Wild Wedding – Prepare
Any wedding takes a great deal of preparation. We tried to squeeze most of that into the two weeks before the day.
Photo by me.
One of the only things we did get done ahead of time was the rings. The wedding bands and engagement ring were custom designed by Broestl & Wallis Fine Jewelry a jeweler in Lakewood. He worked with drawings and photos we brought in and came up with something unique. They’re beautiful.
Photo by Amy.
Lisa, the woman who preformed our ceremony, is also a henna artist.
For Matt and I there is no particular cultural significance to henna, I just wanted the henna stains because they’re pretty.
Henna stains are made by applying a thick paste on the skin, which is left on as long as possible. I got henna on my left hand all the way up to the upper arm, my left hand, and both feet and ankles.
Photo by Amy.
It took about two hours just to get the left arm finished. She left my ring finger blank, designed around where the ring would go.
Photo by Amy.
There was something fascinating about watching the pattern unfold under Lisa’s henna packet.
Photo by Amy.
We did the henna three days before the wedding because that’s about the time it should take to get the maximum stain.
In order to get a really dark stain, you need to leave the henna paste on as long as possible. Lisa recommended keeping it on overnight. That meant we needed to protect it somehow which we did by spraying it with, I think just hairspray, and then taping it up.
I sort of looked like a burn victim, which was interesting at dinner that night.
Photo by Amy.
All my bridesmaid’s also got henna.
Photo by Amy.
The henna got a little darker each day. By the day of the rehearsal, it was a nice rich brown.
Photo by Morgan.
It was even a little bit darker the day of the wedding.
Photo by Willow.
At some point on the wedding day, Matt and I realized we still needed a candle for the ceremony. I was busy being painted and such, so Matt hit a craft store and managed to come up with a candle holder that not only protected the zoo carpet from any melted wax, but also fit in nicely with our steampunk theme.
With Matt’s sister Jen I went down to Lisa’s at about noon to start getting gilded. For my face Lisa put a vine pattern up my cheek, with jewels glued up the length.
She used a black ink, but for some reason it looked more like green, which ended up looking really cool.
Photo by Amy.
There was also glitter. I love glitter, it’s one of my secret girly pleasures.
Photo by Morgan.
She used golds, silvers, and bits of green to gild my hands arms and ankles, and also added jewels in the flower centers.
Photo by Morgan.
Jen got a pattern in black (and glitter!) along her back. She couldn’t get henna with the rest of the girls because she lives several hours away, so I’m glad she could go and get something.
The ink is called harquus and was traditionally used for temporary face tattoos. Lisa has books and books full of henna patterns, indigo patterns and harquus. She also has a photo page with her work which I would highly recommend looking through.
Everyone kind of teamed up to help me figure out what to do with myself.
Photo by Amy.
We wrapped pearl and bronze colored ribbon around my dress which was otherwise a pretty but shapeless blue dress from Folk Ways in Eugene.
After wrapping the ribbon around me, we realized that even though it looked cool, it wouldn’t stay put if I, you know, moved.
Fortunately Jen had a sewing kit with her (she knits beautiful scarves and bags that she sells in a Jewelry shop) and she fixed me up.
Photo by Amy.
Kim worked for a while on my hair, which is good since I’m pretty useless when it comes to anything hair related.
After a few trials, she ended up doing this cool wrappy thing using wire and little silver stars.
Everyone spent so much time making me wedding worthy that we ended up scrambling a bit to get to the zoo on time. We ended up being late, not becuase of our preparations, but because of traffic, but we got there soon enough to do the important thing.
Photo by Amy.
A Big Box of ADHD
Sometimes I have trouble focusing. Most of the time actually. My high school coach warned me about burning the candle at both ends, a college professor recommended Zen meditation. By now I’ve learned that a necessary part of life is making choices, and that means sometimes letting a few of the things you’d like to do go to the wayside.
