Claudia Lucero started Urban Cheese Craft in 2009, here’s what she has to say about herself.

Hi. I’m a cheesemaker paying off student loans while spreading the joy of cheese making with my shop Urban Cheesecraft. I hope you enjoy this simple but super rewarding skill as much as I do.

Hey, you’ve got to love her honesty, right? And with intentions so pure and a true love of cheese I bet the $25 or so you spend on these Kits will be the best money you’ve spent all year!

The process of personalization and customization has satisfied the youths’ inherent need to mark various preferences as individuals, and this is also reflected in new concepts launched behind their own ventures. By providing a range of options to create an entirely new product, Crafty Customizers let originality shine through by catering to changing needs. It is also a testament to the very vision fueling entrepreneurship in itself.

Today’s Crafty Customizers are among the 14 kinds of youth entrepreneurs featured in Culture Vulture, our new quarterly trends series that offers a global snapshot of current and emerging cultural trends, bringing fresh insights from around the world to inspire and ignite new strategies for brands.

The first edition of Culture Vulture seeks to explore and understand the Entrepreneurial Spirit of Gen Y and how the youth’s innovative ideas can help stimulate game-changing strategies for brands that aspire to become more enterprising in their outlook.

Download our FREE Culture Vulture iPad app from iTunes for an overview on the global growth of entrepreneurship as well as the different behaviors that embody youth entrepreneurs worldwide, along with tips for nurturing “entrepreneurial” attitudes for brands.

Don’t have an iPad? Then download the interactive PDF . Also check out all of our 14 videos showcasing the different types of youth entrepreneurs around the world.

Interested to know more? Visit the Culture Vulture page or email culturevulture@mindshareworld.com.

It’s been a few decades since anyone was manufacturing Super 8 equipment of any kind. Many individuals and institutions, not realizing that people still use the equipment, often throw things out that are functioning perfectly well. And then, of course, things are always breaking, and a shrinking number of people know how to repair them. Even if Super 8 film stops being produced, there will be enormous quantities of processed film around the world. Though most people are content to transfer to video and watch it that way, there will always be people who prefer to watch the film itself.

It was, therefore, somehow a heartening thing to see that a man in German built a fully functioning Super 8 projector mostly out of Lego’s. I’m not very good at building things, and the idea that I could go out to a toy store and buy some things, come home and build my own projector, was just kind of mind-blowing.

Of course, with my salvage/restore mentality, I would much prefer to just repair the projectors I find in thrift stores or at flea markets that for whatever reason aren’t working anymore. One of the main hurdles to repairing a lot of equipment is that the extremely precise parts that sometimes just wear down or break are no longer available. Some people buy other projectors and salvage parts from them to use in other machines. I suppose there are a few people out their with machining skills who could lathe and machine various parts as needed. But for someone like me, the idea of instead printing parts is just… you know, too alluring.

Of course, 3D printers are way too expensive right now. But the way technology goes, it seems inevitable that one day owning a 3D printer will be within reach for many people. The implications of such a machine for all sorts of analog / obsolete / discarded technologies are great. It seems almost ironic that this sci-fi future technology holds the potential to bring back from the oblivion so many other technologies.

Nobody makes money-selling records anymore. It is from a clever combination of writing catchy songs, recording and selling them, and translating those songs into a killer live performances that artists sell the concert tickets that buy them the bread and butter to survive. To come up with something original is pretty much impossible in 2010, but to come up with something inspiring and entertaining? Definitely possible.Jeremy Ellis is one of those swanky individuals who understands the mechanics of both acoustic and electronic instruments and knows how to make them sing together: synthesizers, pianos, guitars, and drum machines. Microphones and chaos pads. He not only writes the music he makes; he also plays all of the instruments within the recordings and then develops a unique live performance out of it so he can dazzle the world.

But then are some who take things even a step farther by modifying and building their own instruments. These are the artists of the future: DIY extreme. Make it, play it, build it – and you, too, can be a superstar. Watch out Rihanna and Miley Cyrus.  Here comes Frivolous!

Styling by Beklina, a green boutique.

I’ve become more and more aware of where the clothes I buy are coming from, who they are made by, and what they are made from.  The bad rep eco-friendly clothing got as a dowdy, hippie earth-mother garb is no more. Small, independent and original designers are focusing on organically made and fairly traded styles, and now small retailers are devoted to selling these designers and whole communities of interested fashion followers are popping up on the web.

One of my favorite online retailers to peruse and drool over is the online boutique, Beklina. They carry a carefully curated collection of clothing and home goods.  I love their simple design and focus on eco-friendly, independently designed goods.

From Samantha Pleets Fall 2010 collection

Samantha Pleet is a New York-based designer whose focus is on keeping it as local as possible. Pleet gathers locally sourced material and even hand delivers her wares to boutiques in the city. Her designs are fresh with a vintage appeal. There’s barely a thing she’s designed I don’t want to snatch up.

A N.E.E.T. Magazine spread

I follow a billion style blogs of various bents and one I consistently come back to for DIY and eco clean inspiration is the very nicely done N.E.E.T. Magazine.  This blog is a self-described showcase for “grassroots creativity” and focuses on fashion for the DIYers and concerned citizens of the earth.

Paper Synths @ Thecoolist.com

Click, click, click.  Book a ticket.  To a concert, or a faraway land.  Click, click, click, look at pics of magic origami tricks.  Trying to make them isn’t so easy, but they sure are pretty to look at.  Click again and you can download some muzak.  It’s like magic.  The world is at your fingertips.  The Web has revolutionized the way we shop for everything from groceries to clothes, music, and travel.

Sites like kayak.com are now available not only to travel agents but also to the average Joe. Airline sites like Transat.com and AirCanada.com are luring new customers by posting weekly specials on their site and sending out emails to announce seat sales to frequent-fliers. There is no longer any need for a travel agent.  DIY has taken over, and with it has come a plethora of new ways to waste time, energy, and money.  Luckily, not everybody is driven by capitalist desires. Some people just like to make origami, like the dude at thecoolist.com, or critique various aspects of modern-day society.  Or like the folks at freshgoodminimal.ro you may just want to share quality minimal music and nerdy synth-talk with fellow like-minded techno lovers.

The best thing about the Web, at least in my opinion, is that when you’re typing and clicking and searching and scouring, it is often that you stumble upon something kooky, weird and cool enough that it makes you feel like with enough passion and drive, anything is possible.

Totally unrelated, I have a new favorite taco place… Tarasco’s. It’s not new, and it’s plenty popular with many people, but for a location,  right on Sunset between Silverlake and Echo Park, I’m pretty surprised that so few of my friends know about it or have eaten there before. The main draw for me are the vegetable tacos, which have grilled cauliflower, mushrooms, peppers, onions, zucchini… very delicious. They also have nice hours, being open until 3 am on Fridays and Saturdays.

This dress basically sums up what I want to wear every day. Lacy, crocheted, fancy and girly, while being loose, comfortable, and essentially making the wearer feel like they are wearing nothing at all. Ideal for Spring fashion and summer function. Delicious!

]]> http://www.scoutnetworkblog.com/2010/01/1943/punk-house-chilled-out/feed/ 0