arts & crafts on wheels in austin

if you live in austin or are heading there for sxsw, be on the lookout for the wondercraft!

it’s a vintage airstream trailer (named “stella”) stocked with arts & craft supplies! the wondercraft is the brainchild of four creative ladies who had a goal of bringing supplies to wherever there was a need for artistic expression.  they offer  mobile classes, parties and events and keep their trailer stocked with a unique selecton of inspirational products.  i love it! such a great idea, and the vintage trailer just makes it even better :)

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for more info check out their website.

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at first glance, these look like really pretty ceramic vases, right? take a closer look…

these vases are crafted by german artist markus linnenbrink out of recycled objects (recognize that gatorade bottle now?) and colorful resins.

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you can buy these pieces at artware editions in manhattan. but i’m wondering how hard this would be to do yourself? i mean mine probably wouldn’t look as pretty as his, but still…it seems doable, right? you can buy natural resins online or at art supply stores, and mix them with oil paints to get a glossy finish like these. there are probably lots of other cool ways to decorate them though – if you think of any other ideas let me know!

turn your dresser into a shelf!

yes it’s another dresser idea but i wanted to share this today too because i think its such a unique, cool idea.

if you happen to have a really old beat up dresser that you don’t use, take out the drawers and paint them a a bright color, line them with some cool wallpaper and turn it into a sweet-looking shelf!

i  think this would look awesome if you used some old vintage wallpaper like these…

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so what do you guys think, would you try one of these ideas on your dresser?

project source; wallpaper images.

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this is such an amazing idea – i saw it on design*sponge a while ago and i’ve always thought about doing it, except i don’t have a dresser like that :)  the flowers remind me so much of our one of a kind vintage flower necklace!

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for their tutorial, they used some vintage brooches found on ebay, removed the backs and glued screws on.  check out the full tutorial here!

such a great way to give your dresser a little free people touch :)

fp loves…eric saeter

i first heard about jewelry designer eric saeter when i spotted one of his rings on another fp girl and i instantly fell in love. now that we’re carrying a couple of his pieces i asked eric some questions about his work and inspiration. what did i learn? that in addition to making rad jewelry- he’s also just a really cool, nice guy.

how long have you been designing jewelry?
i began designing jewelry A/W 08/09. it was something i had always dreamt of doing; one of those ideas that kicks around until the day you say to yourself “so when is better than now?” and you do it. turns out the process is a natural extension of my love and work in the fields of fashion and art.

how did you begin designing jewelry?
frustrated by a lack of decent and/or imaginative men’s rings at the time — that is, rings over size 11 — i decided to do it right and do it myself. it was very inspiring to watch my work travel around the world to be worn by such different people in such wildly different contexts from my own. it was almost like vicarious experience. now i’m addicted!

can you briefly explain the casting process/how you make your pieces?
the process begins with an intuition for translating ideas to wearable shapes. i find that direct approach (grab a knife, start hackin!) facilitates better final product — where sketching and planning can hinder my creativity. i “invest” my model in a high-temperature plaster and heat it to temps into the thousands to burn out a cavity that is eventually replaced by silver or gold. i use both vacuum casting and centrifugal casting which suck or throw metal into the cavity, respectively. it takes a good day (or longer) to complete all of the steps of the casting process, and each step demands a precision i never had anticipated.

where do you draw inspiration for your work?
surrealism in cinema, in art, in literature. high fashion, penrose and aperiodic tiling, arabesques, rainforests, science, rococo. i come up with some designs as a symbol to supplant the lack of a place or feeling too distant or too difficult to immediately experience; a deep cave, a dream, the rainforest, historical events, a ritual. i want to extend people into these places with symbols that attach them to imagined spaces.

who are your heroes?
jean-luc godard, yves st laurent, vladamir nobokov, karl lagerfeld, gabriel garcia marquez, abdul mati klarwein, augustin lesage. there’s a revolving cast.

if you weren’t a designer, what would you do?
i would probably be painting and drawing more, as well as scavenging creative people to conceive fashion editorials with (for a long time i was photographing models). i would probably also still be modeling to fund my creative projects.

what are your favorite hobbies?
i like making things with my hands, drawing, finding fresh art and media. i love communicating with imaginative people, the further from reality the better. traveling is such a liberating activity that i wish i could say i did enough of. maybe i will try harder this year to do that. after all i never feel more at home than when i am a long way from familiar paths.

if you were stranded on an island, what three things would you want with you?
one: a ring by yours truly — you never know when an un-contacted tribe could appear and eat you. leading researchers in this field suggest that my jewelry effortlessly implies one may be of heavenly origin. two: an awesome hand-crank wheatgrass machine. three: a seed bank. is that cheating? from there i could grow stuff to look at, grow stuff to chomp, and grow building materials also! bamboo viaduct! hello!?!?

the above images are from eric’s blog and tumblr, where he posts lots of really great inspirational stuff along with images of his work. and check out his mountain gold necklace and pyramids ring on our website!

a touch of pink

you may recognize these images from our first episode of home sweet home that was on the blog a little while back.  i came back to them recently and wanted to draw out a great decorating tip that might inspire your own efforts at home!

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in case you didn’t see it, another fp girl and I went to the home of our director of design and image and took a little tour of her home. one thing that really stood out to me about how her house was decorated was the use of pink tape all over!  it is such a cute idea and definitely adds that free people touch to a wall of photos that might otherwise look a little bit plain.

i love how it looks against that blue paint!

if any of you have fun, free people inspired decorating ideas, please do share :)

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i found this photography project the other day and it reminds me a lot of the WAFA mail art postcards i posted this morning so i thought it would make a cool DIY project for today! this is something that i definitely want to try- all you need is a camera and a friend!

every week, photographers ian land and caroline hancox each take a photograph and email it to each other.  they then create a diptych of the photos and display them on a website, taking turns deciding which photo goes on the left and which one goes on the right. to make things more interesting they live 114 miles apart, have never met and do not know what the other one has taken during the week.

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isn’t it weird how even though they aren’t planned, the photos end up looking really good side by side? or do i just think that because that’s the only way i’m seeing them?

regardless, it is such a fun project and a great way for them to collaborate and inspire each other through their work.  check out the website here.

this would be such a fun thing to do with a friend- especially one that lives far away! if any of you try it send me your photos :)