The Most Ridiculously Expensive Sticky Notes You Could Possibly Spend Your Money On
Kudamemo — fruit shaped sticky notes by D-BROS. They can be bought here individually, or in a fruit “crate” of six and come complete with foam cozies wrapping — of course, you have to be able to read Japanese to make the order, and a “crate” of these for locals (of Japan) costs about $117, but, Hey!, you’ll probably be the only one in your office building of cubicles state side to own one. [Via Mocoloco]
A Monstrously Gilded Beetle
Gilding has been in a bit of a nostaligic mood, having recently gone through some stored away photoboxes of her grandmother’s filled to the brim with photos, lost away in her mother’s storage room. Sadly, Gilding’s mother had to throw away hundreds of her grandmother’s pictures after they were water damaged in one of Florida’s regular summer storms (don’t ask; the reason behind how they got to that predicament still has Gilding a bit pissed). So Gilding rescued the photoboxes and made a weekend of scanning the photos into a digital format. But that was just the beginning. Gilding went scan happy again last night, this time going through her own — well stored — photoboxes; intrigued, delighted, and sometimes surprised to find out what photos she had tucked away.
And then she came across this picture:
It is a picture of Gilding’s Grandmother washing her powder blue Volkswagen Beetle. Having bought it in 1970 or so, Gilding’s grandmother kept this car till around 1985 or so when she bought her first ever luxury car — the one she promised herself she would get if she ever had enough money…it was a Thunderbird. Laugh now — and probably later — but Gilding’s grandmother had an infatuation with the Thunderbird since its first construction when she was a mere teenager. The Beetle was gone but not forgotten.
Truthfully, the photo probably interests no one but Gilding, but this will, and Gilding found it interesting that this happened to be the first thing she stumbled upon this afternoon after having just found this picture. This afternoon Gilding stumbled upon this:
The “Monstrous Car” by artist Rich Page. Not much to tell on this except that he didn’t have a sketchpad that night so he decided to custom outfit this ride instead. [Rich Page on [U me]
Chaff ‘n’ Skaffs: Mai and the lost Moskivvy
Chaff’n'Skaffs: Mai and the lost Moskivvy, may be written for children ages 4-8, but the illustrations created by well-known artist and animator on the California scene Luke Feldman, is sure to have it appearing in many big kids book collection as well.
Written by Amanda Chin, the story is of a pretty girl, and unidentifiable and faithful friend and a dapper lost mosquito (Moskivvy), as the trio set out on an incredible journey to escort Moskivvy home. The world they embark on is vibrantly colorful and uniquely whimsical.
You can check out more of Luke Feldman’s work at skaffs. There you can also follow the link to the book’s product page. Be sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page where you can click and print free coloring pages of the 3 heroes from the book.
By the way, how utterly fucking cute is this toy of Mai from the story:
[Via Art MOCO]
Adorned in Barbie
And the psychotherapist told you that cutting up your sisters barbie dolls what one of the seven signs of a developing psychopathic serial killer. When, in fact, you were only making art! Its alright, artist and Barbie Doll butcher Margaux Lange understands.
As Lange explains in her artist statement, Barbie dolls were an instruments of creative artistic exploration as well as a outlet to express all her fears, embarassments, joys, and explorations of human interactions through on-going narratives within elaborate handmade dwellings.
Fascinated with who Barbie is as a cultural icon, distinguished celebrity status, and the enormous impact she has had on our society, Lange childhood influence has moved with her to influence her artistic impressions as an adult. Specifically, Lange is interested in Barbie’s influence in defining gender roles of women in contemporary American culture.
Shown here a just a few of Lange’s pieces, all necklaces. You can see the rest of her jewelry, including earing, bracelets, and brooches, in her portfolio.
Color Picker Penmanship
Gilding is as obsessed about the consistency and color of her ink as she is about the quality, cut and color, and consistency of her paper. Obsessive it may be, compulsive it is, but as a writer, its as essential to the flow of her writing as is breathing…or her laptop. But this pen is just too trick.
The Color Picker is an innovative concept design pen that can scan colors from anything and instantly produce a color you can use. After placing the pen against an object, the user presses the scan button. The color being detected by the pen’s color sensor and the RGB cartridge inside the pen then mixes the required inks to create the target color. By being able to observe and change colors according to the nature around you, the ultimate goal of the pen is that artists will then be able to create a more sensorial and visual insight of their surrounding nature’s colors.
[Via tuvie]
Iconic Pop Art in Japanese Tradition
Gilding is really diggin these works by artist YOskay Yamamoto:
Nightmare of Day Dreamer, acrylic on wood, 24×36 inches
the will, mixed media on wood, 36×24, 2008
Yamamoto has fused two different cultural backgrounds together in his work, nostalgically blendin pop iconic characters from his new Western home with the traditional and mythical Japanese elements. The effect successfully balances his Asian heritage with urban pop art.
kata-omoi: unrequieted love, acrylic on paper, 24×24, 2008
Gilding also finds these pretty spiffy. Having teamed up with Munky King in the production of his “Koibito vinyl figurines, Yamamoto is set to release his new and final colorway of the sculptures this week, along with a new print.
The intital all black colorway [not shown here] sold out, leaving fans clamouring for more. But the new Koibito sculptural figurines will be released in two different colorway, the first is a gold and black colorway (edition 500) and the second is a Munky King exclusive translucent-smoke colorway (edition 150).
I Heart
these acrylic rings by qift.
