I’m continuing to explore surface design on the Spoonflower site, and just received new fabric samples for an oak motif I’ve been developing over this past summer.
The quilting weight 100% cotton fabric in these photos is $18/yard. Some other fabrics they carry are sateen, knit, twill and canvas. Click here for a description of all available fabrics.
Spoonflower is a “fabric printing on demand” service, allowing users to purchase and sell designs that they upload to the site. I’ve always wanted to learn more about surface design, and this turns out to be a fantastic way to do it. The process is slow, since swatches take about 21 days to be shipped, but that helps me pace myself. I spend more time researching and thinking, putting together collections of ideas, and less time churning out a million permutations of a new motif.
Here are a couple of designs that just came in the mail. I’m still deciding on the best way to photograph these. Coins and pen are to show scale.
The other night, we got a last-minute chance to see our friends perform in a neighborhood production of Les Miserables.
I had a blast shooting to the rhythm of stage lights and beautiful kids.
See the rest of the Flickr set here.
I found Alex Beard’s Face to Face a few weeks ago, and it turns out I like it a whole bunch more than my 11-year-old does. It’s a highly visual game, and he is a highly auditory-kinesthetic processor. Fortunately for me, we’ve got friends who are more in the visual spectrum, and I’ve had a couple of chances to play—and then document—this interesting game.
The delightful collection of eyes, mouths and noses are all turned upside down and players choose eleven pieces each, which they may then see, and hide from their opponents. Taking turns, players match eyes to noses and mouths to noses, and colors must match. Eyes can’t match with mouths, nor eyes with eyes or mouths with mouths.
That’s as much detail as I’m going to share. Learn more about it by clicking the links above. You might also like to check out the original 72″x48″ piece the artist painted for the game.
Overheard this while working in a cafe today:
On her way back from the ladies’ room with Mommy, a 3-year-old cutie asks, “Mommy, can we text Natalie?”
Mommy: “I don’t have my cell phone.”
Cutie: “I do.”
For selection of quality images and the power to organize lightboxes, iStockphoto is still my top choice. I’ve been wondering about the value of my beloved lightboxes, and how iStock might partner with users to further benefit from them.
In the meantime, though, I suspect a lot of iStockphoto users have at least one lightbox of photos and illustrations saved for no other reason than they wanted to look at them again. I’ve ended up using one or two in a project, but mostly I visit them like a little bedside album.
I call my special lightbox, “for me”, and thought this would be a good place to occasionally share some, supporting the artists with a purchase and photo credits.
My personal title for this photo is, Caught Loving.
Kisses for Mom, by quavondo (to purchase, click on the image)
“winning the race”, by DOConnell (to purchase, click on the image)
Sleeping baby 3, by Bradley Mason (to purchase, click on the image)
The best part is the silent moments as interviewees search for words—vulnerable, human faces. I showed this to my son, and would like you to see it, too.
After I posted this note, I happened to rediscover Only Human, “a community where people share stories publicly or anonymously about mistakes they’ve made in life and their advice to others.” Not a lot of recent posts, but I wonder what would happen if they created an area for project post mortems. 
Viva la Revolution!
Granted, Twitter is noisy, overwhelming, confusing, and difficult to step into. It’s also incredibly vital, and potentially bottomless. I’m still experiencing regular epiphanies about business, collaboration, art and humanness. Half the fun is that I’m doing it together with others. It’s the biggest team effort I’ve ever seen.
Without further ado, here are the six:
Twitter…
1. …is fast
Twitter communities had spread the US Airways Hudson River story an hour before most of the news channels (Wall Street Journal sent out an alert within 25 minutes—good for them), and smart reporters knew to tap Twitter for sources, finding witnesses and the first photo (shot by a iPhone from a rescue ferry).
Some call it Citizen Journalism. I call it Communication Freedom.
2. …is uncensorable
Something that fast is virtually uncensorable. Unless I am one day caught with my hand in some political cookie jar, I’m going to continue to like it that way. This is a good time to re-watch Johnny Mnemonic (just fast-forward past the goofy Keanu Reeves monologue).
Another perspective: Sure, Big Media is slanted. So are you. Now all our slants have equal voice.
3. …is a “now” medium
There is no “catch up” or “make up” or “keep up”. In the twenty-first century and in Twitter, there is only now. You’ve got to sleep sometime, and you’re going to miss stuff. Read back a little, but as Mack Collier reminded me when I panicked over following 70 Twitterers (to date, he’s following 1,833), “I never try to go back and read missed tweets, there’s just no way to catch up.”
This is a good thing, because it keeps your attention focused forward (this is also probably a good place to recommend TweetDeck again).
4. …is super malleable
Like the rest of the web, Twitter is what you make it. It’s not done being born, and probably (hopefully) never will be.
People ask, “What do you do with Twitter?” Now that I’m a whole month old, I’d day: Start by listening. Complete your profile, then find people you want to listen to, and follow them. What you do next is up to you.
5. …invites new ways of thinking
If you think like you’ve always thought, the benefits of a this untethered tool will be limited. If you try out new perspectives, the benefits will most certainly expand. Find inspiration from your regular sources, try my recommended Five Favorite Follows on Twitter (another five coming soon). I also highly recommend hanging out with a child or teen for a bit.
6. …invites new ways of relating
I’m not really sure what this means yet. I just know I’m listening differently, sharing thoughts differently—sometimes with people I never expected to engage. I’m not a particularly public person, so I’m having to come to terms with the harrowing transparency of this and other social media tools. Still, I love finding people who post inspired, sparkly thoughts, and I love when they expand on one of mine. I guess you could say it’s about learning to participate in an ever-larger conversation.
Like Etsy for wanna-be product designers, Shapeways is providing 3D dreamers with a fascinating way to produce and sell their concepts online. If you can render it (in the 3D application of your choice, exported to Collada or X3D format), you can probably see it come to life here.
At the moment, the biggest size they can produce is 49x39x20cm. Materials so far are polycarbonate and a variety of acrylic-based photopolymers. The Material Options page has a chart of properties, example photos and downloadable material data sheets.
I copied the process from their About page:
They’ve also got special, customizable projects going, such as this Light Poem—just compose and submit your heartfelt words, and bring them to… oops.
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I knew I was on to something when I smelled roasting (not steeping or pouring—roasting) coffee as I drove up to Paradise Coffee for the first time. I’m sitting at a clean glass table in an airy shop, enjoying a delicious, full-flavored latte. The croissant was merely ok, but the wi-fi is solid, the atmosphere is inviting, and the staff is truly gracious and thoughtful.
As of this writing, this place has been open only six months, so the lovely quiet will probably fade as more locals discover it. That’s a good thing: More customers mean more probability this gem will stick around!
Their website needs work, so if you are looking for a quiet spot to sip and work, just use the Google link I’ve provided above, and content yourself with the fact that they’ve devoted their creative energies to coffee, and not web design.
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