Frederik and Gerrit Braun, energetic twin brothers with no shortage of dreams, have just finished construction of the world’s largest model airport. With 40,000 lights, 15,000 figurines, 500 cars, 10,000 trees, 50 trains, 1000 wagons, 100 signals, 200 switches, 300 buildings and 40 planes, Knuffingen Airport is both a wonder to behold as well as a technological tour de force. The best part of Knuffingen is that it’s alive. Forty planes and 90 vehicles move about autonomously.
posted by Trurl
on May 12, 2011 -
26 comments
Crafting can be great. But beware:
crafting can also go spectacularly wrong. Fortunately for the benefit of those of us who might become so proud of having made something, anything,
all by ourselves, that we are oblivious that the result is an aesthetic travesty, there are websites making a valiant attempt to document the legion of ways in which crafting can get totally out of hand. Before you pick up those needles or scissors or fire up the kiln or soldering iron, check out:
Glitter Gone Bad;
Handmade Gone Wrong;
What Not To Craft,
Homemade Hilarity; and
Kraftomatic. The sturdy souls at
CraftFail (previously) deserve special credit for documenting their own crafting mishaps, and
Regretsy (also previously) and
Etsy WTF will help you choose wisely from among Etsy’s hand-crafted wares.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Nov 22, 2009 -
65 comments
If you’re into crafting, you’ve probably stumbled upon
Craftster, a crafting community web log within which members can post pictures and documentation of their own crafts and processes, share information and tutorials, and get feedback. The crafts tend to be off-beat and original and many involve upcycling – this is not a site where one would proudly post pictures of a completed paint-by-numbers or rug hooking kit project. The Craftster
esprit de corps is nicely expressed by its slogans, which include, “No tea cosies without irony”, “Knit fast. Die Warm”, “Measure twice, cut once. Meh. Just start cutting”, and “Cheaper than therapy”. Craftster was launched in 2003, has 700,000 visitors a month, and, besides posting and discussion boards for every possible subset of crafting, its features include a
calendar of forthcoming crafting events,
member-created city guides to craft resources in your area, and
staff-written articles. But I especially wanted to draw your attention to the
Craftster Craft Challenges, the first one of which was announced on April 28, 2005. If you’re competitive and crafty, you have just enough time to whip up something for the 41st crafting challenge, which is to
create an “edible craft” (the entry posting window is August 1st to August 5th). For inspiration, check out the 40 previous Craft Challenges.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Jul 29, 2009 -
21 comments
Crafters may look like a close-knit group, but the reality is that there are armed camps within crafting. Knitters and crocheters brandish their respective tools and claim their craft is easier to learn or more versatile, while those who are bistitchual remain determinedly on the fence.
For the uninitiated/uncrafty, here’s an explanation of the difference between the two. “Wooly Bullies” [sic], a documentary, explores the animus between the Needles and the Hooks. When Sandi Wiseheart of
Knitting Daily dares to mention the “c” word, she gets many comments from knitting readers who, while stressing that they have nothing against crochet, just don’t want to see it in their
backyard magazine. When Kim Werker, editor of
Interweave Crochet,
tries to talk to the Knitting Daily crowd about crocheting she gets even more negative feedback. Part of the problem seems to be that while knitters contend with the “old lady’s pastime” stereotype,
crocheters are up against the much more negative “granny square and toilet paper cosy” stigma. [shakes head in sorrow] Crafters, can’t we all just get along? and make stuff?
posted by orange swan
on Jul 13, 2009 -
111 comments
Instructables.com moves to a "pay to see" model Instructables, the community craft blog of the handy set, has moved to a closed pay-only model, and the timer is ticking for legacy accounts. After 90 days from implementation rollover, people who do not pay for an Instructables "Pro" account will have their accounts "crippled". Non-paying accounts will no longer be able to view entire instructables at once, print out projects or get a PDF, have a "favorites" list, and most perniciously, people
won't be able to view "secondary" images in instructable steps that have multiple images. (Even if you happen to be the person that created it.)