I think I’ve done that, but then I look at all the things I still want to do RIGHT NOW. I’m in the process of rewriting my novel and when that one’s done, I’ll need to find a publisher and start on book 2. I have plans to start a webcomic about the back story, and another graphic novel I’m trying to work on with my brother. I’ve recently decided that I should probably be trying to get some illustration work in children’s literature, so I need to pump up my portfolio in that area, and really, my portfolio needs work all around. Of course I also have to make some changes to my website since all the artwork on there now is pretty outdated and I have to make some changes to my blog. There are a few other website ideas I’ve been meaning to get started, including an art blog index, a challenge blog of monster art, a webzine for junkers and a few bigger projects. I have a fencing Tournament with a capital T in less than two weeks so I should be training for that, plus I need to get my epees in working order and make sure that I have all the other equipment I need. I’ve got a few short stories I’d like to write, a couple nonfiction pieces I should get started on, and a nonfiction book idea that I think has a lot of potential. Also, I want to learn to program.
You should see all the wishes I cut out.
The problem is I’ve trimmed my goals as much as I’m willing, and now I’m convinced that if I can just sit down and FOCUS, it’s possible to get it all done. The trouble is, the more I try to do, the more quickly I get overwhelmed and too often I end up doing nothing at all.
So. I made this box.
This is my ADHD box. The theory is that my lack of focus doesn’t HAVE to be a bad thing. Afterall since when is it bad to have diverse interests and skills?
I’m hoping this box can be the organization that my brain is lacking. This is meant to keep me from getting overwhelmed. I can work on whatever I want, so long as I’m working on something.
I started by finding a box that would let me compartmentalize my goals. I eventually found a wooden jewelry box from Pat Catans that was perfect and got started on painting it be something FUN to use. Note: if you are the person looking for more focus, you might want to skip this part. This project has been a two-month long excuse for procrastination.
I separated the different things I want to work on into 8 categories with “time” in the center.
In terms of prioriries, getting my novel finished so I can graduate is pretty high up there, so for a while the novel drawer will be seeing the most action. Still, I can only correct my own grammer for so many hours before I go insane, so with an organizational structure in place I should be able to get a lot more done than I have in the past. It’s so easy to waste time when you’re not keeping track so this is a crucial first step.
What I’ve done is put all my hours for a week into the center drawer: time. When I work on something for an hour, I move a button, or coin or whatever from the time drawer to whatever I’ve been working on. That way even if I’m “in progress” I feel like I’ve accomplished something, which helps keep me going. I may have to put caps on some things so I don’t spend all my time “brainstorming” but I think this is going to be an enourmous help. It’s simple, but it’s also a powerful visual reminder, which is exactly what I need.
I think this could be helpful for other people who have trouble focusing, especially kids with ADHD. It doesn’t have to be a box, just something visual and tangible. It could be a series of jars with marbles to drop into different subjects. A re-purposed connect 4 board, with each row a different activity. That one would be even more satisfying because at the end of the week you’d get to dump all the hours to start over again.
The point is, having lots of hopes shouldn’t be a bad thing. There’s no rule that says I have to work on things consecutively just because that’s what most people do. If this works I think my distractibility could finally be an asset, allowing me to express all my varied potential, rather than a liability holding me hostage to my own whims.
Bazaar Bizarre – The Strange and the Fine
Just a few more artists I wanted to mention from Bazaar Bizarre last weekend, then I can go back to my normal tangential (as opposed to secant-al) ramblings.
In addition to the energetic collection of colorful crafts, there were many things at the Bazaar that were a bit off the beaten path. Or on the beaten path, as is the case of the beaten metal and wire (and beyond) jewelry of Valerie Tyler Designs, some of the more elegant jewelry I’ve seen. It’s very different from the kind of thing you could expect to find in a mall corner store, but every bit as fitting for a formal occasion.
