el

A profile of a woman who participates in and builds props for cosplayers—fans who dress up as their favorite fictional characters:

"The first time Tysk worked with wood was to ramp up the unique-factor of one of her own costumes. Cid Highwind from the Square Enix classic Final Fantasy 7 is not an uncommon character to find in the cosplay wild; his outfit is simple, the character is iconic among JRPG fans and the game itself is one of the most popular of all time. Tysk wanted to dress up as Cid, and was determined to make herself stand out from other Cid cosplayers. So she suited up, grabbed some wood and paint and clay, and made herself the character's trademark spear.

"Once she knew she could successfully make props, she decided to share her new skills by making weapons for her friends. Over the span of a few months, she shaped hunks of wood and plastic into daggers, swords, claws and even a realistic chainsaw."

Hermès scarves are designed by a far-flung array of freelance artists.

10,000 feet above sea – five months straight – four years in a row. For 600 days Yu Yamauchi lived in a hut near the summit of Mt. Fuji, getting up while it was still dark to photograph the sunrise every day, from the same location. The resulting series, titled “DAWN,” is a stunning look at the colorful, sometimes abstract view of Earth waking up.

This space, “above the clouds,” exists far from the ground where we live our daily lives. It is also a space between the earth and the universe. Being there simply reminds me of the fact that we live on the earth which is a planet within an infinite space of the universe.

What’s perhaps most striking about the series is the variability. Not a single picture looks the same. And yet, each day the sun, rising from the same spot, repeats itself.

 

This post originally appeared October, 2012. It is part of a series of posts on Mt. Fuji. The entire series can be found HERE.

When it comes to postgame celebrations, Mets catcher John Buck is the most dangerous man in baseball.

Conservationists on American military bases manage hundreds of threatened and endangered species on millions of acres of federally managed land.

I remember being endlessly entertained by the adventures of my toys. Some days they died repeated, violent deaths, other days they traveled to space or discussed my swim lessons and how I absolutely should be allowed in the deep end of the pool, especially since I was such a talented doggy-paddler.


I didn't understand why it was fun for me, it just was.


But as I grew older, it became harder and harder to access that expansive imaginary space that made my toys fun. I remember looking at them and feeling sort of frustrated and confused that things weren't the same.


I played out all the same story lines that had been fun before, but the meaning had disappeared. Horse's Big Space Adventure transformed into holding a plastic horse in the air, hoping it would somehow be enjoyable for me. Prehistoric Crazy-Bus Death Ride was just smashing a toy bus full of dinosaurs into the wall while feeling sort of bored and unfulfilled.  I could no longer connect to my toys in a way that allowed me to participate in the experience.


Depression feels almost exactly like that, except about everything.

At first, though, the invulnerability that accompanied the detachment was exhilarating. At least as exhilarating as something can be without involving real emotions.


The beginning of my depression had been nothing but feelings, so the emotional deadening that followed was a welcome relief.  I had always wanted to not give a fuck about anything. I viewed feelings as a weakness — annoying obstacles on my quest for total power over myself. And I finally didn't have to feel them anymore.

But my experiences slowly flattened and blended together until it became obvious that there's a huge difference between not giving a fuck and not being able to give a fuck. Cognitively, you might know that different things are happening to you, but they don't feel very different.


Which leads to horrible, soul-decaying boredom.

I tried to get out more, but most fun activities just left me existentially confused or frustrated with my inability to enjoy them.


Months oozed by, and I gradually came to accept that maybe enjoyment was not a thing I got to feel anymore. I didn't want anyone to know, though. I was still sort of uncomfortable about how bored and detached I felt around other people, and I was still holding out hope that the whole thing would spontaneously work itself out. As long as I could manage to not alienate anyone, everything might be okay!

However, I could no longer rely on genuine emotion to generate facial expressions, and when you have to spend every social interaction consciously manipulating your face into shapes that are only approximately the right ones, alienating people is inevitable.


Everyone noticed.


It's weird for people who still have feelings to be around depressed people. They try to help you have feelings again so things can go back to normal, and it's frustrating for them when that doesn't happen. From their perspective, it seems like there has got to be some untapped source of happiness within you that you've simply lost track of, and if you could just see how beautiful things are...


