Wild strawberries grown in our backyard in Brooklyn this summer. Last year’s photos of wild strawberries: http://www.blog.designsquish.com/wild-strawberries

“Evidence from archaeological excavations suggests that wild strawberry has been consumed by humans since the Stone Age. It was widely cultivated in Europe until the 18th century, when it began to be replaced by the garden strawberry, which has much larger fruit and showed greater variation, making them better suited for further breeding.”

August 06, 2011

Was Henry Darger inspired by postcard above?

July 26, 2011

Hand kranked + solar powered radio by Kikkerland: 
-http://www.kikkerland.com/products/radio-solar-crank/

July 25, 2011

DIY chairs from around the world.

- http://www.folkforms.ru

July 24, 2011

July 19, 2011

July 14, 2011

Do-it-yourself beach tents. Black Sea, Russia 1970’s.  All you have to do is pack a sheet and find some driftwood when you get there. 

July 13, 2011

French designer Ariane Prin has been working on a project called “From Here for Here” as a part of her master’s program at the Royal College of Art. This project produces pencils sustainably by using waste from various departments of the school with the goal of supplying drawing tools for students. Each pencil has a center filled with graphite from the glass department, and its body comprised of sawdust from the wood workshop, clay from the ceramic department, and flour from the cafeteria.  Watch a video on how these pencils were made on DesignBoom

July 10, 2011

I am happy to share this interview with Matt Anderson, an amazing filmmaker and artist. In fact, Matt has almost completed his very first feature length documentary, Fall and Winter. The film focuses on environmental issues, but interestingly enough the underlying message doesn’t stop with political action to “change the world.” Fall and Winter inspires us to take matters into our own hands, often quite literally by working with our hands. Building our own homes, growing our own food, and other such practices may require us to alter our current world views, but will ultimately help achieve a much more sustainable lifestyle.

Q: What would be a dream come true?
A: To witness an extraordinary stage of evolution in human consciousness. I think this is happening one way or another.

Q: What did you like about growing up in Vancouver?
A: When I was about 6 or 7 we moved from the city to a small, unserviced island off the coast of Vancouver. There were no cars or stores, and all water and power had to be self-contained. I commuted to school every day on our boat. No matter how big the waves were we had to jump into the dinghy and make it to the mainland. I think this gave me a deep love and respect for the forces of Nature, and set the foundation for my values today.

Q: Why/where/when did you decide to make “Fall and Winter”?
A: There really is no beginning point for this film. For years I was fascinated by conspiracies as a modern mythology - a realm of free thought where fantasy and history co-existed in pursuit of meaning and truth. I went to some conspiracy conventions and read stacks of books about the New World Order, UFO’s and ‘hidden history’. Somewhere along the way I began to migrate from asking ‘what if…?’ and towards ‘what is…?’. This lead me to a small conference in the Silicon Valley called ‘Global Catastrophic Risks’ about 3 years ago. 30 scientists were meeting to discuss the myriad of threats facing life on earth, and strategies to mitigate these threats (if possible). I began to understand that what is really happening is more fascinating and important than the realm of conspiracy. I decided that the film had to be about the massive changes occurring on our planet - and the people facing this challenge head on.

Q: What are some things that inspire you?
A: To me, it’s important to be inspired both by positive and negative forces. I am driven by the beauty of Nature, the things that my dear friends create and also by the destructive practices rampant around the globe. I think it’s important to be full of love and also mad as hell!

“Fall & Winter is a documentary that explores the origins and present-day realities of our global crisis to better understand the catastrophic transition we have now entered. Over the past year we’ve traveled 15,000 miles around the country, documenting various aspects of both the collapse and rebirth happening all around us. The film highlights a variety of ways in which individuals are creating innovative, sustainable methods of living in adaptation to their environment, and fostering in their communities a vital transformation in the way we live on this planet.”

WatchFall and Winter previewand remember to donate at their website!

-http://fallwintermovie.com/
-http://fallwintermovie.com/donate.html

July 03, 2011

Photographs from our trip to Harriman State Park(Upstate New York). Magic macro zoom lens uncovering detail almost invisible to the naked eye…

I love the heart pattern on the dragon fly tail.

Photographs by Paul Gower

Bloom Magazine launched by one of the most famous trend forecasters, Lidewij Edelkoort.  This blog posting is an excerpt from Bloom Magazine article “Newer flower Children”.  “The flower child is back.  The signs are around us: along with the rise of the musical genre known as freak folk and the nature-espousing counterculture that goes with it, we live at a time of defiance by hair. “

Everywhere you look you see dreadlocks, beards, and fantastical moustaches.  Hair is being employed as a tool of expression and rebellion, an assertion of values that go counter the status quo.

