Shane Waltener: Lace Webs

Many moons ago I found the above image in a Tumblr feed without any luck of locating the artist. Finally, Lovely Textiles has the answer: London artist Shane Waltener! This piece, Auntie Peggy Has Departed, is a great example of his body of work, utilizing lace doilies and audio as part of an installation focused on memory, place, and craft. Apart from these knitted web installations, Waltener also takes photographs and makes sculpture.

Jennifer Cecere: Giant Doilies & Mandalas

I found New York artist Jennifer Cecere through one of Abigail Doan's blogs, ECCO*ECO. Her giant Doilies are arresting and demand investigation. Made from ripstop nylon and acrylic, these delicate behemoths range in size from 4' to 20' and suggest a range of familiar images, from giant spiderwebs to dreamcatchers to snowflakes. In one artist's statement, Cecere says:

I see Doilies hanging between office buildings, off bridges, over construction sites transversing spaces indoors and out, growing from the ground-up, occupying urban spaces, parks, fields, mountains, museums, sports stadiums and anywhere you might not expect to see a giant Doily. 
I was inspired about taking something intimate and handmade and making it into something large and public. Cities need Doilies!

[You can see the above right Doilie as part of The Ins and The Outs at Rockland Center for the Arts in New York, on view through June 13, 2010]

The Mandalas series, similar to the Doilies in form and composition, are created using fabric, watercolor, lace, and acrylic applied through modified pastry tubes.

"Mandalas" began with images recalled from childhood fables and fairy tales.They grew to occupy the space between art and craft, with references to traditional women's handicrafts, drawing attention to overlooked artisan work. They forge a connection between Western and non-Western art forms.

Having grown up deeply in love with my coloring book of Turkish Designs (which I still have, unmarred), I am mesmerized by Cecere's elaborate, sonorous layering. You can see more images on her Flickr.

Abigail Doan: Fiber Forms

You've got to love the rabbit hole of the WWW. I was admiring Design Sponge's post on Yelena Bryksenkova and became increasingly enamored with her drawings of lace. (I've always loved methodical detail drawing.) This prompted a query: I wonder how many people are out there, quietly whiling the hours drawing lace? So I googled "Lace Drawing" and started poking around and found an image that led me to the blog of Abigail Doan. STUNNED. Though not drawings, Doan's work does have a 3D illustrative quality. Her Fiber Forms are simply exquisite, connoting underwater sea creatures and, at times, amoebic life. The New York artist also does installation, both in and out of doors (below). Sort of like a feminine Goldsworthy.

Maker Faire Bay Area 2010: Ready, Set ...

Every year my life gets colonized for one week in May, during which 80,000 people swarm out to partake in a single event comprised of several thousand happenings. There have been many phrases and comparisons used to describe Maker Faire — "equal parts science and art, with hints of Burning Man" (San Jose Mercury News, 5/30/09), and our own tagline, "The World's Largest DIY Festival" — but somehow none of them quite sum up the whole of the parts. My dad overheard this gem last year: "This taps into something primal — so much more than geek-appeal." It's true. While we may fly our geek flag high, this isn't about one social bracket, it's about catalysts. It's about bringing potentially disparate groups together and seeing what happens in the name of exploration, creative endeavor, science, and pleasure. That's right, pleasure. AKA fun! The joy of learning something new, or sharing what you already know. I could go on and on, but I think it's best if you see it for yourself.

Maker Faire Bay Area 2010 will be happening, as usual, at the San Mateo County Event Center, May 22 and 23rd. There will be 2 other Faires happening this year, one in Detroit on July 31 and August 1, 2010 at the Henry Ford. And World Maker Faire in Queens NY, September 25 and 26, at the New York Hall of Science.

I will be working Maker Check In 24/7, so don't be shy, please stop by and say hi! And feel free to bring with you life-giving fluids (aka beer and coffee).

You can read about a number of our featured Makers on both the blogs, makezine.com and craftzine.com. Here are a few links, compliments of Goli:
Flaming Lotus Girls SOMA
SolarPump Electric Charging Station
Interview with the Raygun Gothic Rocketship crew

All photos by Will Wilson, from the set How Will YOU Make the Future?

Luren Jenison: Custom Decoration

Luren Jenison: Custom Decoration is what the website says, and sure enough, that's what you find. I'm completely in love with these installation works, especially the hand-dyed ropes for Free People, the muk-luk inspired stencil painted wall, and the wax paper flower garlands for a wedding at F.U.E.L. I also loved looking at her Earth From Space inspiration Tumblr — mucho eye candy. [via Bird and Banner]

Adam Wallacavage: Octopus Chandeliers

I just posted this on CRAFT, my happy find of the week! While perusing the BellJar blog yesterday I came across these enchanting cephalopod chandeliers by Adam Wallacavage, a Philadelphia artist who made his start photographing for skate magazines like Thrasher. The chandeliers were born of a maritime infatuation, and sport awesome names such as Miss Fede, Dixie LaRue, and Fenicologia.

