Category: Inspiration

This tutorial explains better of the places where to use, also has some nice glamour shots.

I liked the fact that the author of the Bunny paper cut asked those who have never done a paper cut before to practice on a scrap piece of paper prior to starting the tutorial. Instead of telling the reader how he/she should hold the knife, the author encouraged the reader to explore how they feel most comfortable holding the knife. This would make me much less intimidated by this type of project. The author also talks about how much they enjoy paper cutting which leads me to believe I would enjoy it too. Lots of positivity and encouragement!

I’m sorry to say that I did not take my digital camera to Maker Faire last weekend and I have no images of a booth to contribute to this post. But I did want to write to you about an organization called the Fixers Collective from Brooklyn. If you have broken electronics or gadgets, you can take them to this group, and they will show you how to fix them. There’s a lot of value in fixing things, both by saving money on the purchase of a new item and the sense of accomplishment by restoring something you want to use. I’m really big into analog cameras, so I struck up a conversation with these fellows regarding my Mamiya M645. This camera has been having trouble advancing film to the next frame which results in double or triple exposures. There are little gears in the film back that often slip if the teeth are worn out. I’m definitely considering going to Fixer Collective space to see if I can learn how to fix this camera. I’ll post an image (below) that I took with the Mamiya when it was working properly.

One thing that was really inspirational among the many awesome things I observed at Marker Faire this Saturday was a panel discussion moderated by our own chair of PoD Mr. Allan Chochinov.

The panel consisted of highly regarded leaders in the design field, Carla Diana from Smart Design, Gadi Amit from New Deal Design, Jared Ficklin from Frog Design & Tad Toulis from Teague.

It was by far the most product design centric part of the faire. It was really interesting hearing about how each firm incorporates their own methods of making into their design process.

As I did a brief contract design gig with Teague back in February, it was great catching up with Tad. He also showed me a 3D printed pair of headphones designed by one of their senior designers, John Mabry. The file is available for free download via Thingiverse & the electronics may be purchased for around $25. Pretty cool.

While it may lack some of the glamor and showmanship of the Miley Cyrus unicorn or the Yankee Stadium made out of toothpicks, the Stereolithography Machine is one of the most practically useful innovations at the fair.

The quality is so vastly superior to makerbots, and even to industry 3D printers. It uses a process building from top down, revealing a layer from the bath and curing it with UV light as it builds.

Not only is the resolution great, the plastic can be transparent, and the machine is under $3000!

Support them on kickstarter!

I was really impressed by the toothpick creations Stan Munro had at Maker Faire. The details were incredible. When I researched the toothpick works further, the story of how Stan came to build these structures was really touching. His wife became very sick so he stayed home with her and picked up tooth-picking as a way to keep busy and make her smile. He says that she is his muse and he always signs his works ‘I luv Suzi’. Recently he built the Chrysler building, although very difficult to make, because it is her favorite building.

These are some intricate and beautiful work by Stan Munro at the Maker Faire this weekend.  He must be incredibly patient and detail oriented artist!  Here’s the short article on his artwork.