Fasteners, Helping to Cool the Earth

We found another assembly diagram that shows lots of fasteners - and it is very creative -  so we love it.

This diagram was made by Doug Chayka for Fast Co. Exist's feature on "World Changing Ideas of 2015", The title is: GEOENGINEERING. I think the diagram, in reference to the article, is suggesting that maybe one day someone will come up with a plan for humans to cool our planet...clever way of expressing it. There are a bunch of fasteners in the diagram, which is also awesome, but at this size they are hard to see so be sure to click over to the artist's website to see a big version of it - to see all the fasteners in all their glory: http://www.dougchayka.com/. Perhaps fasteners will help save the planet.

A Mechanical Bug

We found a mechanical bug!

ADORABLE.

Found this at Zazzle.com - you can buy it as a card or magnet there.

The artist goes by:

borianagpencil

Our Hat's Off to Phil Ferguson

Melbourne artist Phil Ferguson crochets these awesome hats. They are super fun and clever. But why has he been included in our blog, you ask...you'll have to scroll to the bottom to see why!

All the photos are from his INSTAGRAM page.

A SCREW HAT!!!
(How did we get so lucky?! Normally does food but one day he decides to do a screw - woohoo!)

And if Phil ever sees this, if he scrolls all the way to the bottom of this post too, let me take this opportunity to tell you that my nieces and I think you're so funny and great!

Origami Bolts & Nuts

David Brill is a brilliant origamist (is that a word?)  He folds some of the most impressive origami - he even publishes the diagrams to show someone else how to fold and recreate his masterpieces.

Check this out!

Why he chose a nut and bolt, we'll never know. 

But I do know that folding the paper to look like the threads on a bolt is really impressive! I think the origami world was super impressed too because lots of people have recreated it - just do a Google Image search of "David Brill Origami Nut Bolt" and you'll see plenty of examples of people recreating them.

You could also:

Click here to see someone named Wonko display a step-by-step of folding the BOLT

Click here to see Wonko display a step-by-step of folding the NUT

OR

Click here to buy the David Brill book that the diagram comes in and try making your own!

It looks too hard and time consuming for me...I'm busy blogging!

Cyclist #2

Last week for National Bike Month we posted a mountain biker - this week a street biker!

I'd get my friend Robert one but it's out of stock.

Found it here.

Have any of you biked to work this month? I don't think I could do it.

Goodbye Flamingo!

Remember the one we posted about the Garden Gnome, now we found this one!

It really is a hilarious touch perfect for my garden.

Nuts and Bolts in the Holy Land

Now we're in Israel! 

Meet Yoma Segev. Unlike the other sculptors we've presented, this one doesn't use fasteners exclusively but all sorts of materials that are considered trash. And lots of fasteners show up! We think his work is fun and whimsical, and we like it.

All of the following information and photos we found on blog called PazzaPazza. The writer of the blog wrote the following about Yoma, "It seems to me, that Yoma does not care if anyone likes what he does, if he can sell it, where to exhibit it, what will be its purpose - he just creates, obsessively, soulfully and wholeheartedly. "  

Here he is.

This sheep is made of WING NUTS!

My eyes had trouble seeing them at first glance.

There's a keps nut right on his forehead.

Lots of nuts in this one.

So fun.

For more information on him, do a google search. He's pretty popular. 

Fastener Soul from Seoul

From Spain to South Korea! 

Introducing artist PArk Chan-girl.

Park Chan-girl received his BFA in Sculpture from Chungnam National University and his MFA in Fine Arts from KyungHee University...and that's basically all I know about him. Other than he does amazing stuff with our precious commodity.

Check these out.

I love seeing these close up.

Very sweet.

For more info check out his BLOG or his FACEBOOK.

Let's go to Spain!

This month, we're going around the world. And the best place to start, in my opinion, is Spain ¡Vamos!

Meet Artist Manuel Marti Mareno from Valencia, Spain - he makes sculptures out of different sizes of hex nuts. (He does other things too but I'm of course going to focus on the hex nut sculptures.) 

Close up you can see all the different sizes involved.

I think that is amazing but the faces are my favorite. They are way more emotional than you would expect from something made of metal.

I'm so impressed.

Even life size sculptures!

Here is an interview with the artist which is no good if you don't speak spanish but still watch it because you can see more of his work and also his process, which I thought was so cool. 

And lastly, all of the info including the photos & video came from his blog - go there to see more.

And there is a lot more!

Still Lifes of Screws

With November being a month dedicated to gratitude, what better way to stop and reflect than with a still life.

I found these beautiful paintings from a woman named Jenny Armitage.

They are still lifes of jars of left over fasteners (we can all relate to that.)

A household staple immortalized in these fantastic paintings.

The light, the colors - they are pretty and they make me feel good.

I even love the idea of a window sill full of different jars full of different fasteners.

I just might move my jars out of the garage and into a pretty sunlit window. 

Sigh...I think fasteners are wonderful.

If you'd like your own painting, you can buy one here.

The 'Nuts & Bolts' of Graphic Design

Lots of graphic designs are inspired by our little product so I compiled a few of them I really like.

Sarah Hodgkins' silhouette

Found it: HERE

Fake but true propaganda.

Found it: HERE

Better than 'bang' there is 'crash'

Found it: HERE

"Tim Fischer reminds everyone of the importance of restraining bolts."

