Absolutely fantastic stop motion video entitled ‘The PEN story‘ dedicated to the comeback and 50th anniversary of the Olympus PEN (it’s a camera, silly). For this 3 minute clip 60,000 pictures were shot, 9,600 prints developed, and 1,800 pictures shot again. Check it out. Via CLDFX

I’ve been a big fan of The Dieline lately– the worlds #1 package design site. (We wrote about it last year, and it’s still going strong.  It just seems to get better and better each time I check in.) Browse by category or substrate. Obsessed with great packaging (I sure am) and looking for inspiration? This should be a daily read for you.

Sudokid: Shape. Solve. Share! I love this 6 kids version of Soduku, with shapes instead of numbers. It’s designed and developed by the Quirky community. This product requires 300 commitments to buy before it goes into production and is made (priced at $14.99). 23 have been pre-sold so far, and fairly quickly. You’re not charged until the threshold is met. Who is in?

Wanderlust 333 at Wanderlust Gallery in the UK: 33 artists for 33 days, prints available at 3 different prices (3, 33 and 333 GBP respectively). Some great artists represented here including our friend Josh Kenyon. Check it out, great concept and fantastic artwork available for a limited time.

In an age where so many goods are mass produced in areas of the world far from where they were designed (like, say, China), it’s refreshing to see an artist still making hand-crafted pieces in semi-limited runs at prices that aren’t outrageous. In this case, the line is PNUT Jewelry and the artist is Rusty Pistachio, a bass player in the New York punk rock group H2O. Over the years, Pistachio has expanded his line from tattoo-inspired charms to rings, bracelets, and items created in conjunction with bands like Weezer and the Bouncing Souls.  

Most recently, Pistachio has started working with precious metals and jewels for those who want something a little more sparkly, has unveiled an Alphabet line, and has also struck up a collaboration with AFI’s Davey Havok’s Zu Boutique.

Each of PNUT’s piece – be it a snub nose revolver or a cupcake with embedded stone sprinkles – is created by the bassist in his studio, not in some factory far overseas. That also means each made-to-order piece will take a few weeks longer to reach you, but we think it pays to wait for quality.

Since 2003, Los Angeles artist and RISD grad Sonia Romero has been dazzling Southern California with her exquisite, detailed linocuts and silkscreened prints of wildlife and civiliziation’s (sometimes precarious) connection with it. The daughter of artists Nancy and Frank Romero and the granddaughter of the founder of the Craft and Folk Art Museum, Romero didn’t have to stretch far to find artists inspiration. She introduced her first series, an animal alphabet (B is for Bear, U is for Unicorn), in 2003 and while the concept wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, the quality of her materials – she hand-printed her images upon fabriano paper – and the expressiveness of her creatures caught the attention of the craft world.

Since, she’s enjoyed a solo show at the Avenue 50 gallery and the thirteen tiles she has created for the Macarthur Park metro station in Los Angeles are nearly ready to be permanently installed within the transit station. In the meantime, she’s working on taking her printmaking into the third dimension with a line of felted brooches available on Etsy alongside prints of some of her other artistic explorations.

Your urban sensibility is already apparent in mostly every aspect of your existence. Whether it’s the way you dress or the the music you listen to, everyone knows that you’re watching the streets. When you escape the sidewalk’s influence and return to the calm shelter of your abode, however, it’s a different story. Your staid coffee table only tells visitors that you’ve gotta put your feet up somewhere, saying nothing of how you’ve got your prescient eye on the hustle and flow of current culture. Well then maybe your furnishings could use a change that’s more in keeping with the tempo of the next song on your iPod. Might we recommend the incredibly hot Scratch DJ Coffee Table from the divine minds and able craft-making hands at Bughouse Art & Design. This pine turntable facsimile with chromed out legs and a glass tabletop allows a place to put your kicks up at the end of the day and to show off some choice vinyl without accidentally scratching it up with some faulty needle play.