matt barber

Hour Clock Project

I would like to introduce to you Hour Clock v2.0. If you remember my thermo-chromatic clock did not work out as I had hoped and I had to leave that on the wayside. Hour Clock v2.0 is essentially the same logic, only I used the laser cutter to hatch out the numbers and used arduino along with a RTC chip to program my time.

I am quite happy with how the clock has turned out, below is a short rough video of how it functions as well as a couple more process shots.

Detail of the hatched numbers.

The code works!

DS1307 RTC Module

Beacon: Plush Night Light

For my plush night light project I wanted to explore a more natural yet abstract form. At the same time I have been becoming interested in nautical design, so I have tried to meld these two ideas into Beacon.

Beacon’s basic form is that of a sailboat, with a central mast, and much like the hull of a ship, the form is stretched over “ribs” giving it the form its structure. I also wanted to use natural materials, such as rope and unfinished wood.

If this were to exist in the real world, I could picture it as a night light perhaps in something like a private sailboat, a bedside table, or as a guide light, or beacon.

In process shot of the structure.

Initial sketches of the project.

More process shots (thanks Katie)

Plush Tree Lamp

Hello

I would like to make a tree lamp, borrowing from the forms of a tree wrapped to protect itself from frost.

Here is a sketch as well as an inspiration.

Takeshi Miyakawa Public Installation

This above is an installation from designer Takeshi Miyakawa using LED’s and plastic I <3 NY bags. For those of you new to NYC you might not have heard of this, but last spring in conjunction with ICFF, Takeshi had been installing these light sculptures around Brooklyn when he was arrested.

He was installing these to show his love for the city when he was arrested on charges of public endangerment and placing a bomb. You can read more about it here.

Noguchi Light Sculpture

This is an inspiring form from Isamu Noguchi. Although a well known designer, I have not seen many of these more experimental light sculptures apart from in museums.

Barber Osgerby’s “planform array V”

I have admired the work of Barber Osergby (no relation unfortunately) for a couple of years now, they were one of the first product designers I took notice to. They had a show at Haunch of Venison Gallery where they presented an installation which include some lighting pieces. This is my favorite, also, watch a video here.

Screen Printing T-Shirts at Home

After our previous tutorials, you may be curious how people print t-shirts with multiple color layers. You could follow our tutorial here, or you could visit this tutorial and get cheap and easy plans to build a DIY printing press at home (if you have enough space). This set-up is very similar to what professionals use for a fraction of the price.

Screen Printing (setting it all up)

Clay has posted some great tutorials about some of the finer details of screen printing that are very helpful. In order to give you the whole picture, I wanted to post this tutorial that goes a little in depth on how to set up a file for a multi-layer screen print. This may seem daunting at first, but once you get working it is very intuitive.

Here is a nice primer on the process. This isn’t an easy piece, but gives you a ton of great info. I would like to possibly touch on this a bit in the beginning of our tutorial as a secondary option to hand painting or perhaps do a follow up.

Cheap Screen Printing Tutorial

I found this screen printing tutorial yesterday and I wanted to share this with the class. I appreciate this as it shows you how you can make screen prints at home in a very DIY style, which would be great for T-Shirts, cards, and other small medium.

This is an interesting process, which would probably cost under $10, and does not use any special equipment. I encourage you all to check it out here.

Maker Faire Inspiration

I see it has been posted earlier but I too was very impressed with the toothpick city as you walked into the great hall at MF. I am not 100% sure these are to scale, but the guard sitting next to the Empire State building assured me they were. If that is true, the Dubai tower is wow.