Category archive

Year of Making

101 posts
Year of Making · 1 min

Day 100 - ESP8266 IFTTT button

An ESP8266 internet button that fires IFTTT recipes, built for an upcoming VHS workshop.

#ESP8266#Code#VHS#Tutorial
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 99 - VHS LED Wall

Pattern tests for the firefly room running on the VHS LED wall installation.

#LED#Code#VHS
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Day 98 - Rainbow halloween hat

A Halloween hat in progress with NeoPixel LEDs driven by an Arduino.

#Fabric#LED#WS2812#Arduino#Code
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Day 97 - Giant fox mask

A 1.5-metre coroplast version of the Wintercroft fox mask, built during a VHS giant fox head build night.

#Plastic#Art#VHS#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 96 - This is a not bomb

A sous vide PID temperature controller box with LEDs, seven-segment displays, and a relay. Not a bomb.

#LED#Sensor#Arduino#Code#Recipe
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 95 - IStandWithAhmed workshop

Source code for the IStandWithAhmed workshop, a binary count-up clock with a WS2811 strip and Arduino.

#LED#WS2812#Arduino#Code#Tutorial
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 94 - Radiant acrylic fox mask

A laser-cut acrylic Wintercroft fox mask for Burning Man, ruined by Gorilla Glue foaming under the panels.

#Plastic#Laser Cut#Art#VHS#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 93 - Burning man belt

A NeoPixel LED belt built for Burning Man that cycles through colour patterns.

#Fabric#LED#WS2812#Arduino#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 92 - Yellow jacket

A laser-cut wood yellow jacket in a top hat for the Fancy Bugs Burning Man series, made at VHS.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art#VHS#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 91 - Cockroach

A laser-cut wood American cockroach wearing a top hat for the Fancy Bugs Burning Man series.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art#VHS#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 90 - Blowfly

A laser-cut wood blowfly in a top hat for the Fancy Bugs Burning Man series, made at VHS.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art#VHS#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 89 - Jumping spider

A laser-cut wood jumping spider with a top hat, another entry in the Fancy Bugs Burning Man series.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art#VHS#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 88 - Preying mantis

A laser-cut wood praying mantis wearing a top hat, part of the Fancy Bugs series for Burning Man.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art#VHS#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 87 - Burning man plaque

A large map of Black Rock City for camp visitors to mark cool spots with push pins and flags.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Maps#Art#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 86 - Fox head mask

A low-poly Wintercroft fox head mask cut from coroplast, ready for mirrored acrylic panels.

#Plastic#Laser Cut#Art#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 85 - Mustaches

Laser-cut mustache pendants strung on ribbons, hung from the dome roof as Burning Man gifts.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 84 - MeeBox

A nesting laser-cut gift box for Burning Man, sitting in the dome for people to trade trinkets in and out of.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 83 - Mario coins

Mario coins and coin boxes that did not turn out, passed along to a kids camp to play with.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Coins
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 82 - Visualization of DNA

A Processing-generated visualization of my 23andMe DNA data, to be laser engraved on the MeeBox for Burning Man.

#Code#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 81 - Voronoi tower

A 20 by 10 inch laser-cut prototype of a voronoi pylon lantern, aiming for a 7-foot final version.

#Wood#Laser Cut#LED#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 80 - Double 3D printed horn

Double 3D printed unicorn horns with glowing LEDs, built at VHS for a Burning Man costume.

#3D Printing#Code#Video
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 79 - 3D printed horn

A glow-in-the-dark 3D printed unicorn horn for Burning Man, with colour-changing LEDs to be added later.

#3D Printing#LED#Hackspace#VHS
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 78 - Samuria Jack paper craft

A failed Samurai Jack layered paper cut with mixed-up layers and a too-small Aku, queued for another attempt.

#Paper#Code#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 77 - Little red riding hood paper craft

A Little Red Riding Hood layered paper scene with trees worth doing more of, plus a misplaced wolf.