[more inside]
posted by dejah420
on Jun 17, 2009 -
61 comments
If you’ve got extra kitchenware about is never used to cook or contains food anymore, here are some (low calorie!) ways to use it again. If you’ve kicked your caffeine habit, your metal coffeepots can
become lamps, or your teapot can morph into a
camel. Other items of kitchenware can become
recycled toys.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Apr 5, 2009 -
7 comments
For St. Patrick's Day, rather than show you how to knit your own
leprechaun or make a
hat out of a ice cream container (because who the hell wants to do that), I'm going to help you with your after party cleanup. You'll have lots of bottle caps and wine corks lying about afterwards, so here are some ideas on what to do with them.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Mar 17, 2009 -
15 comments
If you have too much mismatched cutlery to fit in your kitchen drawers, take a stab at crafting with it! Make a
wind chime,
fork key ring,
fork cup rings or coat hooks,
make cutlery clocks, or
light fixtures such as these by designer Ali Siahvoshi. Or you can make jewelry:
fork bracelets, a
fork necklace pendant, or collaged spoon necklace pendants like those made by
SpoonFedArt. Forks and spoons make
groovy rings. Here’s
how to make spoon rings. For more inspiration, check out this
cutlery chair sculpture by Osian Batyka-Williams, this
cutlery table by Toni Grilo, some
sculpture by
Matthew Bartik, Vince Pompei’s whimsical silverware
flowers,
clocks and
sculptures, or the items at
Forkometry.
Just don’t get so carried away with your new craft that you find yourself having to eat with your fingers.
posted by orange swan
on Mar 8, 2009 -
9 comments
Does your linen closet runneth over? Yes, you say, you have a stack of towels you regularly use in the bathroom and for
swan origami, but you have others that are getting worn. You have tablecloths and aprons you never use, your dish towels seem to breed in their drawer, and you have pillowcases which have outlasted their matching sheets, king-sized bed sheets for the bed your ex took when you split, and your linen closet contains a selection of linens that are faded or torn or leftover from former decorating colour schemes. What are you to do with them?
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Mar 4, 2009 -
23 comments
What can be done with worn, outgrown or single socks? Well, if you want to wear those favourite socks awhile longer, you can
darn them. If your baby’s feet are no longer so tiny, make a
baby sock purse or
sachet,
baby sock reindeer, or
baby sock corsage or
bouquet decorations for a friend’s baby shower. You can
make a hat out of your child’s outgrown socks, or your kids can make
Barbie clothes. You can use single socks to make a
foot massager,
potholders,
slippers, a
dog rug, a
snowman,
sock puppets or
cute critters. Or
sock art installations.
See these articles for more pedestrian ways to use socks.
posted by orange swan
on Jan 15, 2009 -
18 comments
So you've spent the holidays playing games, but now you have to be back at work. How to get your gaming fix during commutes and lunch-hours, whilst keeping up with that resolution to Learn Something New this year? Well, you could make a
Sack-Boy. You can keep your portable games device warm with a
Zelda cosy. You can knit up a
Pacman scarf or a Space Invaders
bag or
socks if you're feeling retro. Or you can make a
pocket ninja, an
invincibility star to get you through the afternoon, a
maqgnetic Katamari ball to spring-clean that desk, or a friendly
companion cube. (and if you're too cack-handed to knit, you can sew a friendly cube with the pattern
here and tutorial
here!)
posted by mippy
on Jan 4, 2009 -
13 comments
As 2009 approaches, you’re taking down your old calendars and wondering what to do with them. You still enjoy those Monet/Jeff Foxworthy/rose garden/Playmate images so much you hate to throw them in the recycling bin. Don’t worry, there are ways to reinvent that calendar so you can enjoy those images for years to come. For starters, you could
make envelopes and notecards out the calendar.
