Extreme Craft

EXTREME CRAFT HAS MOVED!

2006-09-28T13:08:00.000-04:00

Extreme Craft has MOVED! Click here to visit us at our new digs on Typepad.. Remember, you can always bookmark us directly at www.extremecraft.com.

Baby Toupee is Here to Stay!

2006-09-27T10:16:00.000-04:00

Baby Toupee
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

The democrats and republicans in Washington are sparring over the intellegence report that was released yesterday that concludes the war in Iraq has increased terrorist threats rather than decreasing them. Our president pulled his usual trick and put his hands over his ear and started yelling "blah blahblahblah ican'thearyou", calling the notion "naive".

You know what? I'm still proud to live in a country that can produce anything as amazing as THE BABY TOUPEE. Somehow, seeing a well-coiffed baby swaggering confidently into the future is reassuring to me. Suri Cruise is firmly on the baby toupee train (obviously!), so what's your problem?

LINK via boingboing

The Devil is in the Details

2006-09-26T15:17:00.000-04:00

Fallen Angels
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

Kansas City is one crafty-ass place! On Thursday, I got to spend quality time drooling over the Nelson-Atkins' collections of European decorative art, including one of the biggest collections of English ceramics that I have seen. It goes without saying that their Asian collection is amazing, but I was unprepared for how much great European stuff they had.

My favorite piece, pictured here, is an 8" ivory carving from Italy of some badass Angels chucking a bunch of devils out of heaven. The figures all interlock in three dimensions, forming a sort of open spong patterns made of the "little devils". I must have spent 20 minutes marvelling at the detail, as well as the wicked imagination of the artist. The next time you're wandering around the Nelson-Atkins, keep a sharp eye, because this one is tiny, and easy to miss.

Neural Fibers

2006-09-25T17:01:00.000-04:00

Sometimes it seems like the whole world has been knitted. When I'm bouncing around the internet, I often feel like that scene from the film version of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy where the characters suddenly find themselves (and their surroundings) knitted. A wedding has been knitted, so has a coral bed, and cactus garden. Practically the entire human body has been knitted, notably hearts, embryos, and the entire digestive system. I can envision a dystopian knitted future where outlaws with reverse knitting needles create simulated "un-knit" objects as we used to know them.

Until that time, we can watch this Blade Runner scenario unfold bit by bit, taking notice when things like the Museum of Scientifically Accurate Fabric Brain Art. The MOSAFBA is the brainchild (sorry, couldn't help myself) of William Harbaugh, a rogue economics professor at the University of Oregon. The museum's collection currently features three quilts with functional images from PET and fMRI scanning, a knitted brain, and two fabric pieces interpreting single neuron recording. Are you a maker of scientifically accurate fabric brain art? Make like the goddamned Bee Girl in that Blind Melon video, and get together with your own kind by emailing Mr. Harbaugh.

Link thanks, Clifton!

Agrifolk Follow-Up

2006-09-21T10:17:00.000-04:00

Identification
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

I just got an email from Jonathon Keats, conceptual artist and art farmer about the Agrifolk project. He provided these statistics:

In all, eighty-one drawings were culled over a three-day period. An impressive forty-seven of the fifty trees produced at least one artwork, the exceptions being W, GG, and II. The most prolific were A and V, which each produced four works, though only one drawing by each will be included in the Soho Myriad exhibition. In fact, while seven artists produced three images, no artist will have more than two pictures in the show. (The thirty selected drawings showcase the work of twenty-two artists.) Deserving special mention are G, M, R, and HH, which will each have the distinction of exhibiting the twoworks that they created, and PP, J, Q, and SS, which will be represented in the show by two of their three works.

Hotrod Casket

2006-09-20T14:38:00.000-04:00

Hotrod Casket
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

This is a photo of James D. Calabrese's "hotrod" casket, complete with exhaust, a license plate, and cheesy flaming Chevy decal. Couldn't somebody spring for some decent pinstriping? Still, you've got to give it up to a brother who knows how to go out in style. Photo by Leonard Ortiz of the Orange County Register.

"PINE"tings

2006-09-20T13:13:00.000-04:00

Last month, Extreme Craft promised you an insider's look at a BRAND NEW art movement. That day has arrived, ladies and gentlemen. I had the pleasure of receiving a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the creation of the AGRIFOLK ART movement on Sunday in Cumming, Georgia. Agrifolk Art is the brainchild of conceptual artist Jonathon Keats (who is well known for such projects as copyrighting his mind and trying to create God in a test tube). While at a residency in Maine, Keats began thinking about the swaying trees outside of his windows, eventually bringing a small tree inside his studio to further study it. It turned out that bringing the tree inside wasn't very effective (or healthy for the tree), but Jonathon kept thinking about the trees, and eventually contacted Andrew Dietz, an Atlanta-based art writer and entrepreneur. Dietz' most recent book, The Last Folk Hero, delved into issues of exploitation and authenticity in the Folk Art world, which meshed nicely with the project that Keats was hatching in his (trademarked) brain.

Keats and Dietz were not farmers, but with a bit of searching on the internet, found a tree farm in Cumming, which is about 30 miles North of Atlanta. Their new artists would be uncorrupted by art world machinations: 50 Leland Cypress trees, chosen for their resilience and flexibility. Last Saturday, Keats and Dietz put the artists to work, first labeling them individually, then setting up 50 easels and pads. The artists were provided with a variety of artistic implements such as pencils, oil pastels, and vine charcoal. By the time we visited, they had been working for nearly 36 hours without a break. The trees produced their art without a single complaint, fueled by periodic waterings and doses of Miracle-Gro.

Mr. Keats is confident that the quality of this artwork will be evident to all. "This isn't just about artistic integrity," he says. "Non-sentience is often looked down upon by our culture, obsessed with SAT scores and IQ tests. Yet plants negotiate complex ecosystems that biologists struggle to comprehend. Their art is a byproduct of the intelligence, and the creativity, of their interaction with the environment."

Asked if this has made him rethink his own art, Mr. Keats grows pensive. "My projects often depend on complex processes such as radiotelescopy and genetic engineering. I'd have saved myself a lot of work had I known that the basic ingredients of artistic originality were water and sunlight."

Naturally, I had a lot of questions about Agrifolk, ranging from curiosity about their process to the vagaries of the Agrifolk art market. My hosts were accomodating, going as far as to demonstrate their scrupulous process for "culling" the finished artwork. Keats, dressed in his best gentleman farmer three-piece suit, roamed the tree farm with a clipboard, observing the progress that each artist had made. When it was determined that a piece was finished, the writing instrument was gently picked up, and the pad of paper removed from the easel. On his clipboard, Keats jotted down the artist's identification, along with other relevant information, and carried the piece back to the picnic table they were using. The piece was then stamped for authenticity, verified by Jonathon, and stored with the rest.

I asked Jonathon how he knew when the drawings were complete. He answered that an ideal completed drawing was based on the range of gesture expressed by the tree. When he felt that the tree had fully expressed the gesture that they were communicating, the drawing was finished. Endless scribbling of the same gesture was seen as overkill. Dietz and Keats were unsentimental about their charges, conscious of the degree to which they were exploiting them versus the level of reward given to them. They harbored no illusions about redemption that the trees could face through their art--particularly talented trees weren't going to be relocated to a pasture somewhere; the trees are all destined for Atlanta living rooms during the next holiday season. Keats did express the thought, however, that they were providing these trees with a death sentence hanging over them with an opportunity to express themselves before they themselves are "culled" and covered in tinsel and garlands.

I also asked about the "target market" for this artwork. Folk art is a highly stratified world, with the bottom rung occupied by work sold in hardware stores, back yards, and flea markets. Selling to this audience generally requires a homespun, folksy approach, preferably with a degree of humor. My friend Nick suggested the artworks be called "PINE-tings", which would be a great way to get the fleamarketeers on board. Keats and Dietz are firing their shot across the bow of the gallery world, aiming directly at high-end collectors. Collectors of folk art value the "story" of the artist above almost all else. If an artist is illiterate and lives at the bottom of a well, their work is pure gold. If they are handicapped and also make angels? That's a money train that's just never going to stop. Keats and Dietz are providing all of the essential components of folk art: a great story and indisputable authenticity.

All of this comes down to the artwork. Is it worth a damn? Would you hang it above your couch? I would have to answer with a qualified "yes". Dietz and Keats could have given their artists brushes and bright colors, which would make for art every bit as compelling as something a Thai elephant could produce. Instead, they provided the trees with pencils, oil pastels, and vine charcoal, allowing them to express a more subtle range of work. Most of the work is produced with a soft pencil, showing a range of gesture and markmaking. White space is highly valued, with the trees intensively working small portions of the paper. This is not work to hang above your couch--the work that I observed was very subtle, providing an opportunity for contemplation.

Your chance to get in on the ground floor of Agrifolk is coming up. Can you say that you have a matchbook or coaster from the Cabaret Voltaire? Do you have one of Warhol's first Campbell's Soup paintings? Probably not. Soho Myriad Gallery in Atlanta will exhibit the finest works October 14th and 15th. They will also be screening a documentary about the project by director Edwin Moore. Keats and Dietz will be on hand to meet the public, but unfortunately for us, the trees will be happily biding their time at their farm in Cumming. I wonder if I might be able to put my favorite tree artist in my living room this Christmas. Remember. You heard it on Extreme Craft first.

LINK to my Agrifolk Flickr set

Kansas City, Here I Come!

2006-09-19T15:26:00.000-04:00

This Thursday, September 21st, I will be delivering a lecture at the Kansas City Art Institute as part of their "It's Only Natural" visiting artist series. I'll be showing some slides of my own work and lecturing about my codependent relationship with Craft. I'll also be playing show'n'tell, going through some rapid-fire slides representing some of the greatest artists that have appeared on Extreme Craft. I promise you, it will not be dull. Put down that barbecued rib, and get your ass down to Vanderslice Hall on the KCAI campus. 7pm sharp. You would never guess from the site, but I love to talk. If you'd like the Extreme Craft Roadshow to visit your town or campus, drop me a line. Thanks to Matt Takach, who designed this swell poster!

LINK

After the Ball

2006-09-19T11:14:00.000-04:00

I'm one of those dorks who slowly opens gifts, carefully peeling the tape off and saving the wrapping paper. I do this in part because I love surprises, and it's fun for me to prolong the suspense of opening a package. Some people do this because they are cheap bastards who save wrapping paper for another day, but I can't remember the last time I actually saved the paper for later. Mainly, I'm carefull with the paper because I realize that nothing is as sad as the wadded up remains of a party--crumpled wrapping paper, stretched-out ribbons, swept-up confetti mingling with dust bunnies, and the last few slices of horrible white cake with too much frosting that live in the office break room until some kind soul has mercy on it and puts it to rest.

I have a feeling that Miami-based artist Frances Trombly feels my sorrow as well. Trombly ratchets up the melancholy of abandoned party favors with her lovingly crafted sculptures. Her installations are filled with spent decorations (like the congratulations banner above) that are painstakingly created using knitting, hand-weaving, cross stitch, and more. When shown in a spare, white gallery, the human-scale objects appear to be even more alone. Upon closer inspection, the objects cast off their pathetic auras, revealing themselves to be crafted luxury items. Check out her (warning--annoying Flash) website, which is chock-a-block with examples of her work. Get your party started!

LINK thanks, Clifton

King of Pain

2006-09-15T11:57:00.000-04:00

Kathy King's ceramic work is exhausting. For the last ten years she has been tirelessly probing at every raw nerve that relationships and self-analysis expose. Kathy (or at least her alter-ego) stars in all of the work, which is all functional in some way or another, which makes her some long-lost love child of R. Crumb and Bernard Leach. Functional ceramic vessels with illustrated narratives have a rich history dating back to the Greeks and beyond. A functional pot provides a 3-dimensional canvas that can be made into a narrative, like a comic strip. Kathy takes this connection and runs with it, adding in extra layers of having the vessels comment upon their function and the role of the user. Her first full-blown masterpiece was her graduate thesis show at the University of Florida in Gainesville in 1997.

Many ceramic geeks have seen this slice of genius in books and magazines. The show consisted of a bed, which was completely covered in illustrated tiles commenting on birth control options from a woman's perspective. The headboard contained four vessels to contain the birth control options, including a condom jar, a jar for birth control pills (showing a woman on all fours, hunting for an impossible-to-find-when-dropped pill), and a hilarious butter dish to contain a diaphragm. The diaphragm container is illustrated with a picture of Kathy rowing in a diaphragm, navigating a sea of sperm. The headboard shows a nude couple rushing toward each other, while the footboard shows Kathy-as-devil girl, wishing the occupant of the bed good luck. The exhibition also had a woman's night stand, which contained a bunch of containers for real and fanciful cosmetics and beauty aid, each elaborately illustrated with narratives related to the products, including pimple cream and breast enlargement elixir.

Atlantans, rejoice! Kathy is part of a 4-person show (with Janis Mars Wunderlich, Jenny Mendes, and Krista Grecco) at the Signature Gallery called "Intimate Rituals of Daily Life". Kathy's new work delves deeper into gender and relationship issues. Her new work features plenty of worms, which seem to stand in for the little devils that sit on a cartoon character's shoulder, little voices of self-doubt. Characters put on masks during first dates, share their baggage, and gender confusion. There are also symbolic vessels, such as these "birdhouses", which serve as reliquaries for tiny hearts and homes.

Kathy is one of those rare artists (even rarer in the craft world) who ruthlessly air their dirty laundry in their own work. Her pots take on a life of their own, offering up plenty of food for thought when they are used (and her work always begs to be used). Each of her works is like a miniature stage set in which the vessels serve as the actor and the end user winds up being the director. The next time you reach for your salt and pepper shakers, imagine serving up your salt and pepper with a theatrical pair of Kathy King salt shakers, complete with psychodrama. Wouldn't it be nice?

LINK to Signature show

Quilting Under the Pressure

2006-09-12T14:48:00.000-04:00

Kate from Obsessive Consumptionjust sent me this image by Icelandic artist Siggi Eggertsson. I nearly melted with joy when I clicked the link, and the closer I looked, the more I loved it. Siggi Eggertsson is a young graphic designer with a flair for the geometric and obsessive. He created this quilt, which contains at least 10,000 pieces and measures nearly 6.5 feet by 8 feet. The colors and patterns used in the piece recall paintings of the Pattern and Decoration Movement, yet also stays true to its digital roots. The patterns, motifs, and iconography that are used all reflect the artist's own childhood memories. Visually, the quilt hews to colors that are familiar to the viewers and makers of quilts, which becomes jarring when the icons of Michael Jordan and the German Shepherds are introduced.

