TinkeringTimes

Manchester Craft Hack event needs you

If you're reading this there's a chance you might be interested in craft, DIY culture, hacking and / or the city that is Manchester.

As it happens, there's an event happening on May 14th combining all of those things in the sumptuous and utterly wonderful setting of Victoria Baths. What's more, that event needs you.

Handmade is the name of the event which is orchestrated by the FutureEverything gang, as part of their annual festival of digital innovation. Be quick - submit your ideas by April 18th *here* 

If that is your cup of tea, and you're going to be in the area. I'd suggest you keep the afternoon of Friday 13th free too, can't say any more for now!

Carrying on the craft hack theme, though a little less digitally, I've spotted some great hacks lately, especially with pallets. The image above is StudioMama's pallet chandelier - pretty unexpected and yet incredibly subtle and beautiful. Other top pallet hacks I found below include...

A Little Q&A

I was chuffed to have been interviewed by the UK Handmade team about my work and what fuels me. It was interesting being interviewed, it made me think about things in the kind of clarity I haven't done for a long time.

So if you're remotely interested in what inspires me, where I started with the whole craft and sewing thing do have a little look *here*.

And if you're not remotely interested in that, I have mentioned a few other women who inspire me so you might want to skip straight to that bit.

The hardest question I was asked was, "In your role as arts consultant what do you feel the cuts in arts funding will mean for the arts in the UK?" I can tell you that's a very tough one to answer in only two or three sentences...

Geek Crafting

The craft planets must have aligned big time lately because there are some great opportunities coming my way in the next few months. I have come to accept that my love of craft has geeky tendancies. In fact not just accept it, but embrace it, thrive on it, be proud of it.

I was enormously excited to have been told my proposal for Cornerhouse's Micro Commissions scheme was accepted. I can't say much more for now other than it will be a project management / curation thing combining textiles and technology. I will tell you more soon, because you'll all be invited to take part...

And on a similar theme, I've been invited to lead an event exploring cutting edge craft and technology cross-over. Again I'm sworn to secrecy for now, but I am fairly bowled over that one of the other people involved is ceramicist Michael Eden, maker of the Babel vessel pictued above. It's currently touring as part of the Crafts Council exhibition Lab Craft: Digital Adventures in Contemporary Craft.

Textiles & Electronics

Through the magic of twitter I was introduced to Lynne Bruning. She weaves magic in the form of textiles and electronics. Given that I've twice researched this area I'm amazed I didn't find her before. She's a whizz with neon, nylon and pulses.

Added to that, this piece, Synaptic, is inspired by green flourescant protein; the nervous system; and cell imaging. A flick through my recent posts will show you how I feel just now about tiny scale science coming together with textiles. She describes it as "a Victorian raver blacklight evening coat" - brilliant! (Literally)

This is something I'd love to try more of myself, and though all her workshops on how to create your own conductive threads, fabrics and yarns seem to be in other countries, actually it's not that impossible. My local hackspace - Madlab - runs beginners courses in Arduino programming, which is a tiny computer board you can wire into fabrics to make it run instructions like switching led lights on and off - so if I ever have the time / money available I'm going to try and master this one, as a starting point.

You may already be familiar too, with Leah Buechley's work - probably the longest known textiles / arduino hacker; she helped develop the exceptionally appealing looking Lilypad Arduino, which was what first sparked my interest in this, around 3 or 4 years ago.

The future is *bright*

Raindrop Melody maker

Like it? Not only does this Raindrop Melody Maker looks gorgeous, as you might expect from Japanese designers but - even better - click through to the actual melody maker and you can play it like a musical instrument. 

It will let you click on each separate droplet wich makes a different note and sound, then it remembers it and starts adding it to a loop while you choose your next droplet. Each drop shows up in colour as it's played, then fades back to grey letting the next droplet shine. 

I should add it's not new, it's been around a while and I saw it probably a year or more ago but something just reminded me of it and I had to dig it out again to share. Also be warned - it's highly addictive!

Created by Lullatone, who also have some other soothing musical genius dotted around their site, such as warming, happy lift music; classical baby lullaby loops; and experiments in sound around the house.

Command Team

Some exciting news, I was approached to become part of the 3M Command Team. From the logo I'm feeling all Charlie's Angels / A-Team.

In reality it means I, along with my two team members, are responsible for providing interior design and styling ideas that make use of 3M command products - hooks and general 'putting things on walls' kit. They are a bit special because they don't leave any marks on the wall (which when you've only just decorated is a bit of a relief quite frankly).

The ideas we create will be spread around interweb world via the magic of facebook, digital TV, and will also pop up in real life at next week's Ideal Home Show.

So watch the facebook page and keep an eye on my blog for easy and stylish ideas about sprucing up your home or office. And remember that secret project? You'll be seeing more of that soon...

Entomology Embroidery

I happened across this designer of simple, beautiful, yet intricate embroidery designs and kits. What Delilah Did is the business name of Sophie Simpson who is based in Norfolk (England).  It was actually the subtle eggshell coloured bee, flat on the table, that first caught my eye. I considered buying the kit for a while until I read it's her most complicated one, so I'll probably just stick to admiring it from afar.

There's something about her work that carries all the best qualities of English curiosity in it, droplets of Alice in Wonderland, corners of Victorian museums and such.

I would really recommend a visit to her shop, prices are unbelievably reasonable and as far as I can see she really has thought of everything.

If you're a purveyor of handmade goods at craft fairs I'd also hugely recommend you visit this post on her blog. For a first attempt at a display I'd say she could give masterclasses on how to dress your stall.



 

One needle. From space.

If you follow etsy's blog this won't be new to you. If you don't,this will be 2.5 minutes worth stopping what you're doing to watch a beautiful story of how one lone space traveller, armed with a needle, punctuates his journeys with stellar quilts.