“Over the past several years we’ve seen a re-awakening of responsibility for the environment, a desire to live simpler lives, a revival of community, an appreciation for the handmade, the small-scale and the humble, all symptoms of an urgent realization that it’s time to seriously confront our more serious habits as a species. It’s if the flower-child ethos took a break for fifty years, re-emerging in a more developed form when the world had reached a new pinnacle of self-destructiveness and was particularly in need of its values”

“The flower-child spirit of our time has become a more savvy beast - updated, re-imagined, but familiar.  Could this be the decade where people finally get serious about turning things around?”

June 30, 2011

Laneways of Oak Bay and Fairfield, Summer 2010. 
(Laneways are narrow alleys behind buildings common in British Columbia, Canada.)

Photographs by Victoria (British Columbia, Canada) artist Ali Bosworth.
-http://www.alibosworth.com/

June 23, 2011

Above: DIY wooden toy car

Above: DIY scarecrow

Above: DIY sleds

Above: DIY bird feeder

Above: DIY stool

Above: DIY bench

-DIY Russia on folkforms

June 21, 2011

- http://www.njustudio.com/index.php?/project/hockenheimer/

June 15, 2011

Above: Rhododendrons blooming everywhere.

Above: Blueberries.  Not yet ripened

Carless days. Catching a train from New York City,  Penn Station to Sloatsburg then hiking to Harriman State Park(Upstate New York)

June 11, 2011

Fresh poppy seeds - delicious! Beautiful photography by Inmost Light

Above:  Inmost Light

June 08, 2011

Avoska, translated as “just in case” is a Russian net bag.  Avoska collapses to fit inside your fist and expands to hold 12 grapefruits. It is easy to wash and boxes edges do not rip it’s threads. Best of all, it prevents plastic bags from gathering in your kitchen corner or the world’s landfills.  With the popularization of plastic bags after the 90’s (after the fall of Soviet Union) avoska bags gradually went into disuse in Russia.

Above: Russia 1959. People carrying avoska bags. Photo: Carl Mydans.

Contemporary Russian folklore:  Once upon a time in Russia there lived a simple little net bag - Avoska. Everyone loved her.  People took her with them everywhere - to the store, farmers market and even birthdays. But then….plastic bags came and people forgot about Avoska.  To see what happens next watch this really adorable 3 minute film on Youtube:  http://www.youtube.com/avoska

Above: Boy hugging avoska bag from short “Avoska” film (See above)

Read blog dedicated to Avoski:  http://avoski.livejournal.com/

June 07, 2011

Thirty five leaves silhouettes can be found on http://forestry.about.com

June 04, 2011

Rainbow Gatherings are temporary intentional communities usually held in outdoor settings, and espousing and practicing ideals of peace, love, harmony, freedom and community, as a consciously expressed alternative to mainstream popular culture, consumerism, capitalism and mass media…Rainbow Gatherings are an expression of a Utopian impulse, combined with bohemianism, hipster and hippie culture, with roots clearly traceable to the 1960’s counterculture. Mainstream society is commonly referred to and viewed as “Babylon”, connoting the participants’ widely held belief that modern lifestyles and systems of government are unhealthy, unsustainable, exploitative and out of harmony with the natural systems of the planet….The first Rainbow Gathering, a four-day event in Colorado in July 1972, was organized by youth counterculture “tribes” based in Northern California and the Pacific Northwest. - wiki

- Rainbow Gathering album on flickr by photographer Benoit Paillé

June 01, 2011

“I grew up on the countryside where my parents run a plant nursery and a flower shop.   I decided to show nature how I experienced it as a child.”

-http://www.amirafritz.com

May 21, 2011

Space saving invisible bookshelves.  Minimal and simple! Book on the bottom acts as support for every other book on top. 

Above: Dress made from yucca leaves and flowers.

May 16, 2011

Image above: http://www.bloom-magazine.eu

Place flower between 2 sheets of paper to protect the pages of the book. Leave at least 1/8” of pages between pressings, weigh the book down and wait a couple of weeks.

May 15, 2011

-http://treehugger.com

May 13, 2011

Palm reed (buri) is the matured leaf of the palm. It is a great material for hats, bags, slippers, window blinds, mats, brooms and baskets. 

Carefully handcrafted baskets made of palm reed, leather, and metal designed by Brooklyn-based designer from Philippines,  Stanley Ruiz.

-http://stanleyruiz.com

May 12, 2011

Above:  Tree says hi.

Photos by Israel based photographer Ella Sverdlov

Jar lamp by UpCycle.  This lamp is made from re-using Avoca glass jar. A hole is drilled in the cap and a lamp fitting is offered through.

May 11, 2011