Show and Tell: Maker Faire 2014

El Pulpo Mecanico

Have you ever been to a county fair? Maker Faire takes place at the San Mateo County Fair Grounds so walking in it has all the buzz of carnival rides, corn dogs, and 4-H projects. But this in actuality it is combination tech trade show, craft showcase, science fair, with creative oddities rolled into one. Every direction I turned there was something to wow at. The best "county fair" I've ever been to.

Walking into one of the buildings I had a full circle moment when I spotted a familiar product I'd seen long ago. A fully functional origami kayak. Oru Kayak. A number of years ago I'd seen the maker, Anton Willis, test his third (or very early) prototype on Half Moon Bay. His goal was to build a kayak portable enough to carry on the bus. In talking to him he told me that might have been the first time he was sharing his idea with people in a casual setting. We were at a BBQ. It was really neat to see that idea fully bloomed. 

San Francisco Bizarre had a vendor tent as well. With craft being close to my heart I stopped at every booth. I'm sharing a few of my favorites here in case you're in need of some new ideas for this dads and grads gift giving season. Though I realize there's not too much for the dudes on this list. Get them an Oru Kayak!

Bottle of Clouds

Adorable hand painted wood lapel pins and novelty items.

Vitamini

Casey of Vitamini has a modern take on vintage as well as a great DIY craft blog.

Ross Lab

Aren't those cream and sugar sets darling?

Miss Leah Dee Jewelry

I may or may not have gone home with a pair of the leaf earrings. I'm not too into heavy earrings so these are just the right amount of weight for the dangle.

Skeletal Dropkick

A couple years ago I bought one of these monster mugs as an xmas gift for my dad. I couldn't remember the name of the maker and hadn't seen them since. i was so excited to run into this booth because I've regretted not getting my own monster cup. Father/Daughter monster cups aren't for everyone. They've got some other critters too.

If you're in need of some more handmade gift ideas check out my post from last summer's Renegade Craft fair.

Baking my first loaf of bread with The River Cottage Bread Handbook

You're in the right place. I have not turned into a food blogger. Baking bread is very much a handmade activity so I'm sharing my experience baking my first loaf of bread. I only wish I had gotten a photo of my sticky fingers. 

The River Cottage Bread Handbook by Daniel Stevens was published in 2010 and I've owned it for almost a year. It's true I'm just now getting to baking bread from it's pages but the first weekend I owned the book I was fully engrossed and read it cover to cover as much as one can read a recipe book cover to cover. The book is a nice size and kind of feels like you're reading a loaf of bread. There is actually 70 pages of content before you even get to a recipe. 

Grinding hard red wheat berries in my Vitamix to make fresh flour.

The book is dense with information revealing the wonders of gluten, details of various ingredients, the differences between mass-produced bread vs. handmade bread (spoiler alert, the later is easier to digest), photos of step-by-step bread making, and tools including a section for making your own brick oven. You can get real deep with your bread making. So, you can see, conceptually I've known how to bake bread for a while. I didn't want to ruin the mystic that I could bake a nice loaf by actually, you know, baking a loaf of bread.

Keeping the book close at hand/Kneaded ball of dough.

A week ago a friend gave me a sour dough starter that he harvested from the neighborhood air of Bernal Heights, San Francisco. Since I now have a pet yeast called Thing Dos, taken from it's originator named Mother Sues it was time for me to learn to bake bread. 

I decided to hold off on baking sourdough until my Thing Dos starter is a bit more mature. Perhaps when it's old enough to read R.L. Stine I'll bake sourdough. 

Bread dough after it's first rise. It didn't quite double in size OR I was too impatient to get to the baking of my first loaf of bread.

The basic bread recipe in the handbook includes the option to add some starter so I did include it along with dry active yeast. An important note about this book is that while The River Cottage is of British origin there is a U.S. printing of the book which has standard U.S. measurements and temperatures in Fahrenheit.

Bread after proofing and right before going into the oven.

I'll be experimenting more with bread making. I'll be trying out the variations that can be made using the basic bread recipe, different flours, add-ins like nuts. Most importantly I'll be more patient. This first loaf I only allowed to rise once (twice including the proofing stage). I'd like to see the results of multiple rises. Rainy spring days will be perfect for this activity if California doesn't skip over them to full blown summer drought.

Looks like bread. Tastes like bread. Not the best bread I've tasted but not the worst. Definitely the bet bread I've ever made.