#Paper#Laser Cut#Art
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Day 76 - Princess Mononoke paper craft

Layered paper kodama from Princess Mononoke, with 5mm layer spacing that works better than the old 10mm.

#Paper#Laser Cut#Art
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Day 75 - Moose layered paper craft

A layered paper moose with antlers too thin to stand up, popular enough on Instagram to deserve a second try.

#Paper#Laser Cut#Art
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Day 74 - Iron giant layered paper craft

Two-layer and three-layer paper craft Iron Giant, with the two-layer version reading better.

#Paper#Code#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 73 - AT-Walker layered paper craft

A three-layer paper craft AT-AT with notes on tightening the 10mm layer spacing down to 5mm.

#Paper#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 72 - fairy door workshop

Group photo from the fairy door workshop at VHS, with a longer write-up coming on the hackspace blog.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Hackspace#VHS#Tutorial#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 71 - fairy door painting

All the workshop fairy doors get a coat of primer before paint day.

#Wood#Painting#Laser Cut
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 70 - fairy door off cuts

Messing around with leftover wood off-cuts from the fairy door workshop to see what they want to be.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 69 - Installing fairy door two

A photo set of bad spots where fairy doors do not work, the counterpoint to the good locations post.

#Wood#Vancouver#Art#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 68 - Installing fairy door

A photo set of good spots around Vancouver to install tiny magic fairy doors.

#Wood#Vancouver#Art#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 67 - Testing fairy door

Sample fairy doors built with friends to test designs for the upcoming Magic Fairy Door workshop.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Hackspace#Tutorial
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 66 - Pointy fairy door

A pointy-arch fairy door design, too small to use but with a shape worth keeping for the next round.

#Wood#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 65 - Curved fairy door

A curved fairy door by @ninetynein, tricky to hinge but the shape works.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Day 64 - Barrel fairy door

A barrel-shaped fairy door by @ninetynein that ended up looking more like an elevator.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 63 - Brick fairy door

A brick-textured fairy door by @ninetynein, shaped to inspire kids before they paint over it.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 62 - Triangle fairy door

A triangle fairy door by @ninetynein with a space-age 60s neo-future look.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 61 - flintstone fairy door

A Flintstones-style fairy door by @ninetynein with lots of room for kids to decorate.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 60 - fancy fairy door

A fancy laser-cut fairy door by @ninetynein, this run came out wrong and needs a recut.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 59 - Hobbit fairy door two

The original plain hobbit fairy door with a straight left edge that fits hinges well.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 58 - Hobbit fairy door

A hobbit-style fairy door designed by @ninetynein, looks great but a bit fiddly to assemble.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 57 - fairy door normal

Plain fairy doors with extra surface area for kids to decorate at the workshop.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 56 - fairy door magic

Smaller versions of the magic fairy door, sized down from the original Day 33 build.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Day 55 - fairy door arch

An arched fairy door cut for the upcoming fairy door workshop, designed by @ninetynein.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 54 - Lasers letters

A set of laser-cut letters with source files posted to GitHub.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 53 - Testing LED strips

Testing WS2812b LED strips driven by Arduino Pro Minis in prep for BITF.

#LED#Arduino#Code#Photo#WS2812
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 52 - Set up at maker faire

Photos from setting up the LED panel booth at Vancouver Mini Maker Faire 2015.

#Code#Maker Faire#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 51 - Circles panel

A laser-cut wooden panel with a circles pattern for the LED light wall.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 50 - Unfinished panel

An unfinished laser-cut wooden panel from the LED light wall build.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 49 - Branches panel

A laser-cut wooden panel with a tree-branches pattern, a favorite from the LED panel series.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 48 - Maze panel

A laser-cut wooden panel with a maze pattern for the LED light wall.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 47 - Twelve sided star

A laser-cut wooden panel with a twelve-sided star pattern for the LED light wall.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 46 - Voronoi pattern panel

A laser-cut wooden panel with a Voronoi cell pattern, part of the LED panel series.

