Posts Tagged ‘crafts’
By Hand…
Alastair Simms – Cooper
Photographer Steve Kenward celebrates the craftsmen and women who fashion things by hand…
Amanda Winfield – Stained Glass
Andy Doig – Neon Signs
Many more elegant photo essays at “Made Not Manufactured.”
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As we contemplate craft, we might recall that it was on this date in 1872 that Susan B. Anthony cast a ballot in the presidential election at her local polling station in Rochester, NY– an act for which she was arrested two weeks later. The presiding judge at her trial (U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ward Hunt) refused to let her testify directly, explicitly ordered the jury to return a guilty verdict, refused to poll the jury afterwards, and read an opinion he had written before the trial even started; Ms. Anthony was convicted. But her public defense of her action, rooted in the recently-adopted Fourteenth Amendment (“All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”) generated sufficient public support to accelerate her campaign for women’s rights. And while her sentence was a fine of $100, the U.S. government never tried to collect.
Pencil it in…
“I’m known as the pencil guy,” laughed Dalton Ghetti, 49. “I don’t mind that at all.”
The Bridgeport artist creates impossibly detailed miniature sculptures on the tip of a pencil.
He shuns a magnifying glass and uses simple tools like razor blades and needles to create delicate little figures – from a tiny, jagged handsaw to a minibust of Elvis in shades…
Readers can find the full, photo-laced story in The NY Daily News (and more in The [U.K.] Daily Mail); and readers in the Northeast can see the Brazilian-born carver’s work at the New Britain Museum of American Art, as part of its “Meticulous Masterpieces” exhibit, through this Sunday.
(Many thanks to reader PL.)
As we ponder altogether new meanings for “sharpen my pencil,” we might recall that it was on this date in 1940, at the New York World’s Fair, that the world’ first Parachute Wedding was conducted. Arno Rudolphi and Ann Hayward, were married on the Parachute Jump, a 26-story high ride created for the World’s Fair (though now working on Coney Island). The entire wedding party– minister, bride, groom, best man, maid of honor & four musicians– was suspended aloft until the newlyweds completed their vows.
Starry, starry night (with jam)…
Sticking with the “handmade” theme of yesterday’s post, the extraordinary work of Catherine McEver, “Embroidered Wonder Bread“:
Catherine volunteers answers to two questions sure to be on readers’ lips:
How do you embroider Wonder Bread? Very, very carefully. How long do they last? I have a couple of slices that are over four years old that look just like new.
See more of her beautified bread here— and browse a wide variety of “art, textiles, and oddities” on her site Stuff You Can’t Have.
(TotH to GMSV)
As we try to find those thimbles, we might recall that it was on this date in 1570 that Gilles Coppens de Diest at Antwerp issued Flemish cartographer Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum– a collection of 53 maps that is generally agreed to have been the first modern atlas.
The eyes of the beholders…
Readers will know Etsy, the successful online “market for handmade things,” where the mission is “to enable people to make a living making things, and to reconnect makers with buyers.”
Now, thanks to reader PL, readers can discover Regretsy— a site that focuses on a sub-set of the postings on Etsy; as Regretsy’s motto explains: “Handmade? It looks like you made it with your feet.”
For example:
or…
Regretsy is quick to be clear about where it stands:
Don’t get us wrong. We like crafts.
We just don’t like these crafts.
Yes, we know these people put their hearts into it. We know it took hours and hours. We know how mean it is to laugh at their creations. And we regret being the only web site on the internet that makes fun of things.
But what can we do? We’re immature.
Besides, art is totally subjective. Who cares what we think? I barely care and I’m writing this.
Listen, if you like something you see here, don’t argue with us, go and buy it. Seriously. Click on any photo and you’ll be taken to the seller’s store (if a photo is not linked, the store is closed, or we are unable to find the seller). We’re only too glad to have made the introduction.
Otherwise, we’re just going to sit here and look at the amputee kitten paintings and vulva earrings and laugh so hard that we pee in our reusable Pokemon pads.
Etsy, for its part, has been very gracious: “If it brings in more traffic to the shop and helps make sales, then all the better.” And in fact, many of the items featured on Regretsy have found new owners.
For our parts, lest we rush too quickly to any judgments, we might recall the thoughts of several close observers of beauty and the arts:
Good taste is the first refuge of the non-creative. It is the last ditch stand of the artist.
– Marshall McLuhanIt is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.
– Salvador DaliTaste is the enemy of creativity.
– Pablo Picasso
As we reach for those knitting needles, we might ponder bobbing our hair in commemoration of the incomparable Louise Brooks, fabled actress (Pandora’s Box and other Pabst greats) and author of Lulu in Hollywood; she was born this day in 1906.
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