the science factory

We went to St. Louis over Memorial Day weekend, and it was...

Wed, 30 May 2012 22:15:32 -0500

We went to St. Louis over Memorial Day weekend, and it was mostly awesome.

Highlights:

The St. Louis Zoo (this was amazing, best zoo ever)

Cocktails and awesome food at Taste

Visiting the gallery/shop of the Craft Alliance

Walking in Forest Park

The City Museum (this was cool beyond explanation and we didn’t even see it all)

The picture above is of one of the entrances to the Bird House at the zoo, which I loved. There were two horned guans (a big, critically endangered, super beautiful and hilarious bird) wandering around free, flapping from benches to railings to investigate us and making their funny honking sound. I want to move in with them.

Arounna at bookhou recently had a sale of little groups of her...

Mon, 28 May 2012 11:25:15 -0500

Arounna at bookhou recently had a sale of little groups of her various fabric pouches in different prints and styles. I have a pouch weakness, as you may have gathered. (As objects they are perfect; artistic and useful and visually and texturally pleasing all at once.)

Considering they are one of my favorite design houses this was great chance to collect more bookhou goodness. The sets sold out almost immediately but I was lucky enough to get my hands on these. They are on their way from Toronto now.

Check this out: Eerie Retrofuturistic Monuments of the Eastern...

Mon, 21 May 2012 13:33:11 -0500

Check this out: Eerie Retrofuturistic Monuments of the Eastern Bloc

southersalazar: Lost Lake (Detail) This artist uses Loch Ness...

Sun, 20 May 2012 23:01:30 -0500

southersalazar:

Lost Lake (Detail)

This artist uses Loch Ness Monster type creatures a lot in his fantasy environments and I. love. it. I am totally inspired to start making and drawing my own now.

lucyeldridgeillustration: Daddy Krill, just going to...

Sun, 20 May 2012 22:57:52 -0500

lucyeldridgeillustration:

Daddy Krill, just going to work

This is fantastic. I was never able to use watercolors well for some reason, but they are one of my most-admired mediums. When someone really nails watercolor like this there is nothing else like it.

[via]

Mon, 07 May 2012 14:04:59 -0500

[via]

Cats: making crappy days better since ancient times.

Fri, 04 May 2012 20:53:55 -0500

Cats: making crappy days better since ancient times.

I am completely in love with old zoological prints and plates. I...

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:40:52 -0500

Balistes chinenses and Balistes ringens

Muraena helena

I am completely in love with old zoological prints and plates. I have them around my house and even on my walls at work. The combination of art and science in them is perfect.

These particular images are from a fantastic 1796 book in the collection of the Biodiversity Heritage Library:

Ichthyologie; ou, Histoire naturelle des poissons

See the plates on Flickr here.

Put a bird on it! Orla Kiely’s Birdwatch print in indigo...

Sun, 15 Apr 2012 18:34:50 -0500

Put a bird on it!

Orla Kiely’s Birdwatch print in indigo covers my newest bag acquisition from the ever-charming Daytrip Society. Hopefully I’m taking this on a special trip soon, details of which I will disclose later.

I want this living room and all of the stuff in it.

Tue, 10 Apr 2012 21:28:00 -0500

I want this living room and all of the stuff in it.:

I <3 The Brick House.

As a long-time keeper of fancy goldfish I am blown away by the...

Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:00:00 -0500

As a long-time keeper of fancy goldfish I am blown away by the incredible effect achieved by this artist with this paint and poured resin technique. (I had multiple aquariums running simultaneously at one point in college but haven’t started up more since moving… it’s something I hope to do again in the future.)

Japanese artist Riusuke Fukahori paints three-dimensional goldfish using a complex process of poured resin. The fish are painted meticulously, layer by layer, the sandwiched slices revealing slightly more about each creature, similar to the function of a 3D printer.

Find out more about this incredible technique here, and definitely check out Riusuke Fukahori’s resin gallery on his official site.

Edit: even more great pictures on designbloom

beatonna: dang this 1855 book on manners is harsh on the good...

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:17:36 -0500

beatonna:

dang this 1855 book on manners is harsh on the good ol’ American Way Of Sitting

amazing insect photography

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:58:26 -0500

Nemesis by Fabien Bravin

Real-life cartoon bags! JumpFromPaper™ is a playful and...

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 11:25:00 -0500

Real-life cartoon bags!

