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Imaginary Zebra’s Guide to Tie-Dye t-shirts in 4 steps

This was my second-time tie-dye, which made me an expert to compose this guide. Read on with confidence.  Prior to being the design studio that we are today, Imaginary Zebra was a clothing brand. Naturally, I kept the shirts in the vault.  While organizing the vault,

Refurbishing vintage steel Kennedy into a Supreme Toolbox

Featured On Albeit a quick one, this project wouldn’t have been completed without the shelter-in-place order since March. I’ve stayed home long enough to begin cleaning out the garage, a to-do item that I’ve put off since 2018. Sh*t was getting serious. Supreme toolbox time. While

52 weeks and 52 posters of my kid later

You know how parents like to take pictures of their new born to document each milestone? We might’ve taken it too far. This one is to Zoltan, without whom this post would have been completed two years sooner. It all started with the Buzz Lightyear

1 of 1 Zaku Char Custom Gunpla—Lost Decade Statue

This is a story about procrastination. I purchased this kit close to 6 years ago when I visited Odaiba, you know, the Japanese city where it had the 1:1 Gundam Statue. Besides the RX-78-2 statue, there was a hall in pristine white interior, like a

NewType BuildCon 2019 San Francisco Recap

NewType launched their very first Gunpla oriented event called “BuildCon”. I discovered this about a couple months ago when I finished my latest build. I was happy with the build. Matter of fact, happy enough to scour the Internet for possible competitions. And BuildCon was

My Gear List

工欲善其事 必先利其器 One must have the proper tools to do a proper job. Imagine cutting a steak with a dull butter knife. Hey, while you’re at it, grab a mirror too. So you can watch yourself die inside. The joy of creating the work, to

Custom Built Entryway Hall Tree for $50

I was going to title this post an entryway-shoe-rack-coat-hanger-hybrid until I learned the actual name for this type of furniture—it’s a “hall tree”. Word, ok. Turns out, my final design is surprisingly fitting. The Problem Here’s the original shoe rack. It’s one of the first

Nike SB x Air Jordan 1 ‘Lakers’ Paint Removal

This is a pair of NikeSB x Jordan 1 “Lakers” colorway released in May of 2019. What’s special about the SB Jordan’s is the revealing of another color-way hidden behind the initial coat of paint. For this pair, the color underneath the Lakers’ purple and

Ricoh GR II—my EDC camera?

What makes a camera great may vary from person to person. Ultimately, it comes down to whether the camera can effectively capture what you want to capture and when you want to capture it. — I’m a lifestyle photography hobbyist—I shoot a bit of everything

Otto Frei & Brush Metal Seiko Watch Mod

Otto Frei is a watch and jewelry depot founded by Otto Frei, a Swiss master watchmaker, and his wife Alice in 1930. The warehouse is chaos. Their website looks pre-internet. But this place is a gem. If you look close enough. Otto Frei 126 2nd

Custom Ex Libris Bookplates

A bookplate (or book-plate, as it was commonly styled until the early 20th C.), also known as ex-librīs [Latin, “from the books of…”], is usually a small print or decorative label pasted into a book, often on the front end paper, to indicate its owner. Simple typographical bookplates are termed

My Seiko SNK809 Watch Mod

Some hobbies area better left untouched. A couple of months ago a friend introduced me to the watch mod (watch modification) community and I haven’t stopped thinking about modding a watch of my own since. The watch mod sub-culture: -Like custom cars, there’s a community

My Man-Cave Part 1—DIY Dog Fence for Garage Doors

[aside] Location: My garage Photo cred: Benson Camera1: Olympus OMD EM5 Camera2: iPhone 5s Lens: Rokinon 7.5mm f3.5 [/aside] My garage the core dumpster for the house, storing shit that I don’t really need and things that I might use (and will never use). I’m

Daily—Ranch99, Home Depot, Props

They say the best part of a project is not the result, but the process. I agree, but not all parts of the process is as engaging as the direct development of the product. Errands, they’re not the most delightful steps of realizing a project, but

My Designer Wall—$15 Project

Went to my first design conference, HOW, a couple months ago. Not only had I talked to a series of vendors, I’ve also collected quite a few things along the way—from wallets, erasers, to phone cases and stickers. But of all things, my favorite souvenir

Starbucks’ DIY Cup

Michelle and I have lots of contrary interests. No, wait, we have lots of similar interests—stay home, watch movies, eat junk food, and be fat. And of the many interests that we share, one of which that we’re most proud of is this—an interest in

Daft Punk—The Hanger Project

A fairly quick and inexpensive project. It started with these two hangers: Never have I paid any attention to hangers. But last weekend, as I was walking the dogs in the backyard, I stumbled across these hangers that were accidentally left on the floor from hang drying (yes,

Paperman Inspired Munny Project

Couple years ago, a friend handed me a blank Munny, a DIY figurine from Kidrobot, and asked me to do whatever I’d like to it. With little time and idea, I’ve been guiltily putting this project on hold… (Better late than never, right, Johnson?) It