As I combed through Eggertsson's site for other clues to the origin of this work, I was delighted to find a clever, multi-disciplinary mind at work. Not only has he developed his own personal geometric style, he has put that style to work in a variety of contexts. Most intriguingly, he took advantage of the portability of laptop computers, and began drawing outdoor landscapes as he saw them, a la impressionist painters. Other print work includes typography, calendars, and illustration, all fairly bursting with creative energy. Quilting is reportedly a passion for Eggertson, so I'm crossing my fingers for more masterpieces.

LINK thanks, Kate!

Cardboard Stormtroopers Unmasked!

2006-09-11T17:09:00.000-04:00

I'm so happy! I got a reply to the video that I posted on Youtube from one of the cardboard stormtroopers....in fact, it was the ringleader of the Stormtroopers. Extreme Craft readers will be glad to know that the corrugated chappie was none other than Atlanta's beloved pirate, Cap'N Drew! Apparently, Drew has dabbled in cardboard robotics before. You can check out some robot and pirate hijinks at his website. Piratepalooza, Atlanta's premiere pirate-themed pub crawl is coming up on Saturday, Septembarrrrrrh 16th, so be sure to stretch out your rum ration until then. In addition to more information about cardboard robots, the website also has information on Drew's cardboard underwear and the props he made for movies like Dumb and Dumberer. Extreme.

The Mad Scientist of Sleep

2006-09-08T15:09:00.000-04:00

Michel Gondry revolutionized the medium of music video with the incredible clips he made for Bjork, Beck, The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk, and a bunch of other lucky musicians. One of the great things about his aesthetic is that it is decidedly low tech. Whenever possible, Gondry likes to use old school camera tricks and the judicious use of stop animation rather than slick CGI effects. I think I'm one of the only humans who loved his wacky 2001 movie Human Nature. This movie began his collaboration with Charlie Kaufman, who wrote Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. This collaboration came to fruition with the colossal, stupendiferous Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Gondry's new movie finds him Kaufmanless, but I have a feeling that's not going to matter. Gondry's fevered imagination will be put through its paces on The Science of Sleep, which lists its opening date as September 22nd.

I won't go into any of the wacky particulars of the film beyond the basic premise of being based on Gondry's dreamlife. The lo-fi aesthetic is taken to a new level in this movie, with dream sequences constructed out of construction paper, felt, and other craft materials. The film stills that I have seen scream "EXTREME CRAFT", as does the website. The Science of Sleep website is a marvel of design. I'm usually a huge humbug on the subject of Flash websites, but this one translates the craft-y feel of the movie, with an oversized cursor, scrawled text, and an all-around considerate interface. Within the website is a mini-application that lets you make your own stop-animated movies with the virtual objects they provide. It's easily possible to lose an afternoon communing with the site.

Also, check out Salon.com's recent conversation with Gondry. The sillyhead behind the microphone forgets to turn on the machine for the first seven minutes, but catching up to the conversation only serves the keep the listener on their toes. When the movie finally opens (I'm not counting on September 22nd for Atlanta), I'll be first in line. In the meantime, I'll be working on my stop-animation opus on the website.

Church Sign Generator

2006-09-06T10:03:00.000-04:00

Church Sign Generator
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

One of the benefits of living in the South is the profusion of sloganeering on signs. The two places that have the best slogans are churches...and strip clubs. I actually think strip clubs have the upper hand, with slogans like "FIRE SALE--ALL OUR CLOTHES MUST GO". The church around the corner from my house has been stuck on "SIGN BROKEN--MESSAGE INSIDE" for much too long. If you aren't fortunate enough to live in Dixie, the CHURCH SIGN GENERATOR could come in handy. Simply enter the text you'd like to see, and VOILA! Now, if they'd ony make a strip club sign generator, my life would be completely complete.

Cardboard Stormtrooper Video

2006-09-05T20:00:00.000-04:00

My friend Paula shot this video of the cardboard Stormtroopers in action. They really bring it! You can tell by the way they lumber down the street that they know they are the most badass dudes in the parade. Thanks, Paula!

Cardboard Stormtroopers!

2006-09-05T15:21:00.000-04:00

Aside from sticking my nose in a book during Labor Day weekend, Claire and I made our annual pilgrimage to the DragonCon Stormtrooper Parade. This year,
around 950 costumed revellers participated, marching in different groups representing superheroes, Harry Potter, Buffy, Star Trek (special kudos to the Klingon wandering around with a cardboard sign reading "Series Canceled, Please Help"), and of course, Star Wars. The Extreme Craft award for Extreme Craftiness goes out to the Stormtroopers pictured above, who prove that you don't need a fancy PVC costume to rock dragon con--all you need is heart. The parade marshal this year was, inexplicably, Mickey Rooney (did he have a cameo on Battlestar Gallactica or something?). I can't wait to see what DragonCon dishes out next year.

Handwork

2006-09-05T11:39:00.000-04:00

In honor of Labor Day, I settled down with a book on the Arts and Crafts Movement to do some brushing up. To understand the potential held by the current wave of craft mania, I believe that it helps to study previous craft movements. The Grandaddy of them all is the Arts and Crafts movement, which didn't really take hold in America until the early 20th Century. It was amazing to read about how serious the movement was taken by academics, politicians, and rabble-rousers. At the turn of the century, the University of Chicago was the preeminent institution for social theory, most of which leaned waaaaaaaay to the left. Arts and Crafts were seen as an antidote to the Industrial Revolution's assembly line mentality, and offered creative control and a measure of dignity to workers.

Although it left an amazing legacy including Stickley furniture, Rookwood pottery, and architects like Frank Lloyd Wright, the Arts and Crafts movement failed because it couldn't reconcile the theoretical with prevailing market forces. Many of the major proponents of the movement, both in England and America, were wealthy people who made (or inherited fortunes) based on industrialism. Fast forward 100 years and compare the size and scope of corporate influence on modern society. The study of craft is limited mainly to "Decorative" art history, and it is unimaginable that craft would be studied in any institution as a force for change.

After a century which saw the fortunes of craft and handiwork wax and wane, it would seem like we are in quite a valley--schools are increasingly grooming students as information workers, with blue collar work carrying the stigma of being "so last century". Shop and vocational technology programs are being purged, home economics classes are pragmatic rather than analytical, stressing concrete skills and not problem solving. Matthew B. Crawford's article "Shop Class as Soulcraft" in the current issue of the New Atlantis has made a huge splash, defending Shop Class as a fundamental human skill. The rising fortunes of the DIY movement prove that there is a human instinct to understand and tinker with one's surroundings, and technology is being rejiggered as much as machines. Even though institutions are supporting it less and less, a generation of Americans is waking up to the possibilities of working with their own two hands.

In honor of Labor Day, think hard about your own family history and inclinations. There's a reason why humans are inclined to craft. Acknowledge your crafty forbears, and spread the wealth by offering the things your own hands have learned to others.

Sock the Monkey!

2006-08-31T10:37:00.000-04:00

Sock Monkey Dress
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

Last night, Claire and I discovered the joys of watching Project Runway at Mary's, one of Atlanta's finest gay bars. My curiosity was piqued after reading an article in our weekly magazine describing it as the "gay superbowl". I can happily report that it didn't disappoint. Around a hundred patrons tossed back $3 well drinks and took their gloves off when it came to comments, many of which were saved for the commercial breaks, when they would turn down the sound and pass the house microphone around the room. After the show (and the thunderous applause at Angela's departure), there was a screening of a rough cut for a new television show from Kyle, who brought us the documentary Stories from the Road: Following PJ Harvey. In the new TV segment, he crashed the Project Runway show at fashion week, stalking the casts of both seasons until he met Daniel V.

This i s all a pretty roundabout way of telling you about a dress I saw on the internet today made out of SOCK MONKEYS! It's being shown among the other craft items at the Minnesota State Fair. Let's hope that next year the maker will decide to make a dress out of the flayed skin of Garrison Keillor. Keep rubbing that lotion on your skin before your radio show, buddy boy!

LINK via BoingBoing

Hello, Is It Me You're Looking For?

2006-08-29T12:01:00.000-04:00

Portland, Portland, Portland. In addition to the beguiling Voodoo Doughnut, Portland, Oregon truly reigns as the current craft capitol of America. With craft insitutions like SuperCrafty, Craftypod, The 24 Hour Church of Elvis and a flourishing branch of the Church of Craft, Portland is as crafty as it gets. Add to the mix Helloindie, a relatively new eZine that bills itself as "The ezine of the DIY craft scene". I'm firmly on board with their newest release, issue #3, which features Mark Newport (genius knitter of superhero wear). There is also an interview with leah Kramer of craftster.org. zip on over to Helloindie and put your name on their mailing list. As a reward, they will grace your inbox with their brand of crafty love. LINK via Supernaturale

Am I the Only One Seeing This?

2006-08-29T11:05:00.000-04:00

I've always been a big fan of B3TA's Phallic Logo Awards, an amazing collection of hilarious inadvertently phallic logos. Graphic designers can be incredibly sneaky, or they can be incredibly clueless. Turnabout is fair play. You all know that Extreme Craft is all about the laaaaaaaadiez, recent comments nonwithstanding. I am pleased to share the American Museum of Ceramic Art's fantastic vagina-centric logo with all of you. HOLY SHIT! I think I saw this exact diagram in Sex Ed class when I was in sixth grade. Mad props to the museum's graphic designer for adding some subversion to a normally male-dominated world. Take that, all of you macho potters!

LINK to AMOCA

Threat Level: PINK

2006-08-28T14:52:00.000-04:00

Live in Seattle? Not planning on spending your weekend removing mold from your grout or looking at virtual craft items? You can view some very real Extreme Craft in person at the Bumbershoot festival. Curator Yoko Ott has put together an awe-inspiring show featuring several artists that have been profiled before on this website, including Theresa Honeywell (she of knit motorcycle fame), Charles Krafft, and Orly Cogan. Entitled Softly Threatening: Artwork of the Modern Domestic, the show takes its name literally, exhibiting everything from machine guns to candy and bridal registry flatware, all re-imagined as artistic metaphors for domesticity. Ott presents a wide variety of processes and products in the exhibit. Elizabeth Jameson works with fondant icing, crystallized sugar, and other compelling materials in her larger-than-life sculptures that take on the stullifying expectations and isolation of domesticity. Brett Alexander embroiders text onto uniforms and other ready-made knitted materials, playing with gender roles and queer identity.

Orly Cogan is exhibiting more of her marvelous work that pairs her with an array of unwitting collaborators as she alters and embroiders found textiles. The piece that sounds like the most ambitious of the lot is Mandy Greer's Small But Mighty Wandering Pearl, an installation featuring a life size (and exquisitely crafted) disemboweled stag, whose entrails spread throughout the gallery, covering hundreds of feet. The stag is hand stitched from various linens, and features a set of oversized antlers covered in hundreds of pearls. The goriness of the scene is reportedly transcended by the fabulousness of the spectacle--guts come together to form interesting constellations, such as a chandelier that hangs from the ceiling. Have I convinced you to drop your grout-cleaning toothbrush and head down to Bumbershoot yet? I thought as much.

LINK

Craft Transcends Meatspace

2006-08-24T12:29:00.000-04:00

Those of you who live in Seattle are probably totally jaded about the annual Bumbershoot festival, an annual orgy of music, art, and culture. You had probably planned on spending Labor Day at home cleaning the bits of mold from the grout in your shower (or maintaining a Charles Bukowski-style blind drunk blackout), but a quick glance at the arts schedule could make you change your mind. This year's arts festival jumps astride the stallion that is D.I.Y. craft and holds on for dear life. There will be tours, demonstrations and lectures galore, as well as some fantastic exhibitions, including Pixel Dolls, Meatspace, and Everything all at Once, which is an exhibition of a virtual exhibition created in Second Life, which is a virtual online world. Curator Michael Van Horn set up a virtual 16 acre island in Second Life where artists could create games, sculpture, installation, architecture, design, audio and video. The gallery will be filled with projections and monitors where viewers can explore the virtual worlds, as well as real honest-to-god artwork made by real honest-to-god artists in response to Second Life. I've written about "machinima" and "virtual" craft before, and I really wish that I could experience this exhibition for myself, but maybe I'll do the chic thing and send my avatar instead.

LINK

Vincent Van Stop

2006-08-24T11:38:00.000-04:00

I love you, Spencer!

The Recovery of Roy

2006-08-22T10:59:00.000-04:00

If you look at the artwork of Chris
Roberts-Antieau in passing, or through squinted eyes, you might just walk
on by. Her work is slick and friendly--images that would be at home in your
Mother's sewing room predominate. There are plenty of pictures of pets and other
animals, mermaids, and domestic activities like working in the flower garden.
I encountered her work at FolkFest last weekend, and I'm glad that I took a
moment to look deeper. Roberts-Antieu used to create "wearable art",
embellished garments that sold in pricy boutiques and stores like Neiman marcus.
The burdens of conducting a staff of fifteen and scrambling to fill orders burnt
her out quickly, so she turned to creating large scale fabric art. First of
all, her work is exactingly crafted. Roberts-Antieu hunts for unusual fabrics,
then uses applique and machine stitching to compose her pieces, finishing them
up with hand embroidery. The machine stitching forms unwavering borders between
the pieces of fabric, creating a very graphic comic book effect.

The comic metaphor is apt, because she crams many of her pieces with wry, funny
details, as in The
Magic of Interpretive Dance, which shows a variety of adults lost in spastic
reverie. Pop culture moments don't escape her grasp either, as in Oprah's
Big Audience Giveaway, where a larger-than-life Oprah presides, preacher-like,
over a flock of adherents who lift their hands to the sky in excitement. Characters
in the paintings are often grappling with relationships with friends and significant
others, and mirror our emotional lives as much as they do pop culture. In the
painting Bad
Habits, figures grapple not only with habits like smoking and procrastination,
but they are shown grappling with the social effects of those habits on the
people that they love. In Tangled
Leashes, a group of dog walkers struggle to untangle their canine counterparts
and Roberts-Antieu delights in creating a variety of interactions worthy of
Leonardo's Last Supper.