Though perhaps you won’t want to use your new Playmate stationery to write to Grandma. [more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Dec 28, 2008 -
7 comments
Audio visual technology changes so fast that if you’re of a certain age you’ve been left holding the bag of cassettes, VHS tapes and vinyl records. What will you do with these AV artifacts if you no longer want to play them? Have no fear; you can have lots of crafty fun with your real audio. You can make a cassette tape
mini journal, a
cassette wallet or
cassette coin purse, or a
mini cassette lamp. If you’re into melting stuff, you can make a sculpture, such as this
skeleton, from the plastic. The tape can be crocheted or knitted into items like
totes,
evening bags,
Barbie halter dresses, or
baby booties.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Dec 21, 2008 -
11 comments
Christmas is coming, but while the goose may be getting fat, your wallet is not. And you’re dreaming of a green Christmas. How, you ask, can one decorate a home economically and with consideration for the environment? This depends on what you’ve got sitting around the house already. Do you have lots of old Christmas cards that always seemed too pretty to throw away? Use them to make a
star or two,
tree ornaments,
angels,
gift boxes, a
basket, a
wreath or a
small tree.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Dec 10, 2008 -
15 comments
If people who have a lot of time on their hands and inner demons to exorcise turn to art as an outlet, the results can be startling, even if they have had no prior art instruction and have to make a paint brush out of their own hair and
use coffee as paint, or weave things out of hoarded chip or
Ramen bags. Drawing elaborately on handkerchiefs became so common in the mid 20th century it's become known as
panos. Welcome to the world of prison art.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Nov 26, 2008 -
12 comments
If you've quit smoking and you're trying to get through the early withdrawal symptoms without gaining 20 pounds, one coping strategy is to get busy crafting. Sure, you say, you've made
naughty figurines out of your cigarette packages in bored moments before, but now if you're going to craft you want to make something that celebrates your fantastic self-discipline and can serve as a worthy memorial to your renounced habit. If that's how you feel, check out these links.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Nov 23, 2008 -
8 comments
Got some old leather articles lying around that have become dated, worn, or too small? Well,
happy days are here again for your old leather goods, because here are some ideas on how to make old leather items into new items you can use.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Nov 16, 2008 -
4 comments
While you may not be the shoe hoarder
some people are, you have shoes in your closet you never wear and you'd like to know what to do with them. Are they just boring? In that case you could just experiment with
new ways to lace them, or find a way to
make them light up when you walk into a room. Or you could draw on the shoes with
markers or
sharpies. You could also
paint them, going with the theme of your choice:
Art Nouveau,
Picasso,
Day of the Dead, or
any of the ideas here. You could cut
motifs from fabric and glue them on to your lace-ups,
cover your flats with new fabric,
bling up a pair of strappy shoes with glitter, or
embellish your flip-flops with some yarn. Is the old upper worn out?
Knit or
crochet a new one. Want to get where you're going faster? Make
custom roller skates, or
modify your bicycle. Do your shoes hurt your feet? Put them on your face instead as
a wrestling mask, or turn them into an
iPod case. Your shoes could also become a
birdhouse, a
planter, a
centrepiece, or an integral part of a
coat rack,
bookends or
leg lamp. If you're really not up to crafting, here are
11 non-crafty ways to recycle old shoes.
But what fun is that?!?
posted by orange swan
on Oct 29, 2008 -
22 comments
Got a stack of bras you don't know what to do with? Charities will accept secondhand bras in good condition, but if you're in the mood to be creative there are bra crafting ideas on the net. You could make a
bra wristlet, and then make a
sleep mask out of the rest of the bra fabric,
earrings out of the hardware, and a
toy out of inserts. You could make a lavender
sachet out of a bra and use it to perfume your lingerie drawer. One seemingly popular idea is to make a
cute and
feminine evening bag or, as one woman who wears a 36F quipped in a comment, luggage. If you're an especially sassy member of the Red Hat Society, you could make a
purse that matches your hat. Some people even make
hats out of the bras, though perhaps not every woman would care to
so obviously wear a
bra on her head. If you're a breast cancer survivor and want to avoid buying expensive and uncomfortably heavy prosthetics, you could
knit yourself a pair of tits and go right on wearing your favourite bras. You could also make an art installation:
a 5' bra ball. Here's
a list of 28 things to do with old bras.