The jewelry of Oh Melisa is maybe not quite so suited to a black tie event, but the steampunk-esk pieces still have a formal, classic look to them that I love. They were also one of my husband’s favorites of the day. We tried to give our wedding party a steampunk look (photos soon, I swear) so maybe it’s an emotional connection, but the jewelry and presentation have a stand alone beauty beyond any attachment we might give it.
Another favorite of Matt‘s was the felted head from I Felt Like It. Actually, all he said was: “Oh wow, can we have a felted head like this for our house?” but I think that means he liked it. I also approve, and agreed that we’d have to find a place for one in the house of our future. Personally I think it would look great hanging below the gargoyle, but we might need to pick of a few other oddities to complete the look.
Somewhere else in our future house, we’ll have to find a place for some of these lamps from Kirkiture. They’ve got that lovely stark Japanese look to them, and the gentle way the light bleeds through them gives me a feeling of calm. I think they’d look great in a bedroom or library, or anywhere that’s meant to seem quiet. I expect we’ll have a bedroom before we have a library, but since we’re intending to turn most of our living space into a library-ish space eventually, we’ll have plenty of opportunities to fit in these cool wooden lamps.
Then we came across some wings made by Faerystone Creations that would make either a great part of a Halloween costume or a neat ceiling hanging.
Ok, honestly I’d buy some and wear them around all the time, but I’d be afraid they’d get broken. They remind me of the wings I saw sold at a Renn Faire this summer, but I don’t think they are made by the same people. These are simpler, and more stylized, and I think a bit more adventurous. Check out the green leaf wings and ice faery wings on their website… very unique and beautiful.
I would also like to mention Psycho Reindeer, the only booth where we actually ended up spending money (I got a kick-ass dead Pac-Man T-shirt and Matt got a shirt with a creepy owl), and Supernova Design which had some awesome pirate-y art, which is, you know, always good, and also lots of other pretty engraved work.
I’m glad I went this year. Even though I knew the disappointing sights last year were caused by our bad timing rather than the Bazaar itself, it put a crimp in the excitement leading up to this one. Now I am cured of that worry and looking forward to next year without reservation. Who knows, by then maybe I’ll have something of my own to contribute? I doubt it, but stranger things have happened.
Bazaar Bizarre – The Clever
Any modern craft show is going to have a huge number of creative people. Even people who stick with traditional crafts, where innovation is not the purpose, are pretty much guaranteed to have some artistic qualities, or else they wouldn’t be so interested in creating. With a show like Bazaar Bizarre though, the room is just packed with people who are pushing the boundaries of their crafts, always trying to be the first to come up the next new thing.
Often I’ll flip through some crafty magazine and come across something interesting, something I’ve never seen done before. Just once. Then two months later it’s suddenly in EVERY craft themed magazine. The same thing happens with new ideas in organizing and storage magazines. So I always love that first new moment, when you see something you’ve never seen before, just before it explodes into popular notice.
These nostalgic bags from ConTrive are a pretty good example of that feeling I think. In spite of the fact that those juice (I use juice in the loosest sense of the word) pouches are extremely durable, so durable they broke the straw half the time, it never would have occurred to me to turn them into an actual bag. If I were going to buy one I’d go with Capri Sun (not pictured) since that’s the kind of juice drink I preferred as a kid. They’re rather cute and definitely attention grabbing, and I suspect over the coming months we’ll see many more repurposed food packages like this, if it hasn’t started already. The only downside is I suspect these bags are no longer water tight.
Then there’s these plastic things from PhilosoPhrets. I love that they’re unusual enough that the creator felt the need to include a “what the heck are these?” sign in his display. The explanation didn’t quite cut it for me, but I suspect anyone musical would get it without any trouble. As I understand it, the boxes go outside of a device that adds weird effects (wammy?) to guitars.
Somehow, I don’t think these will catch on quite as quickly as the KoolAid bags, not because they’re less cool, (though possibly less Kool), but because the potential audience is much smaller. These boxes are beautiful, and actually I can see having them just as decoration, but I think for the most part the niche is limited to people who, you know, play guitar. Musicians who can afford luxuries like art. On the other hand, artistically painted guitars sell for a whole bunch of money, so who knows? Maybe the next Craft Magazine will be full of painted guitar effects enclosures.
