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.
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.
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.
Here’s a great guide on making all the cool retroy pixel graphics. “Each separate IPA image is always going too made up of single computer generated blocks, known as pixels. Each pixel is the same size as any other pixel, but it can be any colour you can think of and it can fit together with other pixels, any way you can think of. You can think of a pixel-based image as you can a mosaic in real life that is made up of tiles to form an overall picture”.Link.
This is a pretty neat project from Mauricio Melo (there isn’t a how-to but I think it’ll be easy to replicate) It’s a networked emoticon device. You log onto it through the Internet and let your other significant at home know if something at work or at school has made you happy, sad, so-so, or upset. The devices are connected to the Internet through an Xport controlled by a Microchip that handles the basic communications. A series of switches reciprocally activate four LEDs that light the transparent emoticons. Via WMMNA. Link.
All the cool kids in the Shire are tagging it up with Moss Graffiti, maybe not- but here’s how to make Moss graffiti. Ingredients: 1 can of beer, 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and several clumps of garden moss. There’s a neat spot in the backyard here, I’m going to try it out and post up pictures. Might make some neat art. Link.
I tend to like multi-function jewelry, I had an iButton ring to start my car awhile back which was a lot of fun, anyway if you’re not in to DIY Kegerators here’s the bottle opener ring. This is a stainless steel finger gizmo performs an essential service in the party season: the stylish Ring Thing is a handy little bottle opener. Only $10. Link.
