Graphic Jam

Terrarium Crazy

shanetang1 — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:36:11 +0000

Legoland - tang style

So, I’ve been on a terrarium kick the past 2 months. The newest addition is my own personal Legoland. I’ve also put an updated shot of the Soy Sauce terrarium – it’s getting big.

All the terrariums I make are from old bottles and clippings from my existing plants. There are some more crazy concepts in this category coming your way. Stay tuned!

Soy Sauce plant is reaching new heights

Getting tall

Legoland - tang style

The lonely life of the Lego farmer

There’s a plant in my soy sauce

shanetang1 — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:43:46 +0000

It’s springtime! I’ve been on a terrarium trip lately and I wanted to share my latest. I made this one a week ago and the plant didn’t have a flower. I think flower means plant is happy. This is a recycled soy sauce jar turned plant home. I used organic soil, perlite and some moss. The plant is, what my mom calls, a wondering jew. I’m not sure of this name and if it sounds racist, too bad. So, I guess I could say there is a wondering jew in my soy sauce.

I’m building another terrarium from an old radio tube, a ceiling fan mounting bracket a fish bowl and a few other odds and ends. Hopefully it will work – if so, expect to see it here.

Soy Sauce Plant House

Notice it's the lite version. Yumm!

Chinese Air Take-Out

shanetang1 — Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:01:49 +0000

Look how cool my paper is

When I was a younger fellow I remember my grandfather making kites out of chopsticks and grocery bags. So, to honor that awesome man, I’m going to make some chopstick kites. Here is the first:

Materials:

Chopsticks

String

Knife

Tape

Pencil

Straight edge

Old fabric

First I measured and marked the middle of one chopstick. Then I measured where 1/4 of the total length of the second chopstick was and marked that. I notched both marked areas so the sticks would stay together when I tie them up with string.

Notch the sticks

Tie the sticks

Then I notched each stick end so the string will fit nice and snug when tied around the frame.

Notch the ends of each choppy

Tie String around and fit into notches

Cut some paper to go on the frame. Make it some cool paper, though. Or use a plastic bag, newspaper, lingerie, silk, etc. I wonder if foil would work? I’ll try that next. Then tape the paper to the strings and frame using the masking tape.

Cut the paper to size of kite frame

Tape paper to frame

Make a tail and tie some fabric to it. I used an old shirt. This is supposed to balance the kite while it’s in flight. Then tie some string to the vertical stick and leave some slack.

Tie string and fabric chunks to bottom of frame

Tie string to frame

Now all I need to do is tie the main string and go fly this thing. I have no idea if it will fly. I will post my adventure soon.

Time for Take-Out

Colored Pencils are Fun

shanetang1 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 23:06:34 +0000

Prismacolor pencils are awesome and they are made in the USA. That’s a double awesome right there. I did this illustration for a project a bit ago. To protect the identity of the client I have blurred their name – there is no way you can tell what that logo is. No way, Jose. There are a couple pieces of this project that were made by two of my colleagues, as well. It was fun.

Mixed media illustrations (oldies) / Free Things

shanetang1 — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:51:21 +0000

Here are two illustrations I did a while ago. These also used some free stock and some custom art.

Planet Tang

shanetang1 — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 23:17:12 +0000

Here are some weird photoshop illustrations I did for fun. These are mini worlds for you to explore. And yes, I did use a filter to help me do these.

Reclamation: Post Office Box Door

shanetang1 — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:46:14 +0000

This is a gift I made for my lovely wife for Christmas. I put a watch inside and wrapped it up. The box is made from an old Post Office mailbox door. We found 3 mailbox doors at an antique store for about $6 each. I have to admit that I bought the wood from a neat woodworkers store called Woodworkers Source (http://www.woodworkerssource.com/). They have an amazing selection of woods from all over the place. I don’t know how eco friendly they are, but they have some quality stuff. Since it was a gift I validated purchasing some new unused product.

This took me about an hour a day for a week working in my garage without my wife noticing. I measured everything based on the dimensions of the mailbox door and guestimated the depth. I also had to pick the lock and use some old keys I found laying around (I think they are luggage keys). The inside lining is from an old top my wife was going to donate but never got around to it.

Materials:

Mailbox Door

1′ x 3′ (approx.) board. I think it’s about .5″ thick

Nails

Glue

Polyurethane

Ladies BCBG top (for lining)

Reclamation as gift

I had to pick the lock and use luggage keys instead

That's my wife's shirt in there. Shhhh, don't tell her.

Design Recycling

shanetang1 — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 20:20:07 +0000

Aspiring to do something better, I’ve been using a lot more recycling in my design. I’ve been Design Recycling by using found objects and materials that are great for the public and planet. The following pictures are one recent example of turning trash into something useful with meaning.

Bag and Booklet.

Design Recycling

The bag you see here is made from an old billboard and the booklet is made from sheets of shipping chipboard. The chipboard was originally used to protect reams of labels in boxes and the billboard was a ginormous piece of vinyl. The entire concept relates to the product itself – B100% is the only 100% biodegradable bottled water around. The bottle, lid and label are all 100% biodegradable.

I started out by sewing a bunch of bags from the billboard material and hand cutting the chipboard sheets. It took a few sewing rounds to get it right, but in the end I was very happy with the results.

Expect some more vinyl projects in the near future!

Images From Free Stuff

shanetang1 — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 02:38:39 +0000

Here are two images I made using some free brushes and textures I have found on the web. The brushes are from here. As for the illustrations, those are from one of those super-mega-gigantor clipart packs from the late 1990′s. You know the one – it had 40 bazillion clipart images and 80 mazillion lo-res crappy photos. Anyway, I liked these two.

Check ya!

Fig. 1 Stanged

Fig. 2 Transpor-tang

What’s the Big Picture? – series 2

shanetang1 — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:30:11 +0000

I guess I have a favorite subject when it comes to close up images…

It's not a scab...

This looks bad. Very bad.

Sloan is so pretty.