Man Made DIY

Hi friends - I'll be away from September 4th - 12th on fine trip up and down the New England coast, and I'm excited to welcome my friend and maker Polly Conway to explore all sorts of mens and crafts and generall good times.

So, get to know her a bit better, and say hi!

Polly Conway is a writer and craft dilettante living in Oakland, CA. Her current unfinished projects include a nearly done cross-stitch, a 1/25th completed afghan, and a quilt that currently exists only in her mind. Polly runs her own small crafty business, Pollyannacowgirl, selling the projects she can finish, and represents at shows all over California like Bazaar Biz… read more

We're both cracking up and inspired by this series of business cards for fictional companies from films, television shows, and comic books. "Day Jobs" by Fernando Rez "pays nerdy, Easter Egg-laden homage 'to the hard working men and women who keep our beloved fictional companies going.'

Printed on Rolodex-ready business card stock. Extremely limited run of 20 S+N 11” x 17” prints are available for $25/pop."

We can connect fifteen of the twenty-one to its pop culture origin; how many can you? Let's see if we can get them all down in the comments section belo… 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.

   … 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.

   … 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.

For years, Noah from Skull-A-Day has been offering this great free, downloadable papercraft skull . Recently, he gave the outline a fun robot skin that plays with the balance between technology and nature.   … read more

Dowling Duncan have taken on a redesign that battles one of the greatest U.S.-, don't-mess-with-it institutions this side of the flag - the dollar bill.

The results are an aesthetically, conceptually, and politically sensitive collection of bank notes that are, frankly, %#&ing amazing.

Each denomination gets not only a color update, but a size determined by its value, which, when stacked up, aids in organization. Each notes features imagery that connects to its value:

"$1 – The first African American president

$5 – The five biggest native American tribes

$10 – The bill of rights, the first 10 amendments to the US Constitution

$20… read more