At first, I'd try to explain that it's not really negativity or sadness anymore, it's more just this detached, meaningless fog where you can't feel anything about anything — even the things you love, even fun things — and you're horribly bored and lonely, but since you've lost your ability to connect with any of the things that would normally make you feel less bored and lonely, you're stuck in the boring, lonely, meaningless void without anything to distract you from how boring, lonely, and meaningless it is.


But people want to help. So they try harder to make you feel hopeful and positive about the situation. You explain it again, hoping they'll try a less hope-centric approach, but re-explaining your total inability to experience joy inevitably sounds kind of negative; like maybe you WANT to be depressed. The positivity starts coming out in a spray — a giant, desperate happiness sprinkler pointed directly at your face. And it keeps going like that until you're having this weird argument where you're trying to convince the person that you are far too hopeless for hope just so they'll give up on their optimism crusade and let you go back to feeling bored and lonely by yourself.


And that's the most frustrating thing about depression. It isn't always something you can fight back against with hope. It isn't even something — it's nothing. And you can't combat nothing. You can't fill it up. You can't cover it. It's just there, pulling the meaning out of everything. That being the case, all the hopeful, proactive solutions start to sound completely insane in contrast to the scope of the problem.

It would be like having a bunch of dead fish, but no one around you will acknowledge that the fish are dead. Instead, they offer to help you look for the fish or try to help you figure out why they disappeared.


The problem might not even have a solution. But you aren't necessarily looking for solutions. You're maybe just looking for someone to say "sorry about how dead your fish are" or "wow, those are super dead. I still like you, though."


I started spending more time alone.


Perhaps it was because I lacked the emotional depth necessary to panic, or maybe my predicament didn't feel dramatic enough to make me suspicious, but I somehow managed to convince myself that everything was still under my control right up until I noticed myself wishing that nothing loved me so I wouldn't feel obligated to keep existing.


It's a strange moment when you realize that you don't want to be alive anymore. If I had feelings, I'm sure I would have felt surprised. I have spent the vast majority of my life actively attempting to survive. Ever since my most distant single-celled ancestor squiggled into existence, there has been an unbroken chain of things that wanted to stick around.


Yet there I was, casually wishing that I could stop existing in the same way you'd want to leave an empty room or mute an unbearably repetitive noise.


That wasn't the worst part, though. The worst part was deciding to keep going.


When I say that deciding to not kill myself was the worst part, I should clarify that I don't mean it in a retrospective sense. From where I am now, it seems like a solid enough decision. But at the time, it felt like I had been dragging myself through the most miserable, endless wasteland, and — far in the distance — I had seen the promising glimmer of a slightly less miserable wasteland. And for just a moment, I thought maybe I'd be able to stop and rest. But as soon as I arrived at the border of the less miserable wasteland, I found out that I'd have to turn around and walk back the other way.


Soon afterward, I discovered that there's no tactful or comfortable way to inform other people that you might be suicidal. And there's definitely no way to ask for help casually.


I didn't want it to be a big deal. However, it's an alarming subject. Trying to be nonchalant about it just makes it weird for everyone.


I was also extremely ill-prepared for the position of comforting people. The things that seemed reassuring at the time weren't necessarily comforting for others.

I had so very few feelings, and everyone else had so many, and it felt like they were having all of them in front of me at once. I didn't really know what to do, so I agreed to see a doctor so that everyone would stop having all of their feelings at me.


The next few weeks were a haze of talking to relentlessly hopeful people about my feelings that didn't exist so I could be prescribed medication that might help me have them again.


And every direction was bullshit for a really long time, especially up. The absurdity of working so hard to continue doing something you don't like can be overwhelming. And the longer it takes to feel different, the more it starts to seem like everything might actually be hopeless bullshit.


My feelings did start to return eventually. But not all of them came back, and they didn't arrive symmetrically.

I had not been able to care for a very long time, and when I finally started being able to care about things again, I HATED them. But hatred is technically a feeling, and my brain latched onto it like a child learning a new word.


Hating everything made all the positivity and hope feel even more unpalatable. The syrupy, over-simplified optimism started to feel almost offensive.


Thankfully, I rediscovered crying just before I got sick of hating things.  I call this emotion "crying" and not "sadness" because that's all it really was. Just crying for the sake of crying. My brain had partially learned how to be sad again, but it took the feeling out for a joy ride before it had learned how to use the brakes or steer.


At some point during this phase, I was crying on the kitchen floor for no reason. As was common practice during bouts of floor-crying, I was staring straight ahead at nothing in particular and feeling sort of weird about myself. Then, through the film of tears and nothingness, I spotted a tiny, shriveled piece of corn under the refrigerator.


