Shoemaking workshop in Los Angeles, Oct. 16-19

...s were custom made because they made them for themselves. We will start by making a 3D pattern of our foot and transferring it to the leather you select. Once the upper and sole are attached we move onto turning and hammering, closure and finishing and finally gooping the soles. You will get experience with patterning, cutting, skiving and various stitching methods you can transfer to future leather projects and of course, you will be leaving with...

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Koreatown Market Tour with Hae Jung Cho

...at the Korean market are organic or what kind of pepper flakes to buy for making kimchi? Join me for a guided tour of supermarkets and specialty food shops in Koreatown. The tour is geared toward people who want to cook and eat Korean food at home, especially those who want to make kimchi. Cost: $25. (Bring extra cash for snacks etc.) Head over here to sign up. This class would have prevented the head scratching trip Kelly and I took down the Kor...

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On the Back Porch of America

...e. Root Simple pal and LA bike revolutionary, Ben Guzman and his business partner Angela Wood produce videos, through their company Small Medium Large, that readers of this blog will love. Small Medium Large’s series, The Back Porch of America, is like the Foxfire books come to life. You can watch a couple of episodes here. This is what television would look like if we dispensed with false reality show drama and treated subjects with respect. Four...

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Seed, nut and fruit energy bars

...ow much should I usee, you ask? 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of each is enough to start with. (Yes, you do need a food processor, though I suppose you could cowboy this whole thing using a mortar and pestle and a strong arm.) Press this blob into a pan, in a flat layer–you don’t even have to grease the pan–and chill for a couple of hours, then cut into bars. Or you can roll it into bite sized balls and chill those. It’s best to keep your bars or balls in t...

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Diyas: oil lamps from India

...a dollar. That’s a lot of fun for a dollar, and a good way to light up a party with a hundred warm little lights–if you can keep your guests from catching themselves on fire! (For more info, see my post at the first link above for all the deets on making and using a vegetable oil lamp.) Also, it occurs to me that it would be a great lesson for kids to make a pinch pot out of clay dug from the ground, and then make some ghee and a wick, and then s...

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