This time last year.

Blantyre, Malawi with Maria of the People of the Sun. Pictured here: a floor mat waiting to be finished.

Ebay find

As described by the seller:

Absolutely rare Chouinard Equipment #11 Hex bracelet made for me when my brother worked at Chouinard Equipment. The machine shop made a handful of them - this being one of those. Made from the end piece of the #11 extrusion, it was tumbled in the beads in the original Chouinard Equipment factory in Ventura. Chouinard Equipment eventually made them and sold them in various colors, but this is one of the first prototypes. I wore this every day for about 12 years (I worked at Patagonia) - but it is now too small to go over my hand. Time for someone else to enjoy it...happy bidding!

Re: Kitchen Machines

"When the objects we use everyday and the surroundings we live in have become in themselves a work of art, then we shall be able to say we have achieved a balanced life."

-Bruno Munari

1692 Dutch Color Study

An interesting read if you are fluent in Dutch: A. Boogert's hand written and painted study of water color from 1692. Initially spotted here, and the book in its high resolution entirety can be found here.

Graffiti Protocol

Read on how tech-savy Turks usurp Twitter ban via graffiti.

REGISTER Now for CAMP

Sushi Architecture

So I ask my guy at the farmer's market for just the persimmon leaves... 

Excerpt from In Praise of Shadows 

Junichiro Tanizaki, 1933  

Not long ago a newspaper reporter came to interview me on the subject of unusual foods, and I described to him the persimmon-leaf sushi made by the people who live deep in the mountains of Yoshino—and which I shall take the opportunity to introduce to you here. To every ten parts of rice one part of sake is added just when the water comes to a boil. When the rice is done it should be cooled thoroughly, after which salt is applied to the hands and rice molded into bite-size pieces. At this stage the hands must be absolutely free of moisture, the secret being that only salt should touch the rice. Thin slices of lightly salted salmon are placed on the rice, and each piece is wrapped in a persimmon leaf, the surface of the leaf facing inward. Both the persimmon leaves and the salmon should be wiped with a dry cloth to remove any moisture. Then in a rice tub or sushi box, the interior of which is perfectly dry, the pieces are packed standing on end so that no space remains between them, and the lid is put in place and weighted with a heavy stone, as in making pickles. Prepared in the evening, the sushi should be ready to eat the next morning. Though the taste is best on the first day, it remains edible for two or three days. A slight bit of vinegar is sprinkled over each piece with a sprig of bitter nettle just before eating.

See also: How to harvest nettle this late March/April, as well as, these notes.