JumpFromPaper™ is a playful and innovative line of handbags. Cartoon-like outlines, bright and vibrant colors will be sure to turn heads and be the talk of the town. Are they real? Yes they’re real.

Found here.

katie-scott: My New Desk.

Wed, 21 Mar 2012 23:35:26 -0500

katie-scott:

My New Desk.

Arounna Khounnoraj of bookhou (previously posted about when I...

Sat, 10 Mar 2012 21:26:52 -0600

Arounna Khounnoraj of bookhou (previously posted about when I bought my waxed canvas sling bag from bookhouathome) recently released a small run of zipper pouches she made out of a unique and truly one-of-a-kind material; the drop cloth from her screen printing activities. This concept and the resulting handmade items really grabbed me; this is truly found art, serendipitous beauty, repurposing, and the celebration of process all in one.

A smattering of the gorgeous colors she uses mixed with bits of her print patterns along with random splatters and smears results in the most one-of-a-kind sort of thing you could hope for. These were limited to a group of 10 and they sold out within a couple of hours, but I was lucky enough to get pouch no. 7 for my own (front and back are shown at the bottom of the image above).

Baby goats in sweaters prancing about. That is all.

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 12:22:56 -0600

Baby goats in sweaters prancing about. That is all.

For a few years in a row I used a large, red, hardcover...

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 17:24:50 -0600

For a few years in a row I used a large, red, hardcover Moleskine for my planner — I fell in love with the “weekly planner notebook” layout (they have multiple planner layout options), which had the week on the left and a ruled page on the right. It let me both plan and do all the listmaking I wanted. Mmm… lists.

As we moved into the digital age I decided it was silly to have an analog planner anymore now that I had an iPhone, so I abandoned pen and paper totally. About a month ago, however, I came across one of my old red Moleskines and started looking through it. It triggered all kinds of memories of that year and my day-to-day life at the time. I suddenly had an epiphany — I enjoyed keeping these planners not just because they were functional but because they were actually really fun too. They were a creative outlet, a mini-journal. A physical object to bond with, and later when they’re full, a record of your year in your own handwriting that you wouldn’t otherwise have. I immediately deeply regretted having given up this habit, and started on a quest to right this wrong and acquire my BFF the large red hardcover weekly planner notebook Moleskine.

I looked and looked and couldn’t find it anywhere online. It was too late, it was already February and everyone was sold out of these. Oh sure, I could get the black one with the vertical week format. But no, no way. The only option I could find was $100 on Amazon. With hesitation I decided something was better than nothing and bought the pocket sized version of my beloved red planner from some stationery website. I tried to make do, but I quickly filled it’s tiny pages to the brim. It was just too small.

I returned to the internet a week later in desperation and had an idea; take this international. Surely somebody somewhere outside the US had this planner in stock still. Enter Amazon.ca — they had my large red hardcover weekly planner notebook Moleskine, in stock. YESSS.

It arrived today just in time for me to chronicle at least 83.3% of my year in it still. I’m really happy. I will never forsake you again, large red hardcover weekly planner notebook Moleskine. In fact, I will pre-order you as soon as I can for next year. And somebody who may or may not care will one day inherit a big stack of you, chronicling my life.

Amazing mugshots from Australia during the 1910s-1930s. Which...

Thu, 23 Feb 2012 10:26:13 -0600

Amazing mugshots from Australia during the 1910s-1930s.

Which reminds me…

…Australia is entirely peopled with criminals, and criminals are used to having people not trust them, as you are not trusted by me, so I can clearly not choose the wine in front of you.

-Vizzini

It should come as a surprise to exactly nobody that knows me...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 19:38:00 -0600

It should come as a surprise to exactly nobody that knows me that I am a complete bagwhore. I can’t help it. I will never cease to be compelled by well-designed, amazingly crafted bags. And when my new best buddies at NewDuds (posted about their shirt and scarf awesomeness a couple of posts back) put this bag in their shop, I didn’t stand a chance. The pebbled leather, the long strap closure, the redundant but much appreciated magnetic closure, and did you see that lining?! Hand-printed by the awesome duo Tessa and Torrey at NewDuds. Go give them some business, I can’t express enough how great their stuff is and I don’t even have this bag in my hands yet.

I justify this (and pay for my habit, basically) by subsequently selling one of my other bags that I no longer use. This time around I’m selling an Orla Kiely bag that should more than cover the cost of this new one. Plus this is handmade! Very excited.