The book definitely instills the confidence that anyone can make bread. I may go slowly into this bread adventure but I know the handbook will be a guiding resource to successful bread making. 

Shastablasta upside down. Part 2: some photos

Last week I shared my crafting in Australia. Here if you missed it. I generally only share my creative explorations on my blog but it's not often I travel to the other side of the world. There really are not enough words to explain this experience. My internal poles really did feel flipped upside down. Because I'm from California there was something familiar about many of the places I visited. Same, same but different. It's bazzaro California. Or California is bazzaro Australia depending on your perspective. 

I have 800+ images so I've narrowed them down to a few galleries for your viewing pleasure. Thirty two images to be precise. Enjoy the clicking.

The Sydney Opera House: Sydney is synonymous with Opera House. We played in it's architectural awe, watched the sunset, and then saw a show. Grizzly Bear performed their 115th and last show in support of their album Shields. It was a nice long set because there was no opener. Amazing sound in that glorious main room. An intimate evening I now get to remember every time I hear their music.

I'm on a boat: The first personally epic event on my visit was new years. I was lucky enough to be on a boat in the Sydney Harbor to bring in the new year. They know how to put on a show. A multi-million dollar show. I have never seen so many fireworks exploding at one time even in a finale. It was all finale and at times hard to know where to look. There were three fireworks shows! Three! It's something I'll never forget.

Bushwalking: We had some finicky weather for our quick camping trip to The Blue Mountains and a hike to Wentworth Falls. The fog eventually lifted but the cooler weather was helpful in not overheating while walking on steep steps.

Animals of Australia: Baby Wombat, up close with a Koala Bear, Kangaroos laying around like humans, Dingos looking like dogs, and Birds. Bird sounds will surround my memories as they're one of the animals I saw or heard most while out and about in our daily excursions or just hanging in the backyard.

Beach: The ocean was omni present in almost everyday. Some days included two trips to the beach.

Above is the sunrise on Bondi Beach the day I left Australia. I arrived home to San Francisco on the same calendar day. Below is the sun setting on that same Pacific, far from Australia in miles and time, at Ocean Beach.

There are many more miscellaneous images on my Instagram, posted during my trip. Search the hashtag #shastablastaupsidedown. I tried not to duplicate much in this post.

if you ever find yourself upside down here are some of the places I enjoyed.

Sydney
Bondi Massive — Great breakfast.
Bondi Icebergs Swim Club — Go swimming in the lap sea pool + a cafe
Neighbourhood (in Bondi) — One of my favorite meals
Mad Pizza (multiple locations) — Thinest crust I've ever had
Flamingo Merchant — Colorful handmade clothes, bags, and things for your home.
Shopping on King St. (in Newtown)
The Strand Arcade — Full of Australian makers and brands
Sydney Festival — This started at the tail end of my trip. This would be great to plan a trip around as there's lots of free activities. I got to jump on a Stone Henge shaped bounce house as part of the festival. It co-insides with Australia Day which I was gone for but would also be worth timing a trip with.
And of course Bondi Beach!

Melbourne
Melbourne Now, exhibit — Plan for this. It's free and at two venues. I didn't have enough time to fully explore. Ends March 23, 2014.
Naked in the Sky — The roof top of Naked for Satan has a great view of the city, good food, and cocktails
Metropolis — Great bookstore and on the roof in the same building there's a bar and Rooftop Cinema
Shopping on Brunswick St.

Traveling compadres. 

Shastablasta upside down. Part 1: beach crafts

View of Bondi Beach from Icebergs Swim Club.

My first two weeks of 2014 were spent on the other side of the world playing in Australia. I was in Sydney, Bondi (pronounced Bond-EYE which was my home base), the Blue Mountains, Melbourne, and then some more Sydney and Bondi. 

My memories are glowing. For the record it smells great there. Food is fresh and tastes of summer. Bird sounds are slightly different than California. Louder. Bigger insects. And I think I came back a fan of humidity. I'll have more pictures to share next week. I'm sifting through them and still pouring sand out of my luggage. For a glimpse into my trip I posted throughout on Instagram using the hash tag #shastablastaupsidedown.

While I was on vacation my creative brain got a much needed break. It's slowly coming back to me. It had been taxed from holiday crafts. In Australia my senses were overwhelmed by everything I was seeing and doing that there wasn't a lot of room for making. Inevitably some of my crafting spirit came out and I'm sharing those few items here this week.