I don't claim to know why this happened, but when I saw the piece of corn, something snapped. And then that thing twisted through a few permutations of logic that I don't understand, and produced the most confusing bout of uncontrollable, debilitating laughter that I have ever experienced.


I had absolutely no idea what was going on.


My brain had apparently been storing every unfelt scrap of happiness from the last nineteen months, and it had impulsively decided to unleash all of it at once in what would appear to be an act of vengeance.


That piece of corn is the funniest thing I have ever seen, and I cannot explain to anyone why it's funny. I don't even know why. If someone ever asks me "what was the exact moment where things started to feel slightly less shitty?" instead of telling a nice, heartwarming story about the support of the people who loved and believed in me, I'm going to have to tell them about the piece of corn. And then I'm going to have to try to explain that no, really, it was funny. Because, see, the way the corn was sitting on the floor... it was so alone... and it was just sitting there! And no matter how I explain it, I'll get the same, confused look. So maybe I'll try to show them the piece of corn - to see if they get it. They won't. Things will get even weirder.


Anyway, I wanted to end this on a hopeful, positive note, but, seeing as how my sense of hope and positivity is still shrouded in a thick layer of feeling like hope and positivity are bullshit, I'll just say this: Nobody can guarantee that it's going to be okay, but — and I don't know if this will be comforting to anyone else — the possibility exists that there's a piece of corn on a floor somewhere that will make you just as confused about why you are laughing as you have ever been about why you are depressed. And even if everything still seems like hopeless bullshit, maybe it's just pointless bullshit or weird bullshit or possibly not even bullshit.

They say it’s who you know in the entertainment industry, and luckily for Michael Shanks he knew two people that would eventually land him the role of any hockey fan’s lifetime: Portraying Gordie Howe on film.

Shanks worked with director Andy Mikita – yes, a relative of Stan Mikita – during his run on the “Stargate” television franchise, where Shanks played Dr. Daniel Jackson (James Spader’s role from the big screen version) from 1997 through 2010.

He also worked with writer Malcolm MacRury on “Saving Hope”, a Toronto-based medical drama. MacRury is the writer behind “Mr. Hockey: The Gordie Howe Story”, a film that just happened to land in the hands of … Andy Mikita.

It was a small world for Shanks, and the opportunity he’d been waiting for.

“I would have crawled across broken glass to be in this movie, because I always wanted to be in a hockey movie,” he said in a recent phone interview.

“Mr. Hockey” debuts in the U.S. on the Hallmark Channel on Saturday, May 4 at 9 p.m. ET/PT and 8 CT, after strong reviews upon its debut in Canada.

It covers Howe’s return to hockey at age 45 to play in the World Hockey Association with his sons Mark (Andrew Herr) and Marty (Dylan Playfair, son of former Calgary coach Jim Playfair) on the Houston Aeros.

“It was probably the easiest negotiation they had. It was a dream come true,” Shanks said, pausing for a moment. “Except for filming in Winnipeg, it was a dream come true.”

Shanks remembers Howe mostly as a Whaler, having limited access to hockey on television growing up in British Columbia. As in, “two channels”, said Shanks.

“I didn’t know there was a team in Vancouver until around 1978 because they never showed the damn games on Hockey Night in Canada,” he said.

He started as a Leafs fans – “it churns my stomach now,” he said – but is now a Vancouver Canucks fan.

We spoke to Shanks about playing Gordie and the challenges that come with it; his time as a sci-fi TV icon; and of course, about his favorite NHL team.

Q. So you’re a Canucks fan now?

SHANKS: Yeah, I sorted that out and became a frustrated Canucks fan.

Where do you stand on the goaltending controversy?

It is what it is. It’s the bed that they made. It made sense in the cap world … he’s a No. 1 goalie anywhere else. I understand his situation, when you have a younger and less expensive goalie coming up. Luongo has his pride and his ego. When you’re in a position when the cap’s going down and the only team that can afford to take you are the Toronto Maple Leafs … it is what it is.

I think Alain Vigneault has handled it well. I think they’re both handling it well. It’s not affecting the team’s play. It’s a great tandem of goalies.

Do you think the window’s closed for this team?

It’s getting kind of narrow-ish. This might be it because of the cap dropping next year. This could be it. It’s a shame, but it happens.

