Sono Coperto di Api!

Roommates like it when you put bees in their beds, right?

Una Serie di Casini Preparatori

It's been slow work on my planned production work for Etsy.  I managed to grind the grooves into most of my lenses earlier this week, but that's as far as I've gotten.

And of course the mess is still on the table.

Instead I drafted this pattern for flats the other night while watching Australian Project Runway (because it was on youtube, that's why).

Oh, and I drew some things which aren't very good.  Oh well.

At the moment I'm waiting for my images to load onto my Niche application.  I'm for sure entering my dust mask, but I don't know what else I feel particularly confidant in.  I'm considering my Moon eyewear, but then I'd have to actually finish the wiring and redo the finish....  We'll see.

Esplodere le Lampadine e le Sfumature della Carta

Since my new apartment is pretty much a cave in terms of natural light, I've been spending a few days trying to make lamps from bits I got at AmSciPlus.  Despite tripping the breakers and causing sparks a few times I didn't burn down the building.  Now I'm struggling with papercraft.  Paper seems to be somewhere between and next to metal and fabric, so I'm finding it difficult to work with.

You can see the struggle all over this one... Don't worry, it'll get ripped down and replaced any day now.

Slightly less bad.

So far this is my best one, and since it's the last one I did I've decided to be encouraged that they'll get better and better as I go.

Qui Sono i Miei Progetti Penland

Final images of my 4 projects from Penland.  

On the last day after we did our studio clean ups they set up pedestals in a large room and everyone got to display their work and wander around feeling accomplished.

When I got home my dad wanted to try on my pieces, and I thought the photos were fun.

Especially this.  This is crazy.

Festa di Tasca Arte

I made these monocles for the Pocet Art Trade hosted by the wood studio.  The deal was everyone made 6 pieces of art that fits in a pocket.   1goes into the master collection to be put in the auction, and the other 5 are jumbled up with all the other art and 5 pieces are put into a bag.  When you drop off your art you get a token, which gets you a bag of mystery.  And then you trade!

94 people participated in the trade, which is totally awesome.  The master collection sold to the guy in the peace shirt for $475.  Weirdly enough, my piece got stolen from the master collection.  Also the bag I got was so fail I was unable to trade with anyone, so that sucked.  At the time I took solace in my pieces being so popular I got requests for them.  My plan was to buy out American Science and Surplus' stock of the lenses, but when I got there the other day they were all gone.  There's probably something about hubris to be said in this.

Visita di Studio

More photos from penland (at least 2 more posts worth! A lot happens in 2 weeks, turns out).  One day we drove into a crazy twisty ravine to visit this guy's machine shop.  He likes to rebuild motorcycles, anodize bits of aluminium in a pattern I can't figure out, and make tools for his tools.

The back room with all the people is his paint shop.  It's one giant vent, and can hold a car.

This is what I was most excited about.  I've tried to hollow out a few things, with ridiculously low success.  The bit he's using looks like a router bit to me, but I could (probably) be wrong.  I'll have to ask Frankie about it.

Meccanismo!

Took the weekend off and went swimming, took some naps, then I started making these.  They were kind of unnerving, since i had to balance them on my face, stab myself with a wire, and mark the ends.  After a while I got enough on and they stuck by themselves, which was cool but way pointy.  I finished these today, but I'll get photos up later.

Instead check out this way cool folding mechanism!

Yeah.

Celebrare l'Indipendenza con l'Artigianato Terribile

Isn't that lovely?  Soldering is beautiful. 

Today's our 4th of July celebration, and since I'm super lame and didn't want to participate in craft time (and by craft I mean what 80% of the world means by the word craft), I took pictures of things instead.  Please enjoy my photos of things.

Cerniere e una Seconda Coppia

Poked around in the hinge sample box today.  Deb had showed us a hinge like this, but with a bit of plastic in the middle instead of the tubing.  I like the tubing better on account of not being plastic.

Also this is cool.

Aaaand this is my attempt at the first hinge.  I'll try that again another time...

This is what I wanted my next pair of glasses to look like, but turns out physics says no on the bits on the sides.

And because this is WAY boring and lame, I started playing with bits of stray wire, and came up with this design.

I'm super excited about how these turned out!  All the boring is gone!

So that's finished.  On to the next ideas, eh?

Questo è più Facile di Quanto Pensassi

Finished!  Deb said that nobody can ever copy perfectly.  At first I was kinda offended and all "oh yeah?  I'm gonna be prefect!"  And then I changed things to make them better, and understood what she meant.