Gangsta rap about Arts and Crafts

This is hysterical! Yep it's a gangster rap about arts and crafts. But what the kids are making is REALLY cool! I wish I was that creative when I was a kid. The box city is AMAZING! Especially the building with the elevator, and roof top pool. It almost makes me wish I had kids so I could use up all the boxes in my kitchen instead of throwing them away.

The Art of Lotte Reiniger parte 1

The French Eye

I ran across the prettiest blog today while looking for unusual bird cages. It's called The French Eye. Such beautiful posts take a look.

Yume

This is probably my favorite plastic toy to come out in a while. Of course it is sold out, but still my loves for it goes on. Introducing Yume the little Geish Girl by Plastikmat. Toysrevil Blog has posted an amazing write up on her, where there is also a great interview with her creator. Here is her story via the Toysreavil blog post...

"Depicted as a little girl destined to become a geisha, a gloomy prospect in her mind, she often looks a little sad. But as any child, she keeps her share of innocence and dream. She imagines a world of her own, with friends making her able to evade her fears of the the real world competition and superficiality. Her main ally in this dream, the Dragon, characterizes her need for freedom."

BTW: Yume has her own blog

Black Eye Suzie Art Dolls

I just love Black Eye Suzie art dolls. They are so expressive and delicate. The one pictured has to be my favorite, with her little parasol and pensive look. She also has a great blog. Some very interesting posts on her actually constructing her dolls. Her doll construction fascinates me. There head, hands and feet are individually sculpted from paperclay (no molds). Some of her earlier bodies were made of fiberfill and cotton fabric over a wire armature. Lately they look like paper clay forms strung together with ball joints. Their faces are hand-painted with water colours, with handmade eyes. Such pretty little elegant creatures.

Alice!!!

LookiE at the new Alice video game. Soooo Pretty!

EA Alice 'The Madness Returns' Trilogy from Strange Beast on Vimeo.

Distressing Paper

Here are a couple of really good tutorials on distressing paper. Don't forget to use the stipple brush to complete the ages look.

Good Little Monkeys

Good Little Monkeys 1935- Happy Harmonies Theatrical Directed By Hugh Harman

SWOON

"SWOON is a street artist from New York City who specializes in life-size wheatpaste prints and paper cutouts of figures. Swoon, real name Caledonia “Callie” Dance Curry, studied painting at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and started doing street art around 1999. Inspired by both art historical and folk sources, ranging from German Expressionist wood block prints to Indonesian shadow puppets, Swoon uses cut paper to play with positive and negative space in a conceptually driven exploration of the experience of the streets." ( From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swoon_(artist )

Man Shops World- Australia

A couple of friends have been telling me that I have to see this episode because the artists they feature are so up my ally. I finally found a really amazing blog post about both of the artists Noelle Rigaudie, and Anna-wili Highfield on justblog.com (and now I must subscribe to this blog as well becasue it's beautiful). Here are some examples of their work.














Noelle Rigaudie's creations are made mostly out of cardboard...





















Anna-wili Highfield sculpts in heavey artist papers with accents done in paint and watercolor...

A Quoi Ca Sert L'amoir

Diableries Series

About six months ago a ran across this picture, and simply fell in love with it. It looked Victorian, and it looked like a series but other than that I had no idea what it was or how to find more information about it. Just now I was searching Victorian Memento Mori Tableaux... like you do... and it popped up. So thanks to Morbidanatomy blog not only do I know what they are, but now I have a new blog to follow. YAY! Here is a quote form their post on a lecture series of which these here a part of. "macabre 3D spectacles of the Victorian age, the infamous Diableries series–masterfully designed 3D stereo ’tissues’ created in France in the 19th century, backlit and featuring ornate scenes depicting the daily life of Satan in Hell. Tongue in cheek and often controversial, these macabre spectacles give us a very interesting look at the 19th century’s lighthearted obsession with death and the macabre, serving as a wonderful demonstration of the Victorian fascination with themes such as the afterlife, heaven, hell and death."

Silhouette Film

Hansel and Gretel
1955 film by Lotte Reiniger

I Dream of Jeannie’s Bottle

The other day my sister and I were discussing our fantasy houses. Where we would live anywhere, anytime, or any dimension if we could. From my childhood, it has always been the same. Inside Jeannie’s bottle from the TV show, “I dream of Jeannie”. It was just so pretty, and sparkly, and filled with magic and puffy ottomans. So girlie and Turkish filtered through that 1960’s design ascetic that I love. Not to mention it’s compact and mobile.