This challenge came again in the November 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living. My colleague Athena Preston had been experimenting with colored hot glue in the craft room but did not know what to do with it. Inspiration struck and emerged when she planted a metal stamp into the hot glue and replicated a wax seal. Athena’s hot-glue seals hung around for months with no application until November Good Things came along and I thought they would look good on a wine bottle.

The wrapping is simple and forgiving. If the paper wrinkles a little, it looks good. Any thicker paper, such as kraft paper, will do. Consider recycling a brown bag from the grocery store. Cut a piece of paper that is about 3 inches wider than the circumference of your bottle and a height that is long enough to fold over a ¼ of the bottle height when wrapped. Add another 3 inches to the height to fold under the bottom of the bottle as well. Roll the bottle in the paper, and secure with double-sided tape. Fold the extra 3 inches on the bottom under the bottle. Then fold the remainder over the top front of the bottle and secure with double-sided tape. Wrap waxed twine around the bottle, tie a knot, and finish by attaching the hot-glue “wax seal.” Then you are ready to party.

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Christie and Arjen used 3-D modeling equipment with ceramic reproduction techniques to design and create the instruments. After perfecting the pieces, they recorded an album with indie hip-hop, electronic, and analogue musicians who were asked to create sample-based and live compositions.

This all came to a head last night in a live performance at the Museum of Art and Design.

Check out the video of the making of AudioWear.

I started by gathering some orphaned frames around our craft room that had been used for past shoots. The idea was to build and layer on top of existing frames. Then I took a trip to Da Vinci Artists Supply to find the right material. I ended up buying balsa-wood strips in multiple shapes and sizes. Balsa wood is often used by architects to create scale models of their ideas. By cutting and layering the balsa wood I was able to re-create the  look of Tramp Art. Another material that worked really well was dollhouse decorative trim, which has the carved texture and is the proper scale.

Have a look below to see some of my inspiration and the final projects. Then have check out the September 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living for all of the how-to and sources.

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4 inspiration images from: http://www.folkartisans.com/index.html

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Our hope was to create beautiful treasures of heirloom quality. And to develop projects that would highlight the beautiful forms, colors, and textures found in life from the ocean. There are endless possibilities when you begin to look at the variety of shells available through websites such as Seashell City.

You may already have shells that you have collected on trips to the beach stowed away in a jar or tucked away in a dusty bookshelf.  I hope you will try one or many of these projects. I was amazed over and over again by the intricate patterns and structures of these creatures.

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1 Our set for the sand dollar mirror resting on apple boxes.

2 A view of the sea-fan sconce set from behind the photographer's camera. This version did not run in the story.

3 Pulling together props and the composition for the abalone-chip-covered boxes.

4 A view of the coral necklace on the computer screen. See the how-to video in this post.

5 As we shoot versions of the same shots, we post them on a wall to map our progress.

6 A giant sand dollar waits for its moment in front of the camera.

7 A necklace made of broken coral.

One project that did not make the cut due to space in the printed story was a necklace made from small broken pieces of coral. (Please make sure your sources for these materials are environmentally conscious.) But we have offered it here in a video how-to. It is the perfect project for a quiet summer afternoon.

The color combinations and graphic layouts of the fabric patterns are incredibly mesmerizing. Individually they appear to be minimal jewel boxes of lush and rich depth. But when viewed in multiples, as most are, they create intense graphic visual rhythms.

I have read that Bourgeois, who made these pieces in her 90s, wanted to feel close to home at all times, which is reflected in the scale and intimacy in which she worked late into her life, until death last year. Smaller pieces you could hold in you hand in soft materials and the format of small quiltlike structures. They resemble pages of a diary, or a meditation.

If you cannot make it to New York to see the show, it is fortunately available to see on the Cheim & Reid website. There are installation views as well as detail views.

Here is a sampling of works, courtesy of the Cheim & Reid website.

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I wanted to work with a mix of new and vintage beads on fabric. For the vintage beads I visited one of our tried and true sources, Tinsel Trading. We have featured Tinsel Trading many times before. All the editors here having been shopping there for years. And what is amazing is every time you visit, there is something new to discover.

