moodshine

shoes

2009-02-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

I know this is a very random post, but i can't help but notice all the crazy customised shoes i've been collecting on weheartit.

Here's a selection of highlights.

rush hour shoe
from javirroyo

Scary invasion shoe
by jethro haynes

Meat shoe
nor sure of origin of this one, but comes via designyoutrust.com

Lovely grass shoes, so you always have grass under your bare feet
nice work from mischief pr

10 points for anyone who can find some more. :)

this man spawned many a designer, i'm sure :)

2009-01-19T00:18:00.000-08:00

technical textiles

2009-01-14T07:08:00.000-08:00

As both a knitter and a web / interactive stuff designer, i'm fascinated by the space between interaction design and craft.

Leah Buechley invented the lillypad (a kind squidgy version of the arduino), and in the talk below speaks about getting knitters and grannies and the like involved in innovation and interaction design.

Design Futures: Leah Buechley (MIT Media Lab) - New Craft - A Marriage of High and Low Tech from Elizabeth Goodman on Vimeo.

We are not quite at the point of getting my gran writing processing just yet, Leah admits, but i genuinely love the idea of technology as an extension of craft. Also a common theme of the work she shows seems to be exposing the circuit and making it part of the asthetic, see this flickr set on the paper circuit, or have a look at the things people are making with conductive embroidery.

Conductive embroidery from make magazine

Interactive paper

what colour is christmas?

2008-12-09T10:41:00.000-08:00

its not all about red and green you know...

See christmas by colour for a more imaginative palette.

grids are good for you

2008-12-09T01:30:00.000-08:00

"The grid system is an aid, not a guarantee.
It permits a number of possible uses and each
designer can look for a solution appropriate to his
personal style. But one must learn how to use the
grid; it is an art that requires practice.”
Josef Müller-Brockmann

Squares

2008-12-05T02:57:00.000-08:00

My Auntie Rose died this morning. Overall, it's very sad, but she was 90 years old (a great aunt, you see), which is a good innings in anyone's book.

Rose was a prolific knitter, and knitted literally hundreds and hundreds of squares, making blankets for lots of different charities... the kind of productivity some of us could only dream of.

Ahh. The humble knitted square. As fancy or as straight up and down as you like. A long bit of string in a great big knot - but don't be fooled, a knitted square might change the world:

Clean water

Back in 2007 iKnit London created a knitted river over 2000 ft long to raise awareness of of Water aid international. See all the photos here Can you see my square? It's in there somewhere...

Curing Cancer

Stitch and Bitch London created a 52ft scarf for London's Lions in Trafalgar Square, raising money for Cancer research.

So where does this leave me? It leaves me knitting some humble little squares, trying to change the world with bits of string.

Big knitting

2008-10-27T01:25:00.000-07:00

I'm now the proud owner of a pair of huge knitting needles, from wool 'n' boats
I'm completely in love with them. They come up to my shoulders and lead to several interesting conversations with strangers at the bar and bus stop last night.

My first giant knitting attempt at fabrications produced this

Its a kind of collar / wrap thingy. Ok, not sure when or where exactly I (or anyone else for that matter) would wear such a thing, but knitting with strips of fabric (in this case lace) is an absolute revelation to me.

As is casting on this way

Rather than this way

This is the sort of thing that is very exciting for my inner knitting geek.

For some big knitting inspiration, check out:
Sebastian Schönheit's massive knitted rope fabric

door to door darning

2008-10-06T00:52:00.000-07:00

Do your socks look like this?

If so, you might like to go and see Michael Swaine, who is going door to door fixing peoples clothes and talking to them about sewing. Most of us could make things last a little longer and throw away a little less if we bothered to learn the basics. In this clip Swaine explains that the project has just as much to do with the community as the clothes:

Find out more about Door to Door darning in London here and here

Patterns and Pots

2008-10-01T05:17:00.000-07:00

I was nosing about in a dress shop full of clothes I can't afford on Sunday, when I saw these little pots of blusher from Paul and Joe.

