09/30/2009
09/30/2009
The Pappajohn Sculpture Garden officially opened last weekend in downtown Des Moines. What's been two city blocks of chain link fence for nearly two years is now rolling green hills populated by some pretty impressive sculptures by some big name artists including Deborah Butterfield, Richard Serra, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Di Suvero (his T8 sculpture is seen below), and Willem De Kooning amongst . . . Continue Reading
09/30/2009
Love (These) Letters
Alexa Fornoff
The Daily Drop Cap is exactly what it sounds like: every day, typographer Jessica Hische unleashes her handcrafted capital-letter-of-choice on the world. And she is nice enough to let you use it, too.
09/30/2009
A Hutch for Your Hooch
Katherine Sharpe
Apartment Therapy Chicago's post about turning vintage furniture into a bar reminds me of our October/November "I Made This" project: a rolling home bar made from a vintage steamer trunk.
Apparently we're not the only ones thinking about a modern twist on the old bottle of somethin' in the office desk drawer.
09/30/2009
Applique Your Way Now Available On Amazon!
Amy Palanjian
I'm a huge fan of Katye Terry and the style of her projects, so I'm thrilled that her new book, Applique Your Way, is available to purchase. I met Katye about a year ago and she showed me snaps of some of the displays she'd done for Anthropologie, and took me through projects from her first book, Complete Embellishing: Techniques and Projects. Since I'm hoping to improve my nearly . . . Continue Reading
09/30/2009
The Weekly Forecast: 10.01-10.07
Alexa Fornoff
Welcome to the Wednesday feature here at the ReadyMade blog. Each week, I will provide a list of upcoming events, releases and happenings for the following Thursday through Wednesday. If you have (or know of) an event that you would like to be included, please shoot me an email, and I will do my best to make it happen.
Design Santa Fe
Thursday, October 1 through Saturday, October 3
Santa Fe, . . . Continue Reading
Design Santa Fe
Thursday, October 1 through Saturday, October 3
Santa Fe, . . . Continue Reading
09/30/2009
Seeing Red: The BIOS Keg-Cup Canopy
Katherine Sharpe

As some of you know, I have a thing about plastic, so I couldn't help but notice this item. The three-designer team of Jess Austin, Chris Chalmers and Charles Lee, who work together as the San Francisco-based BIOS Design Colletive, put together a temporary pavilion made of 2,000 (used) plastic keg cups.Volunteers put the pavilion together with laser-cut polypropylene clips that attached . . . Continue Reading
09/29/2009
Behind the Scenes: Snapshots from a Photo Shoot and a Brief Aside on Hand Modeling
Andrew Wagner
We are now about three weeks from our close for our December/January issue. This is usually when things start to get fun. The text and images are starting to pour in and photo shoots are happening on what seems to be a daily basis (below, creative director Stephen Perfetto maps out a shot while our intern, Claire Grossheim and deputy editor Amy . . . Continue Reading
09/29/2009
Happiness Does Come in the Mail
Alexa Fornoff
The Lumberyard, a twice-yearly letterpress magazine published by brother-sister duo Eric Woods (of Firecracker Press in St. Louis) and Jen Woods (of Sarabande Books in Louisville), is not quite comic book, not quite literary journal. But it is quite right. They've rounded up a group of poets, writers and designers for Issue 4, so hand out $11 and you, too, can enjoy the oh-so-lovely pages that await.
And check out their About Us section—doesn't it just make you smile?
09/29/2009
Knitting, Quilting, and Crocheting as Rocket Science…
Andrew Wagner
Following in the footsteps of the infamous knitting crew, Knitta Please; artist Marianne Jorgensen and her pink tank cozy;

and crotchet artist Jennifer Marsh and her knit, crocheted, and quilted gas station in Syracuse, New York

comes the Dream Rocket.

If you were to ask 'what is the Dream Rocket anyway?' that would be a more than fair . . . Continue Reading
09/29/2009
Charge Ahead With a Solar Handbag
Katherine Sharpe
Occasional ReadyMade project builder Jeff Crystal of Voltaic Systems has posted instructions, developed by Mark Farina, for converting a thrift-store designer knockoff handbag (or any purse you wish) into a solar bag. Installing one of more of Voltaic's 1.3-watt solar panels yields a bag that's capable of charging a battery pack, cell phone, GPS, iPod, or digital camera with the energy of the sun.

Full instructions here. Image by Mark Farina.

Full instructions here. Image by Mark Farina.





