Finally, on the Canucks: What’s your favorite sweater in franchise history?

[Laughs] Boy, that’s like asking me what my favorite flavor of poo is.

Let’s face it, they own some of the worst jerseys in the history of the game. The original was so awful because you look at and you’re like “it’s just a hockey stick” and really kind of a boring jersey.

Then the vomitorium started: The Flying ‘V’ and whatever that ridiculous skate was. When the whale came around, it wasn’t like “hey, that’s so original” but at least it was something.

Like I said, a better flavor of poo.

Outside of “Slap Shot”, is there a hockey movie that you put on a pedestal?

They’re all sorta different, but the one that with the best hockey and the most realism was probably “Miracle”. Which kinda sucks, because it’s crappy being a Canadian knowing that the Americans can make a better hockey movie than we can.

I know you’re American and everything, but you’re like “Really? Really? We can’t do one on the ’72 [Summit Series] that gets to be the best one?”

They did everything right. They cast hockey players first, actors second and a really great actor in the lead role.

But it was filmed in Vancouver, so at least we can claim that.

You have to understand that if we can’t beat you in the Olympics, at the very least we can make a better film about the Olympics than you can.

That check’s in the mail though, right? I saw those women’s world championships and I think the check’s in the mail.

So does this movie mostly cover Gordie’s years with Houston, where he played with his kids?

I was surprised at that too. It starts at his retirement ceremony. In newsreel, it skips over the first 25 years of his career. It bears down on that first year when he was playing with the Houston Aeros, playing with his kids.

It’s just a tiny little piece of his history, which makes this ripe for some prequel action.

It’s been tough to tell Red Wings fans [about the movie] because they always ask what era it covers, and I have to tell them, “The part right after Detroit.”

But how many movies focus on the WHA? John Garrett’s going to be crapping his pants.

How did you try and develop this character. Did you have any interaction with Gordie or the family? What’s they key to capturing the essence?

I didn’t get to meet Gordie himself. I know the boys – Andrew Herr and Dylan Playfair – they’ve talked with Mark and Marty Howe on the phone. I didn’t want to disturb Gordie, and I wasn’t sure of his health. But eventually, as an actor, I decided I had to interpret. I’m going to shoot from the hip. Watch old footage of him to see how he speaks and how he skates.

I hope Gordie watches the film, and doesn’t punch me in the face.

When you say the name “Gordie Howe”, there’s always that ruggedness to it. So how do you play that? With a Clint Eastwood edge or something?

There’s so little source material to sort of find out. Everybody talks about what a great guy he was off the ice and what a mean guy he was on the ice, and that interpretation stays true - specifically in this movie, because we spend so much time with him and his family. So there is that teddy bear side.

You have to play the scenes as they were written, and it was written well enough to capture that duality about him. I think there could have been a little more of the on-ice stuff that would have been more colorful.

OK, some sci-fi geek questions while we have you. What was your strangest interaction with a Stargate fan?

We’ve got a lot of great fans. And some weird ones. The strangest interaction in person was when someone asked me to sign their vibrator.

Yeah...

The funny thing was, I wasn’t the first one asked to sign it. I didn’t look too close at it, and I said I couldn’t sign it.

Right, because then it becomes a thing where “do I sign next to the dude who played Worf or the dude who played Data on ‘Star Trek?’”

[Laughs] I literally and figuratively didn’t want to go there.

Finally, you played Hawkman on “Smallville”. Was this the superhero you always had in mind to one day portray?

Yeah … no, that was not one that was on my radar. To play “Chicken Man.”

If you see the comic book representations of the guy, he looks like a steroid monster. Schwarzenegger couldn’t have made the outfit work that I had to wear.

When I looked at the last episode, and they finally put some wings on me, it sort of worked.

“Brooklyn” is now a byword for cool from Paris to Sweden to the Middle East, so the author, an avowed Manhattanite, set out to explore this artisan-loving borough.

View the maps from the David Rumsey Historical Map Collection overlaid on their locations on Google Maps.

A great way to browse an incredible collection of maps. See also Google Earth Time Machine. (via @H_FJ)

Tags: Google Maps   maps

Artist Dayna Thacker is interested in the extreme interconnection of everything that exists in our world. From the very large to the infinitely small, she believes that everything ties together in a balanced system of existence. Her exploration of these relationships is evident in her collage project, entitled Theories of Everything.