Far and away, though, is my favorite piece, The
Recovery of Roy, a deliciously nasty piece that depicts the mauling of the
Roy (of Siegfried and Roy) by his white tiger. This piece actually becomes a
narrative broken into panels like a comic book, with the first panel showing
Roy in the jaws of a tiger, spilling the drinks of a terrified lady with a beehive
hairdo in the audience. Roy is then carried away on a stretcher, then shown
recovering with a concerned nation wishing him well. Finally, Siegfried and
Roy make peace with the errant tiger as the sun shines down on them (and their
mullets). There is a fantastic economy in the way emotions and interactions
are crammed into the cartoon-like figures. I got to view the Siegfried and Roy
piece in person at FolkFest, and I spent a lot of time marvelling at all of
the love and delight that have been snuck into the pieces. There are details
like hand-painted frames and hand embroidered embellishments that take the work
to the next level. She'll be showing
her work at craft-related events in St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Washington
D.C. this year, but maybe it's time for the art world to start perking up their
ears. LINK

Mel in a Handbasket

2006-08-21T15:30:00.000-04:00

Mel Gibson Folk Art
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

This weekend, I attended Atlanta's annual "FolkFest". It's becoming an annual act of self-flaggelation where I wade through a sea of insufferable art in quest of the few treasures that are on view. It was interesting to watch the resale dealers trying to snatch up undervalued pieces to sell later at higher prices. Just like shopping at Whole Foods, in folk art, the story is everything. If you can tell your public that a piece of art was made by a poor illiterate Alabaman, you'll do well. If that illiterate Alabaman happened to be blind, so much the better. Say that blind illiterate Alabaman happened to be trapped at the bottom of a well, making art with his own feces....well that'd be a license to print money.

One notable quality that folk artists all seem to share is opportunism. You can't blame artists for knowing where their bread is buttered--it's the reason there are a bazillion photographers out there making money from taking pictures of puppies and kitties, but sometimes it gets a bit overwhelming. Above is a picture of a Mel Gibson piece on an old board that didn't even have time for the varnish to dry before it was whisked off to FolkFest. By the end of the show, though, it hadn't sold, and the $450 price tag was thoughtfully lowered to $150. I guess the artist figured that by the time next year's show rolled around, it would be worthless.

There is plenty of money to be made by memorializing people and events. When buying art, people tend to stay within their comfort zones and buy art that has a connection with something else they like. Hell, I'll cop to buying a portrait of Luther Vandross by an amazing autistic artist shortly after Luther's death. At FolkFest, I saw pieces commemorating such incongruous figures as bass player Jaco Pastorius and the mauling of Roy from Siegfred and Roy. If I had piles of cash, I would've bought the Roy piece in a heartbeat. I'm going to try to find a picture of it to post here, in fact.

The most striking thing at FolkFest is that commerce is never far from the viewer's mind. For an event that holds "authenticity" as its core belief, it immediately becomes apparent that credibility and authenticity are such ephemeral subjects that it's impossible to sort things out. Therein lies the fun, though. I'll keep coming back to FolkFest because it makes me think....I just wish a few more people buying crayon Elvis portraits would wrestle with the demons that I do when they whip out their wallet. After all, you can't say "folk" without saying "faux" at the same time.

Public Decency!

2006-08-21T15:06:00.000-04:00

More Boobs
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

Extreme Craft readers will remember the post that I made about the remarkable public artist bringing smiles to Atlantans faces by grouting ceramic breasts to public places like the Krog Tunnel and Lindbergh MARTA underpass. The Lindbergh boobs met with tragedy in the form of some dumbass with a hammer, but the Krog Tunnel pair seems to be an institution, respectfully left alone by graffiti artists. The lovely Ms. Claire spotted a new (at least new to me) pair in the shopping center at the corner of Moroe and Piedmont in midtown. You can see them for yourselves if you enter via Piedmont and look immediately behind you and to the right. Thank you, anonymous human!

Folk Heart

2006-08-17T16:19:00.000-04:00

Isn't it funny how life seems to arrange itself thematically? About this time last year, I did a series of posts about Folk Art(with a capital "F", mind you). It's that time of year again, and Folk Fest is rolling into Atlanta this weekend. FolkFest is sponsored by some ginormous Folk Art auction house, and it draws many of the top folk artists, galleries, and collectors in the country to a god-forsaken convention center in the middle of nowheresville, North Atlanta. There are some amazing artists who are represented, including Danny "Bucketman" Hoskinson, blue-chip (read: long-dead) artists like Bill Traylor, and oddballs like Steven Keane. Sean Samoheyl, who I wrote about last year, will also be exhibiting again.

For every amazing artist with a burning passion to express themselves, viewers have to wade through a dozen rich suburban ladies who feel entitled to show their "self-taught" paintings of martini glasses, Elvis, and high-heeled shoes. Still, one never knows who one is going to bump into. last year's Fest included the geniuses behind the PBS series "Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations".

Last night, I attended a lecture unrelated to FolkFest at Spalding Nix Fine Art here in Atlanta. The lecture was by Andrew Dietz, author of the amazing book "The Last Folk Hero", which profiles self-taught African-American artists Lonnie Bradley Holley and Thornton Dial, along with Bill Arnett, the larger-than-life (read: alleged scumbag) Atlanta collector who long ago mastered the fine art of blurring the lines between championing and exploiting artists. Arnett also championed the quilters of Gee's Bend, Alabama, bringing them fame, art world respect, and mad money. Although he owns a 60,000 square foot warehouse stuffed with art he obtained directly from the artists for rock-bottom prices, he claims to be misunderstood and impoverished. Arnett has popularized the art of true visionary geniuses, but does so by putting the artists under contract to him, buying up vast amounts of their work, and trickling it out to collectors gradually, letting prices rise astronomically.

Dietz' book is an even-handed portrayal of Arnett's triumphs and follies and an examination of the gray area surrounding the exploitation of Folk Artists. For the record, Dietz is an amazing lecturer. If you have a chance to hear him speak, jump at the chance. His book brings his subjects to life, and his lectures even more so. Since the book was published Dietz has become enemy #1 on Arnett's (long) shitlist. If you're interested in Folk Art, social issues, or the machinations of the art world in general, find this book and devour it. Andrew Dietz will also be haunting FolkFest (rolling with the Who-Ha Da-da crew, so I'm told), so keep your eyes out for him. He promises that he is working on a new art movement, which will be revealed in the coming weeks. If it's at all extreme or crafty, you'll be hearing about it in these (virtual) pages.

LINK

Beans Don't Burn on the Grill

2006-08-15T17:22:00.000-04:00

Beans Don't Burn on the Grill
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

Oh lord. This is one of those much-forwarded email attachments that don't quite have an original source. If anybody wants to point to the source in the comments section, I'd be much obliged. In the meantime, revel in the American ingenuity on display for erm...everyone to see. Happy end of summer, everybody!

Shop and Awe II

2006-08-14T10:58:00.000-04:00

You're reading the literary craft equivalent of junk food right now. "Craft" macaroni and cheese from a box...or better yet, the REALLY lazy kind where you just boil the noodles and squeeze the pre-made cheese out of the sauce packet. You should be at another site right now, reading something nourishing. May I suggest Kate Bingaman's excellent "Obsessive Consumption"? I've mentioned Obsessive Consumption on Extreme Craft before....heck, I even attended Kate's wedding, but now I have something truly impressive to tell you about: The OBSESSIVE CONSUMPTION SHOP!

Kate is obviously pursuing the endgame between her website and your mortal soul (or at least your wallet). First, she grabbed your attention with her cataloguing of everything she ever bought for several years, then she started drawing her daily purchases (and as an act of penance, the credit card bills that she's dutifully paying off). NOW, you can show Kate your love (and add a sense of fulfillment to your pathetic life) by buying her artwork.

The OC shop includes everything from souvenirs (buttons and sillkscreened hankies), zines (I already bought my copy of the debut issue), and blue-chip investments (Kate's credit card drawings are for sale for the price of the minimum monthly payment on the credit card bill). Do yourself a favor, and pop over to her website, then engage in some retail therapy to complete the experience. Obsessive Consumption wants you to shop!

LINK

WAR IS OVER (If you want it)

2006-08-10T12:34:00.000-04:00

I just got off the phone with my friend Henry, who is currently marooned at the Atlanta airport. The news came down the wire this morning that the British have foiled a terrorist plot to blow up in the neighborhood of 10 jet planes with liquid explosives. I'm here to tell you that the era of terrorism is over. The jihadists have finally gone and fucked with the wrong people. I certainly wouldn't want to be the one responsible for denying women their shampoos, lotions, and perfumes. If my theory holds, the ladies of the world will rise as one and put an end to terrorism once and for all.

The Write Stuff

2006-08-09T17:00:00.000-04:00

When I teach art appreciation, I always make sure that I spend plenty of time on Middle-Eastern art. Students, particularly in the military-base town where I teach, often don't have ANY positive images of Islamic culture. In particular, I am fascinated by historical Islamic calligraphy. Language, religion, and devoting a lifetime to the study of the craft produce some of the most compelling images to have emerged from art history. More recently, calligraphers have entered the fine-art world, combining their traditional craft with an awareness of contemporary art. Recently, MoMA's Without Boundaries: Seventeen Ways of Looking explored this synergy.

Today on NPR, Morning Edition carried a story about Aba Dhar Muhammad Salih, an Iraqi calligrapher who used to make a living making commercial signs. Because nobody wants to invest in an elaborate sign for a business that could be torn apart by a car bomb at any time, calligraphers have adapted, making the bulk of their living from banners commemorating the dead. Aba Dhar spoke about how hard it is to have to make one's living from tragedy--the difficulty of memorializing people you know and love. Most of the patrons that commision these banners are poor as well, making it even more difficult to make a living. The radio piece brings home the difficulties of reconciling craft (and pride in craft) with tragedy. LINK

Thoughtful Quilts

2006-08-07T13:45:00.000-04:00

Denise Burge is a quilter in a strict sense of the word. Her quilts, literally, don't fit inside of the box. They're messy affairs, spilling out of boundaries and constructed of a variety of fabrics and stitches, grabbing the viewer by the scruff of the neck. Looking at these quilts, which are often combined with drawings and painting directly on walls, I am reminded of trying to have a conversation with somebody who is fairly bursting with information, trying to convey it all in one caffeinated stream-of-consciousness. I don't mean this in a bad way. Burge's work is urgent, funny, and thought-provoking. The quilted parts of her work add a layer of meaning, history, and accessibility, drawing the viewer into a dialogue with their own preconceived notions of art and craft.

The Philip Guston-esque cartoon imagery that she draws are accentuated with cartoon speech balloons that are every bit as detailed and compelling as the images themselves. I love the way that Burge waxes poetic about filth and decay, elevating entropy to its rightful place in the cosmos. The fact that these are quilts also makes them walk a fine line between object and image, as well as text and object. I am dying to see some of these images in person. If you lived in Cincinnati, you might have seen her work recently in a show at the Semantics Gallery with the best title I've ever heard: "furry-stitchy-twitchy-rust", which featured other like-minded artists. If you missed the show, you can still check out her website.

LINK

G-Strings and Pasties

2006-08-07T09:47:00.000-04:00

Goodness! Extreme Craft certainly has taken a turn for the adult in the past week! I'm unrepentant, though, because the next item falls under the category of hard-hitting news. Around four years ago, the little old ladies in the village of Koniakow, Poland found their lace making business drying up. The town, which is in the area of Poland that produced Pope John Paul II (along with his lace altar cloths). The ladies did what any industrious crafters would have done in their situation: FIND NEW MARKETS.

The ladies were doubly smart, finding a market where they could maximize their profits and minimize the amount of lace they would have to make--undergarments! Specifically, the grannies of Koniakow specialize in micro-mini-thongs and g-strings, which hasn't played well with the local Catholic church. Reportedly, the local clergy has taken to shaming the dainty-makers by name from the pulpit. The collective must have a good publicist, as they have parlayed the controversy into articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and others. The thongs, or "Stringi" in their native Polish, will set you back about 25 Euros, which is a bargain, considering having old world craftsmanship up in your business is PRICELESS.

In other news, What Not to Crochet continues to be one of Extreme Craft's most linked-to websites. Recently, they posted some crocheted pasties that made me throw up in my mouth. A lot. Click on this link at your own risk...you might want to follow it up with a visit to a visit to your pals at Cute Overload to cleanse yourself.

LINK to G-Strings (Thanks, Carrie) LINK to Pasties

Whip It!

2006-08-04T11:24:00.000-04:00

We all dabbled in leathercraft at some point in our childhood, whether at summer camp, vacation bible school, or reform school. Creating a wallet for Dad or an embossed belt was nice and all, but most of us left the leather by the wayside, preferring to pick up more genteel crafts like knitting or scrapbooking as adults. Craft is craft, my friends, and I ask that you all analyze your lifestyle choices and ask yourselves where your D.I.Y. talents are best channeled. Those of you with S&M/B&D proclivities might consider taking up the hobby of WHIPMAKING! If you enjoyed your summer camp experiences, take it to the next level. Pick up some supplies and a copy of David W. Morgan's 1972 manual "Whips and Whipmaking". It's a surprisingly breezy read--full of history, physics, and of course, the D.I.Y. tutorials that you would expect.

By using this book, you can learn the finer points of "Fancy Whip Handling", such as cutting, wrap-around, and fast whip work.

"The tip of the fall is difficult to use since not only must it be in line and at the right height, but it must also be the right distance out. However, well used, the tip of the fall is a versatile tool, capable of pulling, pushing, grasping or fanning. In pulling, bottle caps may be removed from bottles. In pushing, bottles may be broken. For pull and push, tacks partly driven into a wall may be removed or driven fully in at will. In grasping, handkerchiefs may be removed from pockets, or objects may be picked up and thrown into the air to be hit by the whip. Stories are told of the coach drivers who could flick lizards down! In blowing , candles can be put out by the movement of air near the tip of the whip when it cracks."

The chapter on corporal punishment is a must, and includes some great pictures of flaggelation whips that were used by Catholic communities for flaggelation, both self-administered, and the kind that you have to receive straight from the priest. The above picture is of a whipping horse with a cat-o'-nine tails. The book points out the differences between these whips and whips used for the circus, cowboys, and others. There is a chapter about "Whipmaking by the amateur" that is encouraging, although the book states that the Australians generally hold that it takes five years of hard work to make a first class whipmaker. Who needs to be a first class whipmaker, though? David W. Morgan will teach you enough to give you a good start. Imagine the splash you'll make at the next Indie Craft fair when you show up with your line of badassssss candy colored bondage gear. I don't know about any D.I.Y. manuals for ball-gags or gimp masks, but here's a link to a great piece of X-Files fan fiction that contains some creative D.I.Y. B&D tips. You don't have to thank me for the inspiration, but the next time you're getting into some good clean fun, be sure you make "Extreme Craft" your safe word.

LINK to book LINK to FLICKR set of scans. Thanks, Meredith!

Glueguns'N'Roses

2006-08-03T13:58:00.000-04:00

I love a skull-n-crossbones iPod cozy as much the next guy, but subversive craft can sometimes only take you just...so far. On Extreme Craft, I try to take you beyond one-note jokes, where the maker is providing a simple twist to a dowdy old project. To get my attention, it usually has to involve herculean effort, mental illness, or multiple layers of humor, history, and handiwork. On the surface, webzine "The Anti-Craft" is a one-note joke...a Goth update of "traditional" grannycraft. When I found this website, it made me smile, but I realized that there was something deeper going on with the site that kept pulling me back in.

