delvoye is a series of carved car tires. I love the detail and the contrast between the artistry and the original function of the object. [via Cool Hunting]

More:

• Wim Delvoye's steel art
• Mini Cloaca - Desktop digester
• Cold Cut Marble Floor

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13 Jul 2010 4:13pm GMT

Magda Sayeg of KnittaPlease created this Smart car's crochet cover as part of Il Lusso Essenziale, a Roman arts festival. [via CRAFT]

More:

Gas-station cozy!

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12 Jul 2010 7:06pm GMT

Rachel @ CRAFT spotted this laser cut steel table cover by Imogen Luddy, inspired by a piece of 16th century Italian lace.

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12 Jul 2010 4:00pm GMT

Shawn @ CRAFT posted up this knitted meat by Stephanie Casper, yum!

More:

How-To: Make a plush "irradiated sirloin"

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09 Jul 2010 4:00pm GMT

...and had forgotten about it until I saw this post from Mayor Todd Franklin.

Well, OK, "I" made it in the sense that I watched my mother make it and (I think) she let me poke some of the holes with a fork. But of course she gave me all the credit. A great memory, for both of us, that would have been lost if not for the magic of the internet. The Sith Lord's original recipe appears in 1979's Darth Vader Activity Book. [via Boing! Moreover, Boing!]

More:

• Death Star watermelon
• Come to the charred side of The Force
• I left my Death Star in San Francisco
• Death Star subwoofer (photos)

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08 Jul 2010 5:00pm GMT

It's Design & Photography month over on CRAFT, Where Andrew Lewis has a guide to running fabric through your inkjet printer:

Sometimes I have a great idea for a textile project, but I get put off by the thought of trawling through the seemingly endless bolts of fabric at the store. Then I think about the hassle of haggling over the price and ending up with three times as much fabric as I actually needed.

I decided to try printing my own fabric on an inkjet printer, and the results really exceeded my expectations. The advantages to this technique are tremendous, and I don't have to haggle over prices any more.

I get my own designs, in the quantity I need, at a fraction of the price I would normally pay. The only drawback is that people keep asking me to print something special for them, too!

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08 Jul 2010 4:00pm GMT

Episode 3 covers the bottom row3 and beyond of the Starling Handbag. Be thankful I hadn't lined up any jokes for this one. ;)

Here are all of the Starling Crochet-A-Long videos.

07 Jul 2010 5:11am GMT

Jennifer was one of the original pattern testers for the Starling Handbag and since then, she's made a slew of cute, creative bags ... and this isn't even all of them. Wow! You are the best, Jennifer!

Love the tree! from flickr

With needle felted details. on her blog

This was supposed to be a present, but she kept it for herself. on her blog

I love the beaded detail in the plaid pattern. on her blog

I love the front detail and the lining. So cute! on her blog

03 Jul 2010 6:09pm GMT

Episode 2 covers the bottom row 2 of the Starling Handbag.

Here are all of the Starling Crochet-A-Long videos. Ta da!

30 Jun 2010 1:22pm GMT

I bought some SUPER fancy (read: expensive) cotton yarn to knit Andrew a scarf. I made all sorts of fancy swatches for him to choose from (no photos), but he always came back to stockinette as his favorite.

Hey, I just noticed that there's an alpaca on the cotton yarn tag! I thought that was a photo of out-of focus cotton plants. Ha! Hello, cute sneaky alpaca! No wonder this yarn is so very soft ... since it's made by people used to the softness of alpaca.

Well, as knitters probably know, stockinette rolls on the edges and there isn't a damn thing you can do about it. Well, *I* didn't know that. But after discovering that my stockinette was rolling, I did a whole bunch of google searches hunting for a solution.

Most often people suggested that you add a border of garter or seed stitch around the stockinette. I think that's kind of ugly (and Andrew agreed). One person suggested double knitting, which intrigued me.

When you double knit with two sticks, you cast on double the stitches you want for the width (an even number). Then you [knit, slip purlwise] across. Turn and [knit, slip purlwise] across. Repeat repeat repeat. What you're doing is knitting the front on one side and the back on the other. What you end up with is a tube that's closed on one end!

There's more! Read the full post -->

29 Jun 2010 1:16pm GMT

If you can make it, join me and several hundred of my closest friends at Craft Bar this Thursday. The featured project is cute little needle felted animals. I'll be teaching crochet again. Yay!

28 Jun 2010 1:47pm GMT