Nerd Core Stitchers of the world unite!
A while back I told you all about the HTML Patchwork Project, the brainchild of Ele Carpenter.
The great news is that now it’s done! Well, it’s opening in an exhibition next weekend so it must be pretty close. So for you lucky people in London, you can get along and check it out.
It’s part of the Open Source Embroidery Exhibition:
This exhibition explores the connections between the collaborative characteristics of needlework, craft and Open Source software. This project has brought together embroiderers, patch-workers, knitters, artists and computer programmers, to share their practice and make new work.
Other works in the exhibition include Susanne Hardy’s Knit-a-Blog, a collective knitting project made by contributors from across the UK and USA, Iain Clarke’s PHP Embroidery, which explores the open source PHP programming language as a form of self-generating weaving, as well as artworks by Paul Grimmer, Tricia Grindrod, Jake Harries & Keith o’Faoláin, John Keenan, Trevor Pitt, Clare Ruddock, James Wallbank, and Lisa Wallbank.
And if you do get to check it out, look for my little patch, located somewhere in the top left of the quilt!
Come to the Dark Side
I’m never one to be ashamed of a bit of geek pride and I am screaming from the rooftops how much I love this dude.
MC Storm Troopa hails from the mighty crafty town of Hamiltron (naturally) and is absolutely brilliant, or should I say, fully sick mate!
I never would have thought that I’d find myself groovin out to a track called Empire Pride.
It’s nerdcore to the baddest and not only is it clever but it’s all extremely well produced. You could very easily drop any of these tracks into a party and noone would really notice. Mind you your friends might look at you funny if you played the You and Me Padme track…
Check out his Myspace and Virb and there’s tons of tracks on his Facebook page. Check out the very cleverly titled EP. The downloads are free due to some copyright thing. But if you like it you might like to find a way of flicking him some coin.
Trek Craft
I’m not a fan crafter. I would possibly like to be but I don’t think I’m obsessed enough about anything to want to make fan craft. Unless of course, if you count dead radical feminists…
But I have so much admiration for fan crafters ’cause they make such cool stuff. I reckon it must be the extra level of emotion and obsession that goes into the design process.
So I have to point out these awesome Star Trek crafts by Devorah Sperber. This pieces are based on the Star Trek Transporter and are made out of hanging glass beads
I am so impressed with the technical aspects of these pieces. Not only has she absolutely encapsulated the visual dynamic of the transporter but the accuracy in detail is phenomenal. I would love to have one of these hanging in the back door. Doesn’t really go with the house but I would still love it.
If you’re in New York, go see this exhibition, it’s on until April the 26th.
Some Geek Stitch
It’s Friday Fun time again! Me thinks this is gonna become a regular thing. Especially as it’s getting colder and I’m cuddled up on the couch wrapped in blankets!
So today I’m going to show you some nerdy stitch fun.
I often say to people who wonder why I’m convinced that cross stitch is cool that cross stitch is just like pixel art, just heaps slower.
So I loved it when I found this one:
It’s from the Subversive Cross Stitch photo pool at Flickr but I found it at this site, which has a lovely wee feature of this website! I don’t quite get what the post says ’cause it’s in Italian and I couldn’t get a very good translation of it all.
But I also LOVED this stitch.
If anyone can tell me where it came from, I’d be really interested to know.
OK so back on to the nerd theme… Im sure I’ve pointed out this site before but if not, check out spritestitch.com which has this AWESOME Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pattern. I was about 9 when the original series came out so there’s a real special place in my heart for the Turtles. Although I could never figure out why my pizza wasn’t as stretchy as theirs. I used to think I had to go to america to get stretchy pizza, but then I figured out animation…
I can’t wait to see this one finished!
Which brings me back to pixel art and quite possibly the most amazing WIP I’ve ever seen. So the story goes like this: I was at the Craft Cartel market in the beginning of February and one of our lovely stall holders said ‘hey check out this cross stitch’ and pulled out this bit of fabric wrapped in plastic.
It was this:
Which is a pattern design by Tea Party Revolution from the original drawing of aforementioned stall holder Lilly Kitten
I was floored! It is done on the tiniest canvas (22 count!) and it’s amazing. It’s even got silver thread accents in it. Which we all know is more unpleasant to work with than the plague.
Here’s an up-close of a small part of one eye lid to give you an idea of the level of detail
So I emailed the genius behind it all and this is the story she gave me:
It’s a piece known as Dirty Angel and her pattern is a work in progress (she is made from the original pattern, the revised and better pattern is being worked on). The original design is one of the LillyKitten design range, an original of which you can see here (and above):
As for her – she is roughly 43″ by 34″, and stitched on 22 count Aida using just over 180 different colours from the DMC colour range of stranded cotton. None of the colours are blended, at the moment anyway. So far she has taken roughly 2 years to do, since she enjoys frustrating the hell out of me as I attempt to change colours. She also enjoys making me frog her.
180 colours!! That is absolute insanity! 2 years! eek! holy crap wow! I wish I had the patience for stuff like this. I’ve started two big projects and that’s as far as they got… started.
Tea Party Revolution also sells her own cross stitch kits which we’ll hopefully see soon at the Craft Cartel and online. Will let you know when that happens.
There’s more WIP shots and other stuff here
Finally for Friday Fun, this one is slightly off topic but it’s still xstitch, or should that be X-Rated stitch, and also from the SCS pool:
Says it all really.
Have a good weekend!
xox
The Onion takes on owls
Oh how I love The Onion.
I also really love owls (it’s my one cutesy indulgence).
So I love, love this tshirt!
It brought tears to my eyes.
Another Comic Moment
Further to this post the other day about web comics, I got around to adding some to my rss feeder.
So I had to share this one with you ’cause it reminded me of a number of people I know.
Craft Nerdery
Goodness me sometimes they all jump out at you at once.
There’s some nice wee crafty developments that I want to draw your attention to cause they’re pretty bloody interesting.
Continue Reading →
Blatant Political Brain Bashing
It’s funny, in Aotearoa, there is a whole lot of people who don’t get how MMP works. It seems to be too complicated to work out. But here, I can’t even work it all out and I’m ‘smart’. And to make things more fun, voting is compulsory! What kind of brilliant fascist trick is that eh?
I’ve had numerous conversations with people recently who don’t really get how their political values translates into a vote. So I’m going to break it down for you all.
Continue Reading →
Up Yours Myspace
I finally did it! After months of begrudgingly logging in to Myspace to accept or deny friend requests from people I didn’t know. And nine times out of ten getting some stupid technical error which prevented me from doing so.
I have deleted my Myspace account.
Why did this take so long? you may ask. Well, it took four attempts because every time I logged in and went to my account settings I got a fucking technical error.
So if you go to my page now it belongs to some guy in Wisconsin. Good on him.
The highlight of this wee adventure was definitely the part where they ask you why it is that you’re deleting your account. I should of kept it but to summarise:
Because your technological junk heap fucking sucks and your boss is about the fourth evilest man on the planet. Get yourself some karma and quit your job today.
And that would be about the most I ever wrote on myspace.
Clean Up Your [e]Trash!
I’m really busy so apologies for no recent updates. Have this nice piece of news instead:
Electronic waste (e-waste) can seriously harm the environment, wildlife and human health when dumped in landfills.
eDay is a drive-through recycling event which gives you the opportunity to dispose of old computers or mobile phones in an environmentally sustainable way.
eDay 2007 is on Saturday 29 September (9am – 3pm) in 10 locations across the country and Sunday 30 September (10am – 2pm) in Auckland. It’s easy to get involved – and it’s free!