Y'oughtta

laser- cut, spray- painted, and glued for a blue friend

Lasercut Textile Class

I'll be teaching another Laser-cut Textiles class at AS220 in Providence on January 21st and 22nd, from noon to 6 on both days! Sign up here, $90 for 12 hours, (just $7.50 an  hour!)


http://as220.org/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23_142&products_id=823


Here's a post about the last class, with some photos!

I laser-cut and hand- sewed these plant forms, and lampworked the glass components.

Handmade Nation Screening and Peru FAB7 experience share

This Wednesday, December 14th from 7- 10 PM

at the AS220 Labs (on Martha Street next to the AS220 Printshop)

I'll be hosting a screening of Handmade Nation, Faythe Levine's documentary about contemporary DIY craft in the U.S. 
Locals also featured in this film are The Dirt Palace, and Deb Dormody of general awesomeness (If'n Books and Marks and Craftland.)

The movie is one hour long and will be preceded by a slideshow about FAB7, the fascinating international digital fabrication conference that took place this past August in Peru. The screening  will be followed by a conversation about the importance of DIY, and how Fab Labs are facilitating that all over the world! 

Snacks and drinks will be provided!

I made a swing!

Lasercut Textile Class at AS220

The weekend before Halloween I taught a class about lasercutting textiles at AS220's digital fabrication laboratory .

Every person in the class had attended RISD or taught at RISD, so we had quite a wealth of knowledge and experience. Everyone contributed so much!

Mary Beth Cryan tied lasercut tabs on a rayon blouse.

Katy Westcott lasercut bubble wand shapes and assembled jewelry with the pieces.

Erika Tazberik lasercut hand- drawn patterns in silk.

Katy Dika also lasercut beautiful patterns in fabric.

I made a sample to demonstrate thinking in three dimensions with two- dimensional components.

Matt Obert stopped in the lab and showed off a handmade Halloween costume. He spent days cutting his leaves with scissors!

FAB 7 report back

FAB is the annual international convergence of the Fab Lab Network. Last year I was a student in the pilot year of MIT's Fab Academy at AS220 and our graduation was at FAB6 in Amsterdam. This year FAB7 took place in Lima, Peru at the National University of Engineering. I was thrilled to reconnect with folks from labs all around the world! Pictured above are traditional Tijeras dancers in Lima's Government Palace. Their performance was only one part of FAB7's fabulous welcoming event.

Fabsietecito (Little FAB7) took place before the conference began. Kids came to Lima's new Fab Lab and made cardboard robots with LEDs!

It's so valuable for us all to converge and communicate about sustainability, organization, and other issues. It was a relief to know that we each are not alone in our challenges in Fab Labs. People always share lab stories that project positivity, especially photos of smiling faces at parties. We don't speak as openly or as often of classes cancelled for lack of enrollment, threats due to lack of funding, or the situations most pregnant with potential for improvement.

Mostly, things are going swell! Labs are increasing exponentially all over the world, but it is still a challenge to get new members into the labs, to help people understand why these resources should be relevant to them, and to bridge the chasm of intimidation that many people feel because of a lack of experience with electronics, programming, or contemporary technology in general.

Here folks from 5 countries on 4 different continents collaborated to construct an Ultimaker, a great 3-D printer from the Netherlands. It took 8 hours to assemble it and start printing.

These forms were all printed on the Ultimaker, and the largest vase (clear and yellow, about 9 or 10" tall) only took about 15 minutes to print! All of the vessels hold water.

There are many stray dogs around Lima, and different buildings at the engineering university have adopted animals. Under the table above you'll see Fabita, one of that lab's mascots.

All over Lima it's easy to find ambulantes, or mobile vendors, especially in the form of food carts. The design challenge at this year's conference was to fab an ambulante. First prize went to Rachel Hamburg for her Bananalas (in English, Bananawings.) Rachel and Daniel Greene cut the wing form on a Shopbot, and hung the fruits to look like feathers. Those in attendance interacted with the Bananalas ambulante as if plucking fruit from a tree!

Next year, FAB8 will be in New Zealand, and FAB9 will be in Japan in 2013!