#Code#Laser Cut#Wood#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 45 - LED strip test

A short test video of an LED strip running animations for the Pocket Universe dome.

#LED#Code#Video
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 44 - LEDs and Electronics installed in button panel

Wired LEDs and sound electronics into the button panel, with the Raspberry Pi triggering 50+ effects at once.

#LED#Raspberry Pi#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 43 - Installing leds in the Hexagon star panel

Installed the LED strips behind the hexagon star panel from day 27, animations start tomorrow.

#Code#LED#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 42 - All pixel build day

Built the AllPixel LED driver kit from Maniacal Labs to drive all the LEDs on the Pocket Universe dome.

#Code#LED#Soldering#Video
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 41 - Pocket universe title card

The title panel for the Pocket Universe dome so people actually know what the project is called when they walk up.

#Code#CNC#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 40 - Hyperbolic triangle

A hyperbolic triangle panel cut as another piece for the Pocket Universe dome project.

#Code#CNC#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 39 - Inside of the dome

Inside the Pocket Universe dome: 3200 WS2810 LEDs across 10 networked Arduinos, with sound and buttons still to wire.

#Code#LED#WS2812#Arduino#Video
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 38 - Cthulhu panel

A Cthulhu panel for the Pocket Universe dome, planned to get a green-to-purple glow behind it for a demonic effect.

#Code#CNC#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 37 - Flower of life panel

The Flower of Life panel for the Pocket Universe dome, by far the most requested design when I asked for suggestions.

#Code#Flowers#CNC#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 36 - Arcade button panel

An arcade button panel for the Pocket Universe dome, wired to lights and sounds and rebuilt after Maker Faire.

#Code#Photo#Maker Faire
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 35 - Spades panel variant 2

A second variant of the spades panel test cut for the Pocket Universe dome, based on a design from Adam Barlev.

#CNC#Code#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 32 - Music thank you card

A laser-cut music thank-you card for a friend's wedding, 8 minutes to design and 45 seconds to cut.

#Code#Laser Cut#Paper#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 33 - Painted fairy door

A painted fairy door test piece for an upcoming workshop, built from the template I made on day 24.

#Painting#Code#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 34 - Spades Panel

Test CNC cut of a spades panel for the Pocket Universe dome, designed by Adam Barlev and maybe too thin for the router.

#CNC#Code#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 31 - Laser branch panel

A 70cm laser-cut panel of tangled branches, made to drop into one of the CNC frame panels on the dome.

#Code#Photo#Laser Cut#Wood
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 30 - Large picture frame CNC Panel

A larger picture-frame style CNC panel for the Pocket Universe dome, though I prefer the smaller one from day 29.

#CNC#Code#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 29 - Picture frame CNC Panel

A CNC-cut picture-frame panel for the Pocket Universe dome, with a hole in the middle for a laser-cut insert.

#CNC#Code#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 28 - Spiral panel CNC

Second CNC-cut panel for the Pocket Universe dome, a spiral design and my favourite so far.

#CNC#Code#Wood#Photo
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 28 - Hexagon Star CNC Panel

First CNC-cut hexagon star panel for the Pocket Universe dome, after a full day of fighting design issues at Maker Labs.

#CNC#Code#Video
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 26 - L3D cube build

Built the L3D Cube kit, a small 8x8x8 RGB LED cube with a diffuser dome that is fun to play with.

#LED#Code#Soldering#Journal
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 25 - Maker business card

An abandoned maker business card design after the Maker Faire print sponsorship fine print proved unworkable.

#Code#Paper#Maker Faire#Laser Cut
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 24 - Elven fairy door

A revised elven fairy door test cut that improves on the day 9 attempts for the NSG project.

#Code#Wood#Laser Cut#Hackspace
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 23 - Spiral panel

A spiral Pocket Universe panel test cut in paper after running out of wood, designed by Adam Barlev.

#Code#Paper#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 22 - triangl line panel

A triangle-line Pocket Universe panel cut in wood on the VHS laser cutter, designed by Adam Barlev.