Using elements of geometry, symmetry, and repetition, Thacker creates a visual language featuring simple and elegant compositions that are layered together with hand-cut lines and shapes. In each piece, the colors and textures blend together in balanced and intertwined landscapes. Thacker says, "As I create these pieces, I am comforted by the harmonious patterns. I can attempt to align myself with pathways of endless creativity and regeneration," and through the work, she says, "The temporary event of our existence is put into perspective by the contemplation of the sacred and perpetual nature of reality."

If you are interested in this project, you can check out Thacker's exhibit at the Barbara Archer Gallery, currently on display through May 4, 2013.

Dayna Thacker's website
Barbara Archer Gallery website
via [Beautiful Decay]

You know the drill: it's a new mixtape from The Hood Internet:

Downloads, tour details, and more info on their site.

Update: I made a playlist on Rdio of the songs The Hood Internet used in Mixtape Volume Seven...sifting through their sources is a great way to discover new and previously overlooked music.

There are maybe 3-4 songs I couldn't find on Rdio...they are either unreleased or mixes from Soundcloud. Enjoy.

Update: And here's the same playlist for Spotify. (via @Afterschool)

Tags: music   remix   The Hood Internet

The Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race pushes participants to the brink on an unforgiving trek to the end of the world. And, as one writer who tracked the race by air discovers, that is exactly the point.

Today I'm happy to feature a guest post from Kristen Desrosier of LCI Paper who created this tutorial in which she introduces decorative paper envelopes with a clever twist. 
Take it away, Kristen!

Perhaps it is just the paper lover in me, but I feel there's something really spectacular and intriguing about getting a pretty envelope in the mail. It's colorful, it's different, it's certainly not a bill, and it's communication that didn't come in the form of an email! What's not to love, and who wouldn't be excited to see what's inside?


With this thought in mind, I created the lovely little note card envelopes* you see here. They’re made with two lightweight papers – in this case, a silk screened Japanese Chiyogami and a metallic, and unlike other patterned envelopes, these guys can be addressed and mailed. A portion of the solid liner wraps around to the front of the envelope creating a defined space in which to write the name and address. The writing will not get lost in a sea of pattern, and the unique band looks much nicer than a plain old stick-on label.

You can make these envelopes in any size with any two lightweight papers, and in the tutorial below, you'll find a template and instructions that show you just how to do it!

*Finished envelopes measure 3 5/8 x 5 1/8" and fit a 3 1/2 x 4 7/8" card (A1 size)

Materials needed:

• 2 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11" text paper - 1 pattern, 1 solid
• Exacto knife or preferred cutting tool
• Paper glue or double-sided tape
• 2 sheets of 8 1/2 x 11" card stock - for template printing
• Pencil to trace templates onto papers (optional)

1. Download & Print Templates

Begin by downloading the two envelope templates below - one for the patterned outside of the envelope, one for the lining and band on the inside of the envelope.

Download outer template pattern
Download inner template solid liner

Print onto two pieces of card stock to create sturdy, durable templates.


2. Cut Templates from Card Stock
    
Next, cut out the templates using your cutting tool of choice. For straight,   accurate cuts, an Exacto knife and straight edge seem to do the trick.


3. Use Templates to Create 2 Envelope Pieces

Use the templates to create the two pieces of your envelopes.

• Use Outer-Template-Pattern pdf for the paper that will become the outer portion of your envelope.
• Use Inner-Template-Solid-Liner pdf for the paper that will become the liner and band of your envelope.

Depending on your comfort level, you can either trace the template onto papers, then cut using an Exacto, or use the template to cut exactly from the papers.

Don't forget to cut a slit in the outside paper for the band as indicated on the template!


4. Align 2 Envelope Pieces

After creating the two pieces of your envelope, align them roughly as shown here, guiding the band through the slit in the outside layer.


5. Fold Bottom & Side Flaps in to Create Bottom of Envelope

Using the template or the natural shape of the envelope as a guideline, fold the bottom, left, and right flaps in toward the center of the envelope.

With the glue or tape of your choice, adhere the left and right flaps to the bottom flap using just enough to cover the areas of overlap. Be sure not to glue the envelope to the liner!


6. Adhere Liner to Top Flap

Now that your envelope has taken shape, the liner needs to be glued in place. To do this:

• Center the liner on the flap and fold downward as if you were closing the envelope (see below)
• Glue just the perimeter of the liner
• Press liner firmly to outer patterned paper

7. Adhere the Front Band

The final step, bring the band around to the front of the envelope, press so it is flat and straight, and glue.

