Passing of Leonard Nimoy

Growing up, I watched endless hours of the original Star Trek series.  The crew of the Enterprise was a vision of the future and what could be.  It is truly a change when the actor that played Spock leaves us.  Wil Wheaton wrote a beautiful entry on his blog about Leonard Nimoy and his legacy.
http://wilwheaton.net/2015/02/remembering-leonard-nimoy/

Hello Blog....

I miss you.

I am getting a handle on life, family, education, teaching, house, and building a new house.  I have lots to report and share.

Honor

I know I have been missing for over a month, but I have made some wonderful things.  I will post them soon.  My grad classes are taking more time this semester, but the semester is almost over, so I should have some free time soon.

In the meantime, here is a gorgeous video from Honor:


I am really loving the white coat that Zosia Mamet is wearing.  I think I will add that to my never-ending project pile.

Fan Re-Do

This project took way too long!  But I am in the mood to finish up some of my UFO's (Un-Finished Objects), because I want the space back.  This fan project started with a box fan that I had inherited from my Great-Aunt Marie.  It worked well, but over time the plastic grating on the front and back began to disintegrate leaving openings large enough for little fingers or dog noses.

The fan is probably from the late 70's judging by the font on the dial plate.  I took it all apart.

You can see from the pictures that there was a lot of scratched up paint.  I took a picture of the fan motor, so I would remember the correct order for the wires.

I sanded, primed, and then sprayed the entire metal case bright orange which I did not take a picture of.... so moving on.  I chose a 1/2" hardware cloth for the new protective screening.  I folded under about 2" all the way around.

I had to crimp each wire individually to get a flat fold.

I attached the screen to the fan box using sheet metal screws that were longer than the original screws.  The screws go through these cool large washers and then through a felt washer that I made out of wool felt.  I thought there might be some vibration problems, so I added the felt washers.  Maybe overkill, but it works well and is quiet.

The I had to replace the handle, as the original plastic handle disintegrated.  I used the heavy belt webbing.  I tried initially to use rivets through a set of the big washers.  The spouse assisted with this part.

Unfortunately the rivets were too small and pulled through the belt webbing.  So I switched to machine screws and these capped nuts.

 

Ta da!  The finished fan... in all its blowing glory!

e-Textiles!

I have been interested in combining textiles and circuitry.  I love both apparel and technology passionately and often let one interest slide in favor of the other.  I remember sometime in the late 90's while working at adidas, a manufacturer came in with a melton and leather letterman's jacket with a giant LED and embroidery eagle on the back.  It was not the most tasteful execution of the intersection of technology and garment, but it did get some gears rolling in my brain.

A few years ago a former colleague connected me to Jennifer Darmour of Electric Foxy and I collaborated with her on this project:

I did all the garment designing, pattern making, and prototyping and some material sourcing.  Jennifer did all the circuit designing and stitching of conductive thread and fitting on the model.  She used the Lilypad system by Arduino which is designed for garments and is washable.  You can buy the Lilypad and Arduino systems and other components at SparkFun.  Which is what I did!  I bought the Lilypad Design Kit:

The packaging alone is swoon-worthy!  And the lid closes with a magnet too!  This is clearly a message that it is time to get going on learning this technology.

The next sign was the announcement on Howard Rheingold's Twitter feed of a HOMAGO Geekout on using this very kit!  There are four separate links in the previous sentence that will take you to all the answers.

The Geekout was presented through Google Hangouts-on-Air.  There were nine of us in the class plus Howard and Angela from Spark Fun who explained the contents of the kit and led us through a simple project.  Here we are in process of the Geekout:

And the final project!

... lit up with 3 LED's.  No short circuiting and everything works.

I even got out the meter to check resistance on the conductive thread and a few other things.  This project focused on creating the circuit properly to achieve lit LED's.  There are other ways to do this same thing with all the hardware and stitching hidden.

Woodland Creations

Before Christmas we discovered the Woodland Knits book by Stephanie Dosen.  Both E and I fell in love with the hat on the cover.

... and wouldn't you know it!  I had all the yarn on hand for this project!  I would not call this project a stash buster as you need very little yarn for the antlers and the interior of the ears.  You only need one skein for the hat and ears.  I used some free yarn that came with a Knit Rowan subscription.  It is a beautifully soft wool that has now all been knitted up.

I am also loving this Dragon Watcher's Hood too!  It is cozy but not hair smashing.  

I need something like this when I am walking across campus in the winter.  This last December was very cold.  I would get my hair, make-up and self all fixed up only to put a hat on and trudge across the cold, wintery landscape with eyes watering to arrive at my building looking no better than I did when I rolled out of bed.  I think this hood could change everything!  Will get back to you on that.

On a further note, my eyelashes have grown back!... mostly.  

Time off... again

As you can see, there has been a break in posting activity.  This happens when I return to Portland after teaching and have the holidays.

I did get a new driveway put into the property last fall.  We can now drive in and out without fear of sinking into mud, or missing the driveway and putting ourselves in the ditch.

We did some more tree and brush clearing over Christmas and, of course, more marshmallow roasting!

I accidentally burned off half my eyelashes.  I was packing the branches tighter so they would burn better and what do you know?  They did.  Quickly!  My skin didn't burn, but my eyelashes are much, much shorter and were curly... until that part broke off.  New eyelashes take 2 to 3 months to grow.  I am working on growing new ones.

Continuing Work

I have been burning piles of dead wood, brush, and old wood that is so spongy and dry that you can barely carry it without it crumbling into a pile of wood dust.

Last week the family was here too, so we roasted hot dogs and made smores.  Eventually we gave up on the graham crackers and just focused on the marshmallows and chocolate.

The individual above ate the majority of the bag of marshmallows.  Good thing he had a lot of exercise that day.

We continue to find treasures.  This is a really large metal wheel about 3' in diameter.  Unfortunately I don't have anything in the picture for scale.  It is very heavy and will take some work to get it propped up for another picture. When I do, I will add something for scale.  Until then, it needs to dry out so we can get the mud/dirt out of it.

I have also made more piles.  I asked the neighbor if he wanted some free wood.  He said "Yes", so I said "Great! Bring your chain saw." He showed up and cut through a large amount of dead wood and branches growing toward the road like a rabid beaver through a forest of saplings.  In less than an hour, I had a stack of wood for more than two piles.  The neighbor didn't want the wood.  It wasn't straight enough for splitting.  Apparently I need to learn more about wood quality.

After all that work, my arms were sore and didn't want to operate properly, so I took some time off and made this!

Actually the necklace took less than an hour, but the first time I tried it with supplies from Michael's it didn't work.  So I ordered the proper crimp ends from Fire Mountain Gems... which is AWESOME!!! and the best place to buy things.  Plus they ship super fast.  The picture is a little low rez so not all the details are visible.  

The instructions are here http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/diy-handmade-jewelry?click=main_sr#slide-4