And yes, I realize this post will make many of the men of MeFi want to get a lot of puns/juvenile comments off their chests, but titter away. You're probably just jealous you can't make such cool crafts out of your jock straps.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 28, 2008 -
49 comments
Halloween is lurking ever nearer, and you need costumes and home decorations. Even if you're not as crafty as a witch, Halloween is a good time to start because the results are
supposed to look deformed and grotesque. And you're dreaming of a green Halloween. Fortunately I just happen to have a few links to get you started. This
garlic wreath could help you keep the vampires away, and this
eyeball wreath may work on everyone else. For a geek-style Halloween, make a
Mac-o-lantern. You could also decorate the house with a
vinyl record cat clock,
tin can candle lanterns, a
ghost mobile,
CD cat coasters, or a
skeleton doll made out of old socks. For outdoor decorations,
lawn tombstones can be made out pizza boxes and old newspapers, a
skeleton out of old plastic containers, and there could be a
ghost or two hanging about. You could adorn yourself with
a skeleton brooch made out of tin cans, and if you've got old clothes or linens lying about the children in your life might like a
few cute monsters to
cuddle. If your kids (or you) have finally outgrown dolls, give the dolls a
zombie makeover. For costume ideas, check out the
Daily Green's list of the best recycled costumes on the Web, then send the kids trick or treating with
pumpkin or
black cat canisters.
Just please be careful with those shears and x-acto knives or the blood and gore on your costume may be a little too organic.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 24, 2008 -
28 comments
As the U.S. election approaches, you're getting fidgety. You've donated, you've volunteered for your candidate's campaign, but you've still got time on your hands for election-themed activities. What to do? Well, you could make some snazzy
Obama or
McCain earrings to wear to the polls on decision day. You could make presidential candidate finger puppets out of
yarn,
paper, or
felt and re-enact the debates. You could knit a
party animal so as to have something to snuggle up to at night when you wake from nightmares of stolen elections. You could
decorate some oranges.
Slate has a slideshow of political craft ideas, my favourite of which is probably the
Homeland Security Quilt. For more ideas, check out the
Obama Craft Project, where crafters are crafting for change and fundraising. There you'll find everything from
Obamaware to a cool
Yes We Can scarf, to a
cross-stitch portrait, to a
cozy Obama cap.
Lest you think I'm being too partisan here, I'll say I did search for Republican-oriented crafts and there just didn't seem to be many. It seems Obama's got the crafting demographic, um, all sewn up.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 22, 2008 -
18 comments
You've been getting your sweaters out for the cold season, and finding that moths have been picknicking on them all summer. Or your significant other did the laundry and threw your favourite handwash-only sweaters into a hot water wash and/or the dryer. Or your children have outgrown the sweaters Grandma made them. However your sweaters became unwearable, it's time to make like a surgeon and do some cosmetic reconstruction. (If the old sweaters are at least 50% wool, you may be able to
felt the material first.) You can make
extra long gloves from sweater sleeves,
mittens, a
scarf, or
slippers,
legwarmers, a
tote bag, a
few handbags, or a
coin purse. If the kids don't want to let go of their favourite sweaters, they can be pacified with
building blocks, a
bunny,
snail, or
seahorse, or
diaper-coverup pants. If the cat feels left out, make it a
pet bed. Or you can make things the whole family can enjoy:
throw pillows, a
quilt, or
felted bowls. Since Christmas is approaching,
Christmas stockings or a
wreath might come in handy. If you want to
get into needle felting and start sculpting with the felted fabric, you could make virtually anything, including, oh, say, a
robin in a nest,
Anne of Green Gables, a
zebra, or
art for the wall. And best of all, by the time you're done you no longer want to throttle your laundry-challenged significant other!