Once dry, this band can be handwritten with a formal or informal address or with a personalized message.




About LCI
Founded in 1995, Marlborough, Massachusetts-based LCI Paper, Inc. offers consumers a quick, affordable way to purchase wedding envelopes, invitations & stationery for printing. Through an easy online ordering system, products are shipped same day from their order fulfillment center. LCI is Better Business Bureau certified and A+ rated.

To celebrate her cat Guagua's birthday, Chinese blogger toshiya86 created a series of cardboard comic foregrounds for the furry feline to stick its head through and automatically be transformed into an anime character. The clever project has resulted in an endless array of portraits of the expressive cat, paving the way for kitty cosplay.

The carefully composed cutouts allow the cat to pop in and out of characters. From a broomstick-flying witch in Kiki's Delivery Service to an action hero in Naruto, Guagua's sweet little face can be seen reinventing popular animated programs as the new half-human, half-feline lead. There's a variety of characters in the collection, though the photographer's images do include duplicates of the same cardboard drawings. Luckily, Guagua manages to make each portrait unique with her big eyes and attentive ears. In one instance, she's a snarling lush and in the next she's a calm kitty ready to take a nap.

via [Like Cool, Chick Geek Games]

Michou, the irrepressible showman and 81-year-old owner of a transvestite cabaret in Paris, has become an unofficial ambassador of Montmartre.

Thriller writer Tess Gerritsen said she would accompany her mother to China someday, but the trip took place much later—and very differently—than she expected.

Matthew Meyer grew up in New Jersey, just outside of Philadelphia, and studied illustration at the Ringling College of Art in Florida.

After traveling to Japan on a study abroad program, he was so inspired by Japanese art and culture that he moved there in 2007.

Meyer has been using digital art to create images inspired by Japanese culture, though with his own unique point of view.

As a long time resident of the Philadelphia area, I particularly enjoy his series of 100 Famous Views of Philadelphia (images above, top three), a reference to Hiroshige’s One Hundred Famous Views of Edo, with Philadelphia landmarks portrayed in the style of Japanese woodblock prints.

Meyer also has a series of his interpretation of Yokai, monsters from Japanese folklore, that he ran on his blog as “A Yokai A Day” (above, bottom three).

You can find prints of his work in his Etsy shop.

Meyer also has a printed collection of Yokai, The Night Parade of One Hundred Demons: a Field Guide to Japanese Yokai (Amazon link).

Aaron Ansarov picks up live Portuguese man-of-wars from the Delray Beach, FL, photographs them on a light-table and returns them to the beach. The photos are then mirror-imaged and post-processed into a gorgeous collection of psychedelic nature photos. You can buy some amazing prints of his work.

Psychedelic Portuguese Man-of-War Photos Prove God Is a Stoner [Jakob Schiller/Wired]

 

And so my obsession with thin black lines continues. Perhaps you remember an old post dedicated to this topic?

Much to my delight, I’ve been noticing a number of wardrobes, clothes racks & valets that have been stripped back to a single black line. These minimalist design pieces are like traces of sketches brought to life. Devoid of any superfluous decoration, they play with our perceptions of the second and the third dimension. This is precisely why I love them so, and I hope you do too. Let’s take a look at a few of my favourites.

Les Ailes Noires clothes racks designed by John Tong of +tongtong. This playful geometric welded steel collection features freestanding units weighted toward the wall. The collection includes 11 pieces, including a full-length mirror, a wall-mounted sideboard with glass shelf, a ceiling-hung rack and eight freestanding racks and are made of welded 19-by-19 centimetre steel bars. Watch this video for more.

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Ladder Coat Rack by Yenwen Tseng. Inspired by the traditional ladders, this clothes rack can either lean against the wall, or stand alone due to the built-in hidden hinges.

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This post simply wouldn’t have been complete without the masters of think black lines Nendo, and these divine hanger racks made from bent solid steel. Extreme love!  

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Mate clothes valet designed by Milanese creative duo Annalisa Dominoni & Benedetto Quaquaro of a+b for Living Divani. This multipurpose piece is both a seat and a clothing rack. Made from epoxy powder painted square tubular frame with welded seats, this piece will be offically launched in next week in Milan during the Salone del Mobile.

