Crafty Manolo

It’s time once again to parse out reality… or what passes for it on Project Runway, the show where clearly nobody has ever seen the inside of an office not featured on a show involving Kardashians. Clearly nobody ever watched The Apprentice, or even The Office.

And if you don’t know where that rant came from, you might want to watch the episode before you read this… or you might want to just jump right in and read all the discussion now. Your choice.

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One hundred years ago today, Julia Child was born. Hip hooray!

In honor of the woman who made American women unafraid to try French cuisine and who made a joyful career out of playing with her food, I urge you all to check out this super cool gallery of photographs of food styled into the flags of countries around the world.

Check out this delightful ode to the French flag, chosen in honor of Julia:

Bon appetite!

You know how it is. You have a loved one who is incarcerated, but you’re tired of all your pictures with them being set in the prison visiting room. You know, like this:

Well now you can do something about it! Imagine if the same picture was taken on a romantic trip to St. Croix Lake. It might look like this:

What do you mean ‘painfully photoshopped?’  Nobody could possibly tell! And you know nobody will ask why they don’t recall you taking a romantic vacation with someone they’ve never met.

The good folks at Photos Beyond the Wall would beg to differ. With their help, you and your incarcerated loved one can have those embarrassing prison photos changed into pictures of you together at plush resorts, backyard barbeques, or with your awesome Jaguar.

My suggestion? Save your money. Do it on your home computer. It’s not going to look much worse. And you can put your imprisoned parent, sibling, spouse, lover, child or best bud into a picture of a place they might actually have been to before.

A new flea market started up recently in my town. Mr. Twistie has been going with his friend the Drummer. Last week, he asked me to come along so I could try out the schnitzel at one of the food trucks. I gotta say, that was the best darn schnitzel I’ve ever had. Light, crisp, flavorful, and the housemade horseradish sauce was out of this world!

But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. Great schnitzel is a wonderful thing, but this blog is about crafts. Schnitzel, however, got me to the flea market where I found a surprising pair of craft artists whose work delighted me.

Smiling Dog Studio is the brainchild of craft artists Jane Brooks and Val Yandell. Val takes the photographs. Jane works in assemblage. Together they create fabulous jewelry like the piece shown above, as well as ornaments to hang around your house like this fun antique camera image:

You can find Smiling Dog Studio at various craft events around the Bay Area, or you can contact them online for custom work

So poke around their site, ask them a question… they won’t bite. And neither did their dogs, Wasabi and Fig, who I also met at the flea market. Nice doggies!

I love me a good tote bag. They’re useful. Whether I’m making a quick run to the grocery store and would rather not come home with more disposable bags or getting my crafts supplies from point A to point B conveniently, they serve me well. Not only that, they’re fun and attractive, to boot!

For instance, this gorgeous tote (complete with internal pocket for your phone) is printed with a photograph of a door in Brugges the artist, Melanie Saucier, took in her travels abroad from her native Canada.

If you like this, you can find it right here on Saucier’s website.

Some other favorites of mine include a messenger bag printed with a photograph of a manual typewriter keyboard, and a fabulous pot holder with a London street scene on it.

The prices are reasonable, and the items are really useful. Whether you’re looking for a birthday, graduation, or wedding gift for someone who loves to travel, or wanting something for your own home, this is a great place to start the search.

Me? I’m dreaming of going through the door on that tote bag and finding myself in Brugges.

It’s fascinating what can be done with photography.

The contemporary art online magazine, Hi*Fructose has a gallery up of Russian born artist Oleg Dau’s work in the medium. This body of work, entitled ‘Cubs,’ starts with photographs of children gazing full on at the camera. Then the bodies and skins are digitally manipulated to get the effect the artist wants, which is heavily influenced by Victorian post-mortem photography. Warning: the last link includes images that some viewers may find extremely disturbing.

Having always had a certain fondness for the surreal and slightly macabre, I have to say I want one of these portraits. I want to know more about how the artist got the effects, and what inspired him. I want to put one of these on a wall and ponder it at odd times and in different moods.

And I do want to see how people react when they see it!