From traditional crafts to modern crafts, we’re covering news and interesting projects to educate you and keep you inspired. Design trends and pop culture related projects are here to inspire.
Justin writes,”I took a letterpress class last Saturday at San Francisco’s Center for the Book, a maker-rific and tremendous Bay Area resource. I learned how to use a Vandercook 4 printing press and by the end of the day long workshop, the class had designed and printed 40 copies of a book!” Link.
Thimble has rounded up some great product photography tutorials to help you take better pictures of the goods you make. I have the same disadvantage as her with not much bright natural light in my house. I love the DIY mini-studio set up you can make yourself via the Switchboard article. [via] Link.
Bug writes “Make your own Mardis Gras mask out of water-hardened leather. Start with vegetable-tanned (also known as saddle-skirt) leather. I picked mine up at a local Tandy Leather. You’ll also need paint suitable for leather (fabric paint usually works).” Link.
Scott writes “For those who don’t already know, the Gimp is a powerful, open source image editing application. For more info on the Gimp visit gimp.org. GIMPshop is essentially the same program with some cosmetic changes. The Gimp’s menu structure and naming conventions had been a constant source of frustration for me because I was so used to Photoshop. So, I did what any hardcore graphics geek would have done. I hacked GIMPshop together.” New version! Link.
Amazing video of a touch screen interface – “While touch sensing is commonplace for single points of contact, multi-touch sensing enables a user to interact with a system with more than one finger at a time, as in chording and bi-manual operations. Such sensing devices are inherently also able to accommodate multiple users simultaneously, which is especially useful for larger interaction scenarios such as interactive walls and tabletops.” [via] Link.
Thomas Wilburn has a lot of great info on making music with one of my favorite “games” for the Nintendo DS he writes – “Composing with Electroplankton, part one: I started a one-man rock band for four reasons. I find the idea of one person onstage creating a lot of great noise on the fly to be very personally appealing. It has a kind of bizarre audacity…” tons of great tips and more – [via] Link.
If you are in the NY area this Sunday Feb 12th, you won’t want to miss the next Swap-O-Rama-Rama, a clothing swap with DIY how-to workshops, and on site sewing stations. The five hour event is finished off with a recycled fashion show. Come with a bag of unwanted clothing and just $10. You’ll be able to take home all the clothes you can carry as well as learn how to sew, embroider, knit, and make some new outfits! Link.