Finally, my favorite new idea from the weekend, these bangle style bracelets from Sassyfrass. The bracelets are bent out of knitting needles.
I love the simplicity behind the idea, and the shiny metal finish used for most knitting needles is actually quite pretty and contemporary looking. I’m also impressed with the method used for displaying it, which immediately caught my eye.
It’s been a lot of fun to watch the craft movement over the last couple years: a combination of green attitudes wanting to reuse the old and the desire to create something new and different. Maybe eventually, I’ll move from spectator to participant, but for now I’m really enjoying the view from the sidelines.
Related: Bazaar Bizarre, Bazaar Bizarre – The Cute
Bazaar Bizarre – The Cute
For someone with my taste in “cute” the Bazaar Bizarre was probably the best place I could have looked. If I had children I’d be in trouble, and as it was I had to remind myself that I mostly don’t have room for stuffed animals and that we already did Christmas shopping for the nieces. There were plenty of other cute things around than stuffed critters: cool printed cards and artwork, shirts, fun hats, buttons and bags. Ultimately I was able to keep myself from buying anything for the simple reason that I have no money: less effective than you might imagine thanks to the era of plastic.
There were lots of great stuffed things, but my favorites were probably the ones at Caseybots. These were, for lack of a better word, surprisingly shaped. They aren’t your typical stuffed animals, many looked vaguely like Domo-kun only with more animalistic features. The best were the hats, a twist on the cute kid hats with cat ears and such. These are a bit like this only stranger. And far less embarrassing.
I found another group of stuffed animals I liked over at Chile Con Yarne. These were intriguing because of their cube like bodies and simple annotations. The animal style reminded me a bit of very fine cartooning: absolute minimalism in terms of detail, but still effective at expressing the object or emotion. I thought the crabs were especially effective. I wonder whether the artist spent a lot of time figuring out how best to communicate “crab,” and “zebra” or if the animals came out more or less naturally. Naturally in terms of artistic expression that is, not in terms of unexpected barnyard life lessons.
There was also an awful lot of cute wearable crafts at the Bazaar. I was instantly attracted to the felt accessories at Get Felt Up for example.
Now, I’d like to mention that I am generally suspicious of felt. I think this is the result of years of traumatic Girl Scout activities, but you’d think I’d be over it after seeing how many cool things you can do with felt that don’t, you know, suck. Not so. I think I was only able to get over my prejudice in this case because I was attracted to the art style before I even noticed that it was made of felt. Which just proves that felt is not to be trusted, but that’s a rant for another day. Anyway.
I think of this style of art as “twitter art” because it reminds me of the twitter birds (and whale), but I realize that’s not accurate. I just don’t have a better word for it. At any rate, I love the simplistic representative shapes and unexpected color combinations that characterize this style. A lot of the artwork found at the Bazaar could probably fit into this category, but I think these felt headbands and pins and such were the purest example.
There were also some rather good T-shirts from SquidFire, some of which were done in a similar style only with a tad more detail. I love the T-shirt with all the fish swirling across it and, of course, you can never go wrong with cephalopods. I’m also a fan of the non-twitter style shirts, that are a bit more cartoony or line heavy. Actually the more time I spend on the SquidFire website the more I find that I like, so I’m going to stop looking before I buy something. These shirts remind me of the cool things that can be done within printmaking, and I wish I’d taken a few more classes. At least silk screening is not completely out of the question. While it’s still pretty process heavy, it’s not so bad in the literally heavy sense: meaning it doesn’t necessarily require machines that weigh more than my car. I’ve also seen tutorials on making a mini silk screening studio online and in Craft, so who knows, maybe some day I’ll get around to giving it a try. Honestly though, my artwork probably isn’t all that well suited to T-shirts.
