Posts from — September 2007

Tomoji Tanabe, who became the oldest man alive when Emiliano Mercado Del Toro died at 115, celebrated his 112th birthday yesterday.

The Miyakanojo City mayor presented him with a bouquet of flowers at his home. When asked how long he wanted to live, Tanabe replied, “Indefinitely. I don’t want to die”.

Via WeirdAsiaNews

Technorati Tags: Japan, Tomoji Tanabe, World’s Oldest Man

For their Spring/Summer collection 2007, Italian design firm Alessi collaborated with the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and created The Chin Family, a collection of East Asian inspired kitchen utensils.

Technorati Tags: Alessi, kitchen utensils, National Palace Museum in Taiwan, products, The Chin Family

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Halloween is coming up so origamise your night with these crafty creations from The Origami Club. The site gives an index of different designs to create, together with difficulty ratings, diagrams for the folds and animations for how to make them. Excellent!

Halloween Origami

Via Craftzine

Technorati Tags: crafts, Halloween Origami, Japanese, origami

A man watches a yellow three-legged duckling at a duck farm in Tancheng County, East China’s Shandong Province on September 4, 2007. Although it is reportedly eating well and quacking all day long, a rare mutation has left the male bird with an extra leg dragging behind him.

Via ChinaDaily

Technorati Tags: China, three-legged duckling

I just saw these rice crackers which are manufactured in Omachi, northwest of Tokyo. They contain the jibachi senbei, or digger wasps, with each rice cracker containing five or six black insects which are clearly visible.

Wasp hunters from the village, who are mostly in their 80’s, catch them in nearby forests. They are then boiled in water, dried and sprinkled over the cracker mix, which is then stamped by hot iron cracker cutters.

A bag of 20 crackers costs £1.60, but output is limited as the wasps are caught in the wild for optimum flavour. (Obviously, judging from this person’s fingernails..)

From Arbroath via Tastespotting

Technorati Tags: digger wasps, jibachi senbei, rice crackers

Ok, I know Transformers has come and almost gone, but I had to put this image in as this model of Bumblebee is so good, even by model kit standards.

A guy from Beijing handmade this model using KFC, cookie and moon cake boxes. Apparently, it is even movable!

Check a few more photos of his whole build process.

Technorati Tags: Beijing, China, crafts, Transformers

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The Chinese Arts Centre in Manchester, UK, celebrates 21 years of Chinese Creativity with the launch of their new exhibition “Boutique“, featuring Anthony Key,  Lisa Cheung, Nina Chua and Pamela So.

Do you browse and not buy? Does your imagination far exceed your bank balance?  When you are planning to purchase an item do you research for recreation?  To mark the 21st anniversary Chinese Arts Centre invites you to enjoy an entirely visceral gallery experience. If you’re a serial ‘window shopper’ then you’ll love Chinese Arts Centre’s new exhibition, Boutique. 

Chinese Arts Centre, the most successful international development agency for contemporary Chinese Artists celebrates 21 years from 5 October to 24 December.  With the announcement of their specially commissioned anniversary exhibition Boutique, this winter promises to be a spectacular affair. 

UK Artists Anthony Key, Lisa Cheung, Pamela So and Nina Chua have been invited to consider the commodity element in their artwork and respond to the aesthetic qualities of their material and craftsmanship. All four artists work in very different mediums, sculpture, textiles, paper cutting and design bringing together an exhibition full of energy and vitality that for the first time will spill out of the gallery and into Chinese Arts Centre’s shop offering visitors the opportunity to purchase as well as admire.

Boutique runs from 5th October – 21th December 2007
Mon-Sat 10am – 5pm and Sun 11am-4pm
There is also a Preview / 21st Anniversary Party on Thursday 4 October 2007 from 6pm-8pm.

More on the Chinese Art Centre website

Chinese Arts Centre
Market Buildings
Thomas Street
Manchester
M4 1EU

+44 (0)161 832 7271

Technorati Tags: Anthony Key, art, Boutique, Chinese Arts Centre, Lisa Cheung, Nina Chua, Pamela So, UK Artists, United Kingdom

Cole Eastburn has an excellent samurai character in his portfolio. The samurai design is based on the concept of a butterfly of the battlefield. Six swords for the six legs of a butterfly and two flags for the wings.

See more on EastburnArt.com

Technorati Tags: art, Cole Eastburn, Japan, samurai character