Recent Projects

I'm waiting on birthdays to post pictures but I am simultaneously behind and swamped yet making progress. People need to quit having babies! I like to work on a few projects at the same time, waiting for paint to dry is the best time to fit more in.


Then I sometimes scrounge some extra to work on stuff for myself. This is cannibalized closet organizers and pine with ikea recycle containers on the top. Never again will I use laminated particle board. It is the absolute worst to get wood screws into without breaking apart.

 

I have lots of making and crafting stuff and I'd been seeing some awesome apothecary cabinets on pinterest. I made the middle bottom space the perfect size for my book press. It needed a home.

 

The first 4 drawers are done, they need hardware and another 7 smaller ones made but I'm making progress. Part of my challenge is to not buy any more wood, to find a way to use scraps of what I already have. It's a way to cut costs but also give me a chance to really think about problem solving.

 

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In other areas, I did a presentation at an IT conference last week where I walked up the stairs of the hotel to the 2nd floor and had a gigantic group of guys all turn to look at me like I was a unicorn or something.  My talk went over well, I have some good ideas for a focus of a phd program even though I have yet to decide if and when. I uploaded it to Slideshare if anyone is interested.

 

Phishing

 

I am interested in critical thinking and technology but that's too vague and I need to focus it a bit better. This is more along the lines of what's up with the targets and why do some people seem to fall for it, etc. The research was really interesting and I read a lot of papers and books.

 

 

 

What's the hold up?

I used to do hope chests that I'd carve celtic knotwork into and give them as wedding gifts. I bought the wooden chests and then dremel carved the designs and although they were a ton of work I was pretty happy with how they turned out. Then I got some bad reactions, a few friends got divorced so then I started to feel like they were bad luck or something equally dumb. I want to start back up again because I still need to make 2 more for brothers.

But here is what I used to do....

This is an internal music box movement. I can't remember what it plays.

I needed a pencil box for an art class and the only way I'd keep it and not give it away is if I put something weird on it. It's worked so far.

Kai's Map

I made this for his birthday and then had it laminated. I also grabbed some dry-erase markers so he can plan his own route to the buried treasure.

Tutorial on Instructables

** edit info update: It measures just under 2ft x 3ft because that's the largest size the laminator at Staples can take. I would do bigger if I could but it started ripping in some spots so I'd patch on the back and eventually I had to wrap it up and laminate.

 

And the close ups:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Map to the Stars

I started this one a few years ago but ran into some problems and it stalled. I decided to redo it completely and spent lots of time painting to make it right.



I started with some scrap wood I glued and screwed into a frame and then stapled some old dropcloth. I won't be using that again to paint on, it really does soak up the paint. I had to paint a lot of layers even after the gesso. I put down a night sky-y base and let it dry outside.

After it dried completely thanks to some warm weather, I took a 1" brush and ruined it completely by forcing the bristles to stipple all out. There's more layers of light and dark colors to give an impression of depth.

I took a much smaller brush and dotted the whole thing with stars. Then I grabbed one smaller and kept adding.

I was thinking of the milky way which is just a huge blobby line of stars and colors, so more stippling with white. I let it dry and then poked holes all over the painting and pushed through leds from a string light. During the day it looks like a chunk of the sky.

At night it's large dots of light. I still might add some fiber optics to it but for now I'm happy. I just have to figure out where to hang it.

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.

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.

Channeling Light

 

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.