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.
For the CandyBlog– Ecoist.com offers hand-made handbags designed by Marisa Rey, made from recycled candy wrappers, food packages, and soft drink labels. The bags are excellent, and range in price from $27 (for the coin pouch) to $285 (for the large basket). Plus, whenever one of their bags is sold, those nice folks plant a tree! Link.
Keith Moloney writes “I have successfully modified a 2.0 Megapixel camera (Polaroid PDC2010) to take infrared pictures using similar methods to the tutorial listed in the previous entry. The main difference is that the Lens assembly was sealed, so the infrared filter required more than a little persuasion with a brutish whack from a needlenosed pliers, and the sound of shattering glass“. Wow, Hi-Res IR photos! Link.
exogenous writes “A full-size working harpsichord made from Lego”. With the exception of the wire strings, this instrument is entirely constructed out of LEGO parts–the keyboard, jacks, jack rack, jack rail, plectra, soundboard, bridge, hitch pins, tuning pins, wrestplank, nut, case, legs, lid, lid stick, and music stand are all built out of interlocking ABS (Acrylonitrile-Butadiene-Styrene) plastic bricks and related pieces. There’s even a MP3 of it playing. Link.
Peter Kirn has a great overview of how Chris O’Shea is going open source with his experiments in building tangible interfaces — interactive tables on which moving physical objects (like blocks) create visuals and sound. One obstacle in this technology has been people haven’t been able to refine the techniques; they just create bare-bones proof-of-concept but haven’t been able to build on others’ work. This is really encouraging. Link.
Karl writes “I have a bunch of super 8 movies that I inherited from my father and would like to put them on DVD using some kind of compression (is mpg). Do have any suggestions? I have tried the projector with mirrors and a 8mm camcorder approach and was not satisfied with the quality“. Suggestions for Karl? I found this here, but not sure if that’s the best way. Post up in the comments!
G4’s AOTS has a cool remix of our Aerial Photography project. They hacked up a wireless camera and some battery packs to transmit video to a laptop down below. Here’s a video clip of part I of the project, they’re posting video and images soon. On another related AOTS note, looks like MAKE will be on the show in June! View QuickTime video.
Amazing public space art installation. The tower at the the S/U station has an odd glass cube on the top and the artists decided to give it eyes. The passersby could participate by looking inside the box. Their eyes were then projected onto the glass–front of the tower, making it look like the head of a robot with ever changing and personalized eyes. The project was an attempt to make “street–art that anybody can influence and use playfully.” Link.
