(Alison) Thomer

2nd and Thompson

2010-11-01T21:01:00.003-04:00

I took this picture super fast and ran away. You know, just in case... In case there was more cat urine.

Super Awesome Lion

2010-11-01T21:00:00.001-04:00

Audrey 3

2010-11-01T20:58:00.003-04:00

Between 2nd and Front streets on Master.

SoCo and Flower

2010-11-01T20:41:00.001-04:00

This is what Tuco looks like

2010-10-09T11:53:00.003-04:00

Apparently, my roommates are making portraits of our cat. I haven't seen Poopface's attempt, but I think Crapbutt did a a pretty great job combining Tuco's two defining characteristics, which I've tried to document here in photo form:

Trying to eat your face at every turn

Super Mange CUTE ^-^

Mantis

2010-10-09T11:50:00.002-04:00

It was like this when I found it, except not well-lit or on a paper towel.

Parking Peeling

2010-10-09T11:47:00.003-04:00

Devon train station on the formerly-known-as R5 line.

Tree for Kaleigh

2010-10-09T11:02:00.002-04:00

My brother and sister-in-law commissioned this for their nursery. I was told it is done.

SHPIDAH!

2010-08-01T17:05:00.005-04:00

We love you spider!

So many cozies! Not enough cozies!

2010-07-07T20:36:00.006-04:00

I had this problem where I kept touching things that weren't textiles. It was super lame and gross. I've found the best defense against all the smooth and shiny cylinders in my life is to crochet circles around them. Here are some examples.

Look at them.

Water Bottle Armless Sweater:

Booze Cooze:

Planter Manter:

YEAH!

Airbender: A Tragedy

2010-07-02T20:04:00.004-04:00

I made a short film about my experience seeing the last airbender. Aang will play the role of me.

Act 1: Before the movie
Act 2: The movie
Act 3: After the movie

Enjoy.

Airbender Tragedy from Alie Thomer on Vimeo.

Patrick has a bunch of great drawings on the subject too.

iPhone App Icons Made Me Mad Today

2010-06-24T17:33:00.004-04:00

Sick of speech bubbles.
Sick of checkmarks
Sick of swl's (single white letters)

Superduper sick of blue birds.

This site helped fuel my frustration: first&20

Quiltin

2010-02-19T21:18:00.001-05:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

relations (revised)

2009-11-26T21:46:00.008-05:00

Anyone in the Kaminski/Thomer/Bate Clans who are confused by the recent, exciting arrival of Isla Elizabeth Bate please refer to this handy diagram.
(please click to enlarge.)

Now we never have to talk about it again. Happy Thanksgiving.

kitten diagram

2009-11-11T01:38:00.003-05:00

Camera Cord

2009-10-18T12:49:00.001-04:00

Where are you?

animals and grounding

2009-09-24T16:34:00.011-04:00

I've been wanting to post these videos for awhile, but I keep telling myself there has to be some sort of context. It turns out I'm not David Attenborough (despite all the intense wishing) and I don't have any facts or hyperbole to explain why looking at animal behavior is important. However, I realized that this is not BBC production and I can post whatever I damn well please to this here internet and I don't gotta justify it to no body, no where, no how. Hopefully you find this stuff fascinating too.

These are all from the Philadelphia Zoo:

Every time I watch this, I still don't even believe in it.

Giraffe Run from Alie Thomer on Vimeo.

This one gorilla was all, "hey I'm gonna hang out over here." and then this much bigger gorilla was like, "Nah-way. Imma scare the piss out of you instead." And then the much bigger gorilla scared the piss out of me as well.

Gorilla Stand-Off from Alie Thomer on Vimeo.

Apparently in red-tailed hawks, panting is a stress indicator. This hawks handler assured us that this hawk wasn't actually stressed, she just does that when she around a bunch of people. Anyway, I was just amazed to see a hawk tongue in person.

Panting Hawk
from Alie Thomer on Vimeo.

philadelphia colors

2009-09-09T12:38:00.002-04:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

fancy plastic yarn

2009-08-20T16:12:00.004-04:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

Here are the visual instructions on how to make the fanciest of fancy plastic bag yarn. It is essentially the same way people have been doing it (I indirectly learned it from Helle Jorgensen's website) with the additional step of stretching the individual loops. It will probably break a lot under the tension... still perfecting that part.

Anyway, enjoy the melodious crackle!

Fancy Plastic Yarn from Alie Thomer on Vimeo.

things

2009-08-20T16:08:00.002-04:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

craft

2009-08-20T12:44:00.002-04:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

tew-d

2009-08-20T12:34:00.003-04:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

bugs and such

2009-08-20T08:53:00.002-04:00

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

portfolio

2009-08-19T12:50:00.007-04:00

Here's an overview of my work. The tiny type is repeated in the notes section. The images are also available below the slide show. There you can click and enlarge the each page.

Get the flash player here: http://www.adobe.com/flashplayer

creepy findings

2009-08-19T10:36:00.002-04:00

For one of my visual communications classes I had to take a classmate's project and rebrand it. The final deliverable was an 18" x 24" poster. I was fortunate to be able to work with Sarah Tucker Cote's sweet, sweet mapping project. It was a survey made by no one for no reason. The pretendedly ancient findings looked at the underground transit hub beneath city hall from four prespectives: businessman, homelessman, urban explorer, and pigeon. She generated a lot of great artwork, and I wanted to get as much of it across as possible while making sure this remained an obscure faux-relic. Anyways, it came out nice and creepy. The draft is first.

aaaaaand the thing...

Sarah even found the tiniest of manilla envelopes in which she could store evidence, like grody cigarette butts. She's a little bit my hero.

large bugs

2009-08-17T22:29:00.001-04:00

I'm into bugs. Their bizarre exoskeletal forms are beautiful as long as they don't ever touch me. While working on a project at Greensgrow farms, I was able to spend some time by their beehives. I was fascinated by my tiny glimpses into their daily activities and for a separate project, I created a website cataloging some of my observations. It's purely amateur and ephemeral, but it was quite fun for me. Here's a link if you're interested: beetime.

If you hate links but still would like to see a gross bug, here's a dead wasp:

: Godzilla wasp

For scale I had some keys handy. This little guy was not such a little guy.

: Less intimidating with the key, but still scary

In less morbid entomological news, this bee was flying around the zoo, mocking all the big, containable things.

: Tasting the sweet nectar of freedom

This grasshopper guy was not so lucky. You can't see it but he's running a tiny tin cup along the metal mesh and whistling old blues songs. Unfortunately, he's got a really shrill voice.

: Prison bug

So, now you know about my insect obsession. I figured it was best to come clean right off the bat.

little knittings

2009-08-17T22:20:00.002-04:00

Knitting is a fine, fine way to spend free time, if one has it. These bite-size pieces are the result of my frequent need for (relatively) instant gratification.

I made these earrings awhile ago with some dollhouse pieces. I'm no smithy, so I'm only responsible for knitting the connection and the desire to appear handy at all times. Knitting the two stitch chain was the easy part; the hard part was hiding the tails.

In the earring on the left, I used the same technique, but I didn't worry about the tails. The left the chains looking more messy, which is exactly how I imagine the animal entrails they're meant to symbolize would be.

Here is some graphic detail. The laser-cut pieces are somewhat explained over here. Suffice to say for now that the clear piece is a dead rabbit and hanging behind it is a gosling. I'm not sick, I promise.

Moving on, I more recently made these less morbid prototypes. I think they're still too simple, but that's what the future is for.

And that is that.