This week:
Transformer Art Gallery, Making Characters from Individual Components, Asagaya’s Tanabata Festival: The Papier-mache Float Parade, Make a Cheap Digital Camera More Holga-Like, The Welding Detective Manga, Making Bags out of Shotengai Flags.
Transformer Art Gallery
Takara Tomy has sponsored an art exhibition of Transformer-inspired art entitled TransformArt. This exhibition includes development sketches for early Transformers projects as well as art by a number of Transformer enthusiasts. There’s even a Transformers video tower/garbage statue that seems to provide the missing link that explains how Tetsuo Iron Man and the Transformers came from the same country. Sweet.
Making Characters from Individual Components
We’ve seen amazing characters made from hundreds of old components, but what about critters made from just one each? According to this article, if you look at one component long enough, its face will reveal itself to you. I mean, the two legs are already there in many cases, so it’s just a matter of slapping a few eyes on with white-out, marker, or whatever else you have on hand that will stick. Who other than DPZ to pull this off with such style and high drama, especially when they make it look like a resistor is a hot dog at a component picnic:
Asagaya’s Tanabata Festival: The Papier-mache Float Parade
PingMag does a very nice piece on the very distinctly Japanese interpretation of the papier-mache medium found at the Asagaya Tanabata festival. Anime characters, Japanese comedians, and plenty of animals are made by locals schools and community groups for display:
Every August, folks flock to the huge Tanabata festival at Pearl Centre in Asagaya, Tokyo. The 700 metre shopping street that stretches from Asagaya station to Omekaido road, comes alive with a world of papier-mache creatures — floating down its path! From original animal designs to popular anime characters, you’ll encounter all kinds of funny creatures in the air.
Make a Cheap Digital Camera More Holga-Like
While we’ve covered other ways of making your digital camera look like a toy camera here on Made in Japan, I think this one takes the cake for being the simplest (aside from just flat-out buying a toy camera, but what fun is that? ;-). A small piece of yellow cellophane taped over the flash of a cheap digital camera brings you closer to the lo-fi feel of the Holga and other classic toy cameras. [via]
The Welding Detective Manga
In Japan it seems as though there’s a manga for just about everyone, and now this includes welders. It just goes to show that there’s a story in every walk of life, sometimes it’s just in the way you tell it (or in this case, how you draw it). As you can see from these illustrations, welding is an adventurous, gritty, and noble profession. [vai MAKE: Japan]
Making Bags out of Shotengai Flags
Just about every town in Japan has a “shotengai” covered street shopping area. These areas are often adorned with flags that announce a coming seasonal festival. What happens to these flags when the festivals are over? A DPZ writer asked the same question, and was able to hunt down a bunch of old flags to recycle into hip new bags. These colorful flags make perfect bags, as their garish color mixes find new meaning in the context of the personal accessory worn by The Stylish.
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