Posts tagged ‘Creativity’

Bamboo iPhone 4 case

There is not much to say, as a custom bamboo case for an iPhone pretty much tells its own story …

The case is made by a small and highly energized team at Grove in Oregon. They started from the intersection of Joe Mansfield (laser engraving) and Ken Tomita (contemporary Japanese furniture); then add in Chris Rizzo (CNC industrial design). Along the way they also managed to enlist nearly every member of their extended family and friends. The result are machined bamboo cases with a high degree of accuracy, fit, and finish … and customizable with laser engraved artwork.

The cases are very nice, very different from the mainstream, and are a bit more expensive than some injection molded polymer. All of that is just fine by me.

An interesting side note – even their packaging has their high level of attention to detail – part of the packaging used to ship the case is actually the cut-off waste from the CNC process; sanded and finished so it can be used as a small picture frame ! (AIGA presentation here)

iPhone 4 case with the an Bradan Feasa artwork AnBradanFeasa Given the case is made from bamboo *and* I have done a lot of work in bamboo (dining table, kitchen, other, …) I ordered my case even before I ordered my phone. The question then became "plain", "artist", or "custom". I had always loved the stained glass artwork titled, "an Bradan Feasa" or "the Salmon of Knowledge" by Oisín Mac Suibhne.

I wanted to use Suibhne’s artwork or something similar but did not want to infringe on his intellectual and artistic property rights. I was able to contact him and he was very kind to allow me to work with his sketches to transition it into something that could make the transition to laser engraving.

It took some time and about four attempts. I used GIMP and my Toshiba M200 tablet for the graphics work. My reference layers were a combination of the original sketches and the stained glass photos. On my fourth attempt, I was able to reproduce the two key elements of the fish and the "eye" of the window. The "title" at the bottom is my own hand writing, using a pressure sensitive stylus and the tablet.

The result is unbelievably fine detain and wonderful to look at.

Many thanks to Oisín Mac Suibhne for allowing me to use his artwork and to the entire Grove team for creating such tangible art with their bamboo iPhone cases!

iPhone Wallpaper – Random Selection

The title says it all. These are not at all related other than they are all images that caught my eye over the past year and I happen to have a camera with me.

For the curious, "Dark Sunrise", "Blue Sky", "Mocha Swirl" and "Holly" are cropped with little or no adjustment to color. "Wheat" received some warming. "Helicopter" was bland because it was an overcast day so I did a lot with levels and in the end opted for a B&W finish. "Deer" has the most work because I wanted to make the animal to be accentuated so I did a layer and dulled the surroundings.

click to get 640×960 (suitable for the iPhone 4 and will work nicely on the 3G and 3GS)

Deer Holly Wheat MochaSwirl DarkSunrise Helicopter BlueSky

Creative wedding invitation !

The Wedding Invitation
The Wedding Invitation

I’m looking forward to joining family and friends for a wedding.

My brother “J” gets married in a couple weeks. It’s will be a road trip for the southern contingent.

I was excited to see the beautifully simple and creative wedding invitation arrive in the mail a few weeks ago. I am use to the traditional Russian Dolls format of most invitations. This one was refreshingly different.

Great job and best wishes to the happy couple !

iPhone Wallpaper – Classic Cars Series

Roy over at Return to the Center is an accomplished photographer with a eye for the unique perspective of things. I always look forward to the images he posts and the photographic excursions he documents.

Recently Roy attended “Skip’s Cruise Night“. The images speak for themselves. When I watched the slideshow, I immediately wanted them as wallpaper for my iPhone. Roy was great when I requested to post them here for others to enjoy !

 

click to get 640×960 (suitable for the iPhone 4 and will work nicely on the 3G and 3GS)

ArtDecoHoodOrnament4 Carburetors4 FordHood4 FordRadiatorCap4 YellowCarburetor4

A big THANKS to Roy for sharing these !

Sunsets (that are interesting) are not so common, so all the more appreciated

OK, that is WAY too long a title but hey, it’s my blog, I can do what I want. If you search on "sunset" in this blog you will see lots of pictures from my time on Sycamore Lane. Now that I am on the farm, I get good sunrises. So, it is a special treat when the sun does some magic in the evening sky.

suset-at_an_angle