Are you familiar with Studio Ghibli? It's the dreamy Japanese animation studio responsible for anime classics Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service, and Howl's Moving Castle. Regarded as highly inventive, serene, and spooky, Studio Ghibli puts out internationally renown films, loaded with magic, monsters and lovable creatures, such as Totoro (pictured to the right, and above).
The challenge of creating garments with unconventional materials has become an all too familiar gimmick for most first year students at fashion schools. The end result is more often than not a catwalk of garbage bags, zip ties, plastic bottles and cans, assembled into a menagerie of mediocrity. Enter Jum Nakao. But while the Japanese-Brasilian artist/fashion designer does use an unconventional and impractical material (paper) for his collection "A Costura do Invisivel"(translation: "Sewing th...
If you missed our profile on photographer Sharon Beals' new book, Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them, now's the time to check it out. You have until 11:59 pm tonight to enter for a chance to win a signed copy of Beals' book, a beautiful series of photographs demonstrating the astounding self-sustainability of the avian race. To enter, you must:
It's more addictive than Angry Birds, perhaps as relaxing as transcendental meditation, and satisfyingly simpler than GarageBand. It's Otomata, a newly programmed generative sequencer designed by Batuhan Bozkurt, a Turkish sound artist, computer programmer, and performer. But really, it's best described as an audio/visual music toy that anybody can play online—with beautiful results.
If one asks where origami originated from most people will answer "Japan". But is this really the right answer?
San Francisco writer Jimmy Chen over at HTMLGIANT cleverly composited the beloved filmmaker/artist/furniture designer/transcendental meditation expert David Lynch next to the likes of Cy Twombly, Vincent Van Gogh, John Singer Sargent, Roy Lichtenstein, Claude Monet and Katsushika Hokusai.
When images of a rumored Ikea cookbook surfaced through the blogger grapevine, foodie and graphic design fetishists alike grew ecstatic. The leaked images from the 140 page coffee-table baking book presented pristinely assembled, OCD patterns of ingredients and the resulting desserts for 30 classic Swedish baking recipes. Forsman & Bodenfors, the Swedish agency behind the project took a different approach to the typical organization of the standard baking cookbook.
EL Wire is a bit tricky if all you want to do is glow. But there's a lot to know about the technology, as well as helpful information to get you addicted to it. EL Wire is a thin copper wire that gives off a beautiful glow when an electric charge is applied. There are 10 colors of EL Wire, and each wire has it's own unique characteristics. Typically EL Wire is used for safety as well as costuming. It has such a low power point that it can run off as little as watch batteries to make it glow!
The Lost Thing is a lovely short written by Shaun Tan and co-directed by Tan and Andrew Ruhemann (executive producer of the fantastic doc My Kid Could Paint That). Based on the award-winning children’s book of the same title (also by Tan), the piece was created over a span of eight years(!) using a mix of CGI and 2D handpainted elements. Tan, whose background is in painting, spent much of the duration "carefully building, texturing and lighting of digitial elements to create a unique aestheti...
I had so much fun planning my daughter's first birthday with a Candyland theme. Check out all of the beautiful decorations, party favors, cupcakes, and yummy treats. Have a look at all of the companies and people who contributed and helped make it so wonderful. who contributed to the birthday girls special day. Ellie Bellie contributed the adorable crown the birthday girl wore for the cake and “birthday” song, she truly was a princess. Sugar Mohawk contributed delicious treats for the party f...
Christmas is just a few days away, which means everyone is out shopping for last minute gifts. But wait— you still need some Christmas cards! The stores are going to be packed and Hallmark's going to have huge lines— so now what?
Want to be happy every day? here is some tips and techniques to help you keep the good mood using some Colors =).
Think beautiful bokeh photography + just a hint of TRON sensuality and you have photographer Audrey Penven's lovely series entitled "Dancing with Invisible Light: A series of interactions with Kinect's infrared structured light".
Below, a selection of images from the Nikon International Small World Photomicrography Competition. The Big Picture reports:
Do you ever wonder what we're looking for when it comes to how-to articles? As with how-to video submissions, what we're looking for are great, detailed, and passionate articles contributed by people with deep knowledge in their fields of interests.
From ladotbikeblog:
Inspired by Jules Verne sea demons, Bea Szenfeld's “Sur la Plage” collection includes 12 pieces handcrafted with cardboard. The idea of unconventional material constraints is a classic art school "test", as well as a typical (and somewhat tired) formula for competitive design reality shows. However, Szenfeld's garments do transcend the material and would surely win any Project Runway challenge.
Nearly every kid wants a treehouse (as well as many grown-ups). Personally, it's one of my greatest unfulfilled desires.
Every day of the week, WonderHowTo curators are hard at work, scouring the web for the greatest and most inspiring how-to videos. Every Friday, we'll highlight our favorite finds.Make a fireball you can hold in your hands.
Not being much of a video game buff, I haven't been in the loop when it comes to the enormously popular game Red Dead Redemption. Apparently the game is completely dominant in video game sales. Since it's May 18 release, over 5 million units have sold, making it the most popular game since Modern Warfare.
