AfriGadget - African Ingenuity

AfriGadget is a website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. A team of bloggers and readers contribute their pictures, videos and stories from around the continent. The stories of innovation are inspiring. It is a testament to Africans bending the little they have to their will, using creativity to overcome life’s challenges.

There are definitely a handful of articles dealing with mobile phone use and communication. And having traveled to Africa and other developing countries you definitely realize that they have their own unique system for making those things work. So I love this photo of a typical village:
More on this picture here.

Read about:
the bamboo bike project
a homemade helicopter ( yes you read that correctly. . .homemade!)
fuel replacement from palm nuts
water buoy as a water tank
creating a mobile phone from all recycled parts
toys constructed from scrap metal, wire and other materials
wind powered cell phone tower


You can find AfriGadget on Flickr and on Twitter

Join Randy and others around the Watercooler today!

Simply Sunday - Paper Edition

So the National Stationary Show starts today in NYC. It's on my lists of things attend, but until then I will sit here on my couch and have to check out all my favorite paper designers sites and blogs to see what they are showing. So I thought I'd let you in on some of my favs. . .

Deluce Design
Made By Girl and her Blog
Blue Ribbon Designs and their Blog
Egg Pres
Tennessee based Yee-Haw Industries
I love their Farmers Market collection
Nantaka Joy
Bella Muse
Be sure to check out her Urban Alphabet Collection
Nashville based Hicks Paper Goods
Hello Lucky and their Blog

Saturday

Absent from blogland and enjoying the Saturday. 

I picked up some Fresh flowers from the
farmers market. . . just the inspiration I need to clean up the house!

Photo Games

Photo Game : Free Association 

What Is It?
Players respond to the last photo posted by posting one that it reminds them of. For example, maybe a picture of the St. Louis Arch reminds you of the golden arches at McDonald’s.

What are the Rules?
Post a visual (or at least quasi-logical) response to the last photo in the pool. Only one photo at a time allowed, and you have to wait for at least one response before posting another photo.

How Do I Play?
Stop by the Free Association pool and have a look around. If you can come up with a photo that relates to the last one posted, add it to the group.

Why?
Because its the perfect nudge you need to get you out of a creative rut.

:: For other Photo Games visit Photojojo!
It's hard to choose which game I want to play!


This post is a part of Watercooler Wednesday at Randy's place be sure to check out other cultural artistic posts today!
and WFMW over at Shannon's stop by to get other tips you never know you needed.

Letterpress

If you know me or if you have been reading here for a while you already know that I have a slight obsession with letterpress works of art. Be it a postcard, an invitation, a poster, a gift tag, or stationary my love for letterpress runs deep. So I was super excited today while browsing Hello Lucky ( one of my favorite letterpress shops galore) to find they are now doing personalized LETTERPRESS stationary. Ahhhhh. just send it on over Hello Lucky Its ready to go and already has a "S". It's meant to be!

I love this one too. . .


Enjoy the finds. . .
I might be writing some personalized notes to make room for new stationary!!

Simply Sunday - Mother's Day Edition

Today is a day I celebrate my Mom. . .
Today is a day I wish I was near my Mom.
But thats not a once a year feeling it is really an everyday feeling!!
via real simple

My mom is funny, loving, beautiful, caring, creative and supportive
( and thats just the start)
She is the greatest friend I have!!

She has taught me more than I even realize and as I am getting older I can't help but laugh and smile when I have to say
" I am so being my mother right now" !!
I am truly blessed!





I . LOVE . YOU . MOM !

1 day old!

Welcome Sadie. . . It was so great to hang with you today
(and your mom & dad too!!)

Sadie's first photo shoot!

Radiohead Video

The hubs is headed to the Radiohead concert in Atlanta ( I graciously gave up my ticket for his friend.. . ha!) but because we've been a bit in Radiohead mode this week I came across this new video of theirs and WOW!
They partnered with MTVexit a new campaign that is raising awareness against human trafficking.
Thom Yorke of Radiohead describes the video as

". . . .two parallel stories running, one of a little boy in the West and one of a little boy in a sweatshop in the East, and the boy [in the West] ends up buying the shoes from the sweatshop. It's actually quite powerful," Yorke said. "It's the sort of images I have in my head anyway. Sometimes when you're walking down High Street and you're looking at the incredibly cheap [sneakers], you sort of think, 'Hmmm, well how did they manage to make that so cheaply?' It sort of reminds me of one of my preoccupations, so I'm touched that the music goes with that. I think it's great."

It definitely portrays the reality of human trafficking and makes you consider the price that you are paying vs. the price that SOMEONE is paying.

Read more about it Here and be sure to check out the video!

Personal Consumption = Art ?

This is Kate Bingaman-Burt, she is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Mississippi State University and an artists of her personal consumption.
She keeps a visual diary filled with black ink drawings of her purchases and puts them together in zines. You can see and buy them at her etsy shop, Obsessive Consumption.


She started in 2002 taking pictures of her purchases and creating a brand out of the process. Her newest personal consumption is that she is hand drawing her credit card statements until they are all paid off.
Documenting the results of her consumption. . .

She has a blog where she will often posts her daily purchase drawings. And she is also the crafty maker of other things: pillows, installations, photographs, more. Her work has been featured in Dwell, How, Adorn, The New York Times and more. Right now she has been working on a Non-Profit she started called The Public Design Center, a graphic design resource hub.

She might make art out of her purchases but she sure makes me think about my consumerism.

:: via esty featured buyer.

This post is for Watercooler Wednesday over at Randy's Check it out for other creative, culture and arty topics.

Jump!

This photographer makes me wanna. . .
Jump Jump
The Mac Dad will make you Jump Jump
The Daddy Mac will make you Jump Jump
Kris Kross will make you Jump Jump
uh huh uh huh
Believe dat

This is Lilly McElroy


Lilly is a photographer that is doing a series of photos where she is JUMPING in the air and throwing herself at men hence the series name " Throwing Myself at Men"

Lilly McElroy takes things literally and cant help being clumsy. The work she produces is a cross between physical comedy and earnest confessional. She throws her whole body into it and often leads with her chest. . . .There are photographs of her throwing herself at men. The gestures that Lilly performs for the camera are simultaneously loving and cruel; they are an attempt to discuss the desire and difficulty involved in making a connection. . . . These photographs acknowledge the possibility of failure - that someone might not catch her, that a connection might not be made. It is that possibility that keeps things interesting. In the end, Lilly wants to make the viewer laugh, but she wants them to understand that there is more at stake, that everyone is implicated including her.

Visit Lilly's website Here and her series Here.

:: via The Year in Pictures