Forget poodles–defend your cities!!!
Here’s how to make your own post-modern 8-bit retro poodleless circle skirt.
Continue reading Missile Command Circle Skirt
Tag Archives: fashion
Fabric Klein Bottle
Klein bottles are an entertaining mathematical idea–a shape with no volume. A Klein bottle is basically a tube where the inside is connected to the outside. Making a Klein bottle in our 3D world requires a bit of cheating to work, by adding a hole in one of the walls of the tube to provide a place for an intersection.
The most common physical realization is a glass Klein bottle, which you can ogle and buy at Acme Klein Bottles. They also sell wonderful knit Klein bottle hats which can be bought with a matching mobius strip scarf. I was lucky enough to be given a set as a gift, and it is cozy and bright and wonderful. My only complaint is that the narrow neck of the Klein bottle makes it hard to pull it inside out (or right side out, since it is the same thing) to play with it.
I have found that the concept of a mobius strip is more understandable when you can hold it in your hands and turn it around and around, and I thought the same would be true with a Klein bottle, if only it were a little more flexible than my hat. With that in mind, here’s how to make a simple fabric Klein bottle you can play with from two sleeves of a worn out shirt. Continue reading Fabric Klein Bottle
A Sinusoidal Acrylic Bracelet Design
Sleek sinusoids for your wrists. Laser-cut acrylic.
A free design from Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories, complete with dowloadable files so that you can make your own. (And isn’t this a good time for your first laser project?)
In case you haven’t been bitten by this particular bug yet, here’s a quick intro. Laser cutters are an awesome tool in the modern DIY arsenal. This type of laser is a lot like a laser printer, but uses deep infrared carbon dioxide laser that can cut or engrave most plastics. You can find these at hacker spaces like NYC Resistor and membership shops like TechShop and The Sawdust Shop, so it’s finally getting to the point that almost anyone can learn to use one. However not everyone lives by a laser shop, so sites such as Ponoko, Pololu, and Big Blue Saw offer laser cutting services and enable you to submit jobs from anywhere.
Our bracelets are cut from a single sheet of acrylic (using a laser, obviously!) in concentric wavy rings to form a nesting set of various sizes. The light plays through the transparent acrylic in fun and fascinating ways.
Continue reading A Sinusoidal Acrylic Bracelet Design
DIY d12 Handbag (of Holding)
Retro-dork-chic-DIY-d12 handbag.
Another camera bag
Donna of Gailavira made a camera bag based on our instructions. She says, “See, to me, any new “toy” is just another excuse to take out the sewing machine and make something to keep it in.” Yup, toys have to have homes, and we all need excuses to make stuff. Very nice, Donna! And I like the fun butterfly fabric.
Vintage Software Documentation Purse
Vintage software documentation often comes in 6″ x 9″ three ring binders which are just the right size for a small handbag. Many of them are cloth bound, making them ideal for reuse. Tech surplus stores such as Weird Stuff are good places to look for interesting covers, like this Pepper Graphics user’s guide from Number Nine. With the addition of a fabric liner and handles it has become an excellent geek purse.
Continue reading Vintage Software Documentation Purse
Iterative Algorithmic Plastic Sculpture: Fimo Fractals
One of our favorite shapes is the Sierpinski triangle. In one sense, a mere mathematical abstraction, on the other, a pattern that naturally emerges in real life from several different simple algorithms. On paper, one can play the Chaos Game to generate the shape (or cheat and just use the java applet).
You can also generate a Sierpinski triangle in what is perhaps a more obvious way: by exploiting its fractal self-similarity.
Continue reading Iterative Algorithmic Plastic Sculpture: Fimo Fractals
Seat Belt Buckle Bag Mod
Adding a seat belt buckle to a commuter bag improves its accessibility and usefulness. It’s a pretty easy modification, and super cool if you can find just the right buckle. Airline safety belt buckles (fasten low and tight across your lap…) are becoming more readily available and have a certain industrial charm.
Continue reading Seat Belt Buckle Bag Mod
Bicycle Seat Cover Project
My vintage cruiser bike has an unusual seat post both in diameter and in the amount of taper at the top where the saddle mounts. I have not been able to locate a new saddle mounting bracket that will fit on the very small top of the seat post, nor will my non-standard mounting bracket fit on a replacement saddle, so I can’t just grab a replacement off the shelf. So, for both aesthetic and comfort reasons, I decided to make a seat cover.
Continue reading Bicycle Seat Cover Project
Goth jewelry gone awry
Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture? This is a meme I never thought I’d contribute to, but this Goth necklace showed up in one of my favorite “people actually buy that?!” catalogs.
Fittingly enough, the catalog’s subtitle is “A Catalog of Personal Growth and Exploration.”
