I designed a new paper circuit template for a workshop at Austin Book Arts Center last weekend, and was really happy with how it worked out as an intro skill-building activity. I think it’s the most successful I’ve been so far at bringing a group of electronics beginners to a point where they felt comfortable…

Done at last! 2 minutes into cleanup time on the very last day. This is meant as a little art table for my sister, who likes to work sitting on the floor sometimes (me too!) Last step is to find out what sort of finish she wants. It was fun taking it home on BART, got lots of…

Continued from last week, this week we measured and traced lines for the mortise and tenon joinery on legs and aprons. We used a nifty marking gauge to cut parallel lines for each needed measurement. We used a drill press to remove most of the material from the mortises and then a chisel to cut…

I’m taking a Woodworking I class at The Crucible! Here are some photos from day 1 and 2. We are each going to build a little square side table like this: The first thing we did was make a “story stick” as a reference for all the measurements in the table. Then we cut some wood to…

This might be obvious but it took me way too long to figure out! When sewing in a zipper, there is this annoying moment when the presser foot hits the zipper pull and your nice stitches previously parallel to and equally spaced from the zipper threads want to go all wonky. Tutorials say to lift the foot…

I introduced a new class project this past year: textile design! Students used Processing to program designs. Then we printed them using Spoonflower, a custom fabric printing service. Later in the year, Spoonflower launched a new service called Sprout Patterns that lets you print your design onto a sewing pattern (for example, to make a shirt or a bag).…

Gasp! We finally got our new kitchen cabinets in! When we moved into our new apartment a few months ago, we knew we were going to have to do something about the lack of counter space. There was one little IKEA sideboard and one tiny little ledge near the sink that turned cooking into a bit of…

I couldn’t find a picture before we bought this for our mini-kitchen-cabinets in progress (more on this soon! It’s been hectic.) but here is what an IKEA Karlby walnut + particleboard countertop looks like on the inside: This is the countertop (picture from IKEA website): And here’s the difference before and after learning to cut it…

My sister Emma made another fab documentation video! This time for my mini mint tin watercolors. I also have an Instructable here in case you like text/photo instructions. It pairs well with this 3D printable cap to make a tiny waterbrush even tinier. If you want a watercolor tin, Emma is going to be making some to sell – ping me…