Learn to LASERCUT TEXTILES in one weekend!

my laser cut and hand sewn silk grass with my flameworked glass rain

I'll be teaching a Lasercut Textiles class at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island on October 29th and 30th from 1 to 6 P.M. It's the weekend right before Halloween-- think about the potential for costumes! The class size will be limited to 6 people so sign up while you can!

Learn how to lasercut textiles! This machine enables entirely new possibilities from easily cutting pattern pieces (within 1' x 2' dimensions) to creating new textures, functional decorations, dimensional objects, and even etching images or text onto fabric! We can work with both synthetic and natural fibers (both plant fibers and animal fibers.) Some materials will be provided, and you can also bring in your own fabrics. This class will also include sewing tutorials for lasercut textile applications. Different techniques will be demonstrated and experimenting will be encouraged!

¡Estoy enamorada!

Yo y el Epilog con una cama que mide 36 x 24". No es una advertencia, pero me encanta.

At Haystack

This is what I can see from where I am. I am on a tiny island called Sunshine in Deer Isle, Maine. Sherry Lassiter from MIT invited me to come to the new digital fabrication laboratory at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts.

I get to stay in one of these cabins, designed by Edward Larabee Barnes. This year is Haystack's fiftieth at this location! The school was previously at Haystack Mountain in Montville, Maine. That site is now a campground called, "Cozy Pines."

It is such a special privilege to be here, surrounded by so many forms of wonderous life, (especially the people!)

This is the Fab Lab at Haystack! It's really strange to be in a Fab Lab without the internet. The only web access on campus is at the library.

Elliot Clapp and Anna Kaziunas-France in the beautiful new lab

Onward to Berlin

Air Berlin's safety cards depict this very intense guy, who looks like he can't wait to tackle an airjacker. Click on the image to better see his seriously intense face.

Berlin is well- known for street art.

These are some of my favorite murals on what remains of the Berlin Wall.

I also got to visit the new Fab Lab in Berlin (only 3 months old!) It's called Open Design City and it's in the back of betahaus on Prinzessinnenstrassen.

I like their solution for collecting dust when using a drill.

Philip Steffan recognized my beard from the internet and wanted to try one, too.

This is the sign for the wild meat department at Rogacki. Note the scope.

I don't mean to post so much meat lately, but I thought these were very pretty.

Jewel- like aspics

En Barcelona

fields of sunflowers between France and Spain

Nuestro viaje a Barcelona fue largo y divertido. Ahora mismo estamos en Barcelona, y estoy confudida entre de muchas lenguas diferentes. Pienso en Francaise, Español, Inglés, y Hebreo, pero todas las enseñas aquí están en Catalán. A veces quiero decir algo en Japonais o en Tagalog, pero ahora prefiero pensar mas en Español y menos en Francaise.

Our wonderful hostess is also multilingual, so when she slips back into French, we can still understand her.

Today we visited the Fab Lab in Barcelona, and it's so exciting to finally see it in person after watching it on the computer screen for a year!

This is their ENORMOUS laser cutter!

I milled out the Internet Zero boards on the Modela. More information on Internet 0 can be found here, and the files for the boards can be found here, under Internet 0.

When I tried to cut the boards out on the Modela, the bit consistently threatened to drag itself through the milled traces, so I used the drill press to perforate the boards and then break them apart. (I didn't have a jewelry saw and the wood saw blade was too wide.)

When separating the perforated boards, it is important to carefully apply even pressure to each side of the break. I find the easiest way to do this is to lay the board on a table, with the perforated line parallel to the edge of the table (directly over it.) Push down on the piece of the board that hangs off the table, while simultaneously holding the other half down against the table. It should snap easily along your line.

I started to stuff the boards and I hope to get stuff closer to working!

Processing

I've been figuring out how to use this open source program called, "Processing". You can download it for free and find tutorials on the Processing website.

I created the image above with one of the simple beginning codes, and the images below were created by modifiying that code.

A sort of storm

Undulating waves like unraveled knitting

Then I figured out how to code different colors.

I drew this with a mouse.