#Code#Wood#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 21 - Arcade button midi control

Four hours of crimping and soldering get the day-3 arcade button MIDI controller wired to a Teensy and noisy.

#Code#Arduino#Soldering#Laser Cut
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 20 - LEDs working Untztrument trellis midi kit

The Adafruit Untztrument trellis kit from day 4 with its LEDs and brain finally wired up and playing.

#LED#Code#Arduino#Soldering
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 19 - failed maze panel

A maze-pattern Pocket Universe panel test where the paths only connect at one point, too fragile to keep.

#Code#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 18 - Failed array panel

A test-cut Pocket Universe panel that came out too flimsy to use, rejected.

#Code#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 17 - Tiny Star panel array

A dense tiny-star test panel for the Pocket Universe, likely too detailed for the ShotBot and due for a redesign.

#Code#Laser Cut#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 16 - Star panel two

A second star-pattern test panel cut for the Pocket Universe dome project.

#Code#Laser Cut#Art
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Day 13 - Layered paper craft dragon

A layered paper shadow puppet picture frame cut on the VHS laser cutter as a test for more complex scenes.

#Paper#Laser Cut#Art#Puppets#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 15 - Arcade button panel

A test-cut Pocket Universe panel with arcade-button holes, half to be swapped for matching LEDs.

#LED#Code#Laser Cut#Plastic
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 14 - Test polyhedron

A paper trapezohedron test for a planned set of twelve laser-cut wooden lantern shapes lit with LEDs.

#Paper#Laser Cut#LED#Code#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 12 - Test panels

Rejected paper panel designs for the Pocket Universe dome, one too flimsy and the others too plain to make the final cut.

#Paper#Code#Laser Cut
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 10 - Hexagon Star

A small hexagon star test cut for the Pocket Universe dome, made on the VHS laser before scaling up on the Maker Labs ShopBot.

#Code#Wood#Laser Cut#Hackspace
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 11 - String Star

A string-star test panel for the Pocket Universe dome, cut on the VHS laser to preview the design at small scale.

#Code#Wood#Laser Cut#Paper
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 9 - Fairy doors

First three laser-cut fairy door prototypes for an upcoming VHS workshop, with a round hobbit door as the keeper.

#Laser Cut#Wood#Code#Hackspace
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 8 - Moster mustache

A mustached monster vector traced from a picture book and laser-cut in acrylic at VHS.

#Laser Cut#Plastic#Art#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 7 - Moster dog

A monster dog vector traced from a picture book and laser-cut in acrylic at VHS.

#Laser Cut#Plastic#Art#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 6 - Moster lizard

A monster lizard vector traced from a picture book and laser-cut in acrylic at VHS.

#Laser Cut#Plastic#Art#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 5 - Moster frog

A monster frog vector traced from a picture book and laser-cut in acrylic at VHS.

#Laser Cut#Plastic#Art#Code
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 4 - Untztrument trellis midi kit

Adafruit Untztrument trellis MIDI kit built in a laser-cut acrylic case for wireless dome lighting control.

#Laser Cut#Code#Arduino#LED#Plastic
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 3 - Arcade button midi controller

An Arduino Leonardo wired to laser-cut arcade buttons as a MIDI controller for the Pocket Universe dome lighting.

#Arduino#Laser Cut#LED#Code#Soldering
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 2 - 20x hexagon

Twenty laser-cut hexagons taped together around a single light source, made on the VHS laser as a light study.

#Laser Cut#Paper#LED#Art
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Year of Making · 1 min

Day 1 - Fractal Triangle

A laser-cut fractal triangle of 96 small, 36 medium, and 9 large triangles in 3mm birch ply, assembled with 250+ zap straps.

#Code#Web#PHP#Wood#Laser Cut
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Year of Making · 1 min

Laser cut Frabjous

A laser-cut Frabjous sculpture by George W. Hart, scaled from 4mm to 6mm birch and given to my mother for Christmas.

#Laser Cut#Video#Wood#3D Printing#Art
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