Man Made DIY

Gabrielle's son Ralph was turning thirteen, and asked for some au currant skinny ties, presumably because Ralph knows, as all ManMade readers know, that if you gotta dress up, you might as well do a good job.

Having a hard time finding appropriately priced and sized ties for Ralph, Gabrielle got creative and hit the thrift store. She came home with a pile of $1.00 traditional neckties, and got to work.

She says, "Of course, I forgot about the idea till 3 days before his birthday. At which point, I tried to rush and make it happen. I found 5 great ties at Goodwill and sped them to the tailor. There, I was told it would take 10 days and c… read more

These molded-plastic cookie cutters are sharper than a katana blade! The ninjas are snapping each other's legs off faster than you can bite off their heads! They're...well, pretty darn cool.  

People i know - Guess what you're getting for Christmas? … read more

I was gonna start this post with an "If I had filing cabinets like these, maybe I wouldn't let the piles on my desk get so high..." but I won't. Cause it's not true, and that's a dumb thing to say, anyway.     … read more

We spied these illustrations by Dale Murray this morning, and they've been making us smile all day. Perfect blend of vintage playfulness and contemporary cleverness.

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We don't care if cupcakes are oh-so-2008; these superhero-topped red velvet and Ovaltine (?!) flavored versions looks plenty timeless to us.

Just Jenn made paper versions of each logo, then cut them out to use as templates over biscuit-cutter cut fondant. "The thing I love about Superhero logos are the simple clean designs, just the image and the colors can tell you instantly who is who. All of which are PERFECT elements for topping cupcakes! I knew I wanted to do some of the basics, Superman, Batman – but I figured that some of the more obscure logos would be fun and also appeal to the diehard fanboy/fangirl."

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A few weeks ago, I wrote about Peter Buchanan-Smith and Best Made Co., and I haven't been able to shake the imagery of their color-adorned urban axes since. I can't help but check out the ax and shovel handles at the hardware store and garden center. And while I have immense respect for Best Made Co. and their amazing work, I'm just not at the point in my life where I can swing investing in a high-end functional art piece.

But that doesn't mean I couldn't take a cue from their bold color meets wood-grain handles and deep silver blades - so I decided to create my own colorful high-end tool, using a claw hammer. And you can too.

Materia… read more

We've all done it. Out of seats at a family gettogether or a friend's awesomely bad shag-carpeted apartment, we sit on the ground, and realize that a strong stroke against the grain of the carpet results in a perfectly, inversely colored line, exactly where your finger pressed against it.

Designer Gonçalo Campos took the phenomenon to the next level, by creating this faux-fur writeboard that serves as "a much more comfortable message board, with no need for erasers or pens."

And since we really appreciate Goncolo's inventiveness, we think this deserves an at-home remake. We're pretty sure we played with this very faux fur the last tim… read more

I have a huge respect for public art, am engaged by thoughtful street art, but have no respect for taggers (c'mon, guys; it's 2010). So, the idea of renegade public crafting is exactly the kind of thing that gets me jazzed.

Yarn bombing, a.k.a. graffiti knitting, is the act of an artist who seeks to improve an urban landscape by thoughtfully placing handmade fiberarts in a public place. These serve to beautify and engage, and are left indefinitely, or until the authorities have the piece removed.

(That's not really an official definition, but sounds pretty good, yeah?)

Our friend Dana from Yellowtrace has assembled a pretty rocking collection of such works. All of them are engaging to look at - the colors against the browns and grays of the street are amazing, but many also make public statements.

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There are rubber mallets, seafood mallets, percussion mallets, and then there are the paint-can-sealing, furniture-making, wooden-stake-into-vampire-heart-driving handmade wooden mallets, as you see above.

We bet you can guess which we prefer.   … read more

"Hey, Chris. I need you downstairs for a sec, but be careful, cause your dad is doing his glassblowing on the stairs again."

"No problem...I'll just take the slide."

Zip.

At least, that's how I imagine the conversations in this house go.