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Radius I from Radius Design, designed by Andrei Munteanu.

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Manubrio by Michael Konstantin Wolke is a coat rack that combines wardrobe and valet stand leaning against a wall. The piece is made from polished copper tube and racing bike handlebars.

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Clothing Rails by Swedish designer Annaleena Leino. Available in three styles – rectangular, square, and circular.

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Tilt clothes rack by Tina Schmid, via mocoloco. Presented at the [D3] Design Talents section of IMM Cologne 2013.

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Berg clothes rack by Arash Eskafi from Negative Space. With a tagline “Build upon your own mountain of clothes with Berg” this piece is for those who tend to leave their clothes sprawled all over the floor, rather than neatly organized in their wardrobe.

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The Loop Stand designed by Leif Jørgensen for HAY, made from powder-coated steel tube.

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Oneline lightweight clothes rail by Austrian designer Klemens Schillinger, via Minimalismo.

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Tati coat hanger by Asplund (previously).

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The post Thin Black Lines Revisited // Wardrobes & Clothes Racks. appeared first on Yellowtrace — Interior Design, Architecture, Art, Photography, Lifestyle & Design Culture Blog..

I’m simply in awe of this Harper’s Bazaar UK editorial, featuring spring’s most glorious florals enveloped in botanical illustrations. I’m definitely going to need to hunt down the May issue, which was published in collaboration with [...]

The latest edition of The Norem Files comes to us from the San Francisco Zoo! We’ll let the Furrtographer explain.

“Last week I was invited to a media event for the SF Zoo’s new tiger cub. Her mom’s name is Leanne and they started venturing out of the lion house for the first time last week. It’s very exciting as there are less than 400 Sumatran tigers in the world and this is the first one at the zoo in five years.”

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: Tigers

Rising from the floor and descending down from the ceiling of this great big limestone cave are stalagmites and stalactites that are lit up in a dazzling array of colors. The Reed Flute Cave in Guilin, Guangxi, China is a major landmark and tourist attraction that's often referred to as the "Palace of Natural Arts." The natural rock formations, illuminated with artificial light, make it one of the most extraordinary underground scenes in all of China.

The 180 million year old cave is 240 meters long and has different parts that are lit up in colors that span the spectrum. One of the most highly photographed areas has a pool that gives off the illusion that it's miles deep when actually it's just reflecting the cave's roof.

As photographer Niranj Vaidyanathan states about his first-hand experience, "Artificial lighting provided inside the caves makes the stalactite and stalagmite formations look lovely. Each cave and section has unique formations and will keep the visitor mesmerized throughout. Word of advice - try not to book a package tour along with a big group of unknown people with a tour operator as you only have very limited time of about an hour or so to spend within the caves. Try booking an individual package so that you can make your own agenda if you're visiting Guilin. It's a lovely city."

Next to the Li River, this is one of those must-visit (or must-photograph) destinations in China.

Photo credit: Helminadia

Photo credit: Hesspoint

Photo credit: Hesspoint

Photo credit: Huang Xin

Photo credit: Niranj Vaidyanathan

Photo credit: Janta Tirtadjaja

Photo credit: Hesspoint

A profile of rock star David Lee Roth, who has had a diverse career and life. He's now 57 years old and back doing shows with Van Halen:

"He eventually became a certified EMT in New York and then completed a tactical medicine training program in Southern California. Not famous enough to headline Madison Square Garden, plenty famous enough to stand out in a tactical medicine training program.

'The altitude drop is when somebody realizes who you are and they take you to task. Now you're the guy who gets to do garbage five days in a row instead of one, and doing ambulance-garage garbage is different from I-just-finished-dinner-and-now-I-have-to-dump-the-garbage-darling garbage. That will test you. But I was old enough and smart enough to know what I'd signed up for. These tactics are of value, they're a contribution.' For years he went on ambulance calls all over New York City, and found that a life in the music business was good preparation for rushing to the aid of grievously injured people in the less picturesque corners of the city. 'My skills were serious,' he says. 'Verbal judo, staying calm in the face of hyper-accelerated emotion. Same bizarre hours. Same keening velocity.'"