With the generous help of Tinsel Trading I spent quite a bit of time searching through drawers and drawers of vintage beads and decorations usually used in the millinery and garment trade. It was surprising to find some of the exact beads that were on my flea market finds. It was like shopping back in time. There was of course plenty I had never seen and used as well.

We were so inspired by this process that we decided to visit with a camera. I hope you will enjoy it.

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A few months ago I received a package from my mother containing nearly every craft project I made in grade school.  My mother was a pack rat even though she does not admit it. But she was very organized. Our basement was filled with shelving and precisely labeled bins containing the flotsam and jetsom of our lives.

I never gave it much thought when I was a kid, but I knew she was passionate about saving all the things we made. I remember telling her I did not want to save them. She quietly tucked everything away for years and now I understand how great it is to rediscover all of these things you made 24 years later. It is true that Mother always knows best.

I spent hours going through it all. Some of it was awkward, but most of it reassuring and comforting.  You can see the way you think then is not so different than now. Here is a selection of drawings and collages I made in honor of spring and Easter.

Thank you, Mom!

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2 Some Dominican history.

3 Beautiful drawings and political cartoons.

4 A visual feast.

5 Telephones, religion, Christmas lights, the solar system, Michelangelo? Why not.

6 A matchbox collection.

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8 There were many colorful kites like this one on the top right.

9 A cobweb of crafts and nostalgia

10 Photos and objects of the native Taino culture

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12 A folk costume in it's dry cleaning bag floats like a ghost in the entrance.

13 I forget what this is but I love it.

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On a recent visit to the Dominican Republic, I visited the Museo Folklorico Don Tomas Morel in the city of Santiago. Considered by most to be the father of the modern Carnival, Morel was a tireless promoter and chronicler of the traditions and crafts of this country.

Founded in 1962 by the poet and cultural critic Tomas Morel, it is a jewel box filled to the ceiling with crafts and history tucked away in an old house that is just as colorful on the outside as the inside (I was too excited and forgot to take a picture of the exterior).

All forms of Dominican crafts and festivals are represented, from the native Taino artifacts to modern day carnival mask representing the spiritual and supernatural. There's a bit of Dominican pop culture kitsch as well. It is a giant collage of information presented in a fascinating way.

A little pick-me-up would be some green indoors. About a year ago I was approached by West Elm to create a collection of vessels to hold botanicals indoors. It was a wonderful collaboration and now it is available just in time for curing any bit of cabin fever you may have.

Four sets of vessels made in earthenware or glass hold either cut, dry, air, or water plants. The forms were inspired by the classical and natural worlds. They all function alone or in groupings, and their classic shapes will last for years to come.

You can see the entire collection here. I hope you enjoy it.

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1 Matte Gray Vessels: Here is a collection of five vases inspired by classical forms. They hold cut flowers or stand alone as objects.

2 These Water Lily Vessels are mouth blown and very generous in size. They can be used for aquatic plants or as vases for tall branches.

3 This is a set of three vases stacked inside each other and then topped with a glass dome. Each piece works alone or together in various configurations.

4 These vessels were designed with air plants in mind but could also be used for miniature terrariums.

For the first digital issue of Martha Stewart Living, titled “Boundless Beauty,” we wanted to include a handmade-jewelry story. I brought up Sculpey polymer clay, with a vision to make it modern and give a nod to the Bakelite jewelry that was popular during the first half of the 20th century.

I have a secret obsession with Sculpey. It has an artificial yet organic quality all at once. There is also something really satisfying about baking it in your home oven. Sculpey comes up every once in a while here in the crafts department, but we have never embraced it completely until now.

Sculpey now makes many useful tools that make it much easier to accomplish clean and professional-looking results. Especially the Clay Conditioning Machine, which makes perfectly flat sheets of clay to cut and work into graphic shapes using shaped cutters or a pastry cutter wheel. Check out the Sculpey tool page on its website for many other useful tools.

The issue launches today for users of the iPad.  I hope you will enjoy it!

Sculpey cameos

The beads on this necklace were created by pressing two colors of Sculpey into small tart tin molds. They were then attached to a piece of gray ultrasuede and sewn together with black embroidery ribbon.

This is photographer Ditte Isager standing on an apple box in order to capture the previous image.