I packed with me a box of stamps and ink pads. For my birthday this past year I was gifted a stamp carving kit from Yellow Owl Workshop. This seemed like a great time to use it and was my first experience printing from something I'd carved. My grand plan was to buy postcards on my trip and stamp out Happy New Year sentiments on the picture side of the postcard.

Well I learned a lot with this project as it didn't go as planned. I hadn't fully tested things before leaving and it hadn't occurred to me how the stamps would react on high gloss paper. The 2014 stamp was unreadable so I abandoned it for a back-up stamp I'd brought. But I also hadn't accounted for humidity. Over a week later and the ink never dried.

Ultimately I stamped on the less glossy writing side of the card. I'd love to do this project again when I travel now that I've learned a few lessons. It's an easy way to be able to send a lot of cards as it can be hard to find writing time when having new adventures. Next time I'd have a stamp made instead of carving my own only because the pro-grade stamps can handle more variables. Carving stamps was fun and I'd totally do that again just not for this exact project.

A week before leaving I found an Australian immigration stamp at my favorite art store and had to buy it. I carved out the middle which had Perth as the destination and a random date.

Of course a trip to the beach isn't complete without collecting some craft supplies. I actually didn't see to many shells until we had a picnic on Queens Beach along the Sydney Harbor. 

Queens Beach. Not our boat.

The Yoga Hike Master also traveling with me in Australia and I created this shell Om during our picnic.

On my last full day I sat on the Grassy Knoll at Bondi Beach and  Zentangled this cardboard boom box. I gifted it to my wonderful host and tour guide. I took breaks to jump in the ocean as it was one of the warmest days of my visit.

More to share next week...

Show and tell: The Weekend Press

A few weeks ago I was invited along with my letterpress to a celebration in the East Bay. The occasion was both an open house for The Weekend Press and the start of their Oakland Illustrated Kickstarter campaign. The campaign is a collaboration between Oakland Illustrators to create unique Oakland inspired art with the added benefit of helping fund the newly christened graphic design and letterpress shop. 

It should be noted that as I publish this there are just 4 days left in the campaign. I'm happy to say they've met their goals but partaking in funding the Kickstarter is the best way you can purchase these prints. So check them out!

Jenny Pan and Peter Pham are the graphic designers who have been giving up their weekends and more to create The Weekend Press.

The prints on display looked great but they are actually only the beginning of the printing process. After seeing how the art was producing the files will be tweaked to produce even better prints. I loved that there was no glass covering the prints. You could really get in and see the details. (Forgive my images and lack of closeups as I only had my phone to shoot with that day). 

They've got a pretty big collection of business cards they've printed showcasing different printing techniques.

The Weekend Press is two floors with the upper being the production office. While taking myself on a self guided tour I was happy to find a nice display of all the elements that go into the printing process of the Oakland Illustrated prints.

A file is outputted to film. 

The film is used to expose a polymer plate. The polymer that is exposed hardens and becomes the printing image after the excess polymer is washed away.

A different plate is used for each color that needs to be printed. This shows the three seperations needed to create one final print.

The end results of all three plates combined.

So why was I there with my letterpress? 

A high end letterpress shop uses machinery too loud and dangerous for showing off during soirées. Peter and Jenny wanted to show their guests the basic concepts of letterpress printing along with folks being able to try it out themselves. I have a table top printing press which is far friendlier for the uninitiated. Everything is done by hand. You load each piece of paper and pull the lever to make each print. I helped guests print a souvenir coaster. 

My letterpress and I. Notice I was randomly wearing polka dots on a blue shirt just like Jenny. And we were not alone. Polka dots were the unintended dress code amongst the ladies that night.

The black plate was fist printed on a Heidelberg Windmill press and then my press added the big one.

Jenny printing.

When I first walked into the light filled Weekend Press it took me a moment to actually see my press. It was so dwarfed by the size of the other machinery in the shop. To give a little perspective in the image above you can see a third of their Windmill printing press on the right.

And now some gratuitous pics of their presses.

The workhorse press is a Heidelberg Windmill.

You can see the coaster die used for the souvenirs.

Self inking rollers for when the press is not die-cutting.

Their Kluge is dedicate to foil stamping. I'll be looking to find a reason to take advantage of this.