The "editrices" of the zine have churned out four issues that are jam-packed with interviews, essays, and detailed craft projects including a Toxic Tea Set, a recipe for dangerous tomato soup, and my personal favorite, knitted condoms. The site is filled with with wry, self-deprecating humor of a sort that most of the goths that I know have mastered. They're playing up their geeky sides, having fun with identity and traditional roles. Their projects are delivered with caveats aplenty, letting readers know about the dangers that are in store for you, their dear reader.

Also, today marks Martha Stewart's 65th birthday, so what better way to pay tribute than to pay a visit to your pals at "GOTHIC MARTHA STEWART". This site will help you embrace your inner Goth-Martha, advising on home decor, shopping, and even gothing up your wedding.

LINK to Anti-Craft via BoingBoing

Plate Job

2006-07-31T15:40:00.000-04:00

Amanda Dumas-Hernandez makes Extreme Craft of the highest order. Her work is playful, witty, beautifully made, historically relevant, and has something to say! That's a mouthful--just like her work. Amanda got her MFA at Alfred University three years after I got mine--I don't know how I've gone this long without knowing about her work. It is rare that ceramic geeks from Alfred stray outside of their chosen material, but Amanda has managed to pull of feats of design including Venetian glassware made from 2-liter soda bottles and hot glue, soap sculpture, a soda bottle chandelier, and plenty of other work that I can't even begin to wrap my mortal brain around.

I particularly love her series "Pretty Plates about Digestion", in which she takes thrift store plates, and embellishes them with imagery associated with the body's role in digestion. Taste buds, various and sundy colon parts, organs, and the bowel all put in their appearance. Dumas-Hernandez is not producing plates for you to dishonor with your inferior cooking, however. She hand paints each plate with "secret paint" for food of the mind and digesting unbearable things. Her current show, "Clean Thoughts" just opened at the Groundfloor Gallery in Sydney Australia. If you find yourself down under, please drop by and feed your head with some secret paint.

LINK via We Make Money

Get Nailed!

2006-07-27T11:49:00.000-04:00

I apologize to everybody for the recent turn to the frou-frou that Extreme Craft has taken. I promise to make it up to everybody with my D.I.Y. whipmaking post. For the time being, you're going to have to live with a post about fingernail art. I just found out that the Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta will be hosting a temporary 3-day exhibition of fingernail art entitled "Frutézia Fresh Style at Your Fingertips". I applaud the Contemporary for bringing this show, even if it is sponsored by a purveyor of wine coolers. The show is up between July 28-30, and features a reception on the 28th between 6-8 pm where you can actually have your nails done. Please RSVP to fruteziaatlanta@hunterpr.com. Come sample enough "fruit-flavored wine beverages" to get up enough courage to request the above design.

Speaking of the above design--I found it while fishing around for a picture to illustrate this post. It comes from a website from a nail art competition among the Baltic states. Lithuania and Latvia apparently don't fuck around when it comes to fingernails. Spend some time perusing the photos on the website. My favorite photos are near the bottom of the page--pictures of the seemingly normal young ladies who came up with these crazy designs. Beneath the heart of every cheerleader and beauty pageant participant lies the soul of an artist in with a tormented soul.

LINK to art exhibit LINK to Baltic Nail Championship

Pissed on Craigslist

2006-07-26T17:06:00.000-04:00

I use Craigslist ALL THE TIME. When I moved recently, I enough lawn tools to start my own landscaping business for $60. When it came time to get rid of the cardboard boxes, we put them up on Craigslist, and they were gone within an hour. How in the world did I not know about Craigslist's "Best of Craigslist" section all this time. Ladies and gentlemen, this is the most primo collection of bile you'll find this side of a gall bladder surgeon. Thrill to the admonishing of vomit-eating pigeons. Learn about the poor fellow whose roommate cleanses his anal beads in the dishwasher. Then there's this guy, giving it to the knitting circle who invaded his coffee shop with both barrels:

Things are about right for a good writing session. I get a few sips of coffee in and then a thirtyish woman approaches and asks if the seat next to me is free. I tell her it is, she places her bag there and I’m well into proceeding to ponder what I’m going to write when I process the fearful words she said next: My knitting circle will be here in a moment. There’s no way in the world she can be serious. The two couches can fit probably four people maximum, four and a half in a squeeze. And now three of them are already occupied. I’m sure I misheard her. But one by one they start arriving: chipper, cheerful, friendly, pleasant knitters. Is this seat free? Do you mind if I squeeze in next to you? Can you fit one more here? How about if I move your bag to make a little more room? I frown into my notebook and refuse to make eye contact with any of them. Meanwhile, out come the click click click knitting needles, long and deadly. Before long the table is a mountain of wool. More knitters arrive, including two men. Brothers, I want to say, have you lost your mind? This is a knitting circle! They seem lost to the cause. And more arrive. Save a seat for Trudy. Can’t we fit one more onto the couch? There, that’s cozy isn’t it? My existentialist comrade quietly exits. There is no peace. I’m completely surrounded -- cluster bombed by the Ball Square Knitting Club.

Once again, America, I salute you. I'm proud to live in a country with a safety valve like this. The next time you need a good shoulder to rant on, spare your intimate friends and associates, and turn to your pal Craig instead. Happy reading/ranting!

LINK

Love Handles

2006-07-26T15:18:00.000-04:00

I've always wanted a dog. I've never had a lifestyle that would be conducive to a four-legged companion--too much travel, tiny apartments, etc. When I do get a dog, though, I will get a pomeranian (or another lap dog) and I will name him (or her) Mr. Woofums. I will put on my seersucker suit and straw boater and walk Mr. Woofums through my neighborhood. My old next-door neighbor Lyndsy has an amazing standard poodle (HEY, Confetta!) that she used to dye pink. I used to walk Confetta through my (decidedly urban) neighborhood, where folks would always stop and ask me if she was born that way.

Dog ownership seems much more exciting and easy with products like the "Puppy Purse" out there. Witness the "Yummy Yeti" variety pictured above. There is an astounding variety of puppy purses available, including my favorites (other than the yeti one) Vera Wag Bridal, Midnight Rider, and "Ruffington Steele". The dog on the go doesn't need a bulky pet carrier when they can BECOME the carrier. Perhaps dogs can start evolving handles. If only Lyndon Johnson had a puppy purse for Him and Her, he could've avoided the political damage that came with picking them up by the ears.

LINK via Scout's Knitted Swag

TAMBO: First Blood!

2006-07-26T12:57:00.000-04:00

Pffffffft! I've written about TamponCrafts in Extreme Craft before. Tampons have always been useful objects to have around--my friend Mary used to use the applicators as candle molds back in the 70's. The good folks at TamponCrafts have raised the stakes in the tampon craft game with their new TAMPON GUN project. This useful D.I.Y. tutorial will show you how to turn our cottony little friends into projectiles. Still not tough enough for you? Try accessorizing with the tampon bandolier! Please take special note of their warning not to use...erm "worn" tampons. You can also download this nifty video of the gun in action.

LINK via BoingBoing

Roach Brooch

2006-07-25T09:56:00.000-04:00

I'm just going to come out and admit it. In the 6th grade, I kept cockroaches as pets. I grew up on a farm in Nebraska, and cockroaches seemed terribly exotic (oh cruel irony in light of my current home in Nebraska). I actually acquired the roaches for a science fair experiment (WOW! my parents let me raise roaches in their home, but wouldn't allow me to own a rubber snake when I was a kid, because it was "a symbol of the devil"). I got the cockroaches--commonlittle ones--from the entymology department at the University of Nebraska. I remember being particularly fascinated by the giant Madagascar Hissing cockroaches that they kept in the department. THOSE were some roaches! While I was presenting the project to the judges, a few cockroaches managed to escape, damning my chances, but it added a little bit of spice in between baking soda/vinegar volcanoes.

Imagine my delight when Mandi from Beadcircle emailed me about the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach jewelry from Black Chandelier. Each roach is painstakingly decorated with colored rhinestones, then mailed to your door! Your new friend will happily live on bananas (or dog food, if I remember my roach care manual). When you go out, the cockroach can be clasped to your clothing with a short chain. Imagine the friends you'll make! I wonder if anyone has made little outfits for their cockroaches? It would be great to have a roach Mini-Me... Imagine! Television would probably come calling. Me and my cockroach would be a version of "B.J. and the Bear" for the new Millenium.

LINK thanks, Mandi!

Artificial Artificial Intelligence

2006-07-24T17:31:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh. Back in the Extreme Craft saddle. I'm tanned, rested, and ready. Lots of great things are popping up on the Extreme Craft Radar--cursor kites, scratchcard wallpaper, and video game cakes, but I when I think about what I'd like to write about, I keep coming back to an article I read on Salon.com about MTurk.com. Maybe I'm just behind the times, but I didn't know about the existence of Amazon.com's "Mechanical Turk" service. Basically, the Mechanical Turk is a way for companies or individual who need lots of labor-intensive data crunching or analysis that can't really be done by computer to divide the task among a bunch of individuals to make it easier and more economical. Mechanical Turk's "workers" are paid anywhere from a penny for simple tasks to around 45 cents per minute for weblog transcriptions.

Critics of the site complain about the "virtual sweatshop" angle and sub-minimum wage prices. People who participate in the cite, though, seem rather enthusiastic about getting paid for mindless work they can accomplish while working on the computer or talking on the phone. The site seems ingenious to me--providing clients with human computing services, while keeping bored people who are between knitting projects from slitting their wrists. Predictably, art projects have already come out of the site, including one by Aaron Koblin, a grad student at UCLA who wrote his dissertation on the service. Koblin offered to pay 2 cents for each drawing submitted of a sheep facing left. He then put 10,000 of the sheep up for sale on a website called The Sheep Market at a (rather steep, admittedly) markup of $20 per 20 sheep.

Maybe Koblin's choice of imagery for his project wasn't the most subtle, but the mind boggles at the sheer possibilities of the site. Crafting has always been a collaborative medium, and it's interesting to see how people seem to be programmed to share their work for seemingly limited rewards. Currently, a Mechanical Turk client is offering users a penny for their thoughts. How often can you say that somebody makes good on that promise? I logged onto MTurk.com and answered a few questions for surveys, as well as responding to the penny for my thoughts guy. I now have three whole cents! I got bored pretty quickly, though, and found a new knitting project instead.

LINK to Salon.com article LINK to MTurk.com

Vacaaaaation

2006-07-19T15:50:00.000-04:00

Hi, Everybody!

Sorry for the brief flicker in Extreme Craft coverage. I'm in lovely Jefferson City, Missouri for the week. I'm maxxxing, relaxing, and doing some crafty wedding planning for my October nuptials. Extreme Craft will resume its regularly scheduled programming next week. What do you have to look forward to? Does a tutorial in D.I.Y. whipmaking sound EXTREME enough?

Heart,

Garth

2006-07-14T16:33:00.000-04:00

Vaudeville Lives!

I'm not much for flag waving and covering my cars with those silly stick-on ribbons, but I've got such a boner for America right now--a huge Walt Whitman-style one. I want to grab America and hug it into a crushed "Of Mice and Men" puddle. What's got me yawping so hard? Three words. AMERICA'S. GOT. TALENT. Who would have thought that 90 years after the death of Vaudeville, and 25 years after the death of the Gong Show, America would make a two-bit talent show the most popular show in the land? What a two-bit talent show, though. America's Got Talent proves that we are a nation of cranks, practicing our contortion, balloon tricks, and Boy-Band Clogging in our garages and basements.

I see the participants in "America's Got talent" as being directly related to adherents of Extreme Craft that I feature on this website. The popularity of the television show is proof that America was built on the "Whim of Iron", that analogue to the "Will of Iron", but proving that you should value your most crackpot creative urges, and see them through to the bitter end. I can't recall being more thoroughly fascinated by the boundlessness of human creation as I am when watching this television show.

I've only seen a single episode of a similar show, "Master of Champions" that operates on a similar principal, but without the charm of Regis and Hasselhoff. "Master of Champions" has some crackpots to be sure, but it seems like the network makes every effort to box them in rather than showcase their uniqueness. Nonetheless, I'm totally in the thrall of these shows. My TIVO's brain is bleeding trying to keep track of all of the episodes of the talent shows along with the new season of Project Runway. I guess you know where you can find me this TV season--on my couch knitting man-doilies and dreaming about taking my Flea Circus to the big time.

Mutating Jeans

2006-07-13T10:29:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's New York Times had a great article about the weird, wild, wacky world of... JEANS! I really enjoy walking through high-end fashion retail establishments and looking at the ridiculous range of "distressed" jeans. Maybe it's just me, but I always think of the poor bastard on the other end pulling threads out of the jeans and beating them up with sandpaper and acid. The Times article pretty much confirmed the image in my head of the large Matrix-style sweatshop filled with industrious denim destroyers. First, most pairs of jeans are put through a giant washer filled with pumice gravel, then depending on the desired look, are sandblasted, acid treated, hand-sanded, and embellished with rhinestones and patches. The article focuses mainly on Martelli Lavorazioni Tessili, an Italian firm that posted $140 million dollars in revenue last year without manufacturing a single pair of jeans--they only distress existing pairs. I'm more of a fresh-from-the-racks indigo Wranglers type of guy, so I wonder what will happen when the pendulum swings back toward crisp, new looking jeans:

One threat to jeans bashers like Mr. Petrin is, of course, a recent fashion trend toward cleaner jeans. “While I still think that abrasions, washing out and other details are relevant,” said Deirdre Maloney, an owner of Brand Pimps and Media Whores, a fashion consulting firm in New York, by e-mail. “I think holes and rips will be on hiatus from the market for a couple of seasons.”

With $140 million on the line, I'm sure they'll think of something...maybe paying an army of male college students to produce skid-marked, tattered couture tighty-whities.

LINK via Consumerist

FANdicraft

2006-07-12T14:07:00.000-04:00

There's nothing like a craft tribute. My sister used to work for a company that opened mail for N*Sync and the Backstreet Boys fan clubs (WHAT!!! Justin Timberlake didn't do it himself???) She used to tell me all about the quilts and homemade stuffed animals that they received. Most of them probably ended up in chairity auctions, but I like to think that a lesser member of N*Sync still keeps warm at night with a nice quilted fleece throw that Edna in Shitsplat, Arkansas made for him.

I have quite a few friends who have done really well for themselves in the music world. They garner some pretty obsessive fans, and every time they come through Atlanta, I ask what kind of crafty tributes the fans have offered up. Usually I'm disappointed--maybe a collage here or a duct-tape wallet there, but nobody has stepped up to the creepy obsessive level of the fan that gave Frank Zappa a perfectly spherical piece of her own poop. Why am I thinking of this stuff? I just ran into a great post by godlike comedian Patton Oswalt about some of his fan tribute. Mostly, they hew to his love of comic geekery, but there were some great T-shirts like the one above. If you know Patton's routine, milk is most likely coming out of your nose right now (whether you're drinking milk or not).