Last but not least in the wearables department were some very sweet rompers from Big Pink Heart. Baby clothes are sort of predetermined to be cute (I think that’s in Calvin‘s doctrine somewhere) and the artwork on the rompers was a lovely collage style that reminded me of some of my favorite children’s books, but what really caught my attention was the use of material. Sure, the owls were extremely cute, but seriously, babies don’t care. What babies DO care about though is texture, and these rompers were all about texture. It’s imposible to see the variation just from looking at a photo, but there all sorts of different textile experiences sewn into these garmets, something that would never have occured to me to do. I love the idea of getting a baby something to wear that the baby can actually appreciate as much as Mom.
Finally, being a 2 dimentional aritst myself, it seems fitting to end with a mention of some of the great flat art I saw at Bazaar Bizarre this weekend. Oddball Press is a company I’m pretty sure I’ve seen some of before, and I loved them just as much the second time as the first. I didn’t get a photo because a) there were so many people crowded around their booth I couldn’t get a good shot and b) I knew that style of art wouldn’t show up well on my pathetic Chocolate camera (see rant from yesterday) but it’s well worth checking out. Their designs range from the simple and elegant (if a litter box can be considered elegant) to super high detailed beauty.
The nice thing about this kind of craft show is that “cute” doesn’t really mean the same thing that it does elsewhere. Normally, cute is something I avoid, but here I’m not afraid of it. I even seek it out.
Related: Bazaar Bizarre, Bazaar Bizarre – The Clever
Bazaar Bizarre
For the last couple years, I’ll hear something about the Bazaar Bizarre a couple months before it comes to Cleveland, and I’ll be all excited about it, then promptly forget all about it. This actually works out pretty well because Matt does NOT forget about it, and he gets to surprise me by taking me to there. That’s what we did this Saturday.
The Bazaar Bizarre is a collection of artists and crafters of the modern rather than granny persuasion. You’ll get a lot of knitters, but among the thick striped scarves, a six armed sweater wouldn’t be out of place. These are the awesome sort of crafts you see in Craft Magazine, very creative and surprising.
Last year was a little disappointing, not because of the crafters present, but because we didn’t get there until the last few hours of the show/sale. There were only about ten booths left, and those were mostly out of merchandise, a few were partially packed up. This year, Matt got us there on the second day, early on, while the Bazaar was full in swing.
These are fun people, happy to chat about their artwork. Some of them were making more to sell as they sat there, I even got to see one woman spinning yarn with a drop spindle. By the way, her hair is not actually purple as it appears in the photo, I just got a little bit carried away with Photoshop. She makes handspun yarns (obviously) as well as hats and other knitty things. I think her booth was Cosy Knits Literally, but I’m not positive. I took everyone’s card whose photo I took, but I got them all mixed up.
I’ll probably spend a couple days talking about some of the cool things I saw, and with any luck the photos will do a better job of describing the kind of craft than I am. Today I just want to take a look at some of the more innovative presentations I came across. I included the lady from Cosy Knits because I think one of the best things a visual aritst, whether they be a knitter or a comic book inker, can do to attract buyers is include them in the process (and also because she had some pretty rocking stuff).
Some of the other things I saw in terms of presentation were more conscious. I think my number 1 favorite booth style was the one that used books as jewelry stands. Even if I hadn’t liked the neat vintage style items I would have had to stop and look.
This is especially important for this one where the wares are so small: it’s easy for them to get lost in the sea of brightly colored crafts. Among the books, an old camera and other old items that look like they came either from a flea market or a neo-victorian novel add to this little moment of atmosphere. The dainty little necklaces and such fit perfectly, and the smart layout made me stop and examine them more closely. Personal favorite: the green frame pendant seen above on the left. I think the book booth belonged to Oceanne Jewelry Design & Creative Parties, but, again, I can’t be sure I haven’t mixed up the cards.
