Sunday 21 October 2012

TRY TO: Make Bubbles Float

My first ever craft fair is coming up, and busy preparation is underway. When I am not wondering about what it will be like and feeling slightly nervous, I am scheming about how to display the Bubbles in the 8' x 5' space provided at the event. There will be nothing to hang from or hook to in the ceiling, so I'd have to bring my own free-standing structure to showcase my products. 

I am playing with the following ideas.

Simple and elegant coat rack by Vytautas Gecas. Just brilliant.
Another one by Weekday Carnival. Love the pop of color!
Or, just trust the design sense of IKEA
It might be fun to have a cute A Beautiful Mess tent.

Decisions, decisions.

Wednesday 3 October 2012

Are you feeling crafty?

How about making your own Fiber Lab bracelets? I think they would also be cute as Christmas tree ornaments, gift tags, and napkin holders. Or make it bigger and wear it like a crown? The possibilities are endless! Explore and see where your creativity brings you! What will you do? 
It's easy and fun, I promise!

You can also follow the step-by-step version below.
1. Print out the template and instruction on letter size cardstock with no scaling. Here is the template without instruction, if you've got this.
 2. Follow the grey line and cut out the bracelet strip.
 3. Score all creases with the dull side of the blade. This makes it much easier to fold.
 4. Fold the strip in half along the long axis.
 5. Starting at the end marked by (grey dot), bend the ends up like this, creating the first set of "valley" folds.
 6. Make the next set of "mountain" folds. In this photo, I am pushing down and squeezing the grey-dot end with my right hand, and squeezing the rest of the strip to maintain the V shape with my left hand.
 7. Make the next set of "valley" folds. I find it easier to flip the strip over and push down the centerline with the index finger, while squeezing the strip with the thumb and middle finger.
 8. Flip the strip over again, and make the next set of "mountain" folds with the same technique.
 9. Repeat until all the folds are made. The strip should begin to curve as you go along.
10. Almost there!
 11. Now you just need to glue the ends together. See instruction for detail.
 12. While the glue dries, admire how immensely useful these tiny clips are. And adorable. Or just use your trusty fingers to press down.
13. A little crown. PS it also folds flat, try pushing it down with your palm.


HOW TO: Build a Flower

I am in love with these images by Macoto Murayama, an architecture-student-turned-artist. According to TheScientist, he applies computer graphics techniques to illustrate the anatomy of flowers, in meticulous detail. The flower is carefully dissected, sketched, photographed, and finally modeled and perfected in the virtual world. His muse is the Commelina Communis, commonly known as the Asiatic dayflower.




Now, will someone please build a large scaled version of this?

Monday 1 October 2012

Just a little paper MAGIC!

Ever since I saw Between the Folds and discovered the genius that is Dr. Erik Demaine (hey, a fellow Waterloo grad!), I've wanted to try out this cool paper trick. The fold-and-cut theorem says that any shape with straight edges can be cut from a single sheet of paper by folding it flat and making a single straight complete cut. These shapes can be polygons, which may be concave, shapes with holes, and collections of such shapes (i.e. the regions do not need to be connected). This means that we can cut out this swan with a single cut! But of course, first, we have to fold it up the right way.
 Print this out.
Score the crease pattern with the dull end of the blade. This makes it much easier to fold.
Start folding it up.
With all the creases folded, it doesn't look like much.
Except for its many many layers inside.
Now, the critical step. Make one straight complete cut.
What will it look like? Unfold them to find out...
Gasp! It's a swan (and a swan cut-out). 
It's like magic! That was pretty fun.