Sport shoe giants Nike are challenging creatives to turn the humble trainer into something crafty and arty in a global project which will hit London's Design Festival this year.
Some amazing interpretations of the shoe have already begun appearing on the Nike78 Project site to prove that artists and crafters really can make something inspiring from anything.
78 pairs of plain white trainers have been sent out to creatives worldwide, in a project thought up by graduate Paul Jenkins. Each of them has been asked to "use sport as inspiration to challenge their function"
The results are fish tank shoes from Japan (watch the video to see how they did it), remote control shoes from the UK, shoe masks from a Finnish artist, and cake and knitted versions too.
The finished shoes can all be seen at the London Design Festival in September.
Knitting is a comfy thing. Most knitters I know are happiest curled up on the sofa with a bit of stitching and a steaming cup of tea. Sitting on giant knitting seems the ultimate combination of the two, though I'm not sure where you'd rest your cuppa on this crafty knitted arty furniture.
Phat Knits is a project from Dutch designer Bauke Knottnerus (a pretty apt name for the designer of the splendidly stringy) which uses giant threads to create some amazing 'interior products' that are 'knitted or not'.
They look squidgy and almost edible. Who wouldn't love some giant squashy yarn-flavoured furniture? Crafty art wins again.
Muppets rule. It's just one of those facts. I don't know anyone on this planet who doesn't have just a little love for those bug-eyed furry fellows.
I would dearly love a muppet of my very own but breaking into Jim Henson's Creature Shop and kidnapping one seems rather risky. So crafting your very own muppet seems the way forward, and who better to show you than Jim Henson himself?
When I came across this Making Muppets video on the Mousehunter blog (excellent Mousehunter books if you fancy a fantastic mouse-and-pirate-flavoured read) I had to share.
The Muppet master takes you through the whole process of making your very own crazy-furred friend from all kinds of household objects. As he shows us how it's done he deals with some great interruptions from several weird and wonderful members Muppet-kind too.
You don't get a much better puppet-making lesson than that folks.
Happy Muppet-filled Friday!
Image from New York Geekcast.
Some of my earliest craft memories spring from falling in love with characters from Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine and making gluey, scribbly plasticine-flavoured attempts at creating them myself. On the tiny TV screen craft came alive and it was magic to watch.
Last night London's Cartoon Museum held a private view of their brilliant Toy Tales exhibition and I was lucky enough to snag an invite. The exhibition features some of Britain's most cherished kid's TV characters, from saggy Bagpuss to cheesy Wallace and Gromit to the perky Peppa Pig.
What fascinated me about the exhibition is seeing how the magic was made. I was even luckier to meet Peter Firmin (co-creator of the likes of The Clangers, Bagpuss and Noggin the Nog with Oliver Postgate) who talked us through some of the untold stories behind the handmade beasts.
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History and art tend to be a bit stuffy; moustached men in frock coats and women with giant hair. Blowing a dark wind through your expectations of art and history there is an astounding exhibition at London's Kensington Palace.
The Enchanted Palace exhibition, which opened at the end of March, has been set up while renovations are being made to the palace. Far from turning it into a building site, the palace in now a place of dark fairy tales, abandoned children and sinister shadows.
Crafty art, by Wild Works and several designers and artists (Vivienne Westwood, William Tempest, Stephen Jones, Boudicca, Aminaka Wilmont and Echo Morgan, being among them) help to tell a dark and magical tale of seven princesses and the shadowy life of royalty.
There are artworks, armies of toy soldiers, origami clouds and all manner of handmade wonders. There's even a handknitted throne.
It's fascinating, disturbing, magical and utterly spellbinding. I fell in love with it.
Go before they turn it back into humdrum history.
Who would have thought that frog innards could look cute or the periodic table could seem cosy?
Throw away your ideas of cold and clinical science as Discover Magazine take you into a world where knitting and stitching meet biology and zoology with their collection of knitted science.
Items features in their gallery include Emily Stoneking's disturbingly cuddly knitted frog with his organs akimbo, Karen Norberg's knitted brain and the Institute for Figuring's Crochet Coral Reef.
Lab-coated nerds with needles, we applaud you and your scientific stitching.
A generation of vampire film fans were saddened by the death of The Lost Boys star Corey Haim this week. Corey was a vampire-battling film icon long before the sparkly skin of Edward Cullen or the Southern fanged twang of Bill Compton came out of the coffin.
It's been pretty tough to hunt down a craft tribute to The Lost Boys. The world of vampire-based craft seems overwhelmed by the more recent undead and their hunters.
I did manage to track down some finely-fanged Lost Boys cookies at long last. Crafting with Cat Hair put together a batch of suitably bloody biscuits in honour of a film that made the words "Death by stereo" a phrase every vampire feared.
So here's to Corey and the hours of silver screen swooning he caused on the Lost Boys generation. You will be missed.
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