Arts and Crafts

There are 253 posts filed in Arts and Crafts (this is page 9 of 26).

eBooks Have No Feelings

It’s a shame they don’t still make books with hard covers, embossed titles, tissue thin pages between full colour illustrations, fore-edge painting. Those books had texture, they were touchable. New books don’t have that quality and ebooks have none at all.

It seems we always lose something sensual in a real, physical way when we move ahead with new technology. Will everything eventually be hands-off, untouchable in the future? The less people touch things the more it becomes something unusual, scary, even taboo eventually. Think not? What about all those people who won’t wash their hands any more because they’re afraid of germs? They don’t want to touch the taps, the soap, the towel to dry your hands…

I’m just waiting to see someone wearing latex gloves to the bookstore.

Writer Response Theory

Found on a long abandoned blog.

WRT: Writer Response Theory is a blog on digital character art — digital art that makes use of letters. Our focus is interactive works in which users input text and receive textual responses. Our URL plays on Reader Reponse Theory – how do reader/writers change the works they encounter via textual input? We are writers responding to theory and a theory responding to writers. We read ASCII art, blog fiction, chatbots, email fiction, e-poetry, hypertext fiction, and interactive ficition (IF).

Writer Response Theory

Keeping the 9 Rules

Today 9Rules is down. I don’t know if it is gone, or just lost.

When my site was accepted in 2009 I was pretty happy. Even though the network had been backsliding awhile – there was hope for a fresh revamp. It didn’t quite seem to ever really happen though. I’m still part of 9Rules and I’m not giving up on it. But, I’m disappointed. Tonight, seeing it come up 404, I’m not feeling a lot of faith in it.

Just for inspiration, here are the original 9 rules:

According to the about page 9rules is a collection of blogs, showcasing the best content of the Independent web. 9rules was created in 2003, around 9 rules:

  1. Love what you do.
  2. Never stop learning.
  3. Form works with function.
  4. Simple is beautiful.
  5. Work hard, play hard.
  6. You get what you pay for.
  7. When you talk, we listen.
  8. Must constantly improve.
  9. Respect your inspiration.

A Bookmark You Wouldn’t Want to Lose

I found this photo on SheExists. I love the idea for a bookmark like this, elegant, feminine and romantic. The quote below came from the same site, a different post.

We spend January 1 walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives… not looking for flaws, but for potential. – Ellen Goodman

Fluffy Pancakes Recipe

This one turned out nice. I think less baking powder would be a good idea, just a touch less cause it was nice to have fluffy pancakes, but I did taste the baking powder in the batter. Also, I melted the butter in the pan and then poured it into the batter for the recipe. But, it gave me a perfectly greased pan to cook them in without having to add any other oil to the pan.

Fluffy Pancakes Recipe

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 tablespoons white vinegar
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • cooking spray

Directions

  1. Combine milk with vinegar in a medium bowl and set aside for 5 minutes to “sour”.
  2. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk egg and butter into “soured” milk. Pour the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and whisk until lumps are gone.
  3. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

Eyebombing

Eyebombing. Humanizing the world, on googly eye at a time.

Eyebombing is the act of setting googly eyes on inanimate things in the public space.

Ultimately the goal is to humanize the streets, and bring sunshine to people passing by.

THE RULES:

1. Only images of inanimate objects with wiggle eyes – NOT stickers.

2. Only images taken in the public space.

Old Fashioned Soft Sugar Cookies

Old Fashion Soft Sugar Cookies

2 cups granulated sugar

3 egs

1 cup butter (softened)

1 cup buttermilk

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 1/2 cups flour

Mix all ingredients together (I use a mixer)…drop by spoonfuls onto a greased (with Pam) cookie sheet.  Sprinkle with granulated sugar (can use colored sugar if desired)…bake at 350 degrees until bottoms start turning brown.

You can add a little more buttermilk if you want them more of a flat cookie.

They are very easy to make!

via Never Growing Old.

Twitter/ ASCII Artist Interview with Andrea Pacione

The Portfolio of Andrea Pacione 

Andrea on Facebook and Twitter

Q: How did you first find ASCII art, ANSI art, Twitter art or text art? Which style came first for you?

I remember seeing ascii or text art appear in some old-school programs on my Apple IIgs family computer that I grew up with back in the 80s. Since graphics were limited, a lot of these sorts of images appeared in games and educational software. I didn’t come across twitter art until about two years ago. I met a friend in my Color class who was facebook friends with New York City artist Larry Carlson, who claims to have invented the #twitterart hashtag. I began studying the posts that would appear in this hashtag, from a wide range of people from all over the world. I was entranced by this new language of expression through images and something about lining up the characters in 140 blocks was highly appealing to me. One very boring winter just before I started school, I would spend hours a day creating these little text arts or twitter arts, and after a few months of this, instead of taking two hours or more just to make one, I could bang them out in five minutes or less. It seemed like a useless hobby at the time, but I think that learning this skill has given me an advantage in my design classes, especially when working with the grid.

Q: What was helpful for you when you started creating text art? Any mentors, FAQ’s or other tutorials or guides?

I remember asking advice from Tom, also known as @140artist on twitter, who gave me a few tips and secrets. Back then, the first line of text on twitter started after your name, so it didn’t line up exactly with the other lines. This was my biggest problem, because what looked like it lined up right in the input box would look very different once you had posted it. Tom gave me the hint to put the hashtags first. Now that twitter has been remodeled, this is no longer necessary as every first line begins on the line below our names now.

Q: What tools do you use?

I use the Special Characters Map that was built into my MacBook Pro.

Q: Do you use a fixed width font or have particular fonts you especially like to work with?

I haven’t played around with different fonts much, as I only really got into this on twitter, which only uses one standard font.

Q: I hadn’t known about creating text art on different systems but now discovered PETSCII and AtariSCII. Have you experimented with a few of these, beyond the standard Windows Notepad?

Nope, haven’t used any program of any sort. Just the characters map and the twitter palate.

Q: Do you turn your art into an image file to display it or rely on HTML code or something else to keep text art formatted?

I have not used either of these methods as yet. For one or two pieces, I used the ‘Grab’ tool in my Mac to take a snapshot of the twitter art post, to post it as a picture on facebook, as the text art doesn’t line up the same on facebook as it does on twitter. But for the most part, I just create it in the twitter input box and hit the send button.

Q: Is it important to you to have set definitions and guidelines as to what is ASCII art, what is ANSI art and etc.? How do you decide which is which for yourself?

I’m honestly not that educated on the definitions. I just did it for fun and learned a new language in the process, which I don’t fully understand but enjoy greatly.

Q: Do you keep an archive of your art? If so, please include the link(s).

Right now I have a word processing and .pdf file storing about 2,000 pieces of text art I have made on twitter. A friend of mine, John the Baker, who has his own punk band and hired me to create a CD cover for his new album with my twitter art, has suggested that I publish it as a book on twitter art. I may do that someday when I’m not so busy trying to earn a college degree.