LINK

Wanna See My Etchings?

2006-07-10T15:32:00.000-04:00

Hot damn! I loooove me some Etch-a-Sketch. As a child, I spent hours with the Etch-a-Sketch. Unfortunately, rather than churning out masterpieces, you could usually find me exercising my nascent compulsions by blacking out the whole screen by methodically covering the whole screen in tight doodles. To be fair, I think the doodling had more to do with my fascination for seeing the mechanism that made the thing work, but in retrospect, I think my parents should've sent me to the "special" elementary school teacher who played card and puppet games with me a little sooner.

Some are destined for the puppet teacher, and some are destined for greatness, like George Vlosich III. Vlosich is the undisputed champ of Etch-a-Sketch art. He generally sticks to celebrities and sports figures, rendered in mind-numbing detail. Each drawing reportedly takes between 60-70 hours to complete, as he traces and retraces lines to achieve his final result. If you have a spare $5000-$8000 lying around, you can hire him for your own Etch-a-Sketch vanity portrait. His website is a great sampling of his creative output, including some more affordable prints and merchandise. By the way, if you're interested in preserving an etch-a-sketch drawing that you've made, you can remove the back and let out all of the sand. After the sand is gone, you can spray the back with fixative, or even colored spray paint to make the design stand out.

LINK via MAKE

Dueling Nuptials

2006-07-06T09:43:00.000-04:00

Holy Matrimony! I'm off this afternoon to attend the wedding of my friends Clifton and Kate. Clifton and are tight brahs from the waywayback (the NEBRASKA waywayback). I heartily approved when Clifton started dating Kate (of the excellent "Obsessive Consumption" website) and moved with her to Starkville, Mississippi. The South needs more midwesterners--not for the benefit of the South, but for the benefit of the Midwest. Nothing's more tragic than watching a Nebraskan make fun of the South. Clifton and Kate are having a double wedding with a couple of equally talented friends, Ian Anderson and Kari Radasch. This weekend should be a whole buncha crafty, smooshy, love-y love. Devoted Extreme Craft readers might remember Ian's wedding proposal to Kari, which involved serving salad in these four handmade bowls. Clifton proposed to Kate with a replica of Paris Hilton's engagement ring from Paris Latsis. Do these kids know their audience or what? Could the rotation of the planet change with the powerful force of these talented folks joining forces? I'll report back later.

Do Not Drink While Piloting Craft

2006-07-05T13:54:00.000-04:00

I think we all knowFoun that sickening feeling when we find out that an old friend has taken up a life of crime... or drugs ...or joined a cult. One time when I was in college, I dropped by a K-Mart to pick something up, and as I was leaving a guy accosted me at the door. Wait a minute... aren't you... GARTH? I didn't recognize the guy at first, but I soon realized that it was a fellow that I had gone to high school with. We settled into the snack bar, and he told me about the AMAZING BUSINESS VENTURE that he was taking part in. After some babble about manufacturers and suppliers, I finally realized that he was A FREAKIN' AMWAY SALESMAN. He credited Amway with steering him away from the booze and giving him a purpose in life. I can only applaud that, but the good folks at Amway definitely had the chip implanted in his head on lockdown.

Imagine my delight when I found out that my college buddies Meredith, Vickers, and Sommer have fallen in with a disreputable, dangerous gang. This gang? None other than the infamous "Booze & Yarn". Founded in 2002 by Corinna Mantlo, Booze & Yarn meets weekly in the East Village of Manhattan. Initiates learn how to make crafty (and dangerous) projects. The fortunate among us learned to knit by spending quality time with our mothers or grandmothers, but what of the rest of us, whose mothers and grandmothers told us that not learning to cook or sew was a great way to stick it to the man? Fortunately for us, Corinna realized that alcohol can fill that motherly void, making it much more pleasurable to pick up some mad domestic skillz while getting sozzled on highballs. Can anybody out there tell me their favorite knitting drink? I tried china painting one time while I was drinking Lil' Jon's "Crunk Juice" energy drink, and that didn't work out so well. If you live in the New York area, know that your enablers are waiting for you in the East Village with open arms (and bottles). If you live elsewhere, you might want to order Booze and Yarn's definitive guide, "The Fun Way to Learn Knitting". Cuddle up with your new book and something to take the edge off, and relish your new domestic role.

LINK thanks, Meredith!

The Opti-Craft of Devora Sperber

2006-06-30T14:53:00.000-04:00

Websites like MAKE and BoingBoing are raising a fuss about Devora Sperber's reproduction of DaVinci's Mona Lisa using 20,736 spools of thread. I wanted to write a more in-depth appreciation of her work. I didn't have a chance to check out her exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, which ended in May, but she IS mounting an exhibition at the Marcia Wood Gallery in Atlanta next March. On the surface, Sperber's work is easily summed up--appropriated art historical images reproduced in craft-centric materials like pipe cleaners, thread spools, maptacks, and vinyl stickers. The effect is akin to Chuck Close, with large pixilation that only becomes clear when stepping back from the work. Sperber is also as interested in optical effects and issues of sight and perception. She often places optical devices in close proximity to the work that bring the macro-abstracted image into the realm of micro-clarity.

One of Sperber's most stunning works is "After Holbein, 2003-2004", a circular pipe cleaner reproduction of Holbein's "The Ambassadors" with a stainless steel column in the center. The pipe cleaner image is distorted, becoming clear only in the reflection in the center. Viewers are lured into her alternate world, where reality is twisted upon itself like a möbius strip. Sperber chooses her subjects intuitively, then exhaustively researches them, choosing not only the most fitting (and pedestrian) materials to render them in, but also the best optical device to help the viewer to reconsider the image. The Holbein painting was a more than appropriate subject for image manipulation, as the original contained a cleverly manipulated skull. There is a combination of computer processing and handicraft that I find irresistable. Sporer has said that although her pieces are labor-intensive, they are for all intents, finished by the time she even starts physically making them. Conceptual clarity adds to the accumulated power of the image. Scale is also clearly important, with many of the works replicating the scale of the appropriated piece. I am constantly finding out about artists that use craft as a part of their work, but seldom have I found someone who considers all aspects of their work as carefully as Devora Sperber. I wish that I could take a time machine to go back a few months to check out the Brooklyn Museum show. Sigh.

LINK

Scam Artists

2006-06-29T16:53:00.000-04:00

Why are people sooooo smart and funny? Not a day goes by when my email inbox isn't clogged with mail from Nigerian 419 scammers asking for my help in securing funds from deceased relatives, cashing overseas checks, or purchasing auction goods. There's a whole world of people who like to beat the scammers at their own game. One great ploy was the fellow who sent a scammer a 3-ring binder with computer keys glued to it, making sure that the customs value was astronomical. When the scammer accepted the package, he had to pay the duty, and all he got was a worthless binder.

The latest, greatest twist on this revenge was documented by the good folks at 419 Eater, and I'm happy to say that it involves a case of "Extreme Craft". The 419 Eater folks approached a known scammer in the guise of an art dealer, telling them that they gave scholarships to worth sculptors. At his own expense, the scammer hired African carvers to make a couple of objects, including the Commodore 64 Keyboard pictured above. He then had to pay for having the objects shipped to the UK, where they were dutifully photographed and put on the web. Screw the DaVinci Code--this is the most riveting art tale that I've ever read. Take some time to read the whole thing, and relish the beautiful little details that were put into the scam, as well as the resulting art. 419 Eater, Extreme Craft salutes you.

LINK via BoingBoing

Scissor Sisters

2006-06-27T14:50:00.000-04:00

Somehow, I missed out on Dylan Graham's exhibition "Anthem" at the Rare Gallery in New York earlier this year. Graham riffs elegantly on the Mexican tradition of papel picado, which is an obsessive, more morbid version of paper dolls used to celebrate Day of the Dead. Graham's work kicks the obsession and morbidity up a notch, as he references conquistadors of all stripes. The originals are executed on a grand scale, averaging between three and eight feet in length. Still, I can't help but imagine the images on a pop-up book scale. His works will be on view between July 2 and September 10th at De Vleeshaal in Middlesburg, The Netherlands.

LINK via We Make Money Not Art

Speaking of "crafty with scissors", you might want to check out the Grand Dame of the form, Kara Walker's "After the Deluge" exhibition at the Met in New York--she's combining her own work with selections from their permanent collection. The exhibition deals with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, specifically images dealing with water.

Taking her cue from J. M. W. Turner's Slave Ship (Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying, Typhoon Coming On) (1840) and Winslow Homer's sensitive depictions of black life in 19th-century America, Walker's aim is to simultaneously address "the transformative effect and psychological meaning of the sea" and the role of the black figure as they are represented in art. The narrative created through the combination of these disparate images gives rise to a foreboding sense of doom.

LINK

Shake Your Budoir

2006-06-27T14:14:00.000-04:00

Swapatorium, how do I love thee, let me count the ways. My eternal thanks go out to you for brightening my day every day with your trove of found objects and second-hand love. Today, though, Swapatorium shook me to my very core when it published a photo of the crazy bed pictured above. That's very nearly my bed! Not to brag, kiddoes, but I picked up a round bed with the TV canopy about ten years ago when a muffy sorority type was moving out of town and couldn't take her bed with her (her mother had given it to her for her 18th birthday!).

The bed has a television built into the canopy, as well as a stereo (with 8-track, natch), speakers, and (of course!) frosted mirrors. There is also matching furniture! The bed came with a little padded foot locker to hold linens, a side table, and another curious matching table with mirrored top (hmmmm....wonder what that could have been used for in the 70's). Elvis has a similar bed at Graceland, but covered in a shag material.

I've looked for years for information about the maker of these beds, but I've never found any. The construction is top-notch custom van particle board and staples--we're not talking about old-world craftsmanship. I'm sure the manufacturer had a sideline in custom vans, or at the very least, waterbeds. Anyone know more about these beds? I'm in the process of installing a 17" LCD screen in place of the ancient television... I'll make a post about it when I finish.

LINK

Sale of the Century

2006-06-21T16:26:00.000-04:00

Tom Zarrilli looooooves him some yard sales. He has parlayed his yard sale addiction into a fine blog, yardsaleaddict, and a solo exhibition at the Contemporary in Atlanta, A year in the yards of clutter and the driveways of divestment. The website is a must-read for yard sale afficianados. Recently he covered an estate sale that Claire and I attended where the former resident of the house had encrusted all manner of furniture with glitter, Mardi Gras beads, and plastic pearls. The above picture is of a mysterious column from that sale.

The exhibition is fabulous: a cluttered yard sale of a show, featuring stacks upon stacks of Tom's best finds, most featuring pithy labels stating the reason the object is being sold. My favorite item was a model produced by National Geographic where you freeze a plastic caveman into ice. It even came with a bonus sabre-tooth tiger. There is also a carousel of his great yard sale photographs, a cut-rate ancient computer that shows down-home multimedia displays, plenty of naive paintings, a Shrine fez, and an autographed Lester Maddox album. The public is encouraged to root through the exhibition asone might root through a yard sale, uncovering strata of well-intentioned purchases.

I often think about craft project items that I see at garage sales: there's a similar impulse when purchasing craft supplies to the impulse to buy exercise equipment or self-help books. I'm guessing that the accumulated weight of unused craft supplies may break through the Earth's crust in the next decade. On Thursday, June 22nd, Zarrilli will be lecturing about his show, and on June 24th, the public will be allowed to purchase the "installation objects". I'll be conducting a yard sale of my own in Athens, but could somebody pick that Lester Maddox LP up for me? Much obliged.

LINK

Nautical by Nature

2006-06-21T14:17:00.000-04:00

I always find myself writing about my family's history with Craft. I firmly believe that there's a craft gene that entwines my family members like kudzu. One of my Great-Grandfathers was a blacksmith. Another loved to carve gemstones. I've got an Aunt who is a fiendish glass painter, and my mother is an accomplished quilter. I don't get much of a chance to talk about my sister Jamee, however. Even though she's as crafty as the next Johnson (she's partial to pasta art), she has focused her energies on a much more badass pursuit. She's a sailor! Jamee cut her nautical teeth as a fisherwoman in Alaska, then went on to her current career, as a tech for Raytheon Polar Services, manning...erm...WOmanning the boats that take our scientists to and from Antarctica, South Africa, New Zealand, and other places. She's travelled the world, got married in the Seychelles last year (to an ex-Survival Research Labs employee, no less), and when she isn't out to sea, she's living in Cold Bay and Kodiak Island, Alaska with her hubby. Badassssssss.

Jamee just sent me a link to a maker of her favorite craft, Sailor's valentines! For those of you who aren't in the know, sailor's valentines are beautifully constructed seashell mosaics that live inside of beautiful wooden boxes. They were originally made by craftsmen in the West Indies in the 1800's for sailors who would buy them and bring them home to their sweethearts. There aren't many makers of the valentines left, but among them is 80-something year old Helen Beck. For nearly 30 years, Helen has been creating the valentines and showing them all over the world. Many of them contain modern twists on the classical form, with portraits, realistic ships, and whatever strikes her fancy. The pieces are expertly crafted and obsessed over. Do you have a sailor or badass in your life? They deserve a fitting valentine.

LINK

The Girl With the Most Cake

2006-06-20T14:58:00.000-04:00

I felt a little bit guilty about all of the dude-centric soccer craft posts, so this one goes out to the lizzzzzzadies. Cleanse your palette with this Nieman Marcus handbag and high-heeled shoe cake server. No joke. You'll be king (erm...queen) shit at your next party when you whip this baby out to serve that doublemocha insane-o torte.

LINK via popgadget

Soccer in the Balls!

2006-06-19T15:37:00.000-04:00

The World Cup craft juggernaut continues! German design firm Bora.Herke has designed a series of 32 Adidas soccer balls, representing the 32 qualifying countries in the tournament. There is an arch humor on display in all of Bora.Herke's work, but this project is loaded with clever references and witty craftsmanship. Among my favorites are the wax-print fabric ball representing Togo (shown above), Iznik tiles for Tunisia, and banana leaves for Trinidad-Tobago. The balls were on display at Colette in Paris, and are currently on display at Adidas Originals in Berlin. Sigh. The U.S. ball would have been much more accurate if they found a way to make it out of apathy. Is apathy knitted or welded? It's certainly not riveted.

LINK via 16sparrows

Dribbling the Ball

2006-06-19T14:20:00.000-04:00

Man! Everything's better in Brazil. Soccer's love affair with Brazil continues unabated, and it's not because of their boring-ass team. Who couldn't love a nation that installs miniature soccer goals in their URINALS! It seems that ESPN is running an effective advertising campaign in the bars and taverns of São Paulo, where patrons can get in on the...um...action. Sorry, ladies!

