Hasta La Ideas

I love Forstner bits as much as I hate spade bits. Is there anything as satisfying as boring that smooth-sided, flat-bottomed hinge-cup hole in a cabinet-door-to-be? If your application requires you to go all the way through your workpiece, sure, you can get some nasty tear-out; my solution is to use a backer board of wood a different color than your piece. That way, when you see differently-colored shavings start to come up, you know you’ve gone all the way through.

All Forstner bits are not created equal, of course. I own several makes: Irwin, Freud, and some crappy no-name Made in China and Made in Taiwan bits I bought at the local mom-and-pop hardware store (before I was thrown out and permanently banned after getting into an argument with the owner over a sink aerator. Ah, NYC). The Freud seems to do the best job of evacuating the chips, while the others require more corkscrewing/hula-hooping and/or mid-drilling vacuuming. I know Freud manufactures in Western Europe, and I suspect Irwin manufactures in China, perhaps explaining the quality discrepancy. And now I’ve caught wind of a kind of super Forstner bit, this one out of Germany.

(more…)

Whatever holidays you celebrate — at this time of year, or any other time — you may choose to include decorating as part of the festivities. Here are some ideas about holiday decorations that might resonate with you.

Choosing decorations as gifts

One of the best holiday gifts I’ve given was a small wooden armadillo, which became part of someone’s Christmas crèche. I knew the recipient well, and knew she had a beloved crèche with an eclectic collection of animals in attendance.

Holiday decorating styles vary wildly; some people do minimal decorations, or none at all, while other go all out. Some use a color theme, and others have a wild mixture of items they’ve collected over the years — each item bringing back memories of people or places. So for the right people, a thoughtful addition to their holiday decorations may be a welcome gift.

Selecting holiday decorations

And what about your own decorations? One idea I’ve read for simplifying things — if that’s what you want to do — is to go big. Barbara Tako writes: “Would you rather dust around a clutter of small decorations on an end table or admire a large wall hanging, decorative runner, or table cloth? Large decorations can create impact without the same maintenance hassle as small knick-knacks.”

And a note of caution: When selecting holiday décor for yourself or others, please be sure to be child-safe and pet-safe. The Pet Poison Helpline will help you avoid plants that are dangerous to cats and dogs. And the Consumer Product Safety Commission has a publication, in PDF format, listing holiday decoration safety tips.

Remembering the good ideas

Did you do really like the way you arranged certain decorations this year? Be sure to take some photos, so you can easily replicate the arrangement in the future.

Going the rental route

For those who like “real” Christmas trees, but not the time it takes to go cut your own (or the fire hazards of trees that dry out too quickly), you might choose to rent a tree. There’s a place in San Jose, Calif., that leases living Christmas trees; you can even get the same tree year after year. Another place rents trees in San Diego, Los Angeles County, and Marin County. There may be a similar place near you.

Eliminating decoration clutter

If you have holiday decorations sitting around that you aren’t overly fond of, passing them on to someone else usually works best when done before the holiday. I’ve just freecycled a large number of Christmas items — wreaths, ornaments, hand towels, lights, and figurines — that I’d have a much harder time placing in January. This would also be a good time to donate such items to a thrift store that benefits a good cause. And a fun idea I just read about is to have an ornament exchange party.

So as you’re pulling decorations out of storage, consider taking some time to pass along those you’re no longer excited about putting on display.

Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today.

These spiky masks folded from paper by 3Gatti Architecture Studio are designed for customising mannequins in retail displays (+ slideshow).

“This project is born form the increasing demand in the retail world of eye-catching mannequins for the windows display,” 3Gatti founder Francesco Gatti said. “Customising the entire mannequin becomes too expensive if you have to follow the increasing speed of the window display concept transformations, so we thought of a low-cost paper mask to temporarily make your mannequin literally a cutting-edge peace of design.”

The Masko masks are folded from sections of white paper and attached together using tabs.

Simplified 3D models found in computer games were used as a reference for the faceted forms.

“The translation of this into reality of course has to pass through the art of paper folding and origami,” said Gatti. “In this particular case using white parchment all cut and folded by machines. The result is aggressively edgy.”

Triangular and trapezium-shaped sections vary in size and density across the surfaces to create the combinations of protruding shapes.

Some of the pieces have extreme spikes extending from the front and back, especially noticeable when viewed from the side, while others designs are flatter and symmetrical.

The masks will first be used on mannequins at a store that 3Gatti Architecture Studio are designing in Chongqing, China.

Here’s the information sent to us by the designers:

Masko – Mannequins masks design set

This project is born form the increasing demand in the retail world of eye-catching mannequins for the windows display.

Customising the entire mannequin become too expensive if have to follow the increasing speed of the window display concepts transformations; so we thought of a low cost paper masks to temporary make your mannequins literally a cutting-edge peace of design.

The concept behind this design comes from our contemporary life, usually in big metropolis where often you don’t see the people faces because of the anti-pollution masks or simply because we live more isolated from the real bodies and the real life and more and more in virtual worlds such as video games where you see the other always wearing a virtual mask.

From the video games world comes the inspiration of a polygonal mask, using the same language of the simplified 3D models usually used in the virtual environments to make higher performances in the graphics acceleration.

The translation of this into reality of course has to pass through the art of paper folding and origami, in this particular case using white parchment all cut and folded by machines. The result is aggressively edgy.

Masko credits:

Design firm: 3GATTI
Chief designer: Francesco Gatti
Project designer: Bogdan Chipara

The post Masko spiky origami masks for shop window
mannequins by 3Gatti Architecture Studio appeared first on Dezeen.

Core77’s Hand-Eye Supply Curiosity Club is head over heels for tonight’s presentation from Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records! Tonight’s talk starts at 6pm at the Hand-Eye Supply store in Portland, Oregon. Come early and check out our space or check in with us online for the live broadcast!

Eric Isaacson
Mississippi Records: “A Short History of Mississippi Records”
Hand-Eye Supply
23 NW 4th Ave
Portland, Oregon 97209
Tuesday, Nov. 26th, 6pm PST

This is a talk featuring the impossibly bad business model that is Mississippi Records. I’ll be speaking about how Mississippi has managed to sustain as a “lo -fi” business for over 10 years. Mississippi Records has run a label and retail store with the only technology at play being a calculator and a notebook and no promotion or advertising of any kind. Despite these limitations, we have managed to release over 172 records and run a modestly successful record store. I will also discuss some of the great artists we have been honored to work with who share our low to the ground approach, our world wide strange as hell distribution system, and other aspects of the business. I’ll be using slides to illustrate throughout the talk.

Eric Isaacson is the founder and owner of the Mississippi Records store and one of the founders of the Mississippi Records label. Mississippi Records has released 172 records, 104 cassettes and has existed as a brick and mortar store for over 10 years. Eric has run the store and designed and edited the majority of releases on the Mississippi label. He only recently started talking about the Mississippi project in public, spending the last 10 years under a veil of obscurity and total radio silence to the press. He plans on retreating back into the shadows after the new year.

(more…)

Après son excellente série Face Illustrations, le photographe russe Alexander Khokhlov est de retour avec un nouveau concept unique et beaucoup plus de couleurs. Une collaboration avec la make-up artist Valeriya Kutsan, pour une transformation des visages de plusieurs modèles en peinture.