Another booth going for a sort of vintage feel was (I’m almost positive about this one) Chleo Dee’s. Her booth didn’t have quite so cohesive a look as the book booth, but it works somehow. It’s half vintage, with merchandise hanging in old trunks laid on their sides. In the center of the table she made little “houses” for her artwork (mostly, as far as I saw, stuffed squid) that looked a bit like the mangers that might come with a nicer nativity set. It’s a combo that has no logical reason to work visually, but somehow it does. This was one of the first booths I noticed when I came into the room, and believe me, that’s a hard feat to accomplish among the chaos.
Some of the other nice booth setups had a more tranquil feel. The second booth I noticed was The Oak Leaves, which was set a ways away from most of the other booths for some reason. This was probably a mixed blessing since on one hand it really stood out against the blank space behind it, but on the other hand, most of the crowd gravitated toward the denser craft space.
I loved the natural zen feel of this booth, which was mostly created by the products themselves, but the use of natural wooden shelving was effective without disrupting the calm. My photo doesn’t do it justice, you should visit her site to see some of the pieces up close. The dolls were the creepy cute kind I love, but the bottled ecosystems were the real curiosity. I don’t see any dolls on her website so I’m not sure she makes them (she could have been lending space to a crafty friend) but the combination is very effective: the handmade organic next to the seemingly free generating organic.
In a more formal style, Valerie Tyler Designs managed a rather elegant booth among the more handmade looking crafts. Again, my photo doesn’t really do it justice (hey, YOU try getting quality photos with the crappy phone camera on the chocolate, and with icky fluorescent lighting no less, plus I have to freaking email myself every photo separately because syncing is a pain in the- oh I so can’t wait to get an iphone). The jewelry is beautiful stuff, which I’ll talk about more later this week. The use of smooth rocks and black cloth gives it an extremely sophisticated feel, I think more so than any other booth I saw.
Clearly, I was far more impressed this year than last year, and I’d like to take the time to point out my favorite artists of the year, so I’ll probably be talking about this for a few days at least. Most of the artists were great, but some were fun, or weird, or just amazing enough to shine.
Related: Bazaar Bizarre – The Cute, Bazaar Bizarre – The Clever
Gift Wrap – Wrap Up
Sunday being a lazy day, I figured this would be a good time to revisit a couple gift wrapping posts I did last year.
Creative gift wrapping is something I do pretty much only when I’m trying really hard NOT to do something else. I am quite skilled at procrastination: so much so that I often end up producing surprisingly elaborate stuff so long as whatever I’m trying to avoid is sufficiently motivating.
The first gift I’d like to mention was a big garment box (I think it was the bathrobe I got Matt last year) with an abstract pattern. Initially I took silver polka dot paper which I bought from Target, and wrapped the whole thing. I guess I’m not a huge polka dot fan, I always feel like polka dot patterns look a bit uninspired, and the size of the package just made the whole thing look kind of sad. Saggy even. So I scrounged around at the bottom of my gift wrap box, came up with some purple scraps of Borders paper, and put an abstract design on top of the box. I thought the result was unique and rather different. Last year’s blogpost gives step by step instructions.
The second gift is somewhat less Christmas-y but could easily be adapted with different colored paper, and is a great gift decoration for a child’s present (not that the kid actually cares what the wrapping job looks like). I wrapped this gift up for my niece, using ugly purple paper. The paper was actually the only paper we had that was not too Christmas specific (this was for a spring birthday) but once I wrapped it I was unsatisfied by the pattern. Since the package was oddly shaped, I decided to turn it into a car. I took some of the same silver polka dot paper and folded it into “window” shapes. Surprisingly, the shiny dots actually made vaguely head shapes, that I thought could represent drivers and people (I was reading way too much into this). As a finishing touch, I picked up some Izze bottle caps from the floor (our cats like to play with them) and taped them to the package edges as wheels.