LINK via Beware of the Blog

Scarf it Up!

2006-06-19T13:41:00.000-04:00

World Cup fever continues to rage on. I've got an interesting history with the World Cup--I was an exchange student in Germany in 1990, and my first day in Germany was the day after they won the championship in Italy. My first view of Germany was of an insane freak out at the beach house. I spent the 1998 World Cup in Ecuador--it's always great to watch soccer among people who live and breathe it. Atlanta is a pretty great soccer town. Everywhere that I've watched games here has been packed with hardcore fans.

It's time to celebrate the universal brotherhood of sporting by getting your extreme craft on! German artist Rüdiger Schlömer created the website schalalala.de to let artists/fans "remix" soccer scarves by virtually cutting and knitting them together into new frankenscarves. Go ahead! Pay him a visit and have your scarf added to the pantheon of scarves from around the world. Reportedly, Rüdiger will be hosting a knitting workshop in the next few weeks, where the virtual will be rendered in honest-to-goodness yarn. If you live in Berlin, or if you'd like to collaborate, contact Rüdiger to get your knit on. If you can't be there in person, the website is a close second.

LINK

"Racy" Knitting

2006-06-16T19:20:00.001-04:00

Damn! When I was in art school, I wasted all of my time making silkscreen prints of spam and lumpy pottery. British art student Lauren Porter is having none of that, however--she spent ten months knitting a Ferrari for a project at Bath Spa University, where she attends classes. The car, which is a cross between a Testarossa and a 355, is made of more than 250 square knitted squares. She's embellished it with some tasteful hand embroidery, and enjoys showing British grannies (not to mention curious fellas) what the ol' Ferrari's got.

LINK thanks, Betsy!

Our Cup Runneth Over

2006-06-16T19:11:00.000-04:00

Holy shit! Have I found my sensei? Happy World Cup, everybody! This Extreme Crafter turned up in an online photo gallery that Sports Illustrated did of soccer fans from around the world. The hot item seems to be a multicolored mohawk wig, but we 'murkins aren't having any of that. Give me fun foam, or give me death! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

LINK

Bead It!

2006-06-13T11:34:00.000-04:00

Peggy Dembicer is an insurance professional by day, and an extreme crafter by night. With a background in textiles, Dembicer has continued to push the boundaries of craft with her explorations in weaving, fiber optics, metals, acrylics, and most recently, BEADS! Tons of beads. Her most recent masterwork is a reproduction of a 1978 Candyland boardgame, rendered entirely in novelty beads. She has posted FLICKR photos of the work, and it is well worth checking into her FLICKR photo set of other bead work. The Candyland piece would be magnificent to behold in person.

LINK via MAKE

Indie Craft Experience!

2006-06-09T15:22:00.000-04:00

If you live in the Atlanta area...or if you have the means to get yourself there, it would behoove you to attend tommorow's Indie Craft Experience event at the Defoor Center. There will be a bazillion craft vendors, great bands like the Orphins, dp3, and Tiger in the Grass, and a FASHION SHOW featuring Atlanta's finest design talent. The fashion show will be emceed by yours truly, and I'll be playing show and tell with some great kraftwerk that's been featured on the site. Come out to say hello! It's the Indie Craft event of the year!

LINK

Cheating Death (and the Art World)

2006-06-07T15:56:00.000-04:00

Damn! I can't believe I didn't get this posted yesterday, while the date was 6-6-06, and things were suitably evil. Consider this your day after"All Saints Day" chaser. British artist Damien Hirst is up to his old Koonsian tricks, and has announced his intention to make the most expensive artwork ever created. According to the Guardian, Hirst will create a life-sized cast of a human skull... IN PLATINUM... and encrusted with diamonds:

Recently named the "most powerful individual in the contemporary art world" by Art Review magazine, Damien Hirst will be putting aside animals suspended in formaldehyde in favor of fashioning a life-size human skull — one that happens to be the costliest piece of art ever made. Cast in platinum and covered with 8,500 diamonds from London jewelers Bentley & Skinner, the sculpture, entitled For the Love of God, is expected to cost between $15 and $18 million dollars to construct, and will be sold for as much as $93 million. "I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death," Hirst said by way of explanation. In a related story, Hirst's 35-foot-tall bronze sculpture of the Virgin Mother, complete with an inside view of her pregnant figure, was unveiled at London's Royal Academy of Arts.

Way to celebrate life! In my opinion, it beats the hell out of a statue of Britney pooping out her next head trauma victim.

LINK via ArtKrush

Where's Your Pride, Boston?

2006-06-07T12:24:00.000-04:00

Ye gods. I'm sick to the tits of the current political climate, the culture war, and the freakin' midterm election. Cynical politicians are constantly rallying their toothless, yammering, busybody bases by shamelessly exploiting whatever polarizing issue is at hand. Americans never tire of it. Duuuuuuh. Macy's department store in Boston put the above display in its window, containing a couple of fellas hanging out, one of whom is wearing a... brace yourself.... RAINBOW SKIRT! Macy's removed the display after one of their customers complained to management. Boston activist group MassResistance put the screws to Macy's, who reinstated the display, sans mannequins. Jumpin' Jesus with a wiffleball bat. Can't we all shop in peace? You don't see me complaining about the sequined brocade Frosty the Snowman vests they roll out in the Holiday season.

LINK thanks, Lyndsy!

Tanks for the Memories

2006-06-02T16:47:00.000-04:00

FLICKR user Defensor Fortis has published a photo set of American trucks in Iraq that have been converted by civilians into Mad Max-style rolling fortresses. Mother is the neccesity of invention, and the need to stay alive tends to bring out ones inner MacGyver. I'll bet that the good citizens of Atlanta wouldn't even blink if they passed one of these on the road. Too many Humvees tend to numb a person. Welcome to Thunderdome!

LINK

Chihooligans

2006-06-02T11:53:00.000-04:00

Over the years, I've cultivated a grudging respect for Dale Chihuly's glass art. It's hyper-commercial, it's cheesy, but I'll be damned if it isn't breathtaking if you can suspend disbelief for a moment (I'd like to think I'm a master of suspension). Chihuly himself seems insufferable, a strutting, gruff, macho type of dude who tends to go into "deep thoughts" mode when the camera turns on him (The David Blaine of the glass world?) However, I teach art appreciation classes sometimes, and Chihuly is a great way to approach the Art/Craft debate, and to show students that artists don't necessarily have to be puffing on the old "glass pipe" to create their work. Better Chihuly than freakin' Thomas Kinkade, I always say. Patchy is currently flexing his legal muscle by suing two ex-employees for making work that "infringes" on Chihuly's "trademark" shapes. Ugh. Yesterday's edition of The New York Times profiled the court case, discussing glass-geek minutiae about "lip wraps" and "ripples". Chihuly claims that he isn't in it for the money, but we all know that he's rather fond of the stuff.

Can you copyright nature? Chihuly needs to realize the territory that comes with dominating his field. SLATE magazine online just recycled an article from 1999 about the ubiquity of Chihuly's work in the Pacific Northwest, and that ubiquity has only grown in the intervening years. The article is well worth checking out if you're thinking about your own fraught relationship with Chihuly...or glass. Oh, and Dale--Long John Silver called....he wants his eyepatch back. See you in court, sucka!

LINK

Pimp Challiss

2006-05-31T09:37:00.000-04:00

My friend Merrilee Challiss lives in Birmingham, Alabama, and leads one of the most action packed lives that I know of. Merrilee used to work at Studio By the Tracks, a studio for autistic adult artists (home to Ross Bullwinkel). She also has a very active art career, with loads of solo and group shows to her credit. She's an Extreme Crafter of the highest order, and a founding member of Birmingham's Collarmoth Collective. Somehow, all of this wasn't enough for her. Now she's started Bottletree, a cafe and lounge in Birmingham's emerging Avondale neighborhood. I haven't gotten a chance to visit yet, but from the looks of it, the interior design suits Merrilee's vision well. Here is Exhibit A, a taxidermied deer head that Merrilee has covered in glitter. The Cafe isn't quite open yet, but the lounge has already had some concerts, and upcoming shows include comedian Todd Barry and The Gossip. Merrilee's current solo show, "Blank Magic" is on view at the Moxie Gallery in Birmingham through June 7th. Just writing about her wears me out. I'm off to take a nap. Happy, Merrilee?

LINK

The Fountain Pen of Youth

2006-05-23T15:12:00.000-04:00

My pal Hooper recently found a treasure trove of old drawings from his childhood. The classics are all there...lots of cars, some war drawings, Transformers, Superheroes, and touchingly, Teen Wolf in the throes of "wolfing out". Despite the snarky comments that I left on the FLICKR page that he made for them, it's great to see the grade school mind of an artist with future greatness ahead of him. When I was in second grade, we had a wide-eyed hippie teacher that was fresh from college and intent on not stifling our emerging creativity. My friends and I convinced her that our drawings of naked people were "National Geographic people", and that it was entirely proper. Jesus God, I wish I had some of those drawings. Hooper is a much better person than I for saving his.

I particularly love the photo that I pictured above. Hooper apparently always had avant-garde tendencies, as Superman seems to be breaking out of a picture plane within the picture plane. Note the border actually falling to the ground (not to mention the cathedral that seems to be growing from his head).

LINK

Monumental Disorder

2006-05-23T09:30:00.000-04:00

My favorite magazine? For those of you picturing me lovingly thumbing through Vogue Knitting or American Craft...sorry. Far and away, I spend more time with the New York Times Magazine. It's the perfect magazine to occupy me on my rides on the bus and subway. The articles are deep, diverse, and thought-provoking, but I've become addicted to the trimmings...Randy Cohen's Ethicist, the Freakonomics column, but mainly Consumed by Rob Walker. Nearly every week, Walker takes an in-depth look at a consumer phenomenon, and manages to critically analyze it without fawning or chiding.

This week's column examines Boym Partners "Buildings of Disaster" commemoratives. The series, which began in 1998 as an "alternative history of architecture", consists of tiny, lovingly rendered miniature buildings, made of bonded nickel in editions of 500. Subjects so far have included The New Orleans Superdome, the Unabomber's Cabin, Chernobyl, and oddly enough, OJ Simpson's Car Chase (pictured above). Crass exploitation, you cry? Maybe...but think about commemorative objects in general. Commemorative objects, be they plates, thimbles, or lenticular World-Trade Center portraits, fill a psychological human need to make memories tangible. Such high-minded objects as the Buildings of Disaster series aren't meant to be artworks (like Charles Krafft's "Disasterware" series) but as design objects.

The design object occupies a peculiar place in our cultural landscape. I would argue that the glut of miniature chairs and functional Alessi objects are analogous to the plates or thimbles that your Grandmother has hanging in her trailer. People derive pleasure from the objects that they surround themselves with, and "Buildings of Disaster" manage to commemorate something as ephemeral as the participatory role that buildings play in tragic events, while being "monuments" to the humor and taste of their owners. The New York Times article points out that there is an entire class of miniature building collectors, who provide one of the constituencies of "Buildings of Disaster", but they are certainly not alone. Like all good commemorators, Boym know where there bread is buttered, and have also created a series of "missing monuments" (which actually predate the Buildings of Disaster" and "fathers of modern art". Plunk down your $90, and a little piece of limited edition tragedy can be yours.

LINK

Airigami?

2006-05-18T12:37:00.000-04:00

Craft doesn't generally exist in a vacuum. By definition, craft is a handing down of ideas and inspiration. I've written before about my family's penchant for craft fads when I was growing up... stained glass, wire art, and macrame. I've written about my mother's quilting "habit", but I don't think I've ever mentioned that my father is a clown. My father is an honest-to-goodness Shrine clown. He doesn't drive around in a little car, but he spends a great deal of appearing at schools and public events, planning the clown skits when the circus comes to town, and of course, blowing balloons. My old man can blow up hundreds of balloons in the course of an afternoon (that's blowing them up with lungpower... and it only takes him one puff per balloon). He's mastered a lot of complex balloon forms, and likes to invent new creations in his spare time.

I wasn't aware of the term "airigami", though, particularly not the brand of airigami practiced by Larry Moss. Moss is a Rochester, NY-based entertainer with a penchant for the dramatic (witness his goth wedding photo, complete with fangs). He holds a record for the world's largest non-round balloon sculpture (pictured above) which contained more than 40,000 balloons. For the past several years, Moss has transformed "airigami" into "SCARIGAMI" with his Balloon Manor haunted house. Moss' wife, Judy found out that she had cancer in 2003. The treatments left her paralyzed, so he gives back to the cancer treatment community with a yearly haunted house, made entirely of balloons. The haunted house comes complete with "balloonamatronic" sculptures that move around. Balloon afficianados from across the country gather in Rochester to help create Balloon Manner, which will reappear this year during the last two weekends in October. Beware of your brain melting as you peruse the bazillion photos that are posted on the site. Damn. The gauntlet has been thrown down, Dad! Get blowin'! LINK via MAKE

Pink Ghost

2006-05-18T11:51:00.000-04:00

Pink Ghost
Originally uploaded by mingaling.

If you live in Atlanta, you can't escape the Pink Ghost. Thank goodness for that.

Clay School Confidential

2006-05-18T10:07:00.000-04:00

You've probably noticed that I don't include much ceramic work in Extreme Craft. I've written about it before, and I think it's generally because ceramic artists get sucked into a mire of glaze geekiness or function anxiety. Most ceramic art fits neatly into stereotyped categories--it's very similar to the way artists are satirized in (the terrible but awesome) Art School Confidential. First, you have the brown potter & "whimsical" potter...then you have the maker of natural forms, inspired by gourds and anemones. Next up, the maker of enigmatic objects, churning out weird organ-like objects, followed closely by the boat-as-metaphor-maker (vessel! I get it). There's crusty drippy abstract sculptor, who feuds with figural sculptor, and her close relative... THE FREAKIN' DOLL ARTIST (and her corollary, CREEPY GOTH-ESQUE DOLL ARTIST). Now I have profiled some amazing doll artist in these very digital pages, but rare is the artist who can transcend the mire of cutesiness, soft-boiled feminism, and...um...general suckiness.

I love it when an artist comes along who proves me wrong, so imagine my delight when I found out about the work of Marina Bychkova, a Russian emigre who wound up in Vancouver. Bychkova is finishing up a stint at the Emily Carr Institute, where she has been pushing the boundaries of porcelain doll art, creating anatomically accurate, beautifully rendered jointed dolls with insaaaaanely intricate detailing and costumes. Bychkova revels in her craft, spending on average, 500 hours per doll, sculpting pieces out of polymer clay and creating molds for each piece and casting them in porcelain, which she hand-paints. She doesn't shy away from the traditional aspects of her craft, pushing them into a rarified, obsessive level. Pixelsurgeon.com recently interviewed her about her art, her craft (process) and worldview. The result is a complex and fulfilling portrait of an artist exploring her interests. The interview garners bonus points for references to Jan Svankmajer, genitalia, and necrophiliac princes. Bychkova's own website has some great galleries of her work, along with musings about the fantasy and craft aspects of her work.