"Inspired by an obsession with the ocean and a fascination with extravagant interiors of old churches, Adam transformed the dining room of his South Philadelphia Victorian Brownstone into something from the pages of a Jules Verne novel. Teaching himself the ancient art of ornamental plastering, Adam evolved his new found skills into making plaster cast octopus shaped chandeliers as the final touch to his underwater themed room."

Adam also keeps a photo and finds blog, Monster Sized Monsters, and has a book out of the same name at Ginko Press. You can find more of his work at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery. And, for what it's worth, I emailed Adam to get some pics and he wrote me right back and was very helpful. It's entirely exhilarating to encounter a professional in the true sense of the word. You rock, Adam!

David Tomb: Borderland Birds

It's no secret, San Francisco artist and twitcher David Tomb has a thing for the winged, bipedal, endothermic, egg-laying, tetrapod vertebrate class, Aves. When asked, "Why birds?" Tomb replies "Well, birds are the bees’ knees! They can fly and they are the closest living relatives to dinosaurs. What else do you want?" and then goes on to describe a gothic memory from childhood involving vultures sunning their wings.

There is something about this image, and the nature of lore as engendered by memory, that faithfully describes Tomb's quality of painting. His watercolors are true to their ephemeral nature, the birds often poised in limbo, pending, the visible pencil sketch below urging gesture. Tomb is a studious form seeker, combing field research, live bird drawing (an admirable trait for such a kinetic subject), and sketching from real deal stills. His haunts outside the field include the California Academy of Sciences, UC Berkeley, and the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.

The show at Electric Works opens tomorrow, Friday April 16th, and will include both works on paper and installation inspired from birding trips to the Southwest and Mexico -- the "borderland". His winged subjects include the Montezuma Quail, Aztec Thrush, Aplomado Falcon and the racoon-like coati. Read the interview by Sona Avakian in its entirety at The Examiner. Take a tour of the artist's converted police station home and studio at Apartment Therapy (simply stunning). And I'll see you tomorrow!

Nina Lindgren: Cardboard Heaven

OK, there seems to be an upward trend in diminutive cardboard dwellings. First there was Benjamin Van Oost's Favela, and then Anna Serrano's Cartonlandia. Now there is Swedish illustrator Nina Lindgren's city of dreams — Cardboard Heaven. I am just blown away by that work-in-progress shot. You can read more on her blog, which does include a translation button, though to indeterminate effect.

John Paananen: Suburban Tipi

Half-Finnish, half-Italian designer John Paananen was living in a yurt when he started brainstorming ideas for building a livable hybrid nomadic dwelling on site at his campus, the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan. He considered the question, “What would happen as a result of immobilizing the nomadic home with suburban values, materials and methods of construction?" Well, apparently, you get a yurt-igloo-tipi fusion. Paananen writes, "I imagined these holistically designed structures to blister or tumor in reaction to the disconnectedness, artificiality, environmental and social irresponsibility that suburbia is.”

That may be, but there is nothing unlovely about his creation. The structure measures 16 feet tall by 18 feet in diameter and yields 255 square feet of living space. Inside, Paananen decorated with modern furniture, wonderful nature reproductions, and held nighttime projections within the dome. And while it took 3 months to build, his home of 7 months was carefully deconstructed in just 3 hours by a three person crew. It was then transported by truck to be re-erected at a new location. It currently can be visited at AguaFina Gardens International in Sylvan Lake, Michigan.

Read more at Daily Tonic. You can see shots of his original yurt and the Suburban Tipi on his Flickr. [via Notcot]

Christopher Fennell: Bus Stop Shelter

Floridian sculptor Christopher Fennell is the man responsible for this fabulous Athens Georgia bus stop (West Broad and Alps). The Bus Shelter is made from 3 old school buses, years: '62, '72 and '77. The seat is from one of Atlanta's decommissioned city buses. It's a tad too literal to be meta, but I give it mad points for being cute, clever, and upcycled. Check out the build here. Videos here. [via Recyclart]

Michel de Broin: Superficial

Invited to reflect upon the notion of transparency, Canadian born artist Michel de Broin chose to cocoon the facets of a large rock resting deep in the forest with fragments of mirror. The effect is one of conspicuous invisibility — "because it reflects one cannot be mislead by its presence, yet we cannot seize it, rather it is the rock that reflects us." [via Very Very Fun]

The Lesters Store Wrap-Up

Congratulations to Ali, Megan, Morgana, Clare, Jessica, Amber, and Ray! Be sure to keep up with The Lesters Store folks in the new year.

Mobile Mobile Installation

Granted, I want to see this done with almost any tune other than an xmas jingle, but I concede it's wonderfully executed. This interactive installation by International Lost Servant Boys (LBi), Mobile Mobile, connects upcycled mobile phones via computer to play Carol of the Bells live when you tweet it. How geek-festive. [via Fubiz]

Michael Johansson

Swedish artist Michael Johansson delights with assembling, nesting, and repackaging everyday objects into re-envisioned configurations. "By repetition, displacement of scale and new function he questions the receivers interpretation of the unique". Q: Is too much enough? A: Too much is not enough. More at Nordin Gallery ... Some assembly required. [via Kate Pruitt]