To use this wrapping technique for a Christmas gift, I’d suggest going with unpatterned red paper (which will be cheaper anyway), with some kind of silver paper for the windows. If you can find something round and green for the wheels you’re set. You could even be super cute and use green yo-yos, or tops, or any round reusable toy from the dollar store. How about yo-yos for the back tires and tops for the front? Then you can make it a race car. My final product looked sort of like a mini-van. I don’t think my niece even knew it was supposed to be a car, but hey, I had fun. Full instructions are included in the old blog post.
I’ve found that my creative gift wrapping projects usually end up happening by accident, and I have enough random crafty crap around to make things look funky without too much trouble. With any luck someone will find them useful or inspiring. If you have any fun gift wrapping ideas of your own, feel free to include the ideas (or links to a similar post) in the comments.
$100 Laptop Plug
And speaking of laptops…
Actually, it’s $200, and for those of us in rich countries it’s $400. I’m talking of course, about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Get one, Give one deal.
I did a whole analytical post on the design of these tiny laptops last year, so I won’t repeat myself with full details. About their design I will simply say that they are cute, green (in color, not sure about eco) and look like they were made by fisher-price (they’re not). Judging by their appearance they should be pretty durable, a necessity for computers designed for children in any country.
The philosophy behind this computer is that the best way to educate kids in developing countries is to give them super intuitive computers and let them teach themselves. The software is designed to help kids learn as they go, with simple graphics and interface. I believe the operating system is open source, so as the kids grow, learning to program along the way, they can change it to suit their needs. To me, that sounds like a good deal for kids of this country as well.
I haven’t had a chance to play with one, but I ran into a guy in the Chicago train station who had one. He wasn’t at all tecky, and claimed that it was very easy to use and understand (which it would have to be). Basically, these are machines that are meant to be teachers. Learning is mostly self directed, but with ample opportunities for cooperation using the kid friendly graphic network.
As I understand it they aren’t particularly powerful. Since the purpose isn’t to run high quality graphics or store lots of data, it doesn’t need to be. For $400 dollars you can buy a laptop that is much more powerful than this one, but I’m pretty sure you can’t buy a computer that is more suited to a child’s needs for any amount. It was just as cute in person as it is in pictures, but one thing to note for any adults that might want to use them: the keyboards are TINY.
I’m mentioning this deal is because last year, they stopped it immediately after Christmas, with no guarantee that they would bring it back. That meant that while you still had the option of donating a OLPC laptop to a kid in a developing country, you can’t actually get one. With any luck they will bring it back next year, but the guy who runs the program doesn’t seem to like doing that, so who knows? Not sure what he has against people in developed countries having the OLPC computers. I think people who come up with wonderful ideas are not always the best people to sell them.
If I had the cash to spare, I’d buy one just to play with it. I’d like to learn to program, and I figure something that is designed to teach children to program might help me as well. If you are looking for a way to start a child with computers, the OLPC laptop seems like the best choice. I’m pretty sure it’s at least a better investment than an Xbox or a PS3, but that could just be my Nintendo bias sneaking out.
*Photos from OLPC Photostream on Flickr and OLPC website. Linked to source.
Biological Imperative Meets Love of Design
If you read my entry on the Children’s room at the Seattle Library yesterday, you might assume I’m a mother. After all most childless adults don’t spend much time talking about children’s design, right? Probably true. Nevertheless, I’ve been drawn to spaces and objects designed for children ever since I was one.
Part of this attraction, now at least is pure biology. I’ve always loved kids and now that I’m 27 and married, my body is practically screaming with impatience. My womb keeps demanding to know what the holdup is. Fortunately I am (mostly) a rational being, so intellectually at least I know that it’s not quite time for children. Soon, but not yet.
That doesn’t keep me from looking at children’s spaces though (which in turn makes my hormones even more demanding, but never mind that) because the real draw of child specific design is the lack of restrictions and extreme resourcefulness. In adult spaces we are limited by what is acceptable, to some extent what is normal. It is a rare person that will actually paint a mural on the living room wall (ooh me, me!) but a mural in a children’s room is pretty standard. A piece of furniture that looks like a boat? Most grown ups would never consider it, which is a shame, because plenty of grown ups like boats just as much as kids do.