LINK via BoingBoing

Don't Mach Him!

2006-05-15T16:20:00.000-04:00

David Mach takes sculpting with humble materials to the next level. In 1983, he began a series of sculptures made from matches, including the skull pictured above. The sculptures, being made entirely from matches, are highly combustible, and the burning of the piece becomes a performative element of the artwork. After combustion, the blackened shell of the piece is left to display. For you fire lovers (and most Extreme Crafters are...), David has videos of his burning sculptures. No one trick pony, Mach is a collage artist, installationist, and public sculptor.

Most recently, he created an 8 foot nude sculpture made entirely of Scrabble tiles. The piece, entitled "Myslexia" contains 4,200 tiles (worth more than 76,000 points). Mach also has a newfound love for sculpting with ordinary wire hangers. His "Spaceman" is made from hundreds of hangers welded around a plastic positive. The "antennae" that stick out of the sculpture are meant to evoke the fuzzy motion trail around the figures of the spacemen in the moon landing footage.

LINK

Black Box Reorder

2006-05-11T14:36:00.000-04:00

While I'm on the topic of wearable technology, I can't resist talking about Diana Eng, who first made her way into our heart during Season 2 of Project Runway. Diana's new label, Black Box Nation, had its debut show at Make Magazine's Maker Faire last month to universal acclaim. I mean, who wouldn't go gaga for an inflatable dress with a vacuum cleaner attached? Black box Nation's web store focuses on affordable pieces of wearable tech-jewelry that make the geek heart go pitter pat. Reed switches, fuses, and the speaker tie-tac above are all designed to enhance your alpha-geek status, which, face it, could use a little polishing and waxing.

LINK

Shawl We Play a Game?

2006-05-11T14:20:00.000-04:00

Recent graduate of NYU's Interactive Telecommunications Program Gracie Kim knows that your aunt has one of those LED Christmas Tree sweatshirts, and she doesn't disapprove. She knows that's not quite your style, though, and started exploring embroidery with conductive thread combined with LED lights. The result? This fabulous, felted capelet, which was recently shown at the Future Fashion Event in Pisa, Italy. As an added bonus, her website links to her thesis paper about the project, which serves as a great brief history of wearable technology. The paper contains bits of a great debate about utilitarianism in wearable technology. In my opinion, this shawl is perfectly utilitarian, given that the purpose of the LEDs is to glitter like daysequins. I am a bit puzzled by her choice toembroider the garment with varicose veins. Still, glitter is glitter!

LINK via Popgadget

Persistence of Memory

2006-05-10T17:00:00.000-04:00

In his most recent travel column for Yahoo! News, the delightfully named Rolf Potts expounds on the human need for souvenirs. The human need for souvenirs is nothing new--Potts cites Anatolians who hawked supposed relics of the trojan war to greek tourists. He also mentions that on a visit to Stratford-On-Avon in 1786, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams whipped out their pocketknives and whittled some slivers from a chair that supposedly belonged to the Bard. It's great to picture our founding fathers as Beavis and Butthead-esque.

Unsurprisingly, my own souvenir picks when I'm travelling tend to be craftcentric. Not that the crafts offered up in 99% of shops tend to reflect any sort of purity of the culture--they are entirely driven by what tourists want to buy. That won't stop me from buying a baket made out of telephone wire or a hardwood carved Coca-Cola bottle...they're ingenious adaptations by native cultures. I recently watched a documentary on African Art that talked about how a certain tribe would tend to use traditional tribal masks in rituals that they performed for tourists, and newer, different masks for their own dances and rituals. The newer masks reflect their current, ever-changing beliefs, and are more garishly painted and decorated. The newer masks just don't look... well... serious and traditional enough to the tourist eye. Which is purer? Undoubtedly the newer, more garish masks.

It's fun to examine our tendencies with regard to souvenirs--they are embodiments of our own experiences, and should be regarded as such, not as samples of "pure" cultures from which they came. My favorite souvenir? A totally debased, yet totally detailed laser-etched Rosetta Stone paperweight from the British Museum. I could have brought back all manner of postcards or weighty books, but my wonder at the paperweight surpasses them all.

LINK via FARK

A Brief Craft Project

2006-05-10T12:32:00.000-04:00

Reagan Copeland, a high school Junior ("theater-loving" high school Junior) came up with this great wallet, which can be made from a pair of boy's underpants. There is a great tutorial on www.craftbits.com that gives you a good play by play (including unfortunate phrases like "money pocket"). The greatest part of this is imagining the hipster girls slinking up to the Wal-Mart cash registers with packages of Incredible Hulk undies in tow. Do they come in 3-packs? It would be great to have to make a few extra matching wallets for your friends.

LINK via BoingBoing

GLIT-R-DONE

2006-05-08T16:25:00.000-04:00

This is a long-overdue post--a fawning paean to Claire Joyce, Glitter Painter, Extreme Crafter of the highest order, and, coincidentally, my betrothed. Claire received her undergraduate degree from the Kansas City Art Institute, where she majored in eclectic mayhem. When she wasn't sewing costumes for debauched rock band SSION, she was busy orchestrating debauched costume events. Claire was part of an emerging proto-Extreme Craft scene in Kansas City that included puppeteers, designers, lesbian embroidereresses, and all manner of creative types consumed with wallowing in (and simultaneously destroying) domestic handicraft culture and stereotypes. Upon graduation, she spent months and months on the road with our mutual friend Kate Legere, in a pink van with a vinyl graphic of a bullet bra on the side. Kate and Claire were running for president on the DOMESTICRATIC party ticket, which was described by Yahoo! in it's daily picks section thusly:

With a thoroughly retro perspective, two ambitious young ladies have created the Domesticratic Party and launched their campaign to be co-presidents in 2004. Claire Joyce and Kate Legere, the presidential hopefuls, have a simple mission: to mother the nation by feeding everyone pie and tucking them into bed at night. "Let us be the ultimate Oedipal figures," they declare. The centerpiece of their crime and punishment platform is a national bedtime to promote a well-rested, less crabby country. These candidates are neither pro-choice nor pro-life, just pro-mom. To promote world peace, they plan to bake pies and brownies for foreign leaders. Finally, the Sunday after they're sworn in, they'll host a White House potluck to meet every person in America. If your last name starts with A-D, please bring an appetizer.

Claire became entwined by kudzu in 2003, and enrolled in graduate school at the University of Georgia....in PAINTING! She steadfastly avoided picking up a paintbrush, choosing instead to create make-out booths, giant hoopskirts, Wax-Print fabric quilts, and other projects designed to make traditional painting faculty curl into a fetal position. I'm going to go ahead and take credit for Claire's current obsession--GLITTER! Before she left on a trip to Ghana, she made a postcard for me that was covered in the stuff, then upon her return, figured out how to make paintings with it, laying down flat areas of glue, and covering them in glitter. Her first painting was of a steak, created for a show that some of her fellow grad students had organized at a steakhouse. The glitter steak was a mind-blower...so masculine, so steak-y, yet...so PINK and GLITTERY!

From there, Claire started experimenting with creating gradations in the glitter by sprinkling and intermingling different colors onto the glue. It was apparent from the beginning that she was on to something, as the images of hairdryers, rabbits, and unicorns became more and more complex. With her newfound chops firmly in place, Claire locked herself into her thesis project, among the most ambitious that I have ever encountered. For her thesis exhibition, she was planning a triptych of four foot by eight foot baroque glitter paintings, divided into smaller panels, but unified in theme.

Each painting avereged out to well more than a month of long days spent with the glue and glitter, but the final product was epic: A Quarter Life Crisis in Three Parts. The first painting, Part 1: Centering my Universe depicts her birth, among dogwood blossoms and icons from her childhood. Part 2: Acquisition and Expansion (a universe seems infinite) focuses on images and icons of freedom and expression, testing the boundaries of adulthood. Part 3: Repression, yeah! Things go South hones in on experiences of living in the South, and grappling with maturity and the future. I encourage you to download some of the images at their maximum resolution so that you can appreciate the detail. I was a huge fan of the paintings, but nothing prepared me for how dazzling they were when presented in proper lighting on a museum wall. The images literally reached out and grabbed the viewer, drawing them into the richness of detail and color in the glitter. Gemlike does not begin to describe their presence. Glitter has certainly been used in painting before, notably by Georgia resident Joni Mabe, but I don't know of anybody who begins to match Claire's mastery of it.

Just like many of us in the arts, Claire was raised on craft, learning to sew and make things for herself at a young age, and she retains that sense of wonder, even as she combines it with a decidedly adult sense of composition, color, and theme. A Quarter Life Crisis in Three Parts deftly combines epic themes with personal narrative and a dialogue with craft. The thesis show has unfortunately ended, but you should have your second chance to see the paintings soon, as Claire wades through multiple offers of solo shows resulting from the exhibition. A website for her work is in the pipeline, and Extreme Craft will certainly buzz with Claire activity as soon as it goes online. In the meantime, enjoy this gallery of Flickr photos of the Triptych and its attendant close-ups.

LINK

Ms. Jackson, if you're NASTY!

2006-05-08T14:08:00.000-04:00

Creative Loafing's Felicia Feaster gives Subversive Cross Stitch's Julie Jackson the third degree (or at least three questions) in the newest issue.

You started subversive cross-stitching as a way of venting frustration at a bad work environment. Did it help?
Oh so much! It was a very conservative workplace where precious, dainty and frilly were the norm. So many people there were pretty on the outside but nasty on the inside. So it was an especially therapeutic little hobby.
Does cross-stitch have a tendency to be more saccharine than other needle arts?
Not really. You could probably create more intricate details and flourishes with other kinds of embroidery. But any medium can be made sickeningly sweet, as evidenced in any local craft store.
How do you explain the rise of the indie-craft phenomenon in recent years?
I usually leave that to the cultural anthropologists and marketers. There are several theories, but I tend to believe in the idea that handcrafted projects provide a lot of busy people the closest thing they get to meditation. Crafting requires all of your attention. It's one of the few things you can't do while multitasking.

Julie's new book, Subversive Cross Stitch: 33 Designs for Your Surly Side is out now on Chronicle Books. Buy it now, or risk being immortalized in cross stitch on Julie's shitlist.

LINK

Kinetic Sculpture Race!

2006-05-08T10:22:00.000-04:00

Hi, dearies! I'm sorry for the brief hiccup in Extreme Craft coverage...I was taking my show on the road to beautiful Eureka, California. When I wasn't schlepping through the redwoods or hiking around the Arcata Marsh (a sewage treatment plant/wildlife preserve), I got a chance to attend a Cinco de Mayo benefit for Arcata's own Kinetic Sculpture Lab. For those of you not acquainted with the world of kinetic sculpture, I'm not talking about some boring-ass Calder monstrosity bobbing around on a museum lawn. I'm talking about a grueling 40-mile race from Arcata to Ferndale in human-powered sculptures that have to traverse mud, sand, water, and land.

The Kinetic Sculpture Race has become a rich local tradition, as well as obsession, and is dominated by Arcata's Kinetic Sculpture Lab, which puts together some of the most elaborate entries, which are fawned over by thousands of fans who line the route for the race, which occurs every Memorial Day. If you live in the Bay Area, it's well-worth the five hour trek to Arcata to witness the awesomeness. I can assure you that this particular brand of lunacy is taken deadly serious by the participants. Friday's benefit, which included music, wandering around the lab, and a specially constructed kinetic 7-hole miniature golf course, was a highlight of my trip. Sadly, I didn't get a chance to visit the Kinetic Sculpture Museum, which is in the nearby village of Ferndale. I'll have to make that the first stop of my next trip. Extreme Craft is alive and well on California's North Coast.

LINK

Decowpitation

2006-05-03T09:59:00.000-04:00

News of the French Cow Parade hit the ExtremeCraft world pretty hard. An anonymous poster brought this little nugget to my attention. Apparently, a few years ago, Stockholm tried the same damn stunt (what...they didn't have the guts to stand up for themselves and have a lutefisk parade?). The Militant Graffiti Artists of Stockholm didn't take too kindly to the cows, and kidnapped one in the name of art...or at least in the name of anti-advertising-cluttering-up-every-bit-of-downtown-street-space. They demanded that the city declare the cows "non-art" and remove them by a certain date. Alas, Stockholm didn't comply, and the cow had a fatal meeting with a couple of SkillSaws. You can watch a Quicktime movie of the beheading HERE. Sigh.

Sadly, the Americans did it first and best, when a "Vegetarian Terrorist" who called himself "Butch Cassidy" kidnapped a huge Ronald McDonald statue from a restaurant in Mesa, Arizona. Cassidydemanded that McDonalds place vegetarian sandwiches on the menu, or the clown would suffer for it. The statue was beheaded, the head festooned with pins a'la the Hellraiser films, and delivered to McDonalds. Still no luck. The heat got to be too much for the kidnapper, who dumped the headless Ronald in the desert, where it was discovered by a helicopter crew. The perpetrators were eventually caught and brought to trial, where it was revealed that the whole event was more art prank than vegetarian activism. A little bird tells me that at least one of the perps has served as a Guidance Counsellor for a University. Oh yeah...and it's a Trivial Pursuit question, too.

LINK to "Decowpitation"

That's the Ticket!

2006-05-03T09:20:00.000-04:00

Brian Jewett's background is in manufacturing. He left the world of widgets and wonder to start his own small business, thenstarted sniffing around some community learning courses in welding, which led to classes at the Otis School of Design. At Otis, he discovered....Basket Weaving! Rather than getting right with nature and making some really sweet birchbark berry baskets, Jewett turned to what he knows best...industrial materials. His baskets take largely traditional forms, but utilize material like rubber tubing and cable ties to achieve some seriously stunning modern effects.

People in the basket making community have largely embraced him--it's been my experience that many people in traditional crafts don't think of themselves as artists or creative people, but craftspeople are anything but playa haters--they love to see people push the envelope. He's studied with some of the masters of the form, and continues to develop baskets, vases, and beautiful bowls made out of tickets! A somebody with a ceramics background, I definitely see the connection between his bowls and traditional coiled pottery. He uses the traditional flat disk-o-tickets that you would get from carnivals, then molds them into shape and finishes them with a layer of resin for durability, then signs each one. Man! How many games of Skee-Ball do you have to play to get enough of those tickets to make a bowl? I have a hard enough time getting enough for some freakin' finger cuffs or a plastic parachute dude!

