beads
Latest
Nike's Joyride shoes use tiny beads to make your runs more comfortable
Nike has developed a new shoe technology for both casual and every-day runners. Today, the sportswear giant is taking the wraps off of Joyride, a responsive cushioning system designed to adapt to individual foot strikes and offer high levels of impact absorption as your feet hit whatever surface you're running on. Nike says the idea with Joyride is to "make running easy" and give you more personalized comfort, which is made possible by thousands of tiny, energy-packed beads that form the shoe's midsole. You can get a great look at them in the Joyride Run Flyknit pictured above, the first Nike sneakers to feature the visible and colorful beads.
Kick your smartphone habit with the 'Substitute Phone'
Cigarettes are hard to kick not just because of the nicotine, but the fact that they give you something to do with your hands. The "Substitute Phone" from Vienna-based designer Klemens Schillinger works on the same principle, if you think of content as the drug and your phone's touchscreen as the tactile addiction. The five models look and feel like a phone, but instead of a screen, there are stone beads embedded in slots at various angles. You can just grab it and swipe, pinch and scroll, satisfying that physical need without the nicotine/content.
World of WarCrafts: WoW coasters
Every Thursday, Shelbi Roach of The Bronze Kettle guides you in creating WoW-inspired crafts using real world mats with World of WarCrafts.Need a place to park your frosty beverage? What these coasters lack in functionality, they make up for in style. In my step-by-step instructions, I've included a guide to help you create the coasters that will surely be the talk of the table at your next dinner party.Here is what you will need: Perler Beads Peg Board Ironing Paper Iron Click on the images below to view a gallery of step-by-step instructions. %Gallery-20639% DISCLAIMER: If you are under 18, please make sure that you are supervised by your parents or an adult.
Show and Tell: Dangly bits
Reader Rachel, who goes by the alias spugmeistress at Flickr, has a gift, but she also has a problem. You see, she puts together these incredible game-themed jewelry sets, like these stars and coins we know so well from the Mushroom Kingdom (and other goodies, like Zelda sets and Tetris bracelets), but she doesn't know what to do next. That's where you come in -- she's short on new ideas! So if you happen to like game jewelry (this blogger does!), or if you know someone who does, feel free to drop her some suggestions here in the comments or over at her Flickr set, which includes links to her online shop. Got something you want to show off? Doohickeys, thingamabobs, collections from droolworthy to simply sigh-inspiring, ... whatever you've got, if it has a little Nintendo flavor, we want to see it. Just take some pictures (or copy your web album links) and send them to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.
A bracelet to coordinate with Kuribo's Shoe
We don't know what self-respecting Kuribo (Goomba) would wear images of itself while bouncing around in a giant boot, but then, Kuribos don't even have wrists. So there. Humans, however, frequently have wrist-bearing arms on which we can place bracelets. We also have hands and fingers with which to do the beadwork for these bracelets. Unfortunately, we don't have access to giant bouncy green wind-up boots. Oh, the irony, sort of!
Two lovely Nintendo crafts
These two crafts have the potential to change our lives. How so? In order to acquire and use them, we must learn how to knit, find a reason to start carrying a little handbag, and take more notes. We're not sure we're ready for such a drastic change, so we'll just look at them on the Internet and appreciate them!The felted Mario bag has a tutorial, so if you can knit, we suggest you do so. The Zelda notepad was previously available for sale on Etsy, but is now sold out. Perler bead crafts are not so hard to do, however! [Via Wonderland: here, here]
Perler bead crafting evolves
This question mark block has extended its form into the fabled third dimension! This mysterious realm of depth is unexplored by either 8-bit explorers or Perler bead artists. This bold scientific discovery promises to usher a new age for Super Mario Bros. crafts!Shown above, an artifact from the third dimension, looking very much like one of our own question mark blocks, but somehow composed of many two-dimensional blocks working in tandem to form a strange array of squares. These squares exist simultaneously in the normal two dimensions and in the newly-discovered third! This is a hypersquare.[Via Wonderland]
Make your own sprite coasters
Crafty gamers -- or gamey crafters -- take note of these homemade NES coasters. The Wiicast used iron-on Perler beads and a pegboard to build these sprightly squares. The simple process yields strong results, scoring high -- eight rings -- on our just-made-up phone-it-in scale. Of course, the project works best on retro sprites that end up being about the same size as a typical glass. Go too old-school, and the coasters will be suited only for shot glasses. Or adapt the technique to a modern screenshot to craft the coolest doormat in your apartment building.