It’s not every day you get to see cherry blossoms AND snow. But residents of Nagano prefecture were in for a surprise yesterday when their spring cherry blossom season was interrupted by a snowfall. But every snow cloud has a silver lining. The collaboration between flower and snow created a magical winter wonderland that twitter users were quick to capture on their phones. Here are a few images:

Photo by @ao_356 | click to enlarge

Photo by @inu_tsugura | click to enlarge

Photo by @ruirui8181 | click to enlarge

Photo by @inu_tsugura | click to enlarge

Siobhán Gallagher

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Spring is definitely starting to settle in here in Los Angeles so having a wallpaper to match the vibe is always nice. This week’s wallpaper is by Toronto based designer and illustrator Siobhán Gallagher. She wrote me a few months ago, interested in doing a wallpaper, and after having looked through her work I was hooked. I was especially smitten with this poster she did for the University of the Art’s Senior Illustration Thesis Show, portraying a flock of multi-colored birds.

So I asked Siobhán if she’d be interested in creating another scene filled with critters, scarab beetles to be exact, and she was totally down with the idea. I absolutely love how this piece turned out. She not only created a slew of differently shaped beetles but the variation in colors and textures are fantastic. I think even people who aren’t fans of bugs would see the beauty in this wallpaper.

Be sure to check back every Wednesday for a new wallpaper!

Over the years the stackable stool has evolved from an elementary-school utility to more thoughtfully designed art pieces. But in a new iteration, Tokyo-based designer Taiji Fujimori has applied both of those characteristics to his Myrtle chest, which, alone, functions as both a stool and a drawer. But when stacked together by carefully designed legs and sockets, it transforms into a dresser.

There’s something really adorable in the way these little guys appear to be precariously climbing on each other’s shoulders. And I like how there are spaces in-between for items you don’t necessarily want to hide away.

One month to create the mold, three weeks to attach the folliage, and up to five months to let it dry. That’s a basic run-down of the numbers involved in the work of Hitomi Hosono, a London-based ceramic artist who creates botanical ceramic sculptures. Her lifelike depictions of foliage has just landed her an inaugural Perrier-Jouët Arts Salon Prize, a brand new award officiated by the famous producer of Champagne.

Hosono creates her detailed porcelain all from memory – specifically, from a farm in Gifu where she observed lots of greenery as a child. But her photographic visual images are so vast that she’ll often forget where (or when) it is from. “ I’ll send my mother a sketch and ask her if she knows what the flower is and she’ll say, ‘We have it in our garden, don’t you remember?’ “ she said in an interview.

All of Hosono’s vessels are thrown on a wheel. The foliage is hand-carved and then attached. And all though she wouldn’t confirm this, there’s probably some Miracle-Gro mixed in there as well.

 

I can’t seem to shake my blue/indigo obsession. I don’t know if it somehow reminds me of water and beaches and warmer weather- but I keep bookmarking, pinning and scooping up indigo-colored things like they’re going out of style. So I was especially happy to see that the new Heath Ceramics 2013 summer collection is full of saturated blues- not only in the form of pottery, but accessories and linens, too. I love the contrasting texture on those bud vases at the bottom the most- they remind me of the bottom of an old pool. Which, in my summer-starved mind, is the best thing ever. Click here to check out the new collection in more detail and here to shop online.

Photos by Jeffery Cross

I've been keeping a lookout for new paper cuttings from Ruth Mergi. She was already doing exceptional work when I first interviewed her a few years ago, although she had been seriously working as a paper artist for only about a year. American-born Ruth has continued to hone her craft from her home studio in Modiin, Israel while raising a young family.


This is an example of one of her recent custom pieces... a layered, hand painted marriage ketubah - exquisite!


The ketubot available in Ruth's Etsy shop are original, hand cuttings reproduced by laser on fine art paper. A couple's desired Hebrew text is giclée printed using digital technology. Ruth describes this damask-patterned ketubah as a modern classic. She shows new lace, lines, and Moroccan ketubah designs too.


Ruth's cuts are mind boggling indeed; sometimes she stacks many layers to add to the impact of a piece.


More new work is a series of hand drawn and scalpel-cut geometric tessellations with large forms in the center that become infinitely smaller toward the edge. This type of hyperbolic pattern appeals to her because it is ever-present in nature.


Examples from this series and many other delicate paper cuttings and ketubah examples will be featured in Ruth's first solo exhibition, Cut, opening this Thursday, April 11 through May 4 at the Hankin Gallery in Holon, Israel. Paper art worlds collide, as origamist Ilan Garibi will be a speaker. Here's another sneak peak of a show piece (no, make that a showpiece!)


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