What's your training about? Would any of it matter if your life depended upon it? If not, what is your training providing you with?
DRUM! Magazine — the leading magazine for drummers and percussionists worldwide — has announced the biggest drumming event ever to take place in Northern California. On Friday, August 13, drummers will descend on the San Jose Repertory Theatre in the heart of Silicon Valley to witness three of the world’s most exciting drummers — extreme drumming sensation Marco Minnemann, Tower Of Power funk master David Garibaldi, and former Mars Volta wunderkind Thomas Pridgen — for an evening of mind-blow...
Ever heard of Nürburgring? If you're an auto racing enthusiast, you likely have. According to Wikipedia, the racetrack was nicknamed "The Green Hell" by Jackie Stewart (famed Scottish racing driver) and is known as "the toughest, most dangerous and most demanding purpose-built racing circuit in the world". Located in Germany, the older track was first built in the 1920s around the village and medieval castle of Nürburg in the Eifel mountains.
Does that (hopefully somewhat correct) tune ring any bells? Here's a reminder: Once upon a time there were two Italian plumbers named Mario and Luigi. Mario and his sidekick resided in the Mushroom Kingdom, a monarchy ruled by the beautiful Princess Peach. Mario's mission: stop the villain Bowser from his numerous attempts to kidnap the lovely princess.
IslandGirlzJewelry over on Etsy has transformed ordinary SCRABBLE tiles into elaborate jewelery that both SCRABBLE fans and Avatar fans will appreciate. If you're the crafty type, I'm sure you could use this as an example to create your own earrings or bracelets using some old SCRABBLE tiles. If not, you could always just buy theirs. But it seems like all the fun is in doing it yourself!
We've seen several examples of light graffiti on WonderHowTo (1, 2, 3), but this one is truly eerily beautiful. Australian photographer Denis Smith pushes the envelope with his project Ball of Light.
Chez Panisse Vegetables has been a sort of farmers market "bible" for me. When I first started going to farmers markets I kept reaching for the same vegetables I had conventionally used for years. I felt overwhelmed by the cornucopia of earthly riches as I reached past crisp daikon, funny looking fava beans, and brilliantly colored radicchio. Yes, I knew what some of these things were but I didn't know how to use them in the kitchen. Then this book changed my world. For over 25 years Alice W...
Update: New Trailer (7/9/10) In July of 2008, Fawaz Al-Matrouk, director of "To Rest In Peace", brought me on to shoot his USC graduate thesis film. Two years, 3 cameras, and over 15,000 miles later, the film is in its last week of post, having completed our final color correction at Light Iron Digital in Culver City yesterday.
Ruth Bernard lived to be well over 100 years old and managed to create some of the most memorable photography in her long lifetime.
Cake Journal shares a link to a HowTo video on making big, luscious gum paste roses, as shown on the cake below:
Learn how to make a beautiful Christmas tree bauble ornament. Step 1. Gather your materials.
Learn how to make a fairy Christmas ornament to place on the top of the tree. Step 1. Gather your materials.
Martha Stewart and kids editorial director Jodi Levine shares ideas for decorating Easter eggs with crepe paper. Crepe paper is one of my favorite materials. It's actually tissue paper that has been reinforced with sizing and "creped," a crinkling method that yields a medium that is incredibly pliable yet sturdy enough to iron and sew. Beautiful and durable, it lends itself to countless applications. In fact, I walked down the aisle with a bouquet of crepe paper blooms! I recently realized ho...
Patience is a virtue that many of us do not possess, which is exactly why we've previously shown you how to acquire the initial wallpapers for Mac OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 beta.
Despite the tremendous increase in recycling programs across the states, 136 million tons of municipal solid waste still ends up in landfills. So, the next time you throw away something, conjure up your DIY spirit and ask that trash, "Are you really trash, or just the beginning of my next ingenious project?"
The thing about building your own stuff is that it's incredibly satisfying. There's just something about taking the time and dedication to construct something beautiful out of virtually nothing but the necessities.
Soft focus photography can produce some beautiful images when used properly. It's used a lot in beauty and glamour shots, but can be applied to other types of photos as well. Some digital cameras have pre-programmed settings for soft focus shots, but if you're using a DSLR, you'll need a special lens or filter to do it.
As most of us know, men and women are (shocker alert) different. Not only are they different, but they view the world an entirely different way.
Want to add cool effects to your photos without using expensive equipment? Photographer Laina Briedis created these gorgeous shots by stacking 35mm negatives of starry or cloudy skies on top of photos of people to give them a surreal, dreamlike effect. There are a few ways to go about it. Laina explained to PetaPixel that you can do this with or without a darkroom. If you have access to one, you can expose two negatives at the same time by stacking them, or expose them separately onto the sam...
Tabs are a beautiful thing. Without them, web browsing can be an incredibly tedious task. Tabs help organize all of your open pages in one window, saving you the time of constantly switching back and forth. And honestly, who wants to look at this? Want to add the convenience of tabs to Windows Explorer? The aptly named TabExplorer can help.