My DIY Standing Desk—The $22/$31 IKEA Hack

If I died from free-falling 120,000+ feet above the Earth, I’d die as a badass. If I died from saving a kid from a car crash, I’d die as a hero. And if I died from pursuing my dreams, I’d died as an inspiration. But

The Making of—Miniature T-shirt

FAME‘s coming up. This time around I wanted to keep things simple and focus more on the display as oppose to the tabling setup. Michelle had a spark of creativity of a zeeb’d out sketch mannequin as part of the decor. GENIUS IDEA. Not only

DIY – Replace the DSLR LCD Window

I’m tired of ignoring the seagull like crack on my screen. And instead of paying a crap load to send it back to Canon or local shops for replacement, I looked up a few sites and felt confident that I could handle this myself (The

DIY Miniature Trash Cans

It was a quick and spontaneous project and it all started here:On my way back home from running errands, I stopped by a garage sale. I’ve been looking for a trash can large enough to serve as the recycle container for the house. Voila, I

Keds Champion – Customization

A shoe custom that’s been way overdue. (sorry, Justine) Similar to the pair of vans I did last time, it was markers on canvas. I was asked to put a date and a phrase on the shoes. My style has been covering the majority of

Vans Authentic Custom

Last pair I customized was the [Air Max], a very different approach compare to this one. While I perceived the Air Max as a piece of footwear, I saw the vans as a sheet of canvas (both figuratively and literally in this case) – more

My $9 DIY Camera Sling Strap

Sling strap seems to be all the fuzz. It’s no surprise, though – it’s easy, comfortable, and certainly different (remarkable) when compare to traditional camera straps. My friend [Rolo AKA Dunksrnice] and [Adrienne] have purchased one from [BlackRapid]. They love it. With all the positive

Quality over quantity

It’s a quick project using otherwise wasted material from awhile back. I made this to keep myself reminded on how important it is to follow quality and not quantity. “Quality over quantity” seems to be quite a simple idea grasp by the majority of us,

Tamiya Mini 4WD Build Up

Tamiya’s known for their vehicle toy models. This wasn’t exactly a build up – more of a paint job. Unlike my usual custom work for toys (aged and antique style), I tried to make it look clean and simple – replicating the original design. It’s

Home made photo backdrop + Foooood

I’ve been wanting to build this for a long time. It’s a rather bitter sweet situation.. I kept making things that’d make me stay at home. Gotta have one of them vitamin D moments soon. Pros of this project: Cheap, easy to make.Cons: Not mobile.

Customized Origami Speakers

Asked by Eric Kim [AirwickKim], a great friend of mine, to customize these.Innovative design allowing people to fold them flat for travels..I think I defeated the purpose with my customs, sorry Eric. I couldn’t help it. The idea behind this custom was to incorporate “Eric”,

Air Max Light Custom

It’s been ages since I last pick up a brush for shoe customization.Before the whole TIZ stuff, I started off my “artistic career” by panting customized graffiti hats and shoes. Man, I almost forgot how fun it is to redesign shoes again. I used to

Project 365: Mid October to Early November

Yosh yosh! One post a day, gotta keep it up. Started on 8/31/10 when I received my Canon T2i and I’ve posted 68 times now – Less than 300 days to go! [Project 365. Powered by Tumblr] Here’s few from the last 20ish days:↑”Dress in

The Wall of Memories – Davis Wall Project

This is a continuous project of what my [ex-housemates and I did to our wall] last year. We wanted the wall to reflect the good times we had through our days in Davis. Just with a blink of an eye, 1 year’s past. A couple

The Making of SDAFF Backdrop

Backdrop designed for San Diego Asian Film Festival. I would’ve posted this before the trip, but we ended up finishing it just 12 hours before our drive to SD, woot woot. We underestimated how long it was going to take for the paint to dry. 

My personal 365 project

Kinda like breakfast, it’s good for my health. I’d use this project (Via Tumblr) to make something cool everyday. Let’s hope that I can manage to think of something for the rest of this project. I’ve posted 37 times, just 328 more to go. Here

Quick desktop signage project

I’m building a new book shelf. Actually, just stacking a couple of wooden boards on top of another with bricks. Nonetheless, on top of that shelf is a little empty…I’ve placed some of the toys and posters that I’ve purchased in the past, but something’s

Mobile Pod Ball – Customizing Process

When I made the skateboards last month, some of you like to see some of my Gundam customs as well. I didn’t have the habits of taking process pictures before, so I don’t want to just snaps pictures of the Gundams that I’ve already made.

Customized gift – for a special occasion

Yesterday was Michelle and I’s 2.5 years, I made this for the occasion.  Grabbed the tech-decks from a close by Toys-R-Us. ↑Carefully stripped away the cover. Content: Note: I really dig these lined up shots recently. ↑2 major components for customization: 1. The decks and

Making of the 3D Zeeb Project

↑ Thanks Jim for the ceramic of the Zeeb. Jessica, too. Except I still have to heat set her character. It took a good amount of time plus a serious talent to bring our mascot to life (no 3D glasses needed.) A little background info