Found it: HERE

You know Chock full o' Nuts but do you know this one?

Found it: HERE

Lastly, Dan Brisse has a snowboarding show and it is called (drum roll)

Watch it: HERE

People are so creative.

Screw City

There is a town called Rockford in Illinois and this Saturday, September 7, 2013, they are hosting this:

Do you wonder why they named it SCREW CITY when it is actually in Rockford? 

They are paying tribute to Rockford's industrial manufacturing history. Apparently they were the "Screw Capital" of the country at one time.

So what better way to pay tribute than with a beer festival.

Look at all the cool things I read at GoRockford.com that the city is responsible for,  

"The city's industrial background has produced many important and interesting inventions, among them the Nelson knitting machine, airbrush, electric brake, electric garage door opener, dollar bill changer, and electronic dartboard."

 Some fun stuff came out of Rockford.

In the 1800's Rockford was known as SCREW CITY because of  the billions of screws, bolts and fasteners its factories produced for the manufacturers of the world but do you wonder which modern city would be named SCREW CITY today?

I thought today it might be in India, Taiwan or China but not necessarily.

Despite the fact that many foreign countries have been doing a lot of the manufacturing of fasteners these days, the American fastener industry is alive and thriving.

I found an awesome article from Assembly Magazine called The Comeback of the American Fastener that wrote,

"Despite the recent economy, U.S. fastener manufacturing is quite healthy. According to the most recent IFI market data, manufacturers consumed $13.2 billion worth of industrial fasteners last year. More than two-thirds (67 percent) of those screws, nuts and bolts were produced in North America, while the remaining 33 percent were imported."

 That's great news!

I'm not sure that Rockford will ever get back in on the action but at least now they will be famous for the best named beer festival!

For more info visit:  www.ScrewCityBeerFest.com

So which city today would be named SCREW CITY...I don't know.

I tried looking up statistics but it was too hard to determine.

So I will conclude this post with some other cool Screw Cities - arrivederci people!

'Screw York City'  by Stephen Knowles - found it here.

'Screw This City' by Cloudeme - found it here.

Downloadable wallpaper by Gregor Kerle - found it here.

Woven Hexrugs

MSN relaunched and to draw some attention they collaborated with Design Milk to showcase 4 artists and designers that  "...embody the same design, content and functional philosophies as the new MSN.com."  (The words were taken from this article.)

The artist I liked best is Aurelie Tu from Crafted Systems. She weaves felt and makes carpets, vases, wall hangings and other interesting stuff.  The photo below is what caught our eye!

(Photo from here.)

I think this is the beginning stage of one of her Hexrugs. It is not done but I would leave it just like that because I love seeing that shape. 

Although, I must admit, they are quite beautiful when they are completed too.

(Photo from here.)

It's so pretty, I don't think I'd let anyone walk on it.

Phil Shaw's Art with Fasteners

There is an artist in England named Phil Shaw and he has a huge resume of lots and lots of wonderful projects - you can check them out here: PHIL SHAW ONLINE.  What caught our eye was of course some fastener related ones - which we think deserve a mention.

Title: Screw driver

Title: Half inch spanner

We're super impressed how the artist conveyed subtlety & elegance in such a simple way using traditionally masculine & tough subjects - we love them!

And there are two more on display over at his website - I highly suggest you take a gander.

WELL DONE PHIL SHAW.

Show off your GUTS and BOLTS!

There is a great new film festival of shorts coming to Long Beach, Calif. - it's called the: 

GUTS AND BOLTS SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

It's all about zombies & robots!!!

If you click over to their site - WHERE THEY ARE NOW ACCEPTING ADMISSIONS - you will learn that on SEPTEMBER 20th there will be a screening of the best 15 short films entered that feature either zombies or robots  - or (my favorite) both! 

YOU SHOULD DO IT! MAKE ONE!
I would do it but I don't know anything about movies...maybe I'll try, BUT I'm not making any promises...this sounds hard.  BUT, I will definitely attend!

The deadline to enter is August 9th so get busy!

Letter-impressive!

This last weekend I participated in an event called CRAFT HAPPY and I did just that - I happily crafted.

There I took a class that taught 'How to Letterpress'.  Basically there was this fantastic old machine that we used to press a piece of paper on to a block with ink, and we made cards.  It was as simple as that.

But the machine that we used was far from simple!

This is the machine - it inks the brayer, the brayer inks your block and then it pushes the block with ink on to your paper - all with one pull on a lever.

That's the lever. The whole thing moves in unison with a single pull on that handle.

And look right there!

Fancy screws in the middle of it all - happily assisting our letterpressing. 

This adorable young woman is about to demonstrate how to pull the lever - and then...

Poof - VOILA - these cards are made!

And I made fancy envelopes to go with them - they look great...if i do say so myself.

It was so fun I thought about getting one of those machines for home but I hear they are in the $1,000 price range so I think I will continue borrowing this one for a while.

For more info check out this article on How to use a LETTERPRESS

For CRAFT HAPPY, which I highly recommend for next year, check out The Makery - they host it.

And last but not least, for your own class on the LETTERPRESS go to Creative Outlet Studios.

Now, who's going to be the lucky recipient of one of my THANK YOU cards...