I’m impressed with mediatinker‘s kiwa hirsuta lobster soft toy, made very soon after the discovery of the deep sea species. The detailed pattern and instructions are released on a creative commons license.
(via whip up)
Laura Zindel ceramics
Anne Frank: Within and Without
In January the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta put on a puppet production called Anne Frank: Within and Without that looks as if it would have been amazing. An article in the New York Times, describes how the writer and director, Bobby Box
“tackles his subject by having two actresses manipulate the doll-like puppets, which look like pose-able mannequins. The actresses, pin-curled and identically costumed in prim knee-length gray wool skirts, white blouses, gray cardigans and Mary Janes, are both introduced to the audience as Anne. Sometimes they seem to be personifications of Anne’s memory or different aspects of her personality. Sometimes they seem like ghostly grown-up versions of an Anne Frank who has been allowed, in death, to age and return to tell her story.
The two performers move the puppets in and around a giant cutaway dollhouse, an exact replica of the annex rooms where Anne and her family hid. Watching grown women play with dolls this way turns out to be surprisingly macabre.
There are examples of the tender-turned-terrible throughout the show, including a cradle that later becomes the cattle car carrying the residents of the annex to their deaths.”
There is also a great slide show of some of the scenes, and puppets in action, linked in the sidebar of the NYT article.
In other accounts the production is described as ‘a celebration of life love and faith’ and ‘a meditation on hope and all that is good in human kind’.
Here are some other links:
JTOnline: Puppets tell Tragic Girl’s Story
SouthernVoice Online: Adult puppet show with two gay principals
aligns Holocaust experience with religious and political extremism that
still exists today.
Bobby Box’s photos in Amsterdam for set design
Productions in the works: notes on the production as it progresses
Access Atlanta: Ann Frank’s hope inspires puppet show (3 pics)
Updated links 2015
Leafcutter ant
I’m getting quite fond of this little leafcutter ant I made recently. (It’s only about 15 cm long). I might get to make some big ones later this year.
Artnatomy and life casts
Artnatomy is a fantastic anatomical facial expression learning tool by Victoria Contreras Flores. Play with
the actions, especially in naturalistic mode. The pout is wonderful. (via Drawn!)
This reminded me of a collection of life casts that I had seen a while ago. Life casts are plaster casts of actors’ faces, made so that makeup artists can develop prosthetics. The thing I find curious is that with no hair and eyes closed, the faces seem to lose much of what makes faces distinct and individually recognizable. (via Extreme Craft)
Updated links 2015
Searls Puppetry
Searls Puppetry looks as if they do cool productions. They specialize in object theatre, and have just been recognized by the Jim Henson Foundation with a grant in support of their newest production: OM: objects in motion coming in the northern summer. Collete Searls is a stage director who specializes in puppetry for adult audiences.
Updated links 2015
Catching up
I’ve been distracted by my OPML blog the last week or so; The OPML editor is so nice and off-the-cuff to use that this feels almost ponderous. (The software and hosting are only for evaluation at present, courtesy of Dave Winer – thank you!) so the blog is likely only temporary). Here are some links that I posted there, so I get caught up here!
Pandora: very cool! (thanks Lynda!)
Diana Adams: Painter of bold contemporary New Zealand landscapes
Information aesthetics:
Intreguing blog run by Andrew Vande Moere from the Centre of Design
Computing and Cognition at Sydney University, and nominated in the Bloggies. I haven’t had time to explore yet, except to have a play with the unseen weather video. I put a few stills from my version in the pool at Flickr. They look dry and late summery compared to the European ones, don’t they?
The design that got best designed is unusual, lush and colourful. I like it.
Squid: Laughing Squid’s blog for all things squid. Love the Welcome squid overloards t-shirt. But probably not as much as this silly blog t-shirt.
Brides of March. I really liked San Francisco the few days I’ve spent there. Whenever I read Laughing Squid I think what fun SF could be to live in and be part of.
More Jane Austen TV adaptations : that Andrew Davies is writing the screenplay for Sense and Sensibility assuages some of my feelings that the JA popularity wave is getting out of hand.
Speaking of Austen, this made me laugh.
Last.fm: an open source music/social networking site (via Doc Searls)
Articulate, the ABC’s arts blog, is blogging the Adelaide Festival of Arts.
Newsvine: an innovative and possibly fundamental change in news sites. Here is an enthusiastic rundown on it. I wonder if it will get bogged down by the derisive comments and divisions that often happen in political discussions?
Updated links 2015
Moose on the Loose: Flip top thumbs and other goodies!
Of ‘full, woolly, activity-unfriendly thumbs’ in knitted mittens, Tanya Ewing at Moose on the Loose says ‘Quite frankly I won’t use them.’ Quite right! Tanya has the all-important recipe for how to put a flip top in your thumb on her page of knitting patterns, Homegrown recipes for woolly items, which also includes a simple earflap hat, a less pointy hat, and earflaps in stocking stitch. I love the little ears on this hat!
Tanya’s site also has a Kiwi-Aussie dictionary, some great scenic photos (she likes clouds) and a cool collection of sign photos, and, my favourite amalgam of both: Tim almost taken by a glacial surge wave at Fox Glacier. She is also the coolest ironing extremist I’ve ever seen.
Updated links 2015
Cutflat: Tim Raupach’s photographs
This wonderful photo of a hill somewhere near Omarama, South Island, Aotearoa/New Zealand is from Cutflat, Tim Raupach’s new photoblog site. His photos were previously here.
Tim takes some breathtakingly beautiful shots, as well as looking at things from unusual angles and with a humorous eye. He is also a rockclimber, and – a disclaimer! – my son.
Uopdated links 2015