LINK

Yakov Nesting Dolls

2006-05-01T16:53:00.000-04:00

As you might guess, as a fan of Extreme Craft, it's hard for me to resist picking up shining examples of the stuff when I'm in thrift stores, or travelling abroad. One nice thing about being somebody with an eye for beautiful things is that thoughtful friends with similarly trained eyes (and some with not-so-trained eyes) will pick up shocking things to give as a present. One such kind soul, my friend Dan Schlissel, majordomo of Stand Up! Records (home of comedians Doug Stanhope, Lewis Black, and Marc Maron, among others).

Dan's a Jew, so he takes particular pleasure inflicting very wrong Christmas presents on his Gentile pals. I kept forgetting to post his yearly gift....Yakov Smirnoff NESTING DOLLS! Yes...you too can own your own slice of Yakovalia, complete with corny jokes that STILL only work in his new home of Branson, Missouri, where the good folks they ship in for afternoon matinees don't know that the Iron Curtain came down fifteen years ago. God Bless Yakov for putting the craftsmen back in the old country to work. The bottom of the dolls contained a number...suggesting that 2500 of these things were made! What a Kawwwwwn-Treee!

LINK

Hair Apparent

2006-04-28T14:07:00.000-04:00

Momus, everybody's favorite Whitney Biennial tour guide ran around the Whitney Museum yesterday announcing that CNN was reporting that postmodernism had ended at 3:00 pm, only to be replaced by hairstyles. The eyepatched one documented some great current hairstyles at the SVA open studios. I've been wondering for some time about who would win if Momus and Dale Chihuly were pitted against each other in a fight. A "no-depth-perception" battle royale would doubtless be a treat.

LINK thanks, Lyndsy!

Wal-Drugs!

2006-04-27T13:31:00.000-04:00

One of the architects that I work with alerted me to THIS monstrosity being perpetrated on the (already monstrous, admittedly) city of Pella, Iowa. Pella, which is known for its windows and faux-Pennsylvania Dutch culture (which basically means that Iowans are too wussy to eat scrapple). The design geniuses at Wal-Mart HQ in Arkansas cooked up a little 7-Gabled wonder that they will plop down into a Pella strip mall. Does the Smoothie King down the block double as a has bar? According to the Des Moines Register:

The facade of the store will include some architectural features that will fit well with the community's Dutch flavor, Mayor Darrell Dobernecker said.

"We were very impressed with the way Wal-Mart stepped up with a design to keep the building in step with our Dutch architecture," Dobernecker said.

We can only hope that the nearby town of Amana, Iowa will counter with a windmill-shaped K-Mart.

LINK thanks, Zamir!

BeauVines

2006-04-26T15:02:00.000-04:00

I'm sooooooo over the cows. I remember seeing them in Chicago the first time, and being mildly amused. Now that every city has felt the need to pick their spirit animal and decorate them, it's starting to get a little old. Atlanta did cows. Yawn. Athens has creepy little bulldawgs everywhere...my hometown of Lincoln, Nebraska did the most godawful bicycles. Perhaps thinking that cozying up to some crazy American customs might get them out of Freedom Fry Hell, the French have brought the cow concept to Paris. God bless 'em, though for kicking it up a notch. Witness the above photo of "Time for Seduction" by lingerie designer Chantal Thomass. A freakin' lacy udder thong? Wait until the folks at Chick-Fil-A get their hooves on this one!

LINK via Petistic

Woodworking

2006-04-26T14:25:00.000-04:00

Bob's Bed
Originally uploaded by Extreme Craft.

I've been meaning to post this picture for a long time now. Witness the amazing bed of my good friend and D.I.Y. God Bob McKemie. Bob made this bed with his own two hands...along with the house he was living in at the time. When he's not busy being the Gaudi of bed design, you can usually find him building his own Paintball tanks (or defeating paintball insurgencies with said tanks as a part of his team, the Blackhearts).

Derby Day

2006-04-26T11:18:00.000-04:00

The Austin Craft Mafia is my #1 friend on MySpace for a reason. With a new show (Stylicious) on the D.I.Y. network, insane exhibition schedules, and the level of sass one would expect from a bunch of Texans, I can only hold onto my hat as they roar by. Jenny Hart, skateboard embroidress and member of the ACM crew has officially released her new Roller Derby embroidery patterns. Granny has given you so much over the years...crocheted Barbie Doll toilet paper covers, embroidered days of the week underpants...why not give back for a change, and embroider some sweet gear for her new Roller Derby team? Grandma, and all of the other members of her team will clamor for more.

LINK via BoingBoing

Voting With My Wallet

2006-04-24T16:00:00.000-04:00

This weekend, The Little Friends of Printmaking, masters of the Silkscreened Rock Poster Universe, did the visiting-artist-thingy at the University of Georgia. They brought their slides to share...not to mention their love & patented brand of HI-larity. I also bought this fabulous wallet from them. Wallets are a funny thing, and I'm pretty frumpy about them. I hate most over-pocketed Trapper-Keeper-esque manwallets, so I always default to the tried-and-true $5.99 from T.J. Maxx models (I tend to do the same with shoes for some reason). This Little Friends wallet jolted me out of my torpor, providing me with fun and frivolity, alongside the durability and function that I crave. Their secret? It's apparently their unholy alliance with Poketo, who partner with artists and rock bands to produce these amazing wallets. Nothing could get me to trade my Little Friends wallet in, but Miki Amano unicorns? Raptor races? There's no reason to let your money languish in an anonymous wallet any more.

I digress. The Little Friends are a husband-and-wife team of printmaking Ninjas from Madison, Wisconsin. Their illustration techniques are unstoppable, but their true genius lies in the geekazoid printmaking details that they pack into each piece. Parlez-vous SPOT VARNISH? Get ready to soil yourself when you witness a Little Friends poster up-close and personal. In these days of online illustration, it's refreshing to see people putting old-world craftsmanship into something as normally disposable as a rock poster. In addition to my wallet, Claire and I invested in a lovely print to be installed in our upcoming lovenest. THANK YOU, LITTLE FRIENDS!

LINK

Life is Unfaire!

2006-04-21T14:48:00.000-04:00

If you're reading this from the San Francisco Bay Area, how come you're not in line for MAKE Magazine's Maker Faire? OH RIGHT--you are, but you're reading this from the WiFi enabled Roomba robot display that you hacked using some duct tape and the aluminum from a chewing gum wrapper. I REALLY REALLY REALLY wish that I was there right now. Here is some of the goodness that MAKE's weblog promises:

Come see... a flying Pterosaur replica, a flock of whale blimps, a giant painting machine, DIY RFID implants, model rocketry, breadboarding, trailer-glass blowing, The Crucible's welding workshops off the back of fire truck, pinhole photography, soldering, spud gun building, bubble machines and a bubble guy that appeared on Johnny Carson in the 70's, Bunnie Huang, Joe Grand, William Gurstelle and his Backyard Ballistics, The Exploratorium, Zeum, The Lunar Society (rocket builders), Graffiti Research Lab, Squid Labs biodiesel, electric cars, a Linux supercomputer cluster running on veggie oil, neon art, circuit bending, VJs, slide rules, pinball restoration, the Phenomenauts, Satan's Calliope .... and much, much more. Quite an eclectic collection. That's not to mention Diana Eng of Bravo's Project Runway and the fifty craft booths in Bizarre Bazaar and the Swap-o-Rama-Rama.

Diana from Project Runway! Why does Priceline have to suck so badly right now? Maybe we can lure her to the Extreme Craft Expo '07 at the Georgia Dome.

LINK

Knit Motorcycle!

2006-04-21T14:11:00.000-04:00

Theresa Honeywell is tougher than you. You're just going to have to accept that fact. She lives in Pennsylvania, where knits, cooks, embroiders, and otherwise kicks the everloving shit outta the domestic arts. Theresa has an eye for the masculine arts, knitting tool belts, jackhammers....and yes, a MOTORCYCLE! The knitted motorcycle pictured is on view through April 30th at the Georgia Museum of Art in Athens, Georgia, along with some of the other lovingly created objects in this FLICKR photo album, brought to you exclusively by your pals at Extreme Craft. Honeywell also embroiders tattoos, which serve as heirloom-quality samplers that will last for generations, long after that celtic cross has been lasered off your ass.

LINK

The Cozy Wars Escalate

2006-04-20T09:43:00.000-04:00

Bit by bit, the world is being covered in cozies...and the world is much better for it, I can tell you. The latest escalation in the cozy race (I've seen various weapons, a missile and a humvee so far) is this TANK COZY! This is an adorable way to tell your favorite weapon that you love it. Wrap your arms around some arms. Screw all of this, though, I'm going to start knitting cozy cozies...because cozies need love too.

LINK via BoingBoing

What a Crock!

2006-04-19T15:57:00.000-04:00

Esther Derkx has a little problem with silkscreening. Give the lady a squeegee and screen, and she'll cover the world in her particular brand of mayhem. Derkx travels a reckless path along the ridgeline dividing art, craft, and design, covering her work in humor and visual puns. In particular, I love her rehabilitated dishes, which seem to come from a daintier place than Sarah Cihat's 50Cents work. The crockery in her collection combines cheesecake male and female forms with ever-so-familiar floral decals. Cheeky. Eat your cheesecake off of some cheesecake.....or beefcake, whichever the case may be.

LINK via Whipup

MANdicraft

2006-04-17T14:29:00.000-04:00

Michael Combs, like many artists who can be considered "Extreme Craft" has a family history that is tangled with craft--in his case, decoy carving. In art school, Combs tried to deny his inner crafter, but finally found his inner voice when he embraced traditional, representational carving methods, but giving them a sardonic twist. Combs' recent work has culminated in The Trophy Room, an installation at the Parrish Art Museum in the Hamptons.

The exhibition consists of his sculptures of decoys, taxidermied animal heads, fetish wear returning to nature, and notably...a strap-on goose head/neck. Check out this great review at thenonist.com, or pick up the January/February issue of Sculpture magazine for a second helping. The exhibition will be on view through May 15th, so check it out if you're like, you know, on your way to your summer cottage. Does anybody know where I can get some of that kustom red pinstripe-y man wallpaper?

LINK

Foreman of the Grillz

2006-04-17T14:10:00.000-04:00

To a resident of the Dirty South, the grill is nothing new. In Atlanta, they seem to have peaked a couple of years ago with Lil' Jon. New life has been breathed into the genre, though, with Houston-based Bubba Sparxx wannabe, Paul Wall. Wall's hit "Grillz" is everywhere these days, so it's no surprise that the entrepreneurial rapper opened his own dental appliance business. Grills by Paul Wall is your one stop shop for iced-out orthadontic mayhem, and you'd better be selling some albums, because at $200 and up per tooth, they don't come cheap. Check out the Expensive Taste (pictured above), the Ice Tray, the Sno Cone, or for the truly adventurous, Ballin for Life, which is actually cemented into your mouth.

To get your grill, you have to visit a dentist to have a mold made of your teeth, which you send along to Mr. Wall, who will presumably stop drinking Codeine-Laced cough syrup for long enough to make your mouth a star. Enduring the "hang in there" posters on your dentist's ceiling never felt so good. Or, if you want, you can visit Paul Wall's Ye Olde Grille Shoppe in Houston...and mysteriously, the Gangsta Mecca of...erm...Maryland.

LINK thanks, Tyler!

A Kelping Hand

2006-04-10T14:03:00.000-04:00

One of Extreme Craft's first posts was about the hyperbolic crochet of Daina Taimina and David Henderson. Their work, which rolls math, science, and handicraft into the tightest of packages, has garnered immeasurable international interest and acclaim. Taimina and Henderson are joined by many others in The Institute for Figuring, dedicated to exploring and propagating these intersections of handicraft and hyperbolic geometry. Their latest project is a knitted coral reef, which is actively seeking contributions from hyperbolic crocheters around the globe.

Using the techniques of hyperbolic crochet discovered by Dr Daina Taimina, a mathematician at Cornel, the Institute has been evolving a wide taxonomy of forms - loopy "kelps", fringed "anemones", and curlicued "corals." Though the process that brings these models into being is algorithmic, endless permutations of the underlying formulae result in a constantly surprising panoply of shapes. The quality of yarn, style of stitch and tightness of the crochet all affect the finished model so that each is as individual as a living organism. The reef is made up of four sub-reefs, each with its own distinct styling and colors, currently dubbed the Green, Orange, Blue-Black, and Ugly sections, by virtue of their dominant hues. Like its biological counterparts, the crochet reef grows slowly: each piece is hand-made and individually thought out.

My contribution to the reef is actually knit from my personal belly button lint, so it might take me a bit longer to finish. LINK via Supernaturale

Subway Magic!

2006-04-07T11:47:00.000-04:00

Wow! If you thought Seattle's manhole art was wacky, strap yrself in for this photo by Flickr superstar OldhaMedia. Sinister Magicians in pink tuxedoes and electric rabbits (did it escape from the dog track?) are a perfect metaphor for mass transit (or is it some sort of allegory?). Anyone have any more information on this? Apparently it was taken outside of the Subway somewhere in New York. Where is it located?Anybody know who the artist is? Is it accompanied by a happy magician...like, say, Doug Henning?

LINK

A Wag of the Finger

2006-04-07T11:20:00.000-04:00

Did you ever look around you and feel that the world was going to the dogs? Corruption...scandal...abuse of power... I'm still amazed at the cleverness and awesomeness of humans, but occasionally things get so over-the-top that I expect to see frogs starting to rain down from the sky. A couple of weeks ago, my friend Amanda returned from an expedition to New York with these great 10 plagues finger puppets! Just in time for Passover! Lice, locusts, boils, frogs, and all of your favorite plagues are included. 10 Plagues! 10 fingers! A match made in heaven. The finger puppets are the brainchild of master storryteller, artist and musician Yitzy Erps, who also designed these fantastic passover seder puppets, which remind us why we sit in a hard chair, eat matzoh, radishes, and karpas.

BoingBoing also linked to a bag-o-plush plague dolls, including a few that wriggle around when their string is pulled. Not to be outdone, daddytypes.com has a great roundup of finger puppets, including the aforementioned seder puppets, Axis of Evil puppets, and some awesome Hindu puppets. Finally, a Kali puppet to match my fingers' bloodlust!

LINK to Plague Puppets

Thrift Score!

2006-04-05T17:10:00.000-04:00

Dammit! Have I been living on another planet or something? I'm a habitué of Swapatorium, who feature the finest ephemera that our thrift stores and swap meets have to offer. Recently, they held a "Best of the Worst" competition to ferret out the most extreme thrift store paintings inthe country. The results are in....and they are contained in a yahoo photo gallery. While not as routinely amazing as the collection of the Museum of Bad Art in Dedham, Massachusets, these paintings grow on you... just the things that are probably growing on them.

LINK