Aren't they lovely? I'm not even really into makeup, but i love the colours and the quirkyness of the squirrel pattern. Alas - I was not able to resist.

Just goes to show, a little bit of good design can go a long way.

snap, ping and all that jazz

2008-09-29T06:47:00.000-07:00

I went here this weekend:

We got inky, wrote off t-shirts and made about 8 prints each from scratch. In short, it was loads of fun! our teacher was ace, and took us through everything step by step. At £35 including nice paper, inks and helpful advice I reckon it was a bargain.

Printclub is attended by some pretty great artist too, check out some of the lovely hand printed posters in the shop

ThisHappened again

2008-09-22T04:34:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note about the exciting things people spoke about at This Happened on Friday night.

This time around we were tucked away in the corner of the Tim Walker exhibition - (photos of multicoloured kittens and this really cool giant glove) at the Design Museum, which was good because we could see and hear everything.

Yuri Suzuki spoke about scalextric style record player, from his latest project "physical value of sound". A little car with a needle on the underside followed a track made from recycled vinyl cut at 45 degree angles.

He combined the elements of two toys to create something that had a great tactile and playful quality. Would be great to see this taken further, with one car on vocals, one on drums etc. I think it would be great in-store in a trendy record shop or something. I liked the fact that he showed the last minute breakthroughs and the fact that they finally got it working about 4 days before the show!

Dominic Harris from Cinimod Studio spoke about making a UFO that flew over the Polish city of Gdansk.

Essentially a giant plate shaped thing dangling from a terrifyingly vintage helicopter covered in LED's, the Gdansk UFO is a surreal and wondrous thing. To me it looks pretty magical. Apparently YouTubers agree, as many seem to think its a hoax!

lomoloco

2008-09-01T06:15:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the photos we took on our Lomo adventure along the south bank last week, when the experience team at Harvest went out for a wonder. The idea was to take some arty shots, but actually....

...I like these 'shoot from the hip' ones from the pub best.
Hmmm. Have i been bitten by the Lomo bug? Probably!

more covers

2008-08-26T05:49:00.000-07:00

More book covers, this time of the vintage variety.
Its pretty much acejet170's fault that I developed a sudden penchant for old Penguins. I love looking at how different designers introduced new rules to create families of books over the decades. Many of them feel so contemporary... a good 50 years after they were published.

Left: Birds of the Sea by R.M. Lockley, published 1945, Cover Designed by Enid Marx, who it turns out was a textile designer, illustrator and expert in wood block printing.

Right: Flowers of the Woods by E.J. Salisbury published 1946, Cover Designed by Rosmary and Clifford Ellis, who did these lovely posters for London Underground in the 1930's.

Left: Poisonous Fingi by John Ramsbottom, Published 1945, Cover designed by Joy Jarvis. I would love to find out more about this designer, but so far have come up empty handed..

Right: Penguin Modern Stories 3, Published 1969, Cover designed by David Pelham. read more about Pelham's history with Penguin on the CR blog

More to follow one day...

Fabulous females

2008-08-19T06:03:00.000-07:00

Just steped into foyles and had to use all my will power to stop myself buying all of these

Modern classics, written by women with covers by female textile designers. They look ace.

did you know people did this?

2008-08-13T03:15:00.000-07:00

no, nor did I.

People get quite into it, it seems.
http://www.flickr.com/groups/latteart/

Photo from taqueloq's photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/taqueloq/

Felt Politics

2008-07-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

This guy is one of the candidates in the Behemoth-On-Sea By-Elections over on Felt Mistress.

Looks trustworthy, don't you think?

hidden gems

2008-07-16T01:23:00.000-07:00

As you can tell by my former todonnalovebob obsession, I love a good mystery.
Without sounding too worky, some of the best interaction experiences you can create involve a little bit of.... magic...

