It summertime. Feel like getting your mermaid on? I'm always excited to find someone using materials in an interesting way. Hazel Studstill of HJ Designs uses carp skins to make jewelry that looks and feels a lot like leather, but still has a bit of fish to it.
The carp skins are salvaged from fisheries in Canada. And if you like these, check our her other pieces. She makes lots of lovely jewelry, and it doesn't all involve fish.
Images from HJ Designs. Discovered via Fab.
The usual Instructable goes something like this. "I had an awesome idea. I built it. Here are the pix and details so you can build one, too." There are variations on how awesome the ideas are and how the details come together, but that's the basic format, and it works really well.
Every once in a while, there's a real story. Instructable author Corwin writes the tale of love and inspiration behind his creation of a pair of high heels with a hidden bike cleat. Now, this guy didn't just add a cleat to the bottom of a pair of shoes. He hand crafted a pair of high heels, from scratch, machining the base out of a solid chunk of zebra wood and making the straps from sheet leather.
Even though the project outlasted the romance, he still gave her the shoes in the end. The whole thing makes my designer side go "wow" and the girly side go "awwww." (You know the sound, the one we use for puppies.) Although if I turned this into a fairy tale, the next scene would have him looking for a new bike girl with a quirky style and finally falling in love with one who fits the shoes. They would ride off together on a tandem, of course.
Images from Instructables
