Nothing says LOVE like NUTS & BOLTS

This shirt says it all for us! 

To our customers & our friends, Happy Valentine's Day.

If you want your own tee, get it over at Etsy.com.

Heart-shaped Watermelons

In honor of Valentine's Day approaching, we're showing
you the HEART-SHAPED WATERMELON!

That looks unbelievable, right?

The farmer himself looks as sweet as the watermelon. He is Hiroichi Kimura of Surprised Farmer.  He's the actual guy who made this happen!

And how does he do it? He puts the watermelons in a special mold as it grows.

I SEE NUTS & BOLTS! There they are, holding the mold together - yeah!

And here is the result...I wonder if it is delicious too.

We found all the photos, the article and the following video from ROCKET NEWS 24.com

The video is really great. Be sure to watch it.

NAMM-tastic!

The NAMM Show was last week and we've got some photos to share.

Amplifiers

Hand-painted Amplifiers

Boutique Amplifiers

Guitars

Ukeleles

 Saxaphones

Drums

 Cymbals

Cajóns

Fender had the assembly tee from our other post on display!

And here we are, the Freeway Street Team

(All of us had fastener jewelry on and we didn't even plan it.)

All of the things I took photos of at NAMM are being held together with fasteners. Fasteners are a huge component to the manufacturing of most musical instruments.

To demonstrate this best, below is a video I watched at NAMM 2014. 

Here's a still photo of the video to get you excited.

The video is from Electro Voice demonstrating the sound quality of their system, ETX. Watch as the video deconstructs the product and you can see exactly where all the fasteners go...it's so cool.

Click here to see more from ElectroVoice.

And that's it - Fasteners Rock!

The Making Music Tree

I read the best article that details the best competition!

And I'm sharing it for music month.

There is a competition called RED BULL CREATIONS. It takes place in Brooklyn over 8 days and basically teams of creative people are given short notice to build something awesome - and they do! Last year the theme was music (they don't even find out the theme until the night before.)

This team built a tree that makes music.

That's the tree behind them.

Dancing under the tree triggers sensors that create noises.

Making these sounds sounds so fun! 

They didn't win the competition but RED BULL headquarters chose their tree as one of two of the 5 projects to be sent to Red Bull's Music Academy's recording studio (who knew that existed?!) I think that's a huge compliment.

And in the article from Digital Trends.com it says they still felt they walked away ahead because they got to literally drive away with truckloads of materials - including 100 pounds of nuts and bolts! That's a great consolation prize. 

The photos on our blog, and to see more photos, check out the article at DIGITAL TRENDS.com. They describe the activities of the full event and it was a really fun read.

Assembly Tees...for You & Mees

Ever wonder how things are put together? Well you're not the only one.

Lately I've seen the assembly of different things broken down into diagrams so that the details are visible. Then to make things more fun, t-shirts are made of said diagrams!

This weeks post is of  2 Tees showing the assembly of two very important musical things (remember it's music month?)

1st Tee

Every last detail used in the assembly of a record player - including the screws, of course.
In the old days you couldn't listen to your cherished music without one of these - who's old enough to remember with me?!

Found it at ScoutMob.com

2nd Tee

This one I found my friend wearing so I don't know where to find one.

The head of the guy cut off in the photo above belongs to my friend John.

You can see John's tee is a little ratty from how much he's loved wearing it over the years but you're still able to see that screws are included here too! Which made me take notice again how our little inconspicuous product is also important to one of our nations greatest art forms, music. The electric guitar is all American, baby!

It's cute they included the pick too.

And in case you want to see real photos of the above diagram, check out our past post that displays all the fasteners, inside and out, that make up a Fender guitar - click here.

And lastly, we only included musical ones but your can find tees with bike assemblies, wheel assemblies, pinball, turbos, rockets, guns - all sorts of things - and they are all fun.  They even have a tee for people who hate them!

Found it at Captain Leisure.com

Music Month is Here!

It's January and our blog focuses on music and sound this month, in honor of the NAMM SHOW.

If you don't know what the NAMM SHOW is check out our post from a 2012. But basically NAMM is an acronym for National Association of Music Merchants; it is a huge convention in Southern California where everyone who sells a musical instrument, or music related products, gets together.

So we're starting the month off with this clever musical instrument that

someone made out of fastener related items.

.  

My instinct is to call it a xylophone but the word comes from the Greek words ξύλον - xylon - meaning "wood" and φωνή - phonē - meaning "sound, voice".  So xylophone translates to "wooden sound" but this one isn't made of wood! So we can't call it that. But what should we call it? 

Let's figure it out.

I looked up the word WRENCH in Greek and it is κλειδί, pronounced kleidí, so I'm thinking this should be a kleidíphone.

There you have it - it's a homemade kleidíphone!

Did you notice what they used for mallets in the video - screwdrivers!

Pretty clever...I'm going to go watch the video again.  

Wishing you...

We hope December brought wonderful Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations for everyone. 

We got our little characters all dressed up to wish you all the happiest of holidays.

See you all in 2014!

Be safe.

More Great Gifts

This business card holder is a classic - it is elegant without out being fancy. I think the visible screws on the metal with the wood look great too. Get it at Etsy!

At the Kaufmann Mercantile in New York you can get this key chain called the EDC Kit.

They have the best synopsis: "Our Every Day Carry (EDC) tools: Pry bar, screwdrivers, precision tweezers, waterproof lighter and titanium key ring. All items weigh less than two ounces combined. Made in U.S.A."  Sounds perfect.

And then there is this necklace that is also a tool, that's cool.

Looks pretty but also tightens 8, 10, 12 and 14mm bolts.

Or you can get it as a key ring...I'm impressed.

Get it at Blend Creations.

Ok, last day to shop - good luck!

And Happy Holidays everyone.

AWESOME GIFTS

This gift guide isn't just great, it's AWESOME!

For example look at these...

Julie Hinault made them.

I love the colors...

I love the different levels...

I love them together...

or separate.

The hex bowls are pretty and fun - they're awesome.

And she made this cake mold too.

Guess what happens when you flip the cake?

You get the design ON THE CAKE!

It is hard to see in the photos but the hex design is there - I love it!

Julie Hinault is very clever and she makes awesome things.

Her WEBSITE is worth checking out.

Now how about some tools? Check these out:

A website called The Grommet introduced these next 2 to me.

Thin as a dime but has tons of functions, like tightening a bolt!

Click on the photo or here to go to the website - it explains all about the awesome multifunctionalness (is that a word?) of this great tool. Along with a video demonstration.

Then I saw this one:

The Kelvin 2.3 Urban Super Tool - what a name!

Basically, a guy named Kevin combined a hammer, tape measure, level & screwdriver into one piece of equipment perfectly sized for the urban home. Now that is awesome.

Click on the photo or HERE to go to the website and watch the video that explains it all.

That's it for now - we hope you're having an awesome winter so far.

GREAT GIFTS

The holidays are here -time for GIFTS!!!!

GREAT GIFTS #1

Everything with HEXAGONS!

We love the hexagon shape - it sort of represents us .

How about a case for your fancy phone?

 It's wood and it's on Etsy here.

Or how about this colorful painting?

You can buy it on Etsy here.

These earrings are pretty awesome.

You can buy them on Etsy here.

For the house - hex coasters!

Buy them here on Etsy in any color you want!

Of course there is plenty more fun stuff out there.

Let us know if you know of something we'd love!

Now get to shopping.