This particular set features a bulldog in black acrylic and clear acrylic, but currenly qift sells a total of 10 breeds of dogs and 6 different postures of cats, though all combinations of dogs and cats are welcome. And while the rings sell at a mere $12, qift has a special discount for purchases of one pet ring with two and four side rings.
Hit It Cowboy Style
What looks like furniture but won’t leave any bruises when you slam it over your lovers back? The apropriately named saloon style furniture called “Hit It.”
Hit is a design series of furniture consisting of western movies’ saloon style tables and chairs. Designed by Johannes Hemann, Leslie Hildebrandt and Kai Linke, these foam replicas are meant to let everyone’s inner cowboy out. Other than that, though, they serve no purpose. But, Hey! go out and beat the shit out of someone with it. That has to be worth its weight in dollar billage, right.
Skinning Your Juice Box
Ever looked at your juice box and thought “Gee, I wish my fruit juice box looked like it tastes.”? No? Then you have no imagination…or even as a child had better things to think on. But that’s why the world needs artists like Naoto Fukasawa.
Fukasawa’s imagined that if the surface of the package imitated the color and texture of the fruit skin, then the object would reproduce the feeling of real skin.
Guess its a play on that old psychological mind fuck of putting a glove on your hand to trick the mind into feeling like someone else is jacking you off, only less dirty and acceptable in public.
See more of Fukasawa’s juice box designs on the dieline.
Liquid Rubber, Baby!
Looking for a DIY idea for the remnants of rubber paint you have lying around. What? You don’t have rubber paint lying around? Yeah, neither does Gilding. But this certainly gives her reason to buy some to keep in her cache of crafting shit.
B Light demonstrates on flickr how this rubber dipped origami crane was made, but the short of it is is, after learning how to fold the origami cranes B Light then dipped them in liquid rubber, and voila. Beautiful little cranes to hang about wherever.
Hmmm…wonder what else Gilding could coat with liquid rubber…well, other than the obvious everything. What could she usefully coat with liquid rubber. Yeah, you’re right that’s a silly question. Better one is, what could she cover in liquid rubber that would get her in the maximum amount of trouble. And what would the neighbor’s cat looked like coated in bright pink liquid rubber. Be looking for future posts for this one .^_~.
Bound for Steampunk
Exploring the “librarian side of steampunk”, Penwiper337 has created this Book Purse from some attractively bound Reader’s Digest Condensed Books. You can go here for a quick tutorial to making your very own.
Adorn Me in Fine, Feathery, Faux Moss
Gilding’s infatuation of lately with moss has brought her to these lovely beauties.
In her series of “Living Jewelry”, Adorn Jewelry, Gather is the second generation of the series featuring little clumps of faux moss planted atop such jewelry pieces as rings and pendants. Best part, no water or sinlight needed for these bit of mossy-goodness to survive.
The hand-cut pieces of faux moss are made of latex sprouts backed with foam that have been “planted” into the bezel setting of silver plated rings and pendants. The color of the moss varies so that it may appear lighter or darker, making each piece unique from any of its brethren.
Link: Adorn Jewelry
Adventures in Isabella’s Wonderland
A few years after Alice fell down the rabbit hole and discovered the surreal Wonderland and Land behind the looking-glass, but some years before Dorothy was swept from her aunts Arkansas farm by a tornado to the magical Land of Oz, another special chosen one existed; Isabella.
She found her way to the Land of Wonders, a land beyond everyone’s imagination, a land of fables and legends. She was there when Dorothy and her colourful entourage walked the Yellow Brick Road and also when a lonely pilot crashed his aeroplane into that remote desert to encounter the Little Prince.
Little Isabella didn’t age as the years flashed by and after many decades she returned to a profoundly changed modern world, where the magic of her childhood had disappeared with the legacy of Alice and Dorothy alsmost forgotten.
Unable to return to the world of her childhood she tries to give everyone a glimpse of that mystical world and places she visited during those magical years.
Personally, Gilding wants everyone if these shadow puppets, but Isabella’s Art is not limited to these and you can see a great deal more of her prints, illustrations, bookplates, even moleskin journals featuring her drawings on her website, her blog, and her Etsy store.
Cute and Lightly Pepperd with Evil
Cute with a slightly evil twist, tsai-fi creates these cute little baubles by hand, each one being unique (as there are no hulking goliaths of metal machinery factory rolling out her creations) and are based on her own characters.
They’re cute, they’re whimsical, they’re peppered with just a little bit of evil, and best part, they’re affordable enough to own the whole collection.
Link: tsai-fi
My Little Modded Pony
As if 80′s toys weren’t awesome enough, Mari Kasurine has join the ranks of many fans and gone and modded them all up My Little Pony style. From Batman to Cthulhu, Tim Burton creations to such great 80′s iconography as the characters of Heman and Starwars, Kasurine has even managed to make some room for The King and Cry Baby.
Last year, Hasbro held a contest, the My Little Pony Project, which invited fans, both kids and adults, to design their own, original My Little Pony figure as part of their “25 Ponies for 25 Years” collection. The international collection of 18 inch tall My Little Pony figures was created not only in celebration of their quarter of a century old birthday, but also as a celebration of the whimsical nature of the brand. The contest also supported Give Kids The World Village, a non-profit organization that strives to provide magical memories for children with life threatening diseases.
Though the contest has ended, and images of the 25 winning Pony figures can be seen in their gallery, fans haven’t stopped their modding of the beloved toys.
View the rest of Mari Kasurine’s My Little Pony set on her flickr.
