Cotton Monster

Jennifer Strunge sews colorful plush creatures "made of old recycled sheets, blankets and p.j.'s... without a pattern, so no two are exactly alike." She incorporates excellent details on these fantastic animals, like contrasting fabric textures, that make them pop. My favorite Cotton Monster species is the Bottomfeeders, like the one shown here (with mutant third eye).

Link to Cotton Monster website (found at BoingBoing).

Polymer cephalopods on Etsy

Bunny X Productions sells these beautiful hand-made octopuses on Etsy. They're crafted from polymer clay, and available in many gorgeous colors. Each one looks more amazing than the last, and they must be wonderfully jiggly when handled in real life, what with eight metal ring joints holding the legs to the body. This glow-in-the-dark "SWAKtopus" was a special order.

found via BoingBoing

Knitting is weird

It's very strange how using simple repetitive motions, with such basic tools and a single strand of fiber, can make anything from a potholder to a sweater. I haven't knit in a long while. Recently I picked up my needles again, and after a brief refresher course, my hands remembered everything they had to do.

I'm making a winter hat with some hand-dyed Merino wool yarn from Aisha Celia. I started out using the Center Square pattern from Knitty.com, but it wasn't working out and I had to rip it apart. After some re-calculation I picked up a new set of double-pointed needles at the Yarnery and started over.

Now I'm almost to the point where I had stopped before. Looks like this time, it's going to be the perfect size for a snug new hat!

Custom action figures

Photo swiped & cropped from Wired

A while ago, Wired ran an article on action figure modding. It's an interesting concept but I wasn't blown away by any of the examples in their gallery (except the seriously awesome Skeletor shown above). Then I saw Jin Saotome's Master Chief on Kotaku. I was so impressed by the incredible level of detail on this 8-inch figure, I'd be proud to own it, even though I don't play Halo.

I would love to have a modder selling these at a Craftstravaganza, except the price would probably have to be somewhere on the scale of a customized Blythe doll. Master Chief is on eBay and bidding is already over $300 with four and a half days to go!

Paper Critters papercraft generator

Do you like cute toys? Do you like papercraft? You will want to check out Paper Critters, a web tool for designing little block-head creatures.

They're like collectible mini figures that you make yourself, and just like anything you make yourself, most are not going to turn out very well. I looked through several pages of the user-submitted "colony" and they're are all crap. You can probably do better.

Soft machines

The Japanese do the best crafts. A company in Sapporo called Rocket Craft makes unique plush replicas of their clients' cars, motorcycles, and other vehicles. Also a manatee. Check out the detail on this V-Twin engine! Many more samples are available on the Rocket Craft website.

Car Craft: the child seat custom AMX

The color of this car was the first thing that caught my eye. It's a different shade from the factory green for American Motor Company. I joked that if I ever buy a muscle car, it will have to be this color because that's the only way my wife would approve of it. Most cars, I snapped a photo and moved on, but I liked this one so much that I took a look inside and saw the best modification of the day.

I don't know much about engines and all that mechanical stuff, but this is something that I can appreciate. I spoke with the owner, who told me that this was a custom design. I can't say enough about how great this is, so I'll let the picture speak for itself. The only drawback to installing this in your car would be that the utility decreases dramatically if you don't have a child to put in it. Maybe by the time their kid outgrows it, I will have a reason to buy it for myself? What do you think honey?

Bonus: here's a look under the hood, in case any car geeks drop by. Shiny!

Bespoke menswear: DIY pocket square

A pocket square is the finishing touch that completes the fashionable man's ensemble. Without one, your coat pocket, it is naked. A well-selected pocket square should pop with a complementary flash of color, without detracting too much attention from the man who wears it.

"A gentleman always wears a pocket square."

--Austen McDonald

The bad news is a solid-color silk pocket square will set you back at least $15. Considering the sartorial importance of this little piece of fabric, why shell out the cash for a mass-produced one when you can make your own custom square for eighty cents? (or, in my case, have your wife sew it for you?)

The primary advantage to DIY is being able to exactly match the color of the square to a color in your tie or shirt. Once you've found your fabric, there are two ways to sew it up: the fancy way (which requires difficult rolling and stitching by hand), and the easy way (which involves ironing the side hems and sewing with a machine). Nobody will know the difference, except for you. Everyone else will be too busy admiring your classy outfit to notice that you didn't spend $35 on a hand-rolled pocket square.

2007 Craftstravaganza wrap-up post part 1

Where to start? I'm still mentally unpacking all the events from last week, it was so crazy. 5,578 shoppers came to the show on Saturday. Hey, actually lots of great photos popped up on Flickr, I'll just let them speak for themselves.

I love this shot of Sarah. I think it sums up the spirit of the fair. Photo credit: sir fanceepants

Nice shot of Fantastic Toys' booth, by the man himself. I bought one of those adorable little mushrooms.

Here's one by Smiling Ram of Hazel's and Melvin's room('s booth).

BundleSass took a picture of my mom.

We took this photo of the free screen-printing workshop.

Vanessa shot footage for Etsy (photo by surlygrrrl)

Blickdicht has an armful of gerbils.

Lots of people biked down. Dancypants was there.

From The Minneapoline: Adam Turman "selling posters like produce at the market."

Unpainted Russian nesting dolls

Continuing this week's "doll" theme, we come to these imported wood matryoshkas (the tallest is 6 inches) from the Wurst Gallery. You can click here for a gallery of these guys, painted and decorated by contemporary artists.

I like the set by Adam Bayer best. Or maybe these by Jeff Kling? At only $12, I'm tempted to buy a set of these and decorate them myself.

Video game cross-stitch

Over at Kotaku, there's a post about a dude who recreates scenes from classic videogames... in cross-stitch! May I say, radical. This is a truly excellent example of traditional craft remixed with modern themes.

Crafts in Minneapolis: I like you

Graffiti by Siloette (siloette.com)

When I go to Uptown on a weekday, there are two things I always forget:

1. My camera
2. The fact that everything is closed before 11:00

I ate brunch at the French Meadow Bakery and waited for shops to open their shutters. Then I walked around town and hung posters. I got a kick out of finding them already up in several places, including the big pillar outside of Wedge Co-op.

After that was done, I visited a new craft consignment store, run by one of our vendors. It is called "I like you" and it's a cozy little boutique in the style of Paper Boat. You should go! It's on 42nd and Nicollet. They are still working on signage and everything, but I expect great things from them soon.

Handmade Nation sneak peek

Clips from an upcoming documentary about the rise of DIY Art, Craft & Design. Faythe Levine traveled all around the country to shoot for this movie, and she filmed some footage at the 2006 Craftstravaganza, so we might be in it! It looks awesome. She says that they will be posting a trailer soon at the official film website: www.indiecraftdocumentary.com.

Crafty weekend

We're less than a month out from the 'stravaganza. I got money on my mind, and my mind on limited-edition, hand-painted, Japanese punk-rock fishing lures. Collectibles with hooks in them; it's brilliant. What a delightfully impractical "toy!" If you can dream it, it exists in Japan.

Crushed can art

This morning I read an article about painting on smashed aluminum cans. Using recycled materials in art is always a nifty idea. You can see a bunch of Rik Catlow's paintings in this Flickr photoset. Graffiti artist Buff Monster really brings the concept full-circle by using flattened spray paint cans as his canvas.

So anyway, in the article Rik Catlow gives instructions on technique, materials, and even his favorite method of flattening the cans. "That's cool," I thought. "I would like to try doing some Darumas in that style." Then on my way home from work, I picked up four cans from the street, and they were already squashed totally flat for me. How perfect is that?