Thursday, April 25, 2013

A new hobby



I'm using Super Sculpey. It's not very forgiving though and I leave fingerprints and bump the tools and make mistakes. Instead of getting mad and giving up I am going to try out wax molding since I have a couple pounds of beeswax already.

This is exactly what you think it is. If you don't know or remember, it's about the size of a man's open palm.

Monday, April 15, 2013

Innovations



A couple weeks ago I had a job interview but I also had the flu. I didn't reschedule because occasionally I do dumb things. The only reason you haven't heard about me is that I have no power over anyone. But anyway, I was asked about something I've innovated and how and why, etc. I told them that I was currently working on a way for the Darth Vader theme to play when I open my front door. I made it to round two though if I wasn't so sick there's no way I'd have mentioned that particular project. I did talk about tech/software creativity too, since I deal with that every day.

But I digress; bringing it up made me remember why I wanted to do it (to see if I can and how I can make it happen), plus it would be awesome. Since then I've been thinking about how I'm going to do this because I do need to get going on it. I'm going to start by playing with the Easy Button since it's pretty similar to what I'm thinking will work.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

Channeling Light

More pictures of the finished Gem River Countertop in our kitchen
 
This is made with fiber optics and ground blue glass. I would kill for this in my kitchen. But I started thinking I could make the same with wood. *you should check out the entire photostream, this is amazing.
 


I took a scrap board and dremel carved some loopy images into it. Then with painted in using mica'd watercolors. I had to recarve a few times because it wasn't deep enough for the extra stuff I wanted to add.

 
At first I only did a few because I thought it would work out right away. By the end I filled the board up completely.
 
 

I initially wanted just the watercolors and blue glass but after almost cutting the everloving crap out of my hands I thought I'd try without. I can pound glass into smaller pieces but haven't figured out how to not cut myself or embed it into my skin. So lets put that on hold. Why not use fiber optics? I played with them for a project last summer and still have plenty.


 
I glued the filament into the chanel with white glue. It poked out the other side through a hole at the end of the swirl.
 
 
All dry and you can kind of see the line it made. This was not easy.
 
 
 
After the glue dried in which case I should have tested the light I instead opted to cover the image with resin and let it dry. I then tested with a flashlight. Not so good, I think I need a different kind of wire, el maybe.

 
This one turned out better, a kink in the wire produced light at that spot and the end. This is still not what I had in mind. I tried kinking the wire and lighting it but that didn't work.  I need to go back to the fiber optic shop and see what they can do for me.