As much.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 19, 2008 -
11 comments
Perhaps in your non-Metafilter time or during the occasional power outtage you indulge in that charmingly antiquated past-time of reading a newspaper made out of actual paper. But, once you've read it, you're left with blackened hands and the necessity for putting that fragment of a dead tree somewhere or other. Aside from putting it in the recycling bin, which is responsible but kind of obvious
(and therefore would not necessitate a MeFi FPP) what can you do? One option is to make
handmade paper. If you're an outdoors type, you could make
organic flower pots,
some kites, or a
dory. If you're more of a fashionista or home decorator, you could make a
purse or a
bead necklace, weave a
basket or
placemats, or make a
bird. If you're a spinster, you could make some newspaper yarn as
student Greetje van Tiem did for her Design Academy Eindhoven graduation show. The yarn can be woven into carpets, curtains and upholstery.
Here's a tutorial on how to make the yarn. Then there's always papier maché.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Oct 13, 2008 -
27 comments
Maybe you've left the corporate world and
its dress code behind, you've decided you're not the
Avril Lavigne type after all, or you're
soon to be unemployed. Whatever the reason, you've got a lot of neckties you no longer wear. What can you do with them? Well, if you still want to wear them in some form, you can make
daisy pins, a
wrist cuff, a
belt or
two, a
shoulder bag, a
wallet or cellphone pouch, a skirt (
long or
short), a
dress, or
thong underwear. If you want to have the best dressed dog in your suburb, you can make a
dog collar or
leash. If you have kids, you can make a
snake or
cravat cats for them, or teach them
how to use old silk ties to dye eggs. If you'd rather decorate the house, you can make
baskets, a
photo frame, a
lampshade, a
new chair seat, a
floor mat,
some throw pillows or
some cool quilts. If you want to start getting ready for Christmas, you could make a
Christmas stocking, a
tree skirt, or an
angel. In fact, there are so many ways to make things out of old neckties
there's a blog devoted to the topic. Whatever your choice, your days as a corporate peon will be memorialized.
As will the peanut butter and jam sandwiches you used to have for lunch.
posted by orange swan
on Oct 5, 2008 -
23 comments
Your favourite jeans are giving out on you, but you don't want to let them go. These are the jeans you were wearing when you met your partner/got your all-time best score on Frogger/performed at your garage band's only ever paying gig/whenever you move out of, then back into, your mother's basement. They're not just jeans — they're your history. But since you can't wear them anymore, you think you could reincarnate them. You have many options, especially if you've got more than one pair due for retirement. You could make
journal or photo album covers so your jeans can truly be part of your historical record. You could make a
quilt or
two or
three, or a
wall hanging, or some
woven rugs. Or a
Christmas tree. You could make
a slipcover for a chair,
pillows or
placemats, or
an apron or
two.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Oct 2, 2008 -
14 comments
As most women know, nylon stockings don't last. They run, they snag, they rip, and they can't be mended. And they take 40 to 50 years to decompose in a landfill. I was sure as I began researching this post that there must be some great pantyhose crafting and art ideas out there. But the results were, um, mixed. If you are into
weaving, you can make some wall hangings or rugs from nylons. If you're a
Klondike Kate type who sews, you can make a skirt. If you work in a corporate environment but want to keep your edge, you can abide by your company's dress code AND sport
temporary tattoos. If you're a crafty bride-to-be,
you can make flowers or
dragonflies for wedding decorations. If you're into the less practical kind of art, you can create
semi-wearable pantyhose art, or construct
pantyhose art installations like artist Mary Nicollet. You can even make
pantyhose dolls, and
stick them in a jar if you want to.
Just be prepared for the fact that most people will never understand why you'd want to. But beware, because pantyhose arts and crafts are either underexplored or instrinsically strange, and can go from “interesting” or “kind of cute” to “bizarre” and “kind of disturbing” faster than a run can make its way from your thigh to your toes.
[more inside]
posted by orange swan
on Oct 1, 2008 -
38 comments
