For our Cinco de Mayo party this coming Friday, we were inspired by quintessential Mexico: bold colours, iconic images, and fiesta gatherings.
Here’s a few images that inspired and helped us develop the event theme, our poster design and the project for this month’s event.
For more photo inspiration, check out our Pinterest board.
Photo credits: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.
This Friday we’re back with a DIY + DJ party in Ottawa.
Cinco de Mayo is around the corner, so it’s perfect timing to throw an event inspired by fiestas, pinatas and tequila. Pinatas are one of our favourite DIY projects. Last time we threw a Cinco de Mayo party, there were all sort of crazy characters up in here.
For more event info check out our website listing or Facebook invite.
We traveled to Miami last month for the Winter Music Conference and had such a blast. Jason has been attending WMC for the last three years to hear some of the freshest beats in house and techno music, and I joined him this time around. We can’t wait to go back to Miami again.
We got to take in some much needed sun, listen to some great DJs, and get inspired by the architecture and the local art, design, and food scenes. We also got to connect with friends and new peeps from other cities in Canada and internationally, one of our favourite parts of going to out-of-town conferences.
This year was special because we were soft launching the new Spins & Needles online label and our first compilation, as well as some newly designed merchandise, including handsilkscreened tote bags and t-shirts.
Jason joined the All in the Fam and The Hawt Fiasco crews, alongside some of the best DJs in house music, and played two funky house sets. (Shaquille O’Neal himself stopped by twice!) All sets were broadcasted live on Chicago House FM (CHFM).
> You can listen or download Jason’s Hawt Fiasco Mix here.
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This post is just a quick recap of trip highlights, but you can also read more about it in upcoming posts on Mobile & Making.
Learn a new skill this spring: upcoming dates for Spins & Needles Silkscreening 101 Workshops! More info or register here.
Thank you to everyone who came out for our first Curated Castoffs swap event last Wednesday! We and co-organizer Jenn from Idle Hands were really happy to hear all your great feedback about the event.
The event focused on swapping art and decor items. There were some amazing finds (like the deer head and bird cage above and frames below, plus some wonderful art pieces) going to happy new homes. Jason set the tone for the evening and played a diverse set of beats throughout the night. With all the artwork and frames on the walls, Patrick Gordon Framing Studio was the perfect space to host the event. And all our enthusiastic volunteers rocked it!
We’re planning the next swap event for June, and we’ll post more details closer to the date.
For more background on the Curated Castoff series, check out this previous post. Some of you also asked about how to host a swap at your own home or on your own, so we’ll post a few tips in an upcoming post.
As part of our programming for 2013, we’re teaming up with Idle Hands Craft Sale in Ottawa to host a new swap and barter series, Curated Castoffs.
Some of our most popular programming in the past has included swaps, where items like clothing, art + craft supplies, music gear and audio-visual items, and jewellery were exchanged. It was a great way for people to clean out and renew their own wardrobe or creative tool kit with found treasures, but without spending a lot of money.
We wanted to bring the swap back, but in a more mindful way. Talking with friends, and in our own lives, we’ve seen a a shift in the last few years towards consuming and owning less, but bringing higher quality and distinct items into our spaces.
So with Curated Castoffs, it’s going to be a different kind of swap. Participants are asked to select up to five high-quality items they no longer need or want, but upon which others would place high value. In return, the pool of items from which all participants get to select is smaller, but of quality. It also asks participants to be critical of what they choose to take home with them.
If you’re in Ottawa, our first edition of the Curated Castoff series will focus on art and decor. Refresh your walls and shelves, start a collection, or exchange pieces.
Here’s the details:
What: Curated Castoffs: Art + Decor Edition
When: Wednesday, March 27, 2013, 7:00pm – 19+
Where: Patrick Gordon Framing Studios (160 Elm St, Ottawa)
> More information on how the swap works.
> Facebook invite
Hope to see you there!
It’s here! We’re hosting our geometrics-inspired DIY + DJ party tonight.
When you mention Spirographs to people, for most it conjures up childhood memories of creating endless spirals on white pieces of paper (and knowing there was some math behind the toy but not really knowing what you were learning).
For the March event, we were inspired by very modern interpretations of the drawing toy as found in the art, craft and design world, on paper and in 3-D.
Here’s a few images that inspired and helped us develop the event theme, our poster design and the project for this month’s event (more on the project in an upcoming post).
For more event inspiration, check out the inspiration board on our Pinterest page.
Dream catchers in black and white via Tumblr
Untitled (2011) by Anne Seidman
Hadr / Kvadrat (2012) by Todd Bracher Studio
WOW for Rogerseller (2013) by harvest textiles
We Couldn’t Get In. We Couldn’t Get Out. (2007) by Lacey Jane Roberts
Work for The Youthquake (2011) by María Aparicio Puentes
Seed of Life (Long Deep Sleep) (2013) by Shaun Kardinal
If you read this post earlier this year, you’ll know that we had some exciting stuff up our sleeves for 2013.
So… we can’t keep it a secret any longer…we’re super excited to announce that we are launching an online independent record label as of this month!
We’ve been talking about this dream project for a while. And then working hard over the last 3-4 months to actually implement it. For each compilation, we’ll be selecting some of the freshest and funkiest tracks from our favourite DJs and producers. Each compilation will also feature an album cover designed by us.
> You can download the first compilation on our Bandcamp page. For blog readers and Spins & Needles fans, downloads are available for free until March 20.
Why start an online independent label? We wanted to express our interest and passion for music, design, DIY and indie labels in a different way, in addition to our local events. Something that could be easily shared by our friends and fans in different cities. Making culture accessible, while still being true to quality of underground roots and independent spirit.
We also wanted to create opportunities for new and upcoming producers, who could contribute and showcase their work as part of a collection of tracks, get some distribution and hopefully some plays from other DJs.
And with Jason being a DJ, track selector and record collector since his teen years, an online label just made sense.
> We’ll be down in Miami from March 21-25 for the Winter Music Conference. Let us know if you’ll be down there as well! Jason will be playing tracks from the first compilation at two parties that week.
We’re loving the juxtaposition of two of our event inspirations this month: supernovae vs. supervinyl. It’s nature drawing in the sky vs. machines drawing on paper. Both result in geometric Spirograph images.
The first video by NASA was posted on the web in late February 2013. It shows the gamma rays photographed by the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope on its orbital journey around Earth. The gamma rays come from different cosmic events and entities like atomic decay, supermassive black holes, supernovae, stars and pulsars. The high-energy radiation activity from the events look like an animated Spirograph.
The second video is of the art project “Drawing Apparatus” by Robert Howsare, created in March 2012. Two ordinary record turntables are hacked to make geometric drawings. The turntables are connected to a pen through a mechanism, that uses the rotating platters to move the pen. The drawings produced by the contraption look like old Spirograph images.
We’re excited to bring you our next Spins & Needles event this Friday.
Our last geometrics party was a hit so we’re bringing you part 2 with some brand new projects. This time we’re around we’re inspired by pulsar patterns, Spirographs and Bézier curves.
You can find more event info here.