Another reason I enjoy looking at kid friendly design is that children’s spaces are often confined to smaller spaces: all the collected stuff of an eight year old somehow needs to be fit into a 10 X 10 foot room (even if it never really is), something most adults haven’t tried to do at least since college. The result is that children’s magazine often come up with storage and organization solutions that don’t appear in the organization and storage magazines until six months or a year later. Craft magazines are creative by nature, but even they borrow liberally from children’s spaces.
Two of my favorite blogs are Daddy Types and Playscapes. Daddy Types looks at unique and beautiful design for children’s spaces, not only modern inventions but abandoned retro objects that are still fascinating today. Playscapes, not surprisingly, looks at playgrounds, but focuses on innovative play spaces beyond the standard slide and swingset. Matt and I stumbled across one of the featured playgrounds recently when we were in San Fransisco, which was fun: I recognized it by the giant stone slide carved into the hillside, but was most impressed by the rope jungle gym.
Maybe in a few years or so Matt and I will have a child’s space to play with, but in terms of design it doesn’t really matter. I plan to paint a mural in our living room. Fortunately Matt seems agreeable. I hope I won’t bore myself by becoming too much of an adult in design, or in most ways. I want to keep child-like design everywhere I live, because I want to make sure my space pushes the boundaries of what is expected.
A Place for Kids
I’ve always loved spaces that are well designed for children. Too often, adults have weird ideas about what kids should like: grinning clowns, pastels and the like. The children’s room in the Seattle library shows a bit more thought, and at least an attempt to get on a kid’s level.
The first most obvious thing any children’s space should have is some consideration to a child’s size. This ought to be obvious but it’s amazing how often it’s over looked. Some of the first things I noticed in the children’s room at the library were these low, podlike rubber seats.
They’re not fantastically comfortable for an adult, but I imagine a small child would love how they bounce slightly. Because they’re non-directional (no front and back like with a chair) they’re also more suited to a child’s restless style of sitting, constantly shifting. I remember getting yelled at in school for kneeling on my chair, but with these pod seats there is really no “wrong” way to sit, and the likelihood of a kid hurting himself from falling off is very low. Anyway. My point: I like the seats.
Another clever feature Matt noticed was more directed at parents than children. In one section of the children’s room, near a separate reading room (which unfortunately I didn’t get to peek inside) were plastic kits loaded with picture books on different themes. Themes like a new baby in the family, or animals, or the alphabet. These would be a nice shortcut for parents with kids obsessed with Dinosaurs or something, or for kids who are facing a major change in their lives.
The artwork was one area that I was less impressed by. This is not so much because the artwork is inappropriate for children, (it was actually pretty cool, and quite unique) it’s just because for the most part it was too high. All the artwork was hung high on the concrete support beams, it was clear that the child friendly art was intended mainly for adult enjoyment. While I appreciate the stark industrial feel of the room and the contrast of the paper mache style wall hangings, I think many kids could be intimidated. I’d have liked to have seen more artwork at a child’s eye level, but on the other hand, maybe kids don’t care about that sort of thing as much as adults. Perhaps the abundance of space in this room is more valuable.
In one corner of the room there was a nice little children’s media area that I appreciated. I didn’t get a good look at the computers to see what kind of software they were running, but the child sized tables and chairs made for a welcoming space to learn and engage. Though I felt for any parents that had to cram themselves into the child sized space. The headphones are also a smart detail.
It is evident that the designers of this room tried to incorporate the library’s industrial style into a more kid friendly space, and for the most part I think they succeeded. While the decoration for the most part seems geared towards adults, the function of the room is clearly oriented towards children. Ultimately, I think the kids won’t mind the starkness of their surroundings, after all, if they want something to look at, there are always the hundreds of books.