Designer Nikolas Bentel designed the ultimate chalks for sidewalk graffiti and chalk-board painted wall decoration. Each one is a little sculpture onto itself with which you can draw parallel lines, dots and circles.
Read MoreSimple Furoshiki Cloth Becomes a Carry Bag, Apron, Kitchen Towel, Scarf…
This useful little video and chart demonstrate ways of using furoshiki cloths — large multipurpose squares of cotton fabric — to make carry bags, aprons, more…
Read MoreNew Washi Tapes Transform Space with Morphable (or Removable) Designs
This 2-minute video shows just how liberating and morphable a room or design created with washi tape can be. Nitto’s new Haru tape is pushing the possibilities of washi tape.
Read MoreRe-envision Broken Things As Newly Useful Ones with Memories (Su Tung Po)
Some of my favorite tools are broken ones that I’ve re-envisioned, turning their flaw into an often-cool looking virtue, with memories.
Read MoreMakeshift Mortars and Pestles Make Sublime Walnut Pesto (and Other Delicious Things)
Although a real mortar and pestle is a lovely tool to have, you can achieve their rounded flavors and elemental textures with makeshift ones. Take this Walnut Pesto, for example…
Read MoreSimple Effective Way to Dampen Irritating Vibrations
Our ever-awake world is full of machinery creating disturbing vibrations (and sleepless nights). After much trial and error, here’s the most effective way we found to dampen them..
Read MoreSnow Day: ‘Why, How, Whence Such Beauty and What the Meaning’ (Mary Oliver)
When I went into the blizzard sweeping the East Coast, I was surprised to find so many people hanging out or happily at work on all sorts of creations…Mary Oliver’s poem came to mind.
Read MoreUse Empathy and Observation to Find Simple Solutions (Mileha Soneji)
Designer Mileha Soneji loves to create innovations that aren’t dependent on technology, like the two she created for her uncle with Parkinson’s using a unique approach we can all employ…
Read MoreThe Rocks I Use Around My Home are Really Ancient Artifacts
Seth Boyden’s charming video, An Object at Rest, has changed the way I view the nearly two dozen rocks and stones I use around my space.
Read MoreSalvaged Marble and Stone For Tables, Shelves, Backsplashes…
A budget apartment overhaul by a Brooklyn design student reminded us of the great design possibilities inherent in salvaged cuts of marble and other stone.
Read MoreFree Downloadable Coloring Books from the World’s Great Collections
This trove of free downloadable coloring books from museums, libraries and universities around the world amplify the powerful the practice of coloring.
Read MoreBig DIY Linen Projects and Room Dividers + Where to Find the Extra Wide Linen to Make Them
In our age of diminishing spaces that have to serve many purposes, linen projects like room dividers, curtains, draped slip covers and spreads hold many possibilities. The logistical question: where to buy really wide linen?
Read MoreA Strong Sugru-like Adhesive You Can Make
Designer Stephen Johnson’s colorful adhesive dough prototype will bond all sorts of materials, including wood, glass, stone and metal and is strong enough to bond furniture parts together. We wondered if we could make some ourselves…
Read MorePlaying in Frigid Times: Ice Lanterns and Globes
Massive blasts of arctic air across the US have people staying in or scurrying through their day bundled up and rushing to warmth. As I do the same, I’ve been wondering what I can MAKE out of the bitterly cold temperature. Can it become a sort of art material?
Read MoreHoliday Decorations for Lazy People
Being short on time and living space, I’ve honed my holiday decorations to be spare but potent, using tried-and-true materials — some found — in different ways each year.
Read MoreIdeas from Artists: Gift Boxes with Jazzy Interiors
Over the past 25 years or so, a number of artists have taken to embellishing the INSIDES of ordinary cardboard boxes to great effect. Barbarians that we are, we take their work as inspiration for novel holiday gift boxes…
Read MoreRocks and Stones Make Endlessly Useful Tools and Beautiful Objets
A personal compendium of the pleasures and uses for rocks and stones, with John Cage and Mary Oliver…
Read MoreDisappear Visual Clutter with Uniform Cardboard Boxes a la Laura Handler + Andy Warhol)
If you have a lot of small items, projects or papers to store, and an eye that is pained by visual busyness, I recommend a strategy used by designer Laura Handler and Andy Warhol:
Read MoreAnnals of Everyday Invention: Magnet Pin Cushion Sculpture
Sometimes tiny inventions happen by seeing the possible solution out of the corner of your eye.
Read MoreSugru Will Fix Your $300 Headphones + Other Stuff You Love
After trying a number of materials, the truly miraculous (and fun!) Sugru proved the only one to fix the $300 noise-cancelling headphones I rely on to calm my super-sensitive nervous system. It has become a staple in my arsenal.
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