Here's a couple of examples of when the mystery and the hunt are all part of the fun:

geocaching looks dull, but in fact its a means of making people explore, and showing them new and interesting things, by means of a GPS enabled treasure hunt. This results in lots of outward bound fun

book crossing is a great big book club. The only snag is, before you can read it, you've got to find it. Books are deposited in different hiding places around the world, so that folks can find them, read them, and then hide them away again.

cakes and gardens

2008-06-20T05:30:00.000-07:00

On monday 30th of june, Harvest Digital will be holding its first ever bake sale.
As we've just moved in round the corner, we thought it would be nice to raise money for the Phoenix Garden.
Its a good place with birds, bees and people in perfect harmony - and that hardly ever happens.

UPDATE:
It all went very well, and it turns out new media types are very good at baking!
All flickred to death here.

a nice thought

2008-06-12T04:04:00.000-07:00

This guy at Goldsmiths is making a musical instument which is controled with the power of your mind.

Ok, so its not making beautiful music just yet, but as the BBC news article points out, the aplications for gaming are obvious. There's also a great potential for people who can't use a mouse or keyboard for mobilty reasons.

Can't see that mind hat/swimming cap being a good look at a gig though. Redesign needed me thinks...

To Donna Love Bob

2008-06-10T02:33:00.001-07:00

Found this on a lamp post in Soho square this morning.
Plucked it off, and went to the url on the back, and entered the sharpie scrawled code.
I was then invited to post it back with my contact details, and they would be in touch soon.

Im not the only one, other people have found Bob around the Shoreditch area... were is this going? what does it mean?
And more interestingly, what about the way it looked made me take it off the lamp post (not something im in the habit of doing).
Perhaps i just wanted to know that next chapter in the story!

Update

I think i have just found our Ozzie -
http://spaceyideas.com/

Further Update

I've become obsessed with this. It's a mystery and i love it.
I think its also a mystery to Mr Robert Osband, the man in the picture.

http://spaceyideas.com/todonnalovebob/

"As to how my picture got plastered all over Britain, I've got no idea. I'm waiting to hear from the folks at ToDonnaLoveBob.org myself"

Cuteness Generator

2008-06-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

Lisa Smith has created the Cute generator. These blobular objects have (from what I can gather) RFID - chips inside that gather and collect information.
This information is the basis for their physical form, so each character is totally unique to it’s user.

What fascinates me about this gets to the core of what character design is all about. We identify abstract shapes readily - (a blob is an eye, a wiggle is a mouth ect) – because it is human nature to project ourselves onto other things. It makes a lot of sense to me that a character could be used as a form of expression of personal identity.

Check out the flikr set here.
Read more about the project here.

marzipan monsters

2008-05-21T02:55:00.000-07:00

I love these, they have absolutly made my day.

edable marzipan critters from the Eugene and Louise Bakery

images from Eugene and Louise.

good as new

2008-05-19T04:30:00.000-07:00

I went to see this film yesterday.
That, and the fact I’m moving house (again) has got me feeling quite Wombleish about the things that everyday folk leave behind. I mean, there’s just so much of it.

When you're faced with packing up all your stuff you really realise how much stuff you consume, collect and waste.

So I thought that Greetje van Helmond's sugar jewellery was pretty cool. Beautiful, temporary and sustainable – a bit of great design.

Image from Greetje van Helmond.

crafty music vidoes

2008-05-16T05:38:00.000-07:00

robots in disguise

musical critters

bit violent this one, but i like the little ratty

nom, nom, nom

2008-05-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

A foodie, bloggy, yummy event coming up.

nom, nom, nomis "Cook-a-thon for bloggers or like an interactive version of MasterChef".

happening this sunday at the Cookery School on Little Portland Street.

East Seventeen

2008-05-09T05:58:00.000-07:00

The E17 designers have a date set for their next market.
I like the poster.

Details:
FRIDAY 16th MAY
7-10PM
ASIAN CENTRE
18a Orford Road
Walthamstow Village
London
E17 9LN
FREE ENTRY

cans

2008-05-07T01:17:00.000-07:00

I'm a bit gutted that i managed to miss the cans festival this weekend - (i was on a boat hanging out with ducks) - but have a look under Waterloo, and see what you can see.
great flickr set here.

sticky stuff

2008-05-06T01:52:00.000-07:00

The weather's geting nice, and its started to make me think about crafting in the great outdoors and getting down with nature.
Heres a few twiggy crafts to get the thoughts flowing

Cute acorn pattern

a handy volume for knitting in the woods

Tree paintings by Samuel Francois

twiggums by cursivedesign allows you to make your own arrangement of sprogs.

finaly, something sweet and mad...
Sugart create tempory sugary forests.

hazardous. In a good way.

2008-03-27T02:44:00.000-07:00

I love these candle rings that I found on heli hietala.
Cant read a word of it obviously. But the work speaks for it’s self….

All images from heli hietala.

dead dog, new tricks

2008-03-19T05:59:00.000-07:00

these people like to knit with dog hair.
they are not alone.

the world of bento

2008-03-18T10:53:00.000-07:00

I dunno how I stumbled across these, but recently I’ve been delving into the world of Bento boxes.

Check out these blogs to see the great character designs that people are packing for lunch.

spluch

bentoblog

happy lunch box

oh and this photo steam

If you are inspired, you could get a few things to kick start your new hobby here.

Wear the city

2008-03-03T09:58:00.000-08:00

Seapeastudios, from California have made a series of necklaces featuring snippets of Hoxton, the Southbank, Kew… nice unusual pieces.

London werewolves

2008-02-28T01:15:00.000-08:00

Here's a slightly special post, a little email interview with Sophia Al Maria, who I stumbled across on Etsy.
Named after different London locations, her work looks at the human monsters in us all.
They are part repulsive, and for me at least, part endearing.

She kindly agreed to talk to me about her work, and here's what she said:

___________________________________________________

Hi Sophia, thanks for letting me chat to you about your work.
First off, you have a great array of characters in your store. Do you do a lot of people watching to get inspiration?

Accidental people watching. The fact of the matter is I do alot of waiting here in London. Mainly for the bus or in a que. It's in those weird limbo times that I usually glance around and 99% of the time there is something crazy going on or someone interesting milling about.

You mention in your description that your images reflect the villainous perception of the 'other' in London. Are your drawings about poking fun at stereotypes?

Definitely. Although over time it seems like the drawings are less and less like stereotypes and more and more like reality...which is scarier than any imagined lycanthrope could ever be.

I love the ghoulish, zombie-like look of your characters. Particularly 'New Cross'. Do you have any favourites from your collection?

Funny you should mention zombies...They are sort of an obsession of mine. I am truly, deeply terrified of masses of shambling, moaning dead people. Worst of all I believe in them. I live in fear like the rest of the world...only I'm not scared of Muslims or Werewolves, it's really zombies who do me in.
As for favourites, I think probably Waterloo who was the first werewolf I sold.

Finally, what illustrators / artists do you look to for inspiration?

James Jean, Aubrey Beardsley, Marjane Satrapi... Every night I wish on one of the werewolves red stars that I could draw like any one of them.

________________________________________

All images, curtosy of Sophia.

when crochet goes wrong

2008-02-24T15:12:00.000-08:00

This blog made me laugh.

busy bees

2008-02-21T05:23:00.000-08:00

When I went to a TinkerITworkshop, there was great emphasis on rapid prototyping - just stick all together with masking tape and worry about how it looks later.

Here’s the result of the opposite thinking. The honeycomb vase by Libertiny is the result of the craft work of 40 000 bees, who build the comb around a wire frame. They call the process 'slow prototyping'. The results vary, even though the bees use the same frame.

Amazing, inspiring stuff.

via

blinking cute

2008-02-15T02:20:00.000-08:00

LED's that like to hug.

made by cibomahto

via Make

imposter

2008-02-13T03:06:00.000-08:00

Here’s a suspect cacti we spotted the other day at the Chelsea Physic Garden.

Hmmm.. the ‘woolii’ eh?

Flocks

2008-02-12T02:17:00.000-08:00

Maybe I’m the only person in the world that hasn’t seen flocks.

It’s really must see. Beautiful, unique stuff - “knitwear in the broadest sense”.
Check out the knitted carpet. I want those neadles.

Link via the lovely Fiona.

the art of saying hello

2008-02-04T02:06:00.000-08:00

One thing I really ought to do for moodshine is sort out some nice cards. People don’t remember your url when you yell it in their ear in a noisy pub. There’s always the moo card route, cute enough, but this flikr set has given me a bit more inspiration.

back to school

2008-02-01T05:26:00.000-08:00

Getting to grips with this yarn business.
Photo from hobbledehoy-liz's photostream

One of the reasons for writing the blog is to give me a little extra motivation to get off my arse and do more (remember the new years resolution?).

I was quite susceptible, therefore, to the email from Liberties that popped in my inbox. Sewing school anyone?

The time might have finally come to learn to crochet.

pick of the day

2008-01-30T05:32:00.000-08:00

nice illustrations from London Etsy seller Mary Killvert

Sooper

2008-01-28T07:39:00.000-08:00

I’m totally in love with these rings from fellow Etsyer and Londoner soop.

Brilliant!

Good thing I discovered them on pay day…

staying up late

2008-01-27T10:33:00.000-08:00

As promised, on a quick note on the goings on at friday late at the V&A.

First, we got stuck in with some hands on type with Sara De Bont.
Little groups of grown ups happily sat on the floor with crayons and pritt stick, to make some crafty graphics.

Jons inky fingers did some printing

My 3DE

We also witnessed the Tea dance, but my fella did refuse to join in! The icing sugar floor was stunning, though.

Lastly, heres the result of the casting of fingers in chocolate... maybe too realistic to eat?

It's a sign

2008-01-24T07:49:00.000-08:00

This blog is intended to be quite London specific, (as a bit of an antidote to all the American Crafty blogs I read), and you can't get more iconic Londoness than this:

Nice use of street signs from Cockney Design.

A good day

2008-01-23T04:26:00.000-08:00

Well, I’ve made that elusive first sale on Etsy!
It took me about two weeks, to build up some favourites and slowly but surely build up a little stock.

Tomorrow, a pink monster will be winging its way to start an new life in Canada. Along with a couple I know live in Texas, that’ll be the furthest any of them have been from home.

Now all that remains is to ship him off, and hope he arrives safe, along with some good feedback.

News worthy craft

2008-01-22T01:47:00.000-08:00

An interesting article from the BBC website about Etsy in the news, and why people choose to buy hand made.

Carpets of icing sugar

2008-01-21T05:26:00.000-08:00

Friday late at the V&A is always worth a visit, but this Friday promises a carpet of icing sugar! I have to check that out. Plus the chance to have your finger cast in chocolate and get involved in a cake making workshop.

A very crafty Friday night out for free!

Not very rock and roll

2008-01-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

Its January, and let's face it, i'm skint.

This is what led to me spending my friday night in making these little rings. They're surprising time consuming, but i've fallen in love with these miniature fresh water peals from Buffys Beads (a constant temptation, being right next to my work!).

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are the results. Some will be up on Etsy, but some will just be on my fingers. :)

Thing a day

2008-01-18T01:39:00.000-08:00

If you’re any thing like me, then your new years resolution was to be more productive, and make more stuff.

A brave bunch of people have committed to make a thing a day throughout February. Lots of great writing, photographs and other crafty bits, that shows what you can achieve if you commit a small amount of time to fulfilling those creative urges.

Out of the Ordinary

2008-01-17T03:28:00.000-08:00

Before Christmas I went to see Out of the Ordinary at the V&A.
I can’t emphasise enough what and inspiring and invigorating exhibition it was, you really have to check it out.
For me, Susan Collis work was the highlight. Surprising, funny and full of charm.
It runs until Feb 17th, and there’s also a nice book available.

getting started

2008-01-16T04:32:00.000-08:00

Hello,

Check me. Im blogging!

I wanted to establish a place to talk about craft, cooking, self promotion and London life that might be of interest to other people like me, looking for a way to get their work out into the world.

Ive just set up my Etsy sore, and I want to share me triumphs and mistakes with other crafters.

www.moodshine.etsy.com

